Titan, the old school Titan, and any “cheap” brand you go with are all serviceable and perfectly fine until you get the nicer, more refined version. If you go from no home gym to some home gym any addition is amazing. Like “holy moly, I can actually bench now!” It’s better than a cheap Amazon bolt-together that has a max weight capacity of 300lbs, including yourself. So, sure, my rep ab-3100 is much better, but I could have used this forever and been fine. I am getting rid of it though.

The trick is to find someone leaving tires out on their curb for free. They left 4; I took two of them. Next have some leftover rectangles of horse stall mats. This might not work for something crazy heavy, but it kills the weight when it drops. The thing that drops some of the performance and build quality are the sharp edges of a dumbbell or a rock coming down at an angle on the horse stall mat. If you ride the weight down just a little bit, that will help. This is a great value when you factor in the tires were free and the horsestall mat was more or less superfluous (I bought one too many).

Stone history probably started the exact same way it develops today; some dude saw a big stone and said, “I bet I could lift that”, and so he did. My rock came from the property of my coach at the time. It weighs roughly 165lbs, made of some kind of granite. It is sharp at points, but it has good grips. It is not quite evenly weighted, but I think that makes it a good training stone. I call it the Rugged Nugget (ruggie nuggy for short).

As with most Titan things, buy second hand or on the many Titan sales they have always. They are loud and jarring, but that’s fine in a gym. The other side that can’t be understated is getting the shock/impact in your hands of the bar coming back down on the floor. If you have bumpers/boxes or anything then it’s better. It’s not a bad tool to have that can be hid in the corner (or under your bed). But I ain’t used them in a minute.

My first specialty bar. I tend to be mostly be a middle of the road person when it comes to equipment. Where I’m ok being a little more bougie, is the important things (barbells, racks, big machines). Even then, I’m fine with one step above the basic brand (like a higher trim level of Toyota, but not quite a Lexus). I had credit card rewards burning a hole in my pocket and thought, “treat yo self”. So I did. I got #95/100 of this limited edition. Looks sweet, makes me happy every time I use it

Pretty expensive for what it is. Most of the other items that look just like this made from lesser steel do the job just as good, but damn does that laser cut logo just pop. Maybe this does a better job at holding some of the heavier things like chains than a random Amazon item. If you want something that says Rogue in your gym to give it a little street cred, you could do worse than this piece.

These live on my rack and get used regularly when I look up and remember that they’re there. Maybe someday my grip will be strong enough to hold them in a full pinch. Until then I split my fingers on either side of the eyelet, sort of like doing a Vulcan salute. As I get older and more feeble, keeping grip strength and the ability to pull myself up will ensure that I continue to live long and prosper 🖖

This is a co-opted piece from another market. And that is the best part about it. It does one thing for relatively cheap, but it does it well. The foam is soft to offer some relief, but not as dense as the ground. If you need to kneel for kneeling crunches and ab-wheels rollouts it works. You can also use it to catch yourself for nordic curls, or under your shoulders for glute-ham sliders. If it was just a little bit wider, you could use it for box squats, but that’s not what it’s built for.