 And one of the things we wanted to talk about as the one thing I've noticed I should do some shopping this week in Mexico For some accessory equipment is I wanted to talk a little bit about our favorite accessory equipment to buy the things that you should have After the main stump You're listening to barbell logic brought to you by barbell logic online coaching where each week we take a systematic walk Through strength training and the refining power of voluntary hardship You're listening to the barbell logic podcast I'm here with my good friend VP of HR Nikki Sims, and I am back in the States. I've been gone for 11 days Yeah, I am surprised they let anybody in and out of the country, but I'm glad they let you back in Yeah, and you know, it's crazy things have changed a lot since I went to Florida for my I was supposed to be in Mexico for my 20th anniversary in May and I don't know if you heard but we've got this pandemic going around and so they You couldn't get out of the country So I had to go to Florida and I also I don't know if you heard but my wife and I got the covid So I will not to worry about getting it again yet Next year maybe and so we ended up having to go to Florida for anniversary Things have changed a lot since May I'd say 25 to 30% of the people in May had masks at the airport Now masks were mandatory at every airport and on every airplane. There's no drink service. There's no food service It's pretty strange and Mexico is like we went shopping a little bit there Every single store you went into you had to get your temperature taken I bet I got my temperature taken 25 times a day every not no exaggeration and They have this little thing you have to step into like I don't know what it is some sort of like Chemical decant D contaminant for your shoes or something and you put germics on every single every single So like if you go shopping, you'll put germics on your hands 45 times. Yeah, not great for the skin Really taking it seriously. Yeah, they're taking it. They're probably doing better than we are Did they ratchet it back up in Springfield last time? I was there when I was there visiting Matt It was tomorrow. So by the by the time this comes out tomorrow They're voting on mandatory masks. So right now. We don't have mass mandatory though I just went to Sam's a few minutes ago to get some meat because I've been gone for two weeks And I'd say 75% of the store had masks on yeah, which is more than it was a few weeks ago So it's kind of ramp back up. I think losing Kansas City. You're back to You have to have masks everywhere. So We're gonna talk by the way, let's do let's do a little update here. So we people know what's going on So first off we talked a little bit. You're the new co-host of our logic podcast We know that your sound sucks currently. Yeah, we have purchased very nice equipment same equipment I have for you. We did the same thing for Andrew Jackson We have a handful of these on order But the same way that the pandemic caused Jim equipment to essentially be sold out everywhere Podcast equipment is the same. It's like everybody was stuck in their house and they all decided to start a podcast I can't so you've got this super fancy microphone, but you have no interface to plug it into. Yeah, it's so Hang on everyone within the next week or two. Yes I think you'll have this sweet audio hookup and the sound will be great again And thank you for all your feedback telling me that I need a new microphone Right We appreciate that So and we you know, we're we're kind of getting back to our roots a little bit talking about more specific strength training stuff And one of the things we wanted to talk about as the one thing I've noticed I should do some shopping this week in Mexico for some accessory equipment is I wanted to talk a little bit about our favorite accessory equipment to buy the things that you should have After the main stuff so everybody should have a rack and a good barbell. Yeah, and weights or access to those things at a gym shoes belt from Dominion Microplates for microgains those things are everybody you should have that when you start Yeah, that's your basic starter package now. We're in like the realm of oh, I have this extra money Yeah What kind of stuff Should you and we haven't talked we just said we're gonna do this podcast so I didn't want to go over My list versus your list yet. So I want to see how close our lists are. Oh, okay What is what is one of the first things or first couple things that you would get after you've got the main stuff? Let's say you you've been doing linear progression for you know a couple months And you're starting to move into that spot where you're starting to sniff Intermediate training as you start to prepare for that. What are the things that you should get first? I think one of the first things should be a curl bar Okay Yeah, and what do you what do you use it for? LTE's and curls. So I think one of the very early accessories that we start putting in our curls and LTE's so I think That's just one of a really easy starting point. Okay, so so curls So we're talking about an easy bar curl primarily. So this is this is the short kind of a short barbell That's got the the slight angles on it not a super easy curl bar where you're where your hand position is parallel or Neutral but where it's just slightly angled and so that's a perfect bar for both sort of standing Easy curl barbell curls as well as lying tricep extensions. Yeah, great What would you say is the very first like so I would probably go with wrist wraps and wrist wraps first. Okay. Yes, totally But again, those are kind of really minor things. I also don't cost very much So we have good videos on both you can go to barbell to YouTube and check out the barbell logic channel wrist wraps I like a pretty stiff wrap at least 18 inches long preferably 24 inches And I like to use those wraps