Belt Squat - New addition and setup

[Shock6050]

Hi all! Been a bit crazy here at home so haven’t been on as much as I’d like. Wanted to share my new toy.

I ended getting a belt squat attachment that was designed specifically for my rack (REP 5000). The benefits were that it’s easily removable and doesn’t take up much space and that it hooks directly to my lat pulldown attachment off the back of the rack. A couple limitations I knew going in was getting proper depth but didn’t have much trouble especially after putting down a couple deep dish plates to stand on. The other big thing I wanted to “hack” was to be able to start at the top of the movement. To do this I used a weight belt with a leather attachment that I use for weighted dips/pull-ups with chains. I tied the belt at the top of the rack and used a chain to get the carabiner up high enough so once I attach the Spud belt, I simply release the carabiner attached to the chain from the top of the rack. Then I move the chain to the left side of the rack and I’m good to go. Still messing around with it, but it works great as it takes all the load off my spine to really hit quads/glutes. I still do regular squats and deadlifts but sometimes my lower back is a bit banged up so this will really come in handy when that happens or to just add variety.

 

[Poppy]

I like it! Great hack. I get just what you’re doing. When you’re done with set… you just hook carabiner (on chain) back to cable…right?

A tip that works for me is i place my feet pretty far forward so the actual (load) attach point is pulling straight down… vs pulling me forward if the feet are too far away from the load point.

 

[Poppy]

Can you move the whole squat apparatus further out towards the opening of the rack to shorten the cable on “it” and get more depth.

 

[Shock6050]

Yep exactly. Just reattach then you are free to release the carabiner attached to the belt squat.

 

[Shock6050]

Yeah that’s what I’m going to do next time as I can move it further back and that will decrease the slack more. May end up being enough that I won’t need to stand on the plates. Glad I got the rack that is longer inside or I wouldn’t be able to move it much more.

 

[Poppy]

Not second guessing you…I made/make a living fabricating/fixing/engineering extremely complicated machinery.

That’s why some of my stuff is welded, scratched dismantled rebuilt tore up…always fiddling with stuff. Hahaha

 

[johnjuanb1]

That is one awesome looking setup!

 

[Cluster]

I love your gym every time I see it

 

[Shock6050]

Though I don’t make a living doing that stuff I am with you there as I like messing with things that work well already only to improve a bit on how they work. So moving the attachment all the way the front of the rack definitely made a huge difference as I no longer need to stand on plates to get proper depth. I may replace the carabiner that I use to just hold the cable up so I can start up top with a simple hook, as it’s a bit of a pain swapping out the spring loaded carabiner. I think Rep has one for this purpose on their website but it’s like 20 bucks…I’m sure any hardware store will have what I need for a fraction of that!

 

[Shock6050]

This is what they have. I think it also comes with a chain and a strap to hook up at the top of the rack, but my belt/leather strap works just fine up top and I have enough chains around here.

 

[Poppy]

Basic hardware maybe pick it up cheaper somewhere else.