I vividly remember the day my power rack arrived. Fedex freight tracking showed it arriving in the early afternoon on a Wednesday. I called in late to work and waited anxiously for it to arrive I was so excited. At about 2pm, the truck dropped a 400+ lb. pallet right outside my front door. I signed and began the arduous task of getting it through the house and into the garage.
I would have to wait until that night to start putting it together. That day at work dragged by slowly. I couldn’t wait to get home to my new rack. Months of research had gone into this purchase. I must have driven to try out 20 different racks over that time.
Finding the perfect power rack for my gym was no quick process. But I learned a lot along the way. In this article I want to share what I learned so that when it comes time for you to buy your rack, you are as happy as I am with mine. (If you just want to skip straight to my specific recommendations, check out my recommended racks page here)
The perfect squat or power rack for most home gyms will have 2-3″ uprights made of heavy gauge steel and will have a weight capacity of 600 lbs. or more. It should be a full cage design complete with safety pins or straps to allow for safe training at home without a spotter.
Why a squat rack?
When I was first planning my home gym, I made a list of equipment I wanted. I then divided my list into two categories. One was titled “the essentials”, the other was titled “would be nice to have”. The very first item in the essentials column was a power rack.
I not only believe that a quality power or squat rack is essential in my gym, I believe it’s the proper centerpiece for almost every home gym that has the room… And they almost all have the room if the correct rack is chosen.
As time goes by I strongly believe that the fitness community will show that a weight training regimen made up of compound movements should be foundational to almost all training. These movements cannot be done safely or effectively at home without a rack of some type. It’s that simple.
Safety
Arguably one of the primary reasons to use a rack is safety. When performing movements like pressing or squatting at home alone, it’s essential to have a rack there to spot you. I wrote an entire article on safely lifting alone without a spotter that you can see by clicking here, but a central point of it is the importance of using a rack.
A quality rack will have safety pins, arms, or straps in place (click here to see my article on the differences and which I feel is better) to catch a dropped bar. These safety features can not only keep you safe from injury, but they also allow you to use weights you wouldn’t normally use otherwise. This can be a big factor in progressing over time!
Ease of loading
If you look back across the history of weight training, all the way back to the olde timey days of the circus strongman, you’ll find that back then, no one did squats or bench presses. But that’s not because they aren’t great movements, they are!
It’s because they had no way to get the weight safely into position for the lift.They could have had other people help, and sometimes they did. But it was inconvenient enough that they simply chose other exercises.
With the advent of the rack, it allowed those strongmen (and eventually bodybuilders and others interested in weight training) to perform new, more effective lifts. Bench pressing and squatting became the norm as more and more people had access to racks.
A quality weight training program will almost always contain lifts you can only do with a rack. If you are going to be training at home, a rack is essential.
Versatility
One last benefit of a rack that I’ve grown to really love and appreciate is its versatility. If all it did was let me press and squat, I probably wouldn’t love it as much. But a great rack will allow so much more.
On my rack, I have 2 different diameter pull up bars. I use those every day. I can also secure my set of rings (see why I love those here) to one of those bars instead of trying to find a way to safely secure them to my ceiling.
I also have a dip station on my rack (parallel bars, actually). The dip is another one of those core exercises that you’ll find in many training programs. Having a stable and dedicated place to do them makes my rack that much more valuable to me.
Being that my gym is located in my garage, space is at a premium. My rack doubles as storage for both my bar and my weights. I like that I don’t have to find someplace else to do that. In fact, if measured in uses per foot, a great rack comes out way ahead of literally every other piece of gear I can think of!
Rack Terminology
For the purposes of this article, I’ll be using four terms interchangeably. Squat rack, power rack, squat cage, and power cage. To the purists out there, there is actually a difference. For our purposes here, let’s say there isn’t. It’s less important what the technical name is and more important that you get the right thing.
You’ll also hear these referred to as “rigs”. Again there is a technical difference, but not one that makes a difference here.
The one term that will matter is differentiating a rack/cage from a stand. A rack or cage will refer to an enclosure constructed of four posts. You squat inside of a rack/cage. A stand is only two bars and you squat in front of it.
Now that that is clear, let’s move on!
Rack construction
In order to pick the rack that’s both right for you and one you’ll love, you should be at least somewhat familiar with the different parts of a rack. Knowing those parts, what they do, and how they are built and function will be important in knowing which racks are worthwhile and which are not.
Uprights
Let’s start with what most racks are made from… Steel. While it will be different gauges (thickness) and different qualities from rack to rack, it will pretty much always be steel. There are two aspects you’ll need to be familiar with.
The first is the type/size of uprights. The size of the uprights is measured by their width and depth in inches. Inexpensive racks are typically built with 2” x 2” steel. A step up from that is 2” x 3”. Rounding out the assortment of upright sizes are the nice beefy racks that are made from 3” x 3” steel.
All three sizes can be good depending on the weight you are using and the type of lifting you are doing. The catch is that it’s not just the size of the rack that matters. The gauge steel used can often be a bigger factor in the build quality of a rack.
Steel gauge
The biggest, beefiest, and by far the most expensive racks are built from 7 gauge steel (the smaller the number, the thicker the steel). That’s steel that’s 3/16” thick. While this type of rack is almost indestructible, it’s sometimes overkill for home use. I wouldn’t pass on a rack for this reason, but I might if it came with the usually much higher price point.
A 7 gauge rack is built for a commercial setting. If you are opening your gym to the public, you may want to consider a 7 gauge rack. Otherwise I wouldn’t spend the extra money.
The sweet spot for home use will be 11 gauge steel. Most of your higher quality rack manufacturers use 11 gauge, which is ⅛” thick. This is more than durable enough for 99.9% of home applications. A 3” x 3” 11 gauge rack will last you a lifetime.
One problem you will run into is that many manufacturers will not list the gauge steel they use. This means one of two things. Either they are using 12 gauge steel (not terrible, but also not my first choice) or they are using even thinner.
In the case of racks that use thinner steel than 12 gauge, I would take a pass. It’s not worth the few dollars you are saving. The rack, at some point, will be holding a large amount of weight over you. You need it to be well built and trust worthy. Honestly, that means 11 gauge steel or better.
This means you can eliminate most low priced racks you see on Amazon that don’t list a gauge. 11 gauge is a selling point. If the gauge isn’t listed, it is most likely thinner and not worth your time.
Welds
You will see a lot of people making a big deal out of the quality of the welds on some racks. While you won’t see this until you have the rack in front of you (ie, the marketing pics usually won’t show you the welds), I have a few general guidelines to be aware of.