Garage Gym of the Week: Zach Schreiber

What’s your name? Zach Schreiber

How old are you?  23

Do you have an Instagram handle or website you’d like linked? No social media, I'm too busy for that!

Tell us a little bit about yourself: I live in Hagerstown, Maryland. I'm a recent college graduate from Liberty University. I played football for 5 years there and loved every minute of it. I am now currently living at home with mom, Gayle, and pops, Ed, and working as a CNA at a local nursing home in Maryland. I plan on going to physician's assistant school within the next two years to continue to my passion of medicine and helping people. I guess I spend a little time working out here and there in my free time... Just kidding I spend a lot of my free time in the gym and using my fitness!

How would you describe your training style? I'm currently following CrossFit Weightlifting pretty religiously and throwing in one or two workouts at the end of a session, just depends how heavy I want to breathe for that day! But I would most definitely classify myself as a crossfitter. But I'm a train 6 days a week kind of guy. I usually spend 2-3 hours in the gym a day!

How would you describe your fitness/strength level, currently? Both are most definitely towards the peak of my training career, although I will say my strength has been lacking more, hence the weightlifting kick. But I'm nowhere near perfect, something can always be improved, so I'm always chasing the next challenge! But I just feel extremely fit and healthy!

What are your fitness/strength goals?

1. stay healthy
2. snatch 225 by December (I'm at 205 as of now)
3. Jerk 300 by December (285 right now)
4. clean 340 by December (325)
5. compete in and win an individual competition
6. give myself a chance to be a regionals level athlete within the next few years
7. HAVE FUN!

Describe your garage gym. Well it's not a "garage gym" it's actually in the basement! Unofficial name is "CrossFit Foxleigh". It's about 80 sq feet! And has that real underground feel to it... No pun intended. It definitely gives the true meaning to box. My dad and I built the rig by ourselves and the weight rack for storage against the wall, which saves a bunch of space. We also have a lifting platform with enough room overhead for jerks and snatches. It's big enough for 2-3 guys to throwdown, but that's about it! We have our Bomba bar from back in the day "OG", OneFitWonder bumpers, fringe rings, and some Dumbbells in the main room. But we also have a separate room that has a Airdyne, throwback rower, and a GHD.

Who works out in your garage gym? Mainly just me, but my buddy Shipely will come over and workout with me when we're both home. He's the only one that keeps up consistently with me! But a lot of my friends have been down for a few sessions! But few ever come back for more! I always have them sign the wall when they are done working out!

Why did you build a garage gym? I love working out! But it's nice to have around the house to get a workout in really quick and not have to worry about all the stress and commotion of getting to the gym in a time constraint, shoutout CrossFit 301 Elite. That's the box that I go to when I'm not training at home. It allows me to really just focus my attention and efforts to the workout and not have any distractions. Plus, I knew after football was over for me that I wanted to get into crossfit so slowly over the past 3-4 years I've been putting together my dream gym!

What’s your favorite piece of equipment in your garage? Oh my gosh! I don't think I could pick. I love everything, but my Fringe gear: Bomba bar, OneFitWonder, and rings have been with me since day one! Those pieces of equipment or the GHD.

What piece of equipment was a waste? Probably the rower, it's not a concept II, so it's nowhere near as nice. But I shouldn't be picky! I don't think it's a waste, but I don't get as much use out of it as anything else!

What’s the next piece of equipment you’re going to get? Oh man... Too much pressure. I'd have to go with either a 150# D-Ball, heavy KBs, or more bumpers.

Any dream piece of equipment? I wish I had more room or higher ceilings! But if anything it would be an outdoor rig!

How did you build your garage gym? My dad and I built the wall mount rig... Might be better to buy one if you don't have experience working with metal! Used plywood, horse stall mats, and rogue floor mats for the platform. We got some specs offline for a plyo box and built that! And we built the wall mount for weight rack! As you can see a lot of building and not much buying. Saves you lots of $$$! But did my research and Fringe honestly had the best prices for best quality of stuff! So I got the bar, plates, Abmat, and rings from fringe! Then slowly accumulated the rower, Airdyne, and GHD!

Do you have any tips for anyone else looking to build a garage gym? If you have the money to spend, go ahead and buy it. I mean I was in college and worked a job to build/buy everything I have in my gym. But don't be in a rush! If you build a few pieces of equipment, you'll take more care of them! Just make sure you know what you're doing! But don't get caught up in what equipment you don't have! Make the most of what you do have. Remember, CrossFit was meant to be basic functional movements! So stick to the basics first and then progress! Also, measure twice, cut once!