Jason Traister
There is something cool about watching someone who could REALLY put some badass stuff to use, take home a big prize in the Garage Gym Competition. Last year my man Jason Traister was using a power rack from one of the… OTHER companies out there, and then he won the Ghost Strong Half Rack. With an over 1700lb total, that upgrade was almost a critical need for him and his training partners and family. Jason is a competitive lifter in the USPA and got into lifting when he realized he was out of shape and needed to make a change. If you wanna know Jason, here you go “I have been told I can’t, I’m not good enough, you don’t belong here my entire life and they were all wrong. I will not be out worked in life or in the gym.”
Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Jason and I was born in Dallas, currently live in McKinney, Texas. I’m married, have 6 kids ranging from 4 to 28. I went to YTI for motorcycles and I’m the service manager of Kwik Kar Panther Creek, a full-service repair shop.
What hobbies do you have outside of lifting?
Mostly just family stuff my wife loves to travel so try and do that as much as possible we have the 4- and 5-year-old with us and they consume the majority of our time.
Do you have a background in sports?
I bowled when I was younger, turned pro at 15 that’s about it
How/when did you start lifting?
Started lifting when I was around 25, I had a young son and I was really big and out of shape and now I compete in powerlifting… I’ve always loved bodybuilding but I love food more.
Tell me about your gym…
I started it in 2017 We started with the fold out rack and 400lbs of plates. Then we kept buying more weight as needed. I remember the first time I squatted 500lbs I told my wife and she got mad because there were no safeties with that rack. After that I would go up to North Frisco CrossFit when things were heavy until we could get a different set up. We sold the Harley and made an order for a power rack, GHD, Reverse Hyper, Trapbar and SSB bar. We put a wood platform thru the middle and stall matts all around. My amazing wife likes to get me bars for gifts (no complaints from me) so we have Kabuki Squat and Duffalo bar, a Deadlift bar, women’s bar, multi-purpose bar, also a Cambered Squat bar with 1025lbs in weight now. The prettiest and newest piece of equipment we have thanks to the Garage Gym Competition is the Ghost Strong half rack number 1 of 1.
Do you ONLY train at home?
Yes
Are you eyeing down any new toys for the gym?
Belt squat attachment and a new lat pull down system
Do you train by yourself?
Mostly train by myself except on Sundays the team lifts at 7am
Pros and cons of lifting at home?
As far as pros there are just too many to list in my opinion. The only con I see is space but that’s really not a huge issue.
What got you interested in the GGC?
When I first started training in the garage it started out of necessity at that time the majority of people, I knew worked out at gyms so it was awesome to see a community of individuals come together in competition but really to support each other and do some good for charity
Do you compete elsewhere?
Yes, I compete in the uspa 2-3 times a year.
What brings you back for 2022?
It’s just an amazing thing to be apart of. It takes a certain type of person to train alone in their garage. I know that because of covid it became a more popular thing to do but that wasn’t always the case. The majority of us at least that I interact with had a reason why we started training at home. Our youngest 2 kids are adopted and when we got Braxten he was 10 months old and never slept because he had night terrors. It wasn’t ok in my opinion for me to spend 1-2 hours at a gym while she was home with him by herself. Now he is 4 and the Traphouse (our garage) is his favorite place to be. The competition gives us a chance to all get together.
How many years have you participated?
I’ve competed in the last 3 and wont miss one as long as I have a garage gym. Each year has been awesome to not only watch the number of entries grow across the entire thing but even in our house. In 2020 we had bench press and Beers to do the bench part of the comp which turned into a 20+ people hour event of different strength challenges after we benched. Now we have 6 guys that we all do it together each year. I usually do a USPA comp in June every year so we usually line up my last round of heavy singles to line up for the week of the Competition.
What has been the key pieces to your success, in the GGC and lifting in general?
Getting up and doing the work. Motivation is cool but its not always there, it takes discipline to get up at 3:45 am 4 days a week and train.
What do you think of when you eye down a big lift?
For me personally I try not to think. I go thru my regular set up, blast the music and let it fly.
Favorite personal record song to listen to?
I have two first one is – Blood by In this Moment and the second is a Taylor Swift song covered by IPrevail BLANKSPACE. You may judge when you read this but listen to it when you’re moving some weight and I bet you change your mind.
What’s the most important thing people should know about you?
I have been told I can’t, I’m not good enough, you don’t belong here my entire life and they were all wrong. I will not be out worked in life or in the gym. It’s funny I was talking to my 18-year-old son Junior and he said he sometimes gets frustrated talking to me about stuff he’s struggling with because my answer is always WORK HARDER. I smiled and said I don’t understand your frustration or how that’s wrong because we can always work harder if we want it and if you don’t then you shouldn’t complain about not having it. That’s just my 2 cents.
How are you preparing for the 2022 Garage Gym Competition?
We have a meet on June 4th so we will be peaking the week of the garage gym competition. Can’t wait.
