Deadlifting from blocks

COH

I hate rack pulls, and so do bars in general.. so I'm going to make up some blocks.

From what I've read they are usually 24"x12" surface area and vary in height from 3" to 18" but before I head out to woodies DIY does anyone think the specs should be different?

Also, what type of wood is preferable?



Muchos gracias brochachos

squod

Gonna have to be some kind of plywood, plywood covered at least. The top layer could be rubber matting if you haz it.

Scuba Ste

COH wrote: »

I hate rack pulls, and so do bars in general.. so I'm going to make up some blocks.

From what I've read they are usually 24"x12" surface area and vary in height from 3" to 18" but before I head out to woodies DIY does anyone think the specs should be different?

Also, what type of wood is preferable?



Muchos gracias brochachos

Don't go to woodies. Local builders provider will be cheaper and probably have a wider range of timber sizes. Size can be whatever you want. How wide does it need to be, how many plates do you need it to hold? I know weightlifting blocks would usually be bigger because your dropping the weight and the margin for error is smaller. They'd probably be 24"x24" at least.

The best and simplest design I've seen is just glue and screw the timber together so you end up with one chunk of wood. Eg. if you got 6x2 timber and cut them to 24" long and glued and screwed 6 together, you'd have one block 6x12x24. Screw and glue some ply on top and bottom and it would be about 8' high x12x24. Use whatever 2 inch timber suits your height needs Comprende?

the drifter

Steel plates? rubber mat the top of them or they wont last long with ye bunch of animals on then.

Mellor

squod wrote: »

Gonna have to be some kind of plywood, plywood covered at least. The top layer could be rubber matting if you haz it.

Solid hardwood would prob be harder wearing than plywood. But expensive.
If you were to go with ply, gluing/laminated the sheets would be the best. No vertical joints is good.

Scuba Ste wrote: »

The best and simplest design I've seen is just glue and screw the timber together so you end up with one chunk of wood. Eg. if you got 6x2 timber and cut them to 24" long and glued and screwed 6 together, you'd have one block 6x12x24. Screw and glue some ply on top and bottom and it would be about 8' high x12x24. Use whatever 2 inch timber suits your height needs Comprende?

The vertical joints could be an issue if the glue isn't very strong.

Good glues penetrate the wood and cure harder so it'd be pretty solid with the right glue.

COH

Cheers fellas

Scuba Ste

You can bolt them together if you're worried about the timber coming apart. I wouldn't be that worried, at least for a while.

You can see how the Russians do them here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kbxZHlwKOU&feature=plcp

In Morton they have blocks made from kitchen counter tops. Just three pieces glued together.

Hanley

Gonna throw it out there... Adjustable heights via the judicious use of Velcro. Or just make em stackable!

COH

Hanley wrote: »

Gonna throw it out there... Adjustable heights via the judicious use of Velcro. Or just make em stackable!

Rubber coated hardwood stackable blocks are in the pipeline.. just waiting to hear about the materials. A builder that trains in raw drew up some specs and offered to make them up for me for free

I also may have found a texas deadlift bar for 340euro ... its all coming together nicely