June 4, 2022: Wall painted, ceiling half painted, rack on the way
This feels like the calm before the storm. I’ll continue updating this post as the build goes on.
Eventually I want to make this into a video but I thought it’d be good to just start writing some things down. I’ll start with a summary of what I’ve done so far.
March 2022
- Closed on house and got the keys
- Bought 6 horse stall mats at Tractor Supply
- (Inhaled some amount of rubber fumes driving the mats an hour to the new home)
April 2022
- Moved into new house, found out the garage wasn’t level. And like, much worse than the usual slope you’ll find for water drainage.
- Bought a Rogue Jammer pull-up bar for the office
- Bought a Superfit treadmill for under the desk in the office
- I used 2 horse stall mats on our patio to do kettlebell workouts (I have very fond memories of this actually and need to get back to doing it.)
- Got rid of a BUNCH of cardboard with a haul away service
(I decided I needed to get some small daily tools going.)
May 2022
- Sick for a couple weeks—slight setback right when I felt some momentum
- Leveled an 8’x12′ section of the garage — this was by far the biggest piece of the garage gym puzzle and the one that frustrates carpenters and people who like to do things “The Right Way”. I used a DIY method combining of wood, roof shingles, and tongue & groove subfloor (demonstrated by Chris Duffin). I don’t have or know how to use a saw, don’t have a pickup truck, etc.
- Painted one wall with black chalkboard paint and started writing some back-pocket workouts on it (things to do in 15-25 minutes including a warm up that can be good for any day)
- Ordered a bunch of Rep stuff
- Spent waaaaaaay too much time watching other people tour their garage gyms or watching other people working out in their garage gyms—letting all the Rogue Rogue Rogue branding get to me eventually
- Canceled the Rep order
- Ordered a bunch of Rogue stuff
- Visited Washington state (where I grew up) and tried out my brother’s home gym and also my other friend’s home gym
June 2022
- Moved the treadmill from the office to the garage
- Bought a Husky workbench as a standing desk for the treadmill
- Started receiving pieces of the Rogue order
- Painted part of the ceiling white
- Bought 3 more horse stall mats & 6 smaller horse stall mats (4’x3′ and 0.5″ instead of 6’x4′ and 0.75″)
- (Again inhaled some amount of rubber fumes—this time seemed worse but it was probably about the same and I just forgot how bad it was the first time around.)
- Took a BUNCH of styrofoam and cardboard to the city dump
Okay now that it’s a big list it’s more than I thought. And more writing than I planned. So I’ll end this first edition of the post with this.
The next few weeks…
- The rest of the Rogue order comes in and my cousin is visiting for a couple days. He just graduated physical therapy grad school so maybe he’ll be interested in helping me put the rack together. But I also think going to the Warriors watch party would be a muuuuch better use of our time.
- I definitely want to find time to level the other half of the garage
- I want to get some cardio equipment. Current thoughts: loved using my friend’s Rogue Echo bike but I also want some longer sessions. So I’ll probably get a Peloton first (and I think my wife will also use it more) along with a Concept2 Rower.
(I’m realizing this definitely needs some photos… next time!)
July 4, 2022: Set up, but with golfer’s elbow
I’m writing this in the midst of planning the next 12 weeks of fitness, gym stuff, etc.
- I’ve had rack set up but also have golfer’s elbow and, of course, having a new space with some toys makes it difficult to do the best thing for golfer’s elbow: which would be forearm stuff and then otherwise not really using that arm all that much.
- I want to get some other kind of cardio machine still. I thought I’d have them in there by now but I have so much indecision and decision fatigue. Still not really all that sure what to get. With golfer’s elbow, it seems like laying off rowing and the air bike with the arms might be a decent idea. And getting a new rower or air bike would go against that. I sort of want a recumbent bike because it’s something I know I’ll use. But more and more people I talk to have a Peloton and are very happy with it. These have been people with home gyms with racks so I thought they’d push more for an Echo or Assault Bike, so it was a case of “Oh. Maybe I should listen to them.”