Although there is less chance that all the squat racks are taken, it is not the reason you skip your leg day. One interesting truth is that only a limited amount of gym-goers will use the squat rack as squats are probably 80% of gym attendees’ least favorite exercise.
However, if all racks at your gym are taken, you still have other lower body exercises to achieve all the leg growth even without a squat rack. Or you can wait for your turn and even request whether it is possible to take turns and complete sets. Besides, you can bring a squat rack home if you don’t want to wait for your turn.
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Is a Squat Rack Necessary?
For anyone who wants to get in good shape, the squat is the preeminent lower body lift and helps increase the overall strength. With a squat rack, you can load weight on all kinds of exercises, thanks to its high weight capacity.
The squat rack is a necessary piece of equipment that helps engage your core, aids in overall strength building, and increases endurance levels. Moreover, it allows you to make heavy lift from a comfortable position, which helps you make gains in strength and functionality.
You might get substitutes for other gym equipment, but there is no better substitute than a squat rack for carrying ample weight on your back.
A squat rack is best for a full-body workout working out every muscle right from your shoulder to your leg.
A squat rack is utterly essential from a safety point of view, especially when you are a beginner trainer. Getting hold of a squat rack to lift weights helps beginners exercise safely. You cannot even imagine lifting the heavy bar with weights right from the ground to your shoulders without support.
Squat racks help you lift weights directly on your shoulders instead of taking them right from the ground, which poses a huge threat to your lower back, causing strain.
Why Don’t Gyms Have More Squat Racks?
Besides people’s wishes, gyms have their logic in abstaining from buying a squat rack:
Gyms function to reap profits and try investing in equipment and machines that help garner memberships. So, there is little chance that gym owners invest money in buying multiple squat racks as they are bulky, extremely heavy, and expensive.
Besides this, using a squat rack needs ample accessories such as a pull-up bar, chin-up bar, back cushion, mat, and weight plates of different weights, which need to purchase in addition to the equipment at a separate cost, and this incurs additional expenses to the gym.
What Other Fitness Machines Can I Use Instead of a Squat Rack?
You are late to the gym today, arriving at the peak time of day when all squat racks are occupied by those who can’t stop doing bench press or pull-ups in the squat rack.
You feel like you can’t wait anymore, nor would the guy stop doing his exercise on the squat rack.
So what can you use instead of a squat rack? You can use many other exercise machines as alternatives, such as step machines, vertical climbers, and the Smith machines that exist as the most preferred alternatives by gym-goers.
You can even work out on cardio machines with maximum resistance levels and inclination to achieve necessary fitness goals.
There is a chance that you might start developing a liking towards any of these and switch over to them in due course.
You can use these machines instead of squat racks to train your lower-body muscles. Though not as good as squat racks in terms of building leg strength, these exercise machines benefit your body in multiple ways.
If none of these impress you or don’t provide noticeable benefits, there are quite a few other exercises such as front squats, goblet squats, dumbbell squats (lunges), leg press step-ups, squat jumps, and single-leg squats that can help you here.
Summary
Squat racks are attractive to users who love to lift heavy weights and train hard to boost their muscle strength. This is even the safest way to lift heavy weights, especially when you are new to fitness.
So, when you eagerly visit the gym to train on the squat rack but notice that every single rack is occupied, don’t panic. There are great alternatives that can help you achieve similar training levels and stay fit.
Read Also:
- Best Rogue Power Racks for Home Gym
- Best Budget Squat Racks – Buyer’s Guide and Review
- Best Folding Squat Racks for Home Gym
