What’s in your garage gym? Peter Keller spills all

One of the reasons why we do what we do at FringeSport is to help you build "a world class strength and conditioning facility in your garage". That's a quote from Coach. And we think it's one of the most profound things he's said.

We're starting a weekly blog post called "What's in your garage gym?". Here's the first post- and it's about my garage gym.

Want to be featured and get (a little) internet famous? Hit us up and we'll interview you.

Now on to the feature (or read it online here)...

What’s your name?
Peter Keller

How old are you?
36

Do you have an IG handle or website you’d like linked?
lol, don't creep on me. Just kidding, I'm a closet narcissist like everyone else these days. petekeller

Tell us a little bit about yourself:
Well, I founded Fringe 6 years ago. On top of that, I love traveling, adventuring, reading, and my family. I’m trying to live my life like an awesome adventure and be the hero of my own action movie.

How would you describe your training style?
I generally follow Atomic Athlete’s programming- or at least their ideas about programming. At this point in my life, family and business take precedence over being a CrossFit Games athlete, but I still want to be a well-rounded athlete- who is stronger than most people, and also able to crap out a trail half marathon with basically no preparation.

I like the suck and I try to spend time training things that I dislike or am bad at- for the most part (but please don't ask me about my muscle ups!)

I also work a lot, travel a lot, and use food as stress relief. All these things interfere with my fitness.

How would you describe your fitness/strength level, currently?
I’m strong for a runner and fast for a lifter ;). If I’m hanging out with normals, they think I am super fit. If I’m hanging around with advanced lifters, I’m at the front of the back of the pack… unless we run or ruck distance, which is my jam.

What are your fitness/strength goals?
I want to be strong and go long. I want to be able to kick my brothers’ butts at things- and I’m the oldest so I need to work the hardest.

I want to extend my youthful life as long as I can so I can enjoy rigorous activities with my kids as they grow. I often play Monster vs. Princesses with my 3 and 6 year old little girls + their friends. When my neighbors see me do this, they marvel at me running, jumping, chasing. This sort of thing makes me really happy.

I want to keep my bodyweight at 190# or below- this is a challenge for me.

Describe your garage gym.
My garage gym is pretty awesome. We recently bought a new house with a 3 car garage- and we looked for a house with a 3 car garage so my wife Valeri and I could build an amazing garage gym.

I’m experimenting with names, but I have been calling the garage gym the Savage Unicorn Agoge lately.

As you can imagine, I can have anything I want in there- and it is a constant work in progress as I add prototype or test items, then remove them.

We start with a wall mount OneFitWonder rig in there- that’s definitely the centerpiece. It’s pretty freaking awesome to have a rig in my garage- I highly recommend it if you can spare the space.

Next we move onto the barbells. I have a 20kg Vaughn Barbell, plus a 20kg prototype barbell, and a 15kg women’s bar- also a prototype.

For bumpers and weight plates, I have:

• 1 pr 45# Vaughn Comp bumpers
• 1 pr 45# OneFitWonder bumpers (color)
• 1 pr 25# Vaughn Comp bumpers
• 1 pr 15# OneFitWonder bumpers (black)
• 2 pr 10# OneFitWonder bumpers (color)
• Misc machined iron plates

For many people, I would recommend more weight, but I rarely squat north of 315 at home, and my wife and I work out on a single station when we lift together- so there is a fair bit of stripping and reloading of the bar if we share.

Ergs. I have two rowers- one a C2 and one a Stamina rower that I am testing out to see if Fringe should carry it. I’ve also got an old airdyne that I picked up at a garage sale for $20. I love that thing. We just picked up the Schwinn Airdyne Pro and the Assault Airbike and I’ve been benchmarking them against this 15 year old airdyne in my garage.

Now fun stuff:

• An adjustable height plyo
• 20# wall ball
• 14# wall ball
• Hooverball (yay!)
• 80# slam ball (hehehe)
• Misc smaller slammers and sandbells
• Misc kettlebells, incl a custom-painted 24kg (Icarus, by Connie Arismendi)
• Misc dumbbells and chain
• Misc sandbags (hehehehe)
• A couple of mats
• Some speed ropes here or there

Plus: bikes, rollerblades, shoes, tennis rackets, balls, etc.

Who works out in your garage gym?
My wife and I work out there- plus our two little girls play at working out. Also, sometimes neighbors come over and lift a little, but we don’t have any regulars (yet).

Why did you build a garage gym?
This is why we do what we do at Fringe. We love to help people bring the tools of elite fitness into their own homes. So for me to bring a “world class strength and conditioning facility” into my own garage is one of my dreams come true.

What’s your favorite piece of equipment in your garage?
Right now, I love that $20 airdyne. But OneFitWonder sandbags are pretty awesome too!

What piece of equipment was a waste?
Nothing was a waste really- but I did have a GHD in there for a while and I don't think it "earned" it's floor space. It took up a lot of room and I only used it occasionally. So it went back to Fringe. I still use a GHD in my training, but I use the one I the FringeSport gym.

What’s the next piece of equipment you’re going to get?
I've been playing around with new barbell prototypes at the Fringe office. I think I'll bring one of them home soon.

Any dream piece of equipment?
I brought a Weck Method club home and my wife made me bring it back to the office. I was doing sledge strikes with it in our driveway and Valeri thought I was disturbing the neighbors. That is one sweet club, though...

How did you build your garage gym? (All at once, craigslist over a few years, etc.)
Really, I started building my garage gym in 2005. So this is 11 years of evolution. I started back then building it piece by piece, mostly off of craigslist.

Over the years, I’ve probably sunk $5,000- $10,000 (retail pricing, not accounting for my FringeSport hookup) into the garage gym, which sounds like a lot, but even worst case it’s $10k over 10 years, or $1k/yr- less than $100/mo! And a lot of that money has “revolved”. I often sell old equipment on craigslist.

Do you have any tips for anyone else looking to build a garage gym?
If you don't have the funds, focus on high impact pieces at first. Oh, and have a budget for your income/expenses. That's just a life pro tip. Have fun!