A squat rack allows you to perform a heavy lift, which allows you to gain more strength and muscle. But not everyone can afford a quality squat rack for the home, especially for popular brands that stand out for their durability and performance, such as Rep Fitness, Titan Fitness, and Rogue Fitness.
You might want to know, “why are squat racks so expensive?”. Although you already know that these famous brands’ power racks are of premium quality, what is the point of getting other affordable power racks for less than half the price?
These squat racks are priced heavily because they are made from high-quality materials such as 3” x 3” 11-gauge steel, providing security and offers an extensive range of accessories and attachments. These squat racks have a nice appearance and are protected against oxidation with a powder coat.
They go through a rigorous quality of control, they offer a good guarantee, and they also offer excellent quality in customer service. All these additional add-ons and services can charge a premium for the products.
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Should I Buy a Quality Squat Rack?
The prices of squat racks are very varied, depending on brands, quality, size, etc. You can find squat racks at very affordable prices of between $200 to $400, but generally, they come without useful power rack attachments or accessories. And you will also find excellent quality squat racks at prices between $600 to $2000.
When deciding on what exercise equipment to have in your home gym, you should consider:
1) How much can you spend?
2) What physical goal you want to achieve?
With a squat rack, you can attempt a heavier weight and can save you from dropping weight on yourself if you fail to complete the repetition, thanks to the spotter arms attached to the rack.
Another benefit that this training equipment offers is versatility. Most squat racks allow you to install additional attachments, such as a pull-up bar and a dip station, thus adding more variety to your workouts, saving the cost of acquiring these accessories independently, and offering a stable base on which to perform exercises.
They often also allow other accessories to be included, such as disc holders, anchor points for resistance bands, landmines for Olympic bars, etc. These optional attachments allow you to do tons of exercises with a squat rack instead of performing lower body workouts only.
It can be said that a squat rack is the foundation of your home gym. If you want to gain strength and muscle mass with utmost safety, then a squat rack is for you, and you should have one. However, if budget is your main consideration, you can have other options.
4 Best Squat Racks Alternatives (Budget Choice)
1. Barbells & Weight Plates
Squat racks allow you to perform different varieties of exercises. But these exercises can be done with other equipment. For example, if you can’t have a squat rack at home, you can choose to have barbells in different diameters and the weight plates in different weights. Depending on the weight, the material, and the brand, it will be the price, but you can get them from $45 to $80.
As for the barbells, you can get them for less than $200. However, doing squats without a gym rack will endanger your safety. Make sure to act according to your ability.
2. Wall Pull-Up Bar
Some squat racks have built-in pull-up bars where you can work your upper body, but you can get the pull-up bars separately if you can’t have your squat rack.
You can get them in a wide variety of designs that come to screw on both the wall and the screwless bars that can be mounted and dismounted on the door frame. Prices again vary, but you can get them at prices under $150.
3. Weight Bench
A weight bench is a portable piece of equipment, and you can move it around. You can perform exercises both on the upper and lower parts of the body. With a weight bench, you can increase upper body strength, improving muscular endurance, and even preparing your upper body to do movements like pushups.
When you choose it, please make sure it is of good quality as it should give you good support and be stable and safe. Prices will depend on the design you choose so that you can find a weight bench from $50 to $190.
How Do I Choose a Squat Rack? (6 Things You Should Keep in Mind)
1. Space and Size
When choosing the placement of your equipment, you must consider two criteria: the floor surface (it counts at least 4 to 5 m²) and the height (it counts at least 2.20 m in height to the ceiling). If you are looking for space savings, a folding squat rack works wonders and allows you to perform heavy weight training. And if ceiling height is your concern, a short power rack is a quick solution.
The width depends mainly on the morphology of each one. If you want to work with a bench, you should ensure that you can do exercises comfortably without your elbows getting stuck.
2. Security Bars
The squat racks come with safety bars that anchor and connect securely to the structure to prevent it from collapsing on you and causing an accident.
At the same time, they are adjustable, so you can modify your routines based on your progress, so they should also be easy to move and install.