with bench press and press to help keep the wrist really straight And for non-competitive lifters and primarily my middle-aged lifters a lot of times I'll have them start deadlifting with straps now. I would prefer my number one preference It's a deadlift with a hook grip And I don't mind if somebody deadlifts with an alternate grip Overhand underhand, especially if they can switch back and forth, which is which is great But if somebody's never going to compete in powerlifting or strength lifting I think it's perfectly acceptable to have straps and deadlift straps I like that symmetrical lifting. So I yeah, I sort of backed up sort of a 1a You know and then after that along the same lines of what you said with the bar with the curl bar Obviously, you should already have access to a chin-up bar if you don't like, you know Most good squat racks have a chin-up bar attached. I like a a dip bar connection Usually that's for rogue. It's called the matador. I like dips. So, you know, we start thinking about the first few accessory exercises we do and we usually start with upper body and we usually start with things like dips Lte's curls After chins, chins are the first thing we do And so to make sure you can now you can do dips with two barbells Yeah placed inside a rack That's catches me out. I've never been one. I've never tried that. I'm not a huge fan Not a huge fan. I'm always worried that the barbells are going to slide And then I'm going to tear both my pecs off at the same time So yeah, so good job everybody has been braving enough to try that Yeah, I'm a I'm a yes I like the uh, I like the matador connection for and all of the all of the Big equipment companies have some sort of dip attachment that goes on their standard squat racks. So I I really like those What is your next one a question actually question about your wrist wraps So like if you go on to sbd, which I know I think those are like actually made for your right hand in your left hand Which is cool and they have like stiff and flexible Right. They have those two options. So you say the stiff one Yeah, so it's actually interesting. It depends on the it depends on the company I think with the sbd the flexibles are are fine The stiff are really stiff for rogue Which so think about you got to think about your primary demographic So for a coming by the way, hashtag not sponsored, right? Nobody sponsors us for for this for this sort of stuff So sbd is a company made specifically for competitive strength lifters strength athletes And so their their wraps and straps and knee sleeves and knee wraps. They are they are intense, right? So the stiff is going to be like putting a seat belt on And those will work fine, but if you've never worn anything like that, it's pretty tough So the flexible from sbd actually is pretty good for rogue when you think about a company like rogue fitness Their primary demographic is crossfitters. And so their flexible wraps in my opinion are too flexible So for rogue, I would go with the most stiff wrap that they offer And with sbd, I would probably go with the flexible if you're if you're benching say over 300 pounds And you're pressing over 200 pounds. I'd probably go with the stiff from sbd But if you're less than that the flexible is probably enough what you don't want to do is get those sort of cloth wraps You want something? Yeah, you want a pretty intense elastic wrap And if the wraps are good, they will be right-handed left-handed So the loops will be on the opposite sides and you'll see you're kind of lay that up Across the back of your hand and wrap away from your body. Again, we've got a pretty good video on that So I like those for the straps by the way, I like a strap that's not So one of the most famous straps are those iron mine blue straps Those cut into my hands now they work fine But holy cow, they'll leave they'll they'll yeah, they'll cut you. Yeah And so I like a strap dainty as I am That's that's fairly well, that's fairly well padded. I like kind of a yeah, kind of a padded strap Elite fts makes some that are kind of like black and orange striped And they have a they have kind of a rubberized outside So there's like a rubber stitching on it and it gives it some additional And for straps like you only need to wrap it around the bar one time You don't have to wrap it around the bar multiple times Yeah, I have some actually from dominion that are really nice leather straps Yeah, those leather straps are nice. Those are those are nice, especially once they get broken in Yes, they're not going to cut you which is nice. Yeah, I agreed agreed sponsored Yeah, we are. Yeah, in fact, we are Well, I wasn't really thinking about equipment, but I like personal equipment, but knee sleeves would probably be in there Yeah, that's probably true. Actually, that should probably be that should be early. That might be pretty early. Yeah What are your favorite knee sleeves? I've only used sbds I've only used ray bands. Okay, and I think those are the two best for sure I don't even know any other kinds. Yeah, so, I mean, I think if you ask across the board Anybody that used a bunch of those the sbds are a little longer. They're going to cover a little more space Yeah, and they're a little stiffer if you get the ray bands You definitely want to get the seven millimeter And not the five millimeters. You want to get the thickest one. I believe the seven millimeter only comes in blue still Um, and if you want to get fancy colors, you got to go down and it's not quite as not quite as thick And so I love to take a little tiger balm Uh, or liniment and put it on my knees and put the knee sleeves on I don't use real intense Liniment so tiger bomb is nice for hot Uh elite fts makes a really cold icy one. It's pretty good for uh, sounds awesome Yeah, I like it during the summertime. It's like lots of menthol And I'll put that on my knees and then