Up against every wall: how to get creative with limited weight room space.

Size doesn't matter.

For those schools and programs that lack adequate weight room space, there is a way to provide a little more elbow room in a top-notch facility. It's just a matter of downsizing without downgrading.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Our headquarters in Elmira, N.Y., is surrounded by many small school districts that do not have the physical room or budget for a high-end weight room," says Darwin Takkinen, Chief Engineer for New York Barbell. "Compounding that problem is that the facility must serve the needs of the physical education classes as well as the athletic teams. These dual-purpose facilities must have the input of the administrators, coaches, and physical education instructors stating what the goal is of the proposed facility."

"We invite the school personnel to our show room so they can evaluate their goals to the specific type or equipment," Takkinen added. "We have found that the selectorized equipment does not meet the goals of a dual-purpose facility. The favored equipment is the plate-loaded biometric-unilateral equipment, a power rack, and dumbbells with benches. That completes the weight portion of the dual-purpose facility."

Takkinen says his company equipped a weight room that fit into a normal classroom for under $1,500, including the flooring. The bottom line is a win-win for the entire school.

The unilateral/bilateral equipment serves the physical education needs in its round robin configuration so the students can go from station to station using the same weight for set repetitions. The weight is increased or decreased depending on the age group.

As for the athletic teams, they can get the free weight workout by designing their program for the biometric machines, power racks, and dumbbells. Plyometric platforms can be used in the gym or outside. The athletic teams can add drag sleds, farmer's walks, logs, and wheel barrows for use outside, weather permitting.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

According to Takkinen, if a school decides to incorporate an aerobic aspect to the room, it usually settles on either (1) recumbent bike, (1) regular bike, (2) or more ellipticals, and (1) or more treadmills.

"The smaller schools are very receptive to suggestions that maximize the space and budget available," Takkinen said. "Many of these facilities are open to the public during non-school hours if their insurance allows it."

Companies such as Hammer Strength are adapting equipment lines to meet the needs of small-room schools.

For example: Power racks that are full cages with standards in front and back. Because of room constraints, today's innovation allows companies to cut the power racks in half--take the top and the front off- and turn them into a half rack, which they basically are. The half racks take up almost five or six less feet, while still allowing the team or individual to accomplish everything as they could with the full power rack.

"So you're eating up less room and still getting your work done in a smaller space," says Tom Proffitt, Director of Sales Athletics/Education for Hammer Strength. "We have been downsizing the machines without hurting the functionality of the machine or the size of the person who can fit into it.

"We know how to how to design a room and make it space efficient. When a room is tight, you won't see any of the cardio equipment. That is eliminated."

To show a school what a weight room is capable of, Hammer Strength uses a CAD (Computer-Aided Design) drawing, which is the digital equivalent of a drawing, figure or schematic created using a CAD system. This provides the customer the chance to see a layout of the room, and its maximum possibilities, before they ever buy a piece of equipment.

"It helps them sell the product to the boosters or school board--pulls everything together, if you will," Proffitt said. "It's like a kid getting one of those Christmas catalogs around Thanksgiving time and seeing all of the different toys and colors. It just makes you drool at the possibilities."

Likewise, the Rae Crowther Patriot Platform Racks are a great alternative for coaches with limited space in their weight rooms. The platform racks have either a half rack or power rack bolted on top of an Olympic lifting platform.

"This saves about three feet compared to a traditional rack and platform combination," says Hans Krause, Owner, Rae Crowther Co. "It also provides more safety as the lifter is closer to the rack and can use the rack in combination with more lifts."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Another idea is the Rae Crowther SST line of half racks, which were developed by Steve Kenyon from Sport Specific Training in California. The racks bolt straight into the ground, flush with the floor, thus there is no metal tubing running out from the base of the rack. This saves another three feet and makes many rooms handicap accessible. A wood lifting platform can also be placed flush into the rubber floor.

NK Sports Group, LLC, manufacturers of Nebula Fitness Equipment, worked exclusively with Roseville (CA) High School in designing a room that was efficient and functional. The centerpiece of the room is the 6027-B Super Half Rack with lock-in Phase bench, one of the companies most popular selling pieces of equipment, which combines three work stations into one small and efficiently designed unit.

