Starting Strength

platform, so that racking and un-racking weights is safe when trainees are squatting outside the rack.

There should be a hook assembly for the bar to hang from outside the rack – my hook assemblies consist of two very large shoulder bolts with stops welded on them about halfway down the bolt at the edge of the unthreaded shoulder. Four heavy pins should cross the depth of the rack from front to back, with 4 inches or so extra on each side. These pins and hooks will adjust in height using the holes drilled in the channel iron that forms the uprights of the rack. The closer together the holes are, the finer the adjustments can be to accommodate lifters of various heights; 3 inches center to center is good, but 4 inches does not work well. The holes should extend from top to bottom. The entire rack should be correctly welded together, with no bolted components to loosen.

    Figure 8-8. The best power racks are heavy. This one is welded, and it has uprights of 4-inch channel with holes drilled on 3-inch centers, heavy 1¼-inch pins and chin bar, a heavy plywood floor reinforced with channel, and heavy bolts for hooks. The plan for this rack follows in Figure 8-10 .

    Plywood is the most commonly used material for the platform. It is relatively cheap and very tough, and six sheets make a perfect 8' x 8' platform. The layers are alternated so that the seams do not penetrate the whole platform, and the unit is made very strong when the layers are glued and screwed together. Be sure to buy plywood without any void spaces in the layers, because they WILL collapse if you drop a loaded barbell on top of them, anywhere in the stack of layers. This means that you have to buy B-grade or better, where all the knotholes are plugged.

    Figure 8-9. The layers of an inexpensive and durable plywood platform.

    Particle board makes a very good, very flat, solid hard surface with no void spaces, but it has some drawbacks. It comes in 49" x 97" sheets, so it doesn’t overlap perfectly when three layers are laid in alternate directions – the edges will be off by an inch every two sheets. And even though the material is very smooth and hard (the ¾" board feels like sheet concrete), it is extremely sensitive to moisture; one leak anywhere around it and the whole platform is useless. But if the room can be kept dry and you don’t mind ripping the edges, particle board makes a damned good platform. It is even a little cheaper than plywood, since A/B plywood is very pricey these days.
    Rubber horse-trailer mats finish the surface, making it virtually indestructible. These are available in farm stores and vary in thickness from ½ to ¾ inch. These mats are important to protect your platform and your plates when weights are dropped, which will occur no matter your intentions. The thickness of the whole platform assembly is about 3 inches, assuming ¾-inch plywood and ¾-inch rubber (see example Figure 4-48 ). The rack and the platform surface need to be flush to eliminate the tripping hazard, and invariably either the rack or the surface of the platform will need to be shimmed, since racks and platforms usually won’t match. Shim the floor under the rack with rubber, plywood, or some other dense, flat stuff to make the dimensions agree, or use extra rubber on the platform or rack floor surface. Custom platforms are available from several sources; these are usually designed for the Olympic lifts and will be expensive but good-looking. They are unnecessary, but nice if the budget permits.

    Figure 8-10. Power rack plan. Download pdf

    Upright support benches
     
    An upright support bench for the bench press should be sturdy as hell, fully welded with no bolted joints to loosen, and may or may not have adjustable hooks. If the hooks are not adjustable, the fixed hook should be about 19 inches above the surface of the bench. This equipment should always have wide uprights, about 48 inches apart, to minimize the risk of bar-loading imbalances and racking accidents involving the hands. The surface of the bench will be 17 inches high with the padding compressed, 12 inches wide, and 48 inches long. The feet of the bench should not interfere with your foot placement; i.e., the bench feet should not be so wide that your feet touch them. The bench should be built in such a way that it does not tip back when heavy weights are racked hard. There should be no obstruction for a center spotter standing at the bencher’s head. Some benches are