put the knee sleeves on and that that works That's that yeah, it's a good good note there. Those are those are important. Okay. Well, let me go So like gym equipment that you're not wearing Um, I think my next one Might be chains Okay, that's I think my next one would be chains. It might be bands, but here's the thing I like bands and chains Here's the trade-off. I think that chains carry over better for the raw lifter But they're kind of a pain in the ass and they're heavy and they're expensive. Yeah If you train at home, this would be this would be my suggestion If you train at home, you should buy chains before you buy bands Yeah, I agree. Yeah, but if you train at a at a gym You should buy bands before you buy chains because you can put the bands In your gym bag and and bands are pretty cheap And again, there's a lot of companies that make these at this point. I just go to rogue for most of stuff I get the red bands which are a little wider than a half inch and we call those mini bands The full-length ones. I have some shorty ones too, but you want to get a set of the minis which is red You want to get a set of the lights which are green? And you want to get a set of the mediums which are purple Does that sound right? Uh, I think so. Yeah, okay. I think that's right And don't use your bands for other stuff than going on the bar So like you have a pair of bands you got them at the same time which means they have the same amount of tension So don't use one of your bands for like your chin ups and other stuff Like use them both because I think the tough thing with bands is sometimes you'll end up with two bands And they're totally different One side has a whole bunch of tension the other side doesn't have as much and you're just like crap How am I going to fix that? Yeah, they'll stretch out over time for sure the bands stretch out over time Yeah, um, which means that over time They're going to provide less. So if you're doing resistance training against the bands Over time the bands will provide less force sort of against the bar if you're doing reverse band Work where you're lifting with the bands attached to the top of the rack They'll help you less. So it just depends on clearly that's what's been going on with my reverse band There you go. Yeah, you've been you were doing a revert You were doing reverse bands with what like 415 or 425 something like that And all of a sudden you were like these got real heavy out of nowhere I remember a 415 without the bands feeling lighter than 415 with the bands I do like bands and chains and those are we again We've got some some some podcasts and some videos on that on accommodating resistance with the bands and chains Very simply They are it makes the weight lighter at the bottom and heavier at the top So it sort of works as your leverages get better so that you're able to lift more weight So Then it adds more weight to the bar So, you know, if I did a bench press and I only did the top four inches range of motion I could bench press way more than I could if I bench press all the way down to my chest and back up What the bands allow you to do is allow you to or the chains allow you to go through a full range of motion It's lighter at the bottom with the bench the squat the deadlift I don't know what the lift is and get heavier towards the top. So you keep sort of maximum muscular tension On um on the system through the lift and so those those are great for supplemental lifts It's one of the first things that I'll add and you can use them for like every lift Right some things like a slingshot Or whatever like you can't you're just constrained to one lift but for these ones you can use them for pretty much every lift That's right You can and you and you can use them for things like chin-ups and you can use them for things like dips and you can use them for All of those things. So um, yeah, very very helpful there So actually that's you kind of led into my next one. My next one that I think is really nice is a slingshot And as much as in general I don't want to support mark bell Love you mark Pow pow bell shots Oh boy, I uh, so It's a great product the slingshots great. Yeah, it it overloads the bench press really well So the slingshots. It's a giant elastic band that you wear across your chest It's got two holes on the ends like sleeve holes that you put your arms through And it does the same thing. So as you as you bench press It's similar to what the bands and chains do That it provides lots of that that that elastic stretches at the bottom That makes the bottom of a bench press Be easier and then it deloads as you press to the top and makes it harder So there's two reasons to use that one is because it can overload the top of the lift So you can you can always bench press more with the slingshot than you can raw So if your best bench press is say 300 pounds I've noticed most people in that ballpark are going to be able to add 35 or 40 pounds to the bar So maybe you can do slingshot with 335 340 Uh, which and and it's really 335 340 at the top It's not at the bottom, but it is at the top But the other thing it's nice for is if you have bad shoulders or previously torn pecs Or rotator cuff issues, especially anterior rotator cuff issues things on the front It does a pretty good job of protecting your shoulder joint And so for old guys, it works pretty good for even doing sets of five for that kind of stuff Do you remember the first time you used a slingshot? Yeah, but it's not my story is not the same because what you have to remember is is I used a bench shirt Before I used a slingshot. So the real story there is what it was like the first time I put on a bench shirt So back in the old days most you guys know this but back in the old days power lifters all used Squatsuits and bench shirts and things and and these were like super tight Uh, usually made of denim or canvas allowed