"The system only takes up 60 square feet of floor space and in a small weight room every inch counts," says Tom Eilerman, Sales & Engineering NK Sports Group, LLC. "We recommend putting these units 24 inches apart to give good flow between the rack and platform when in use. The rack has a very unique design in that the concept of this unit was to bury the rack under the lifting surface. How we accomplished this was to make a sub floor out of 2 x 2 tumbling that actually sets beneath the 2 inch wood surface."

As Eilerman explained, the half rack 3 x 3 upright is welded to a 3 x 2 tube that bolts into the steel floor frame with 1/2 grade five bolts, making the floor support deck and the rack one unit. A 2 x 2 tube frame is then bolted to the center floor support frame to retain the outer wings and attach the platform skirting. The outer wings or impact area is 2 1/2" of composite wood covered with 1 3/4 2'x2' rubber tiles. This provided a total of 4 1/4" of floor protection and impact absorption. Behind the rack, the company places the plate storage, which bolts to the same sub frame and the 3 x 3 rack uprights, adding to the stability of the rack.

"To finish it off, we add a telescoping lock in three position Phase bench, spotter platform, and chin bar. It only takes seconds to convert the system from benching to Olympic lifting to squatting. Every thing your program needs in an 8'x 7 1/2' area."

Similarly, Samson Equipment, Inc. performed a yeoman's job in aiding West Mesa High's room in Albuquerque, N.M., which is very long but extremely narrow.

"In order to equip this room with the equipment needed to effectively train different sports, we had to come up with a power station that you could literally perform every exercise," said Scott Schroeder, Sales Manager, Samson Equipment. "The system we came up with is a smaller version of a power cage with a weight stack attached to the framework itself. This system allows each athlete the ability to perform squats, bench, incline, shoulder press, lat pull, seated row, cleans, deadlifts, jerks, chins, dips, bicep/tricep work, etc. These racks were combined with multi sets of DB's, so virtually every lift imaginable could still be performed at each station."

According to Mike Richardson, Sales and Marketing Director at Power Lift, in order to optimize the available space at Eagle Mountain Saginaw H.S. in Fort Worth, TX, the company installed its custom depth Combo Power Racks with 4' x 8' Olympic platforms and benches off of both sides. The overall length or depth of this unit was 12'6" and it still allowed for six to eight users per rack station.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Richardson said that Power Lift's custom-depth Combo Power Rack provides the same features as the standard-depth Combo Power Rack, including bumper plate storage, weight storage, two dual-grip chin up handle, hanging bar storage, and weight storage. By combining a bench and Olympic lifting platform to the unit, the users are able to perform their Olympic movements and pressing movements such as the incline press, bench press, and shoulder press.

All of the Power Lift racks include weight storage on the racks and certain units include bumper plate storage. These storage units help conserve floor space within a facility. The company also offers safety spot bar storage on its half racks and combo power racks. These storage units mount to the weight storage and keep the safety spot bars off of the floor and reduce clutter in the facility.

In addition, all Power Lift racks can also accept the Olympic lifting platforms and "lever action" benches to create a modular training station. The modular training station allows multiple users to work at one facility and perform all of their core exercises bench press, incline press, military press, squat, hang clean, deadlift, and other barbell movements.

"Our pulley systems can also be configured as multiple units of two, three, or four," Richardson said. "These modular pulley stations take up less space than two, three, or four stand alone pulley stations. They can also be configured in the best way as to optimize floor space. The pulley stations can also be mounted to the wall or to columns in a facility. Many times the area around a column is hard to work with for various reasons. The wall mounted pulleys allow us to utilize this space."

Rogers Athletic's offering to the strength coach with limited space is the Brute Rack System with Monster Arms. Kyle Camp, General Manager, Rogers Athletic, reveals that the highest value of the Monster Arms, when used with the Brute Rack, is the ability to complete more training exercises in/on the floor space normally reserved for only the Olympic lifts.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Utilizing the Monster Arms to do shoulder pressing, explosive multi-joint movements, twisting movements, bench pressing, lunges, shrugs, etc., eliminates the need for many different machines in the weight room," says Camp. "In the design of our machines, we look for ways to complete more exercises on each machine. All of our leg presses have designed in capabilities for single and double leg exercises as well as calf raises."

For those schools seeking innovative products that bring both skill development, strength training, and cardio training to its program, while maximizing floor space, Rogers' Tred Sled could be the solution.

"The Tred Sled allows for measurement of football related movements including force and reaction time," Camp explained. "The Tred Sled also allows for resistance running on the non-powered treadmill servicing all athletic programs in a school."