4 Squat Racks You Can Build at Home

During the quarantine, we’ve really missed lifting the heavy weights than we were lifting at the gym. While there are ways to stay active at home, many home workouts use bodyweight exercises or light weights, because lifters don’t have the proper equipment to lift heavy weights, and buying the equipment is really expensive. With a homemade squat rack you can do weighted barbell front and back squats, barbell lunges, Bulgarian split squats, shoulder presses, and so many other exercises. Here are four squat racks you can make for your home gym that won’t set you back hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Step Ladder Squat Rack

Take two step ladders that are about five feet high and put a barbell on top. Make sure you look at the ladders’ weight capacity, to make sure that they can hold the weight of the barbell. In general, most ladders hold around 300 pounds, so you should be fine. To make sure the barbell doesn’t roll off the ladder, secure it with rubber corner-guards to the corners of the top platform.

Milk Crate Squat Rack

The advantage of milk crate squat racks is that they can easily be assembled and taken apart. Just stack some milk crates and sit the barbell between them. For extra sturdiness, zip-tie the crates in each stack together.

Tire Squat Rack

If you have a ton of tires laying around, stack at least six of them to make this tire squat rack. If you don’t have tires, go to a junkyard or a tire shop to get old ones for free.

Wood Plans

For those who are good at building things, try building your own squat rack with wood, nails, and screws. Look online for a building plan and create your very own wooden squat rack.