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If you are looking to build a Strongman home gym and are starting at square one it is best to look at your first piece of equipment as the base to build off of and that is why for the Strongman garage gym owner a Yoke is the very first thing you should buy and it is not to do yoke walks. Here is why.
I decided to go with the T-3 Short Yoke, J Cups and spotter arms for my home gym. Use code STARTINGSTRONGMAN to save 5% off Titan.Fitness and click HERE to activate the code.
Space Saving
It doesn’t matter how big of a space you have, Strongman implements take up a lot of room. I mean we have to deadlift cars and flip giant tires. So a yoke is perfect because many of them can double as squat racks to bench press, squat and overhead press from. Just add J cups and Spotter arms and added bonus is that the spotter arms are perfect to press a log from.
What I also like is that the yoke is easily moveable and you can take the squat rack outside!
Depending on how tall you are you can get away with a short yoke if you are under 5’10 if you are over 6’ tall you will probably be more comfortable with a tall yoke. The downside to a tall yoke is you can’t just walk it out of your garage to you know… actually do yoke walks. Instead you will likely have to tip it forward and drag it out depending on your ceiling height.
Versatility
As I mentioned it can be used as a squat rack but here are a list of some of the other things you can do with a yoke.
- Yoke Press
- Sled pushes
- Zercher Yoke Carries
- Yoke Squats
- Yoke Bench
- Zercher yoke deadlifts
- Loading over bar
- And yes of course yoke walks
That is a huge list! When combined with using it as your squat rack it may be the piece of equipment you use more than any other so it makes sense to be the first purchase. I mean you could train with nothing but a yoke and some plates if you had to.
Downsides
Of course there are some downsides like I mentioned earlier if you are 6’ or taller some yokes will not be as usable due to the thick crossbar getting in the way and tall yokes are harder to get in and out of the garage. They are also not as stable as a dedicated squat rack that is bolted to the floor or as safe as an enclosed rack with safety pins but certainly usable and safe with spotter arms properly placed. If your main sport is powerlifting and barbell lifts are your priority I would say you are better off buying a dedicated squat rack to use instead of a yoke but there’s almost no downside of using a yoke as a rack to start because you can of course buy a squat rack later and your yoke still works for… Yoke walks!
There also is not a good option to do pull ups unless you want to use the giant thick crossbar and unless you have the biggest hands in the world it won’t work well. Though Titan does sell a removable pull bar attachment that easily fixes that for just 45.99
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