Joe Gray
Creator & Coordinator of the Garage Gym Competition
Joe Gray Buy’s A Garage Gym
I began lifting for the sake of lifting, right out of high school. I joined a local gym with my best friend. We spent the next several years having no idea what we were doing. Fast forward about three years and I’m lifting at a powerlifting gym while going to school. I start getting a little better at lifting weights. This continued for several years at a few different gyms over that time. Then one day the gym I went to decided that deadlifting wasn’t allowed. No chalk use, and they would use the platforms for some sports specific training (this was the height of bootcamps). I came home and started putting together my home gym package and looking for a house to buy.
It took about a year for that all to happen, but at the end of 2013 I had a rack, couple of bars, bench, 500+lbs of plates, and some odds and ends. I was STOKED!
Joe Gray Upgrades A Garage Gym
I had been lifting with basic equipment for a couple of years. Then I got hurt at a wedding being an idiot. I fractured my calcaneus bone, which was my left heel. 3 months of working from my home office, with my leg up, in a cast. I found while working from home I was way more efficient, and to kill my 8hour day I started searching the internet for home gym articles. I land on two different sites and become a regular, the now defunct BodyBuilding.Com Equipment Forums, and Reddit r/HomeGym.
The set-up I had for a couple of years, begins to expand as I learn about new options, pick up the Used Market bug, and all around chase that next upgrade.
Then To Now
From then until now, I go from using a small corner of my garage, to fully dedicating an entire stall to the gym. I go from a rack and some wall storage, to multiple benches, a functional trainer, over a dozen bars, over 1,000lbs of plates, and more. I have more invested in cable attachments today, than I did in my entire gym back then.
And I wouldn’t trade that ride for anything.
During that time my wife got her nursing degree, I got my masters degree, we had our daughter, I got hurt (and couldn’t drive), had a seizure (and lost my license), and much more. The garage gym has been there for us, as a family, to keep us going with our lifting activities. Multiple times throughout that craziness, if I would have had to commute to the gym, I would have given up.
So I feel like I owe the world something, to preach the good word of the garage gym, to help others stay focused, chase PRs, and move forward despite bumps in the road and life being a you know what.
Where We Are Today
My gym is pretty rad. It is beyond anything I would have imagined in the beginning. And I get to walk out there every day with a smile on my face, knowing I get to put in work in the best gym in town
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Sometimes in lifting you hit a wall that can’t be broken down by traditional measures. Enter, The Paradigm Shift.
Chalk… such a simple piece to the puzzle. Most anyone who has ripped a heavy deadlift off the floor has chalked up to maximize their grip. Nothing worse than missing a lift, but missing it because you forgot to chalk up? Unforgivable! But have you ever thought about chalk beyond it being white, dry, and […]
WHY THE GARAGE GYM COMPETITION? My goal has always been to create garage gym content that I would want to watch, read, and participate in. My thought was, if I was interested, someone else might be too. When I came up with the idea for the GGC, I was really making a competition for myself. I was consistently in the gym, but without focus. My programming was haphazard, and I was stalling in every avenue. The GGC gave me a focus, gave me that guiding light, and helped me destroy those plateaus. I've since squatted 500lbs, benched 360, and deadlifted 600lbs. And just like my gym, I'm not quite done yet. Sub Heading
So I thank all of you reading this, participating in the GGC, hopping onto r/HomeGym, or checking out my Gray Matter Lifting stuff. You have helped me be exactly where I am today. I’m not done, I have more in store for all of it, but damn if I’m not happy with what is going on.
May 10, 2023 @ 8:09 am
Nice to get to know you, Joe. Nice family, nice dog, nice life keep enjoying it 😊
May 10, 2023 @ 9:35 am
Thanks Maureen! Doing my best to have some fun.