I enjoy telling my coworkers I’m on the same strength leaderboard as Brian Shaw. I don’t tell them that he’s essentially at the top and I’m essentially at the bottom. Of course they don’t even know who Brian Shaw is but it makes it sound cool.

Amaze your friends and coworkers by showing them pictures of your gym as hosted on the Massenomics website. They’ll know that you’re able to withstand a rigorous certification process (especially us first rounders). Plus it gives you the peace of mind knowing that you’re getting strong, staying strong, and using your strength in a certified facility.

Drink safety you can easily take with you. I went to a garage party at my neighbors and everyone was blown away by how safe my beer was. Excellent for crispy boys of all types.

I have the old, non quick attach, version on my Rogue Monster Lite rack. Pros are that they were the cheapest roller j-cups out there, have HDPE where they attach to the rack, and required no modification* to fit my true 3x3 rack. The asterisk is to qualify what “fit” means. Only one of these actually fits such that the screw in post hits the holes of the rack properly, preventing the j cup from wobbling. The other one seems slightly bent so the hole doesn’t lineup and I can’t screw in the red part. I never bothered to ask Titan about it, perhaps they would have made it right but it’s not necessary for the j cups to function safely so I don’t mind. The rollers have some wear from my barbells but I’d rather the rollers wear than my knurling so that’s actually a point in it’s favor. All in all they’ve been good j cups.

Sometimes a man watches the Jujimufu Egolifting Olympics and then realizes he can spend his Amazon gift cards to get a flexible barbell to spice up his training. That man was me several months ago. Ive been nowhere near the max weight capacity of this thing but at moderate, hypertrophy bench type loads it definitely bends and flops around, adding both fun and some stabilizing work to your workout. You can use the flop to cheat the bottom of the movement, or to make the lockout harder. Really fun, but should be nowhere near your first specialty barbell. The rubber sleeves make loading plates a more difficult affair but it helps keep bands in place so it’s a good trade off. I wish they put tape at the normal powerlifting ring marks. I only benched with it so no comments on the center grip tape.

The second set of adjustable dumbbells I’ve owned. Previously I owned the Bowflex 552. I bought the 90 lb Powerblock set from Woot for $430. They are compact, heavy, switch weights quickly, and resist drop damage. The only two downsides are about the adder weights. First downside - no way to make a “x2.5” weight (12.5, 22.5, etc). Second downside - the adders are off center so the weight will feel uneven sometimes, and the adders can clunk a bit. These gripes mostly apply to isolation / bodybuilding type movements - for push and pull type movements it is less noticable. Overall a very good value, and since my training isn’t dumbbell heavy I’m pretty satisfied with them.

Greatest thing to happen to cable machines since daisy chains. Previously I had a pulley tower from Valor Fitness that was perfectly fine, but it took up footprint in the gym and was too short to be usable for lat pull downs. The ibex is incredibly smooth especially considering that it is a 1:1 weight ratio. The lat pulldown arm is high enough that I get a good stretch even with my basement height rack. The cable retractor gives you options to get into a good position. It is expensive, but I believe it is value received.