3. Additional Accessories
The best squat racks come equipped with additional detachable attachments and accessories (while cheapest models only include a few accessories) that allow you to give your exercise routines great versatility, such as benches, side training accessories, push-ups bar, parallel bar, and much more.
When you add a resistance band to the rack, you can add more intensity to squats. If you’re looking for this, keep an eye on the models that come with band anchor points.
4. Weight Capacity
If you are starting, a squat rack that supports a maximum of 300 kg is recommended. If you are a professional, you might want to look for a squat rack that resists at least 450 kg. But for security reasons, always go for a squat rack with a higher weight capacity. Because this metric also indicates the durability of the rack.
5. Hole Spacing
The holes that allow you to move the bars to modify the height and give more versatility to your routines should not be separated from each other by more than 5 cm.
7 Alternative Exercises When All the Squat Racks Are Taken
If you are in the gym and find that you do not have the opportunity to use the squat rack, do not worry. There are other alternatives to work out the same muscles:
- Front Squats: To do this, you need to place a barbell on the floor and then lift it to your shoulders. You should use a lower weight to not hurt yourself than what you would use in the squat rack.
- Goblet Squats: Hold a dumbbell in front of your chest and squat
- Dumbbell Squats or Lunges: Hold a dumbbell in each hand (on each side) while you squat down. The weight will depend on your comfort and capacity.
- Leg Press or Squat Machine: This is a good alternative to the squat rack that your gym surely offers. You can work with an emphasis on the quadriceps.
- Smith Machine Squats. These machines feature a thick barbell attached to two poles that move up and down. The Smith machine is designed to safely use weights without an assistant and remain stable while training.
- Squat Jumps: Squat jumps is a strength exercise designed for the elite trainer. They are the power-packed HIIT version of squats. These exercises target the muscles of the calves, quadriceps, buttocks, hips, and the bones in the spine.
- Cardio Machines: Although you won’t get the strength gain in these machines, you can boost your stamina and cardio capacity by using them. The rowing machine or the climbing machine are both great cardio machines that target your full-body muscle and cause minimal strain on your joints.
6 Famous Brand of Power Racks That You Should Consider
Given below are six strong, impressive power rack brands. Choosing a strong brand is important because it provides better product quality and higher customer service.
1. Titan
Titan Fitness makes both squat racks and other home training equipment at affordable prices. But since all that glitters cannot be gold, the brand has a disadvantage of low quality in customer service, and the guarantees of its equipment could improve.
But Titan was working on their equipment’s quality, and it has been improved. If you’re on a tight budget, Titan’s rack is for you.
Despite this, the brand offers excellent squat racks when compared to other inexpensive brands. Everything will depend on what you need as security requirements and what accessories you consider important for your workouts.
2. Rogue (Recommend)
This is the favorite brand of many looking for excellent quality in their squat racks since their products always offer better guarantees and are a safe investment.
The brand uses solid steel from the USA for manufacturing fitness equipment. And I don’t feel much of a need to speak on the Rogue fitness equipment regarding durability and sturdiness. Their fitness products are top of the range and also provide the best value for the money.
Some high-end Rogue squat racks can reach high prices because they offer an excellent quality both in the racks’ construction, guarantees, and customer service.
3. Sorinex
This brand competes hand-in-hand with Rogue in every respect: quality materials for squat racks and other fitness equipment, warranties, customer service, and shipping.
4. Rep Fitness
This American company is new to the market but has already gained its own space in the fitness world. The company manufactures squat racks and other high-quality products at excellent prices.
So far, it has had a very good rating due to its fast delivery and constantly evolving. If you have a tight budget, have this brand as an option.
5. Elitefts
The brand offers a wide range of prices in terms of squat racks to have a wide variety of training equipment depending on your budget. You will find squat racks of excellent quality and different sizes. Without a doubt, this is an option for both those who have a tight budget and those who can invest unlimitedly.
6. Legend Fitness
For those looking for squat racks with good looks and excellent quality, this is your brand. Users choose it because the company manufactures squat racks according to the tastes of each user. Its prices may be a little high for obvious reasons.
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