Power Rack Depth for 2 Stations

[EHC1228]

My apologies if this is covered else where. I've attempted numerous searches on this topic with little success. I'm curious in any members experience using one of the larger foot print racks to set up for two lifts at once. Goal here is to identify the smallest inside depth that would allow me to squat inside the rack and bench off the front. I understand this is a very personal thing. For reference, the rack I am currently using has 23" inside depth and I have no issue working inside of it. I previously had a R4 and the 43" inside depth was overkill so I sold it.

For the legendary crowd , is any one comfortable squatting within and benching on the front with the 35" inside depth?

For the few Sorinex users, 41" would more than sufficient for an inside and outside, but is any one comfortable with two lifters inside?

I've contemplated having two separate racks, or one small rack (think R3) plus a squat stand but that's not a long term solution for me.

Sorry for the rambling post and thanks ahead of time for the help!

[gym62richard]

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but if I understand you correctly, you wish to squat inside the rack and bench press off the front posts, if this is the correct scenario, then you need a pair of spotter arms.

I have the Legend 3133, for me the 35" inside depth is perfect, but I primarily use this rack for non bench work, as I have a second rack set up for bench press etc.

With a one rack set up, with the addition of front spotter arms, I think it might be
possible for two people to work simultaneously, but I suspect that the bench will sit too far into the rack to squat comfortably/safely. Benching inside the rack and squatting from the front posts would be a better work around.

I've added a link to the Legend spotter arms, but pretty much every decent rack should have the option to add front spotters.

http://legendfitness.com/product/inverted-safety-arms/

[C123C]

You are either asking:

1) Can someone squat inside the rack and can someone bench on the front posts OUTSIDE the rack - answer is easily with spotter arms off the front
OR
2) Can someone squat inside the rack and can someone bench on the front posts INSIDE the rack - answer is that I would think so with the following caveats:

- they need to take turns
- you'll likely need to move the bench each time as it will be inside the working space for both lifters - two people squatting may work better.

[irongrandpa]

You are either asking:

1) Can someone squat inside the rack and can someone bench on the front posts OUTSIDE the rack - answer is easily with spotter arms off the front
OR
2) Can someone squat inside the rack and can someone bench on the front posts INSIDE the rack - answer is that I would think so with the following caveats:

- they need to take turns
- you'll likely need to move the bench each time as it will be inside the working space for both lifters - two people squatting may work better.

Op, you stated you're already squatting inside the rack with 23" so with front safeties and j-hooks , it would be easy to leave both setups in place. As already said , you may have to move the bench backwards a little. Several people on here have the racks with 43" -46" inside the rack and leave j-hooks set up on the front and rear uprights to bench and squat inside the rack without changing things up.

[EHC1228]

Thanks for the replies and sorry about the confusion. Primary purpose is so I can have two stations set up to super set. My mornings are early and I usually have a 45 minute window to get a lift in. Preference is to super set squat and a press, then move to DL/rows. Secondary is so my wife and I can lift together on weekends. Being that I've got almost 9 inches on her, bar placement and continual weight changes get pretty old.

My intent is to have the smallest inside depth, that still allows for a bar to be set up on the front and used with spotter arms.

I'm pretty confident that it is somewhere between 35-40" depending on style, mechanics etc, but really wondering if anyone had successfully done this on one of the legend series racks at 35" or (I forgot to mention) the 36" Titan rack.

I appreciate the patient replies, day 1 here of quitting Copenhagen so I'm feeling a touch erratic.

[gym62richard]

Thanks for the replies and sorry about the confusion. Primary purpose is so I can have two stations set up to super set. My mornings are early and I usually have a 45 minute window to get a lift in. Preference is to super set squat and a press, then move to DL/rows. Secondary is so my wife and I can lift together on weekends. Being that I've got almost 9 inches on her, bar placement and continual weight changes get pretty old.

My intent is to have the smallest inside depth, that still allows for a bar to be set up on the front and used with spotter arms.

I'm pretty confident that it is somewhere between 35-40" depending on style, mechanics etc, but really wondering if anyone had successfully done this on one of the legend series racks at 35" or (I forgot to mention) the 36" Titan rack.

I appreciate the patient replies, day 1 here of quitting Copenhagen so I'm feeling a touch erratic.

