Ruling Over Your Kingdom; Garage Gym Laws
You're not master of your domain unless you have a set of garage gym laws that maintain law and order.
Of course, everyone knows the usual list of courteous and neighborly rules to follow at the gym.
But what unspoken, unwritten code of conduct exists for the land of garage gyms?
Do laws, rules and codes even matter when training in your garage gym?
Does the United States exist without a Constitution?
Time to put your John Hancock on your garage gym laws.
Garage Gym Laws You Should Know About
So I totally swiped these from our friend Jerrod Moon over at EndofThreeFitness. Here's his original piece.
He created 3 laws and 8 rules to govern your garage gym.
Here are the 3 laws:
- A Garage Gymer may not allow a human being to become injured or, through a sedentary lifestyle, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A Garage Gymer must do everything in his/her power to become a complete badass, except where such efforts would conflict with the First Law.
- A Garage Gymer must protect the existence of the garage gym at all costs as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Courtesy of Mark Aldaco
The 8 rules are:
- Clean it.
- Equipment checks.
- Avoid precarious situations.
- Invite friends, but don't charge them.
- Hold yourself accountable.
- No 1 rep maxes alone!
- Learn to be a minimalist.
- Become an expert.
You can read the details of each rule in the original piece linked above. By the way, Jerrod also runs GarageGymAthlete.com. He does quality work in addition to selling his book The Garage Gym Athlete.
Also, keep in mind what our friend Adam says, over at Garage Gym Lab:
#3. Your Gym, Your Rules
- “Don’t Drop the weights.”
- “No chalk allowed.”
- “No curling in the squat rack.”
- “No grunting.”
- “Clothing required.”
Sound familiar?
Commercial gyms have a lot of rules, both stated and unstated. Some are legit while others are ridiculous. If you belong to a globo gym, these rules can limit your training style, kill your personal expression, directly impact your performance, and otherwise make you feel controlled while training.
With a home gym, you are in complete control of everything.
Courtesy of Fred Abalon
Please Be Mindful of Your Neighbors
This is the only addition I can think of at the moment; being courteous and respectful of your neighbors.
Garage gyms can be noisy places between dropping hundreds of pounds of weight on barbells along with hopefully jamming some of that high-quality, American born and raised, rock 'n' roll music.
If you're in an apartment, maybe even a townhouse, this can be especially problematic.
A home owner's association can be equally troublesome if you have an irritable neighbor who goes to the principal's office and tattles on you.
So it might be a good idea to keep hours for your garage gym.
You know that Saturday or Sunday you actually get a chance to sleep in, only to be rudely awakened by a construction crew outside pounding on pavement with a jackhammer?
Yeah, don't be those guys.
Courtesy of Jay & Michell Benoit
What are Your Garage Gym Laws?
As far as Jerrod's 3 laws are concerned, they're obviously subjective, maybe even borderline moralistic. I don't want to touch on those or get on my soapbox.
Instead, I'd much rather hear what you think, whether it's about the laws and/or the rules.
Do you agree or disagree with the aforementioned laws and rules?
What laws and/or rules govern your garage gym?
Is there already an unwritten, unspoken universal code of conduct for garage gyms?
Should a more formal set of laws and rules overseeing garage gyms be drafted by a bunch of sweaty dudes wearing powdered wigs?
This has the potential to be a fun project Fringe Nation. Let's make one of our own based on your feedback and input.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback, input and ideas.
We also LOVE seeing pix of your garage gym. Share those with us by all means if you have them. We showed you ours, now show us yours!
Have a great day, stay awesome and lift yourself beyond the ordinary Fringe Nation!
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