Have you ever started on a new adventure and then realized, “Well, this is a much larger thing than I thought it was going to be?” Welcome to the several Saturdays in a row that it has taken to assemble a squat rack in my garage! As you may recall, we are on a quest to reignite our passions and drive back to the places that bring us joy. Do you want to know what has not brought joy? Putting this rack together. There is not enough wine in the world.
The emotions that came with my Rogue order’s arrival are best described as a roller coaster. Seeing that big, beautiful pallet of boxes stamped with Rogue brought all the joy you could imagine. Then, the glorious game of car Tetris as I made trips down to move those boxes to the garage. The Christmas morning feeling when I assembled the rower in my living room (it was cold outside!). And then the boxes… so many boxes….and bolts…and screws….and the heart-stopping realization that my garage is stupid. Concrete at the bottom of the wall, which juts out beyond the rest of the wall…. Two trips to Home Depot and then…. it was time. It was finally time to see this mass of steel come together into a place to bring me joy.
And everything kept going almost right. A great plan: 2×6 spacers on the stop to make the braces even. Big concrete anchors for the bottom brace. It is an excuse for my husband to buy fancy power tools! Then, we discovered that the floor was uneven. But we figured it out; we made it work. We made four total trips to Home Depot, becoming a minor stakeholder in Milwaukee tools, and honestly, my folding squat rack will not fold.
Our thirty-minute install, according to several YouTube videos, turned into several hours over a couple of weeks and is a process I’d like never to repeat. It’s tight; loading will be a fun game, but it’s installed, and it holds a barbell. In my garage, I now have a squat rack, jerk blocks, a rower, and some extra smaller but equally important pieces of equipment.
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks lifting in my garage, doing pretty much everything except squats, and, well, honestly, it’s what I missed. I’ve been excited to be focusing on moving a barbell and just feeling that movement again, loving that movement. I row a mile or two and get some cardio in, but I’m back with my first love, the barbell.
This first adventure has been tedious and onerous. There were times that I felt like the situation had beaten me, like there was no way that we were going to be able to make this work. But I saw a quote by Steve Ballesteros, a Spanish golfer, that stuck: Life goes on, and life is full of setbacks. You have to fight, that’s all.
Despite all the frustration that putting this rack together brought, I’m so happy. I know I’ve said it before, but I love lifting weights. And now, any time I want. I walk out to my garage, pull my car out, and I can do all the lifting that I wish to. My happy place is now in my garage. The only downside? You still have to stretch and work on mobility, even if you’re working out at home.
So, what’s our next step, Adventurers? Stephen Butcher and I start working together in February. Stephen is the owner and lead coach for Butcher Barbell, and I’ve had the pleasure of taking one of his seminars before. When I started down this road, I knew he was who I wanted to work with. I’ll keep you posted as we go, and I can’t wait to see where we go from here. Our first Olympic lifting competition is in May!
~Sarah
Let’s head back home!