I'm pretty sure you'll find a work around, but you may have to move the bench a little, I'm not sure it would be possible in a rack with a working depth of 23". I'll set up for a bench and squat combination in my Legend rack tomorrow and see how it works. For this purpose you may well have been better off keeping the R4.

Of course the obvious solution is to buy the Legend double rack.

[irongrandpa]

Of course the obvious solution is to buy the Legend double rack.

OSU Dimond still has a 1/2 rack -full rack combo for $400.

[C123C]

Thanks for the replies and sorry about the confusion. Primary purpose is so I can have two stations set up to super set. My mornings are early and I usually have a 45 minute window to get a lift in. Preference is to super set squat and a press, then move to DL/rows. Secondary is so my wife and I can lift together on weekends. Being that I've got almost 9 inches on her, bar placement and continual weight changes get pretty old.

[B]My intent is to have the smallest inside depth, that still allows for a bar to be set up on the front and used with spotter arms.[B]
I'm pretty confident that it is somewhere between 35-40" depending on style, mechanics etc, but really wondering if anyone had successfully done this on one of the legend series racks at 35" or (I forgot to mention) the 36" Titan rack.

I appreciate the patient replies, day 1 here of quitting Copenhagen so I'm feeling a touch erratic.

So what I'm hearing is 2 stations - 1 inside the rack and the other outside the rack. Honestly just about every full rack can support this from any major manufacturer unless you get one of those 1960s/70s old school rickety racks. I have a Rogue RML 690 and use a similar setup.

What I would be concerned about across the board is interference between the safeties on the inside and the spotter arms and/or j-cups on the outside. There are two styles of inside full safeties. One looks really clean and slides in from the front, the other swings in from the side and leaves a gap. The first style uses up A LOT of front rack real estate - don't use those (also more awkward and heavy the bigger the rack). The ones with the gap will give you far far more flexibility and rarely do you run into an issue. They also load more easily from the side/middle. I have a 43" set of safeties from Black Widow and I'm glad to have this style for both reasons.

I use the front of my rack too and really appreciate the safeties with a gap now as I rarely run into issues unless I need the specific hole a j-cup or front safety is in. https://www.blackwidowtg.com/Swing_i...-in-safety.htm.

Alternative is to use the strap safeties which take up a bit less room too..

See these - top one has the gap - you want this style to work around front section attachments as well as possible.

[gym62richard]

I'm pretty sure you'll find a work around, but you may have to move the bench a little, I'm not sure it would be possible in a rack with a working depth of 23". I'll set up for a bench and squat combination in my Legend rack tomorrow and see how it works. For this purpose you may well have been better off keeping the R4.

Of course the obvious solution is to buy the Legend double rack.

I tried my Legend 3103 bench with the Legend 3133 rack, it is possible to squat off the rear posts and bench inside the rack, or reversely squat inside and bench from the front, but in my set up trying to squat and bench simultaneously would be really awkward unless the bench is moved back/forward a little to make enough room to squat.

The other issue I noticed is that the safeties inside/outside the rack are going to be set at a similar height.

[thejosef]

I tried my Legend 3103 bench with the Legend 3133 rack, it is possible to squat off the rear posts and bench inside the rack, or reversely squat inside and bench from the front, but in my set up trying to squat and bench simultaneously would be really awkward unless the bench is moved back/forward a little to make enough room to squat.

Yep this is the "issue" I run into. I often bench press inside with safety straps and squat outside the rack w/ safety spotter arms. I have a Rogue RM-3 with 30" inside depth, for reference. The only slight issue is the bench can be bothersome when you squat.. meaning my knee can bump the bench only when I take the bar out the rack, if I take too narrow of a stance (not an issue during the squat though). It's not a big deal once you get used to it. Two lifters definitely can't go at the same time, but it is very possible to alternate. I am pretty limited on space, and this setup has worked quite well for me. I also have have two different people squatting.. one inside and one outside with no issues except, of course, we have to take turns.

Edit: only other issue I've come across is sometimes you can't set the safeties EXACTLY where you want them for both lifters on inside and outside due to mounting all the items: j-hooks, spotter arms, inside safeties, etc. It's not a big deal on squat, but I always make sure bench press is exactly where the lifter needs it. (Basically, the bench presser gets 1st priority in choosing spotter height).

