What's the best power rack / squat rack for a home gym?

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A good Power Rack is of of the most important pieces of equipment in the gym. It will allow you to perform all your basic barbell lifts safely, by yourself, without the need of a spotter.

You can do squats, bench presses, over head presses, rack lockouts, pull ups, and many other basic bodybuilding exercises.

Check out my video showing how to Bench Press by yourself in the power rack at:    • Bench Press Safely Alone without KILL...  

Check out my video showing how to perform Power Rack Lockouts at:    • Power Rack Squat Lockout Workout Part...  

Now there are a lot of different options when it comes to buying a power rack for your home gym. The biggest thing you need to factor is the size of the rack compared to how much space you have, especially with regards to ceiling height.

If you are training in your basement and you have low ceilings, than you'll need a low power rack. This is the case with my basement home gym, but thanks to being "Vertically Challenged" (i.e. I'm only 5'7 tall) this doesn't hinder my workouts at all. I can perform all the basic barbell lifts, including over head presses, in my low ceiling basement. There are some positives to being short :)

Another thing to consider is the construction of the rack itself. It should be sturdy, made of high quality steel, and have an adequate weight capacity for your needs. Some of the lighter home gym racks only have a capacity of 500 pounds, where as the higher quality ones will have a capacity of 1000+ pounds.

Now I realize that 99% of the people who workout in a home gym will never max out the weight capacity of their power rack, so this shouldn't be a big issue. However, there are some serious powerlifter's out there who are going to be moving some heavy ass weight, and the power rack's load capacity is a major concern.

Something else you should consider when buying a home gym power rack is the potential for add on options. Many racks these days can be fitted with weight stack pulley set ups so that you can perform cable exercises in addition to barbell lifts. In my home gym I have a TDS Power Rack, and attached to the rack I have 2 plate loaded cable cable pulleys just outside the rack. This works like a cross over station at the gym with high and low pulleys. This extra add on feature was a major reason I choose this particular power rack set up.

And finally, one of the most important things to look for with buying a good power rack is the hole spacing for the safety pins and the Jhooks. One major flaw with a lot of racks, even the high grade ones that you'll find at the public gym, is that they don't have enough hole spacings to get the right heights that you need.

A lot of racks will only have a hole spacing every 6 inches along the rack and that's way too big of a gap in my opinion. While you may luck into getting the right height for you, chances are it's either going to be way too high or way too low.

When choosing a power rack, make sure that it has a hole spacing at every inch along the power rack. This way you can adjust the pin settings to your exact height needs.

Now that you know what to look for when buying a power rack, if you would like a good workout program to use with your rack, check out my 12 week program at: http://www.leehayward.com/12weekwor...