Maybe they don't want shruggers taking up the curl racks.

I have def tried to squat in racks that had fixed bars and could not reach my normal non-atg depth without hitting. Pretty annoying.

+1 the too-high fixed bars are def real.

5'10.5"

If you're LBBS then maybe you'll have an issue, for a HBBS, yea not unless you're a midget.

My uni had 2 fixed squat racks, one was low enough that I could LBBS (at 5'10), and another where LBBSing was unpossible. Also the fixed rack pins on the crappy rack were such that one was like 1/2 inch too high for LBBS and I'd have to shrug/calf raise, and another one was like 1.5 inches too low so I'd have to walk in and out in a squat.

The LA Fitness (lulz) i go to has two curlz racks where the fixed pins are too high to get close to parallel unless you're 6'6", and one shrugz rack with moveable pins. The tard is strong there.

saw a big dude at the gym today squat 4 plates on each side on a smith machine with good form, then leg press 8 plates on each side pretty "deep".

is it safe to say that this guy is a monster even though he does stupid exercises? would he be able to squat near that amount on a barbell?

I can squat that much on a real bar, and I am def not a 'monster'

This sort of thing is all my g/f and I have to work with at our gym.

I can go below parallel with LBBS (I'm 6' tall) but not ATG.

My g/f walks the damn bar out of the rack b/c otherwise she hits the safety thing at just a bit under parallel (she's 5'2").

It's pretty dumb. I usually have to help her out of the rack too b/c the hook thingies are pretty tall so has to go up on her tippy-toes or almost jump to unhook it to start with.

Pretty rigged now that I think about it more, lol.

Put the bar lower one notch for her ASAP.

You know they have free trials, right?

Lol. I mean, it's fixed. I'd have to unweld and then reweld it. So I mean, yeah, I don't even have the tools or skillset to even do that. Oh, you mean the rack thing? The lower one is too low for her - when she tries that it's like starting your LBBS with an uncomfortable GM from the bent over position. It's really just a bad fit for her imo. Obv not the most practical squat equipment, but still better than the Smith machine imo.

As for finding another gym, we go to a place that is $60/month jointly, and we each get $20 back from our health insurance. So it's like $10/month.

There are snap fitness type places that are convenient, but those are worse imo.

There are LifeTime Fitness places, which are better, but the only convenient one for her is the one near us which is "onyx" level - they never would quote me a price without like an hour tour or some BS, but I'm pretty sure it's over $100/month for a single membership.

The other gyms we could belong to are significantly less convenient. I might as well just go to Cha's place that's 40 minutes away if my gym is a 30 minute drive through rush hour traffic. His gym is even better!

How big is the distance between the notches? Like 10 inches or something?

Could be better to help her unrack from low (should be just a start from 1/8 squat) than have her shrug/tiptoe, which will cause injuries.

Yeah, I've helped her eliminate shrug as imo she had a tendency to do that due to the awkward unracking height.

I dno how big the distance between racks is. Where I rack from is fine for me luckily and if I put it int he lower one accidentally I usually put it up to my normal position and then unrack from there, rather than unrack from a lower position (it feels very awkward and hard to set my back underneath that weight if I rack from lower). But maybe we should revisit the lower rack position for her now that I know more about all this stuff - perhaps it's not as GMy as I thought and the cues she has for getting her lats tight and getting her chest under the bar will make it work.

Either way she ends up having to walk it out to the back before starting. She's still a LBBS beast imo. Comparatively she's quite a bit further along than I am with squats and into "intermediate" (comparing our 5rm to a converted 1rm of Rippetoe's SS chart). And she isn't even specifically trying to get stronger. In other words: she's good at the squat despite all this setup crap.

Agree with DW, def better to set up lower and squat it out of the rack. It's ezpz no prob.

I think we paid ~$80 or 90/month for a family (2 adults + 1 kid) when we were members at Lifetime. The Gold's Gym by my house has $10/mo individual memberships right now. Do you have a Gold's near you?

I'm undecided as to whether I'm going to get more GGOs or less GGOs in my new gym (new gym, martial arts focus, not many members, etc)...

Yesterday the other guy in the gym when I was there was super setting band assisted chinups with decline bench (I think it was about sets of 10 and about 145lbs). I think it was some timed WOD thing because he was running from the bench to the chinup bar.

There are a few ways to get under a lower bar, split your legs or just bend your knees more, it's not that hard.

I squatted with DF and used a lower bar setting and it was no big deal and I actually liked it.

Not sure where you live, but the Anytime Fitness at Prospect Park on University Ave actually has decent SS setup (2 power racks, 1 good bench, 1 meh bench, some space to clean). I lived a block away from it, and it's not horribly crowded during rush hour (compared to NYC gyms)

i will get a pic of me in that quarter squat rack tomorrow

i'm 5'11.5" and can't even come close to squatting in it fwiw

My gym is without power so I went to one 20 minutes away that my membership works at (anytime fitness), all they had was one of those goofy racks and a smith machine type thing where the bar moves forward and backwards too. in the fixed rack, the bar was at my hip when on the safety bars...walked my warmups out, tried my work set inside and clanked the bar pretty good. impossible.

I got trolled in the gym today. Some powerlifters were training DLs and competing against each other to increase their PRs. They were pushing some good weight around (425+), but they were all going sumo stance.

I asked one of them why they're going sumo instead of conventional. He said conventional stance is bad for you knees. I just kinda said "oh okay" (wasn't even going to start....) and went back to my workout.

I saw an interesting squat grip technique yesterday. The guy had the bar on his back, arms spread wide and was grabbing the edge of the plates instead of the bar. Looked like he was doing the "come-at-me-bro-stance" with a barbell on his back.