[EHC1228]

OSU Dimond still has a 1/2 rack -full rack combo for $400.

Awesome deal, I've read through his gym build thread. Out of curiosity how would I go about finding the ad for that?

[EHC1228]

Yep this is the "issue" I run into. I often bench press inside with safety straps and squat outside the rack w/ safety spotter arms. I have a Rogue RM-3 with 30" inside depth, for reference.

Glad to hear the 30" works, I would have expected it to be pretty tight at that depth.

I have a Rogue RML 690 and use a similar setup.

What I would be concerned about across the board is interference between the safeties on the inside and the spotter arms and/or j-cups on the outside. There are two styles of inside full safeties. One looks really clean and slides in from the front, the other swings in from the side and leaves a gap. The first style uses up A LOT of front rack real estate - don't use those (also more awkward and heavy the bigger the rack). The ones with the gap will give you far far more flexibility and rarely do you run into an issue. They also load more easily from the side/middle. I have a 43" set of safeties from Black Widow and I'm glad to have this style for both reasons.

I use the front of my rack too and really appreciate the safeties with a gap now as I rarely run into issues unless I need the specific hole a j-cup or front safety is in.

Alternative is to use the strap safeties which take up a bit less room too.

My post count doesn't do my level of lurking justice lol. I remember the swing arm debate. Do you have any challenges using them with the west side hole spacing? I had safety straps on my R-4 so I don't have much of a frame of reference for the effect WS spacing has on that.

I tried my Legend 3103 bench with the Legend 3133 rack, it is possible to squat off the rear posts and bench inside the rack, or reversely squat inside and bench from the front, but in my set up trying to squat and bench simultaneously would be really awkward unless the bench is moved back/forward a little to make enough room to squat.

The other issue I noticed is that the safeties inside/outside the rack are going to be set at a similar height.

Thanks for taking a look at that. For the 2 years or so I've been lurking here and researching power racks, I've felt like 35" is a sweet spot for inside depth.

[C123C]

My post count doesn't do my level of lurking justice lol. I remember the swing arm debate. Do you have any challenges using them with the west side hole spacing? I had safety straps on my R-4 so I don't have much of a frame of reference for the effect WS spacing has on that.

Functionally 1" spacing just offers more options. In the case of the safety style with gap this can be very helpful as if there's a conflict/competition for hole spacing, someone may only need to sacrifice 1". Worst case you put the safety on first and then swing a J cup into the gap which is what I did this AM for the tightest of all possible spacing. Other safety style creates conflicts so if front/rack stations are important this is a real functional consideration.

As far as getting things in the right holes...the swing in with gap will be easier to line up IMO as you are standing in the middle of the rack section and equidistant to both sides, but if you label or number your holes it's a non-issue. And you should label or number. I have a nice electronic labeler ($20ish) and I put "C-S" for my name and squat with similar markings for bench (jcups and safeties) and incline/seated military which are basically the same. My rack is black so I go with white labels and back text. I'll take labeled holes over numbers in my personal gym all day but as long as there are markings to orient you it's a non issue and WS spacing only adds flexibility.

While I "like" the cleaner look without gap...there is no way I'd ever change if I had any intention of using front and rack stations. Functional sacrifice is too high and I never realized it until I started using the setup and had an "ah ha" moment. I had 5 people lifting at my gym on Saturday. Potentially my 43" inside would have allowed 2 interior stations along with the front for a third...can get messy though so usually we use front/rack but I don't like to move the monos unless necessary (adjustable but heavy) so shorter guys squat from the front or inside. Our heights were roughly 6'8", 6'3, 6'4", 5'8" and 5'6" so big range.

[thejosef]

I will also say that safety straps are pretty awesome in this "dual station" situation. They allow you to adjust one side up or down in order to accommodate j-cups on inside or spotter arms on outside. It's just nice as they can adjust independently, meaning they can be in holes 15 on front side and 17 on back side, for example.

[irongrandpa]

Awesome deal, I've read through his gym build thread. Out of curiosity how would I go about finding the ad for that?

I sent you a PM with his contact info. The last time I looked, the combo rack wasn't listed, but I saw a couple of them against a wall in one of the pictures. If you don't see what you want , give him a call or may be best to send an email asking about equipment you need.