you to lift more weight And they were originally they were originally sort of advertised as protective equipment to protect your joints and whatnot But at some point, you know the the biggest bench press of all time was slightly over 700 pounds And within a few years of the bench shirt really sort of expanding guys were bench pressing over a thousand So guys that could only bench press, you know 600 pounds raw, which is still a phenomenally heavy bench press Could now bench press a thousand fifty in a shirt And it it's so even for me, I'll give you an example back when I could bench press like 405 That's my best raw bench press. I bench press 630 in a shirt So there's a pretty big difference 630. Let me do 630 at the by the way 630 in a bench shirt at the top is 630 You're holding 630 pounds in your hands and the bench shirt's not loaded yet And it starts to load. So when I got a slingshot on It was like, oh, this is not that bad. I can remember the first So like your bench shirt is like It's like a diet coke or something and then the slingshot is like the liqour version where it shows like It's like a hint of support. Yeah, right, right. That's exactly what it was this Yeah, the the bench shirt I can remember I when I first bought a bench shirt, I was probably benched in 300 305 somewhere in there And I loaded and I bought it from a lead fts and this is way back This is like in 2001 probably 20 years ago And I read all the articles about the bench shirt like it should always be tighter than you think it should be And it's really hard to make it touch your chest, but you'll be fine And here I am bench bench pressing all by me. I'm the only power lifter in the gym My brother Yeah, well, my brother was lifting off for me But like he didn't have one and and we didn't have any idea how tight it was supposed to be And we'd never seen him before and I put this thing on I was like, oh my gosh And your your arm just taking straight out in front of you like you're a mummy, you know Like you're like the walking dead And I took 315 and I lowered it like three inches And I thought my head was going to explode And I locked it out and racked it. I was like nope It took the thing off and I sent it back to a lead fts. I was like, I need to go up a size And looking back, it was actually probably the right size. I just didn't know Oh, the pressure is so intense. So you don't need that weird thing is when you yeah When you first use this length shot or I guess a bench shirt like You just unrack like your normal warm up weights like I would have racked 95 pounds Be like, well, this is only going to get eight inches or the closest I can get this eight inches away from my chest So you have to like keep loading the weight and like you have to use a spotter for this stuff guys Because like yes, it can get real squirrelly always use a spotter and make sure you're ever safe depends But yeah, the first time you use just like wow pile some more weight on there. Let's get this down to my chest Yeah, I have a I have a lifter that used this lean shot just this week while I was in Mexico And he always has a spotter and somehow he didn't have a spotter this week He's like, uh Something went wrong. I misgrooved it. I threw it back over my face It didn't land on my face because I had the spots, but I like it broke his bench press like it broke this spotter catch the area Yeah, and he was like, I don't know man. I might need to take a T load week. I'm kind of I was Yeah, that's exactly what it is So still slingshots are pretty nice And if you think about something like those early purchases like wrist wraps wrist straps slingshots bands You're talking about all of those are purchases like under $50 a piece or somewhere in that ballpark, right? So they're not big time big time purchases. So Um, okay. What's next for you? This one I would hope that people might still have or they can do some variation, but extra horse tall mats for Like deficit deadlifts or to use for like block holes or something Yeah, something to put something to stand on or to put underneath your bar for some some deadlock variation. That's not a raffle Yeah, that's a that's a great idea. I use those every single week on many workouts And I never even thought about that I didn't put that in my list So horse tall mats are there a pain in the butt to cut If you have to cut them yourself Just a really good sharp box knife works better than anything else And if you lay them over something like a saw horse So they're kind of peeling away from themselves. You can cut it pretty easy with a fresh razor blade They're not they're not very fun. Yeah, fresh razor blade Yeah, yeah, like he's got fresh razor blade and then do like the scoring method where you like do long strokes That's really fun. And then it's like uber gratifying on the last row where it just like Yeah Yeah, yeah, I remember building those at at brett mckays and uh, yeah, it was good It was good to figure I would always snap it with a chalk line. So I got a chalk line Which is cheap snap it with a chalk line. So you get a nice straight line and you just get on the chalk line So that that's good. You know one thing that I have go ahead Oh, it's just it's a random story about I have owned a gym Forever ago and I've worked in a lot of gyms and there are lots of reasons why I don't want to have a gym But probably Way up there in the top three lists is because I never want to deal with deal with horse stall mats again ever. Yeah Yeah Yeah, you you came to my old house and my gym was in the basement And just carrying the whole horse stall mats down to the basement was awful And of course when I got ready to move to the new house, which is just like a 10 mile move I was like, oh, I'm definitely hiring professional movers here because there's zero chance That I'm taking all the and that room was like, uh, I think it was 14 by 25 or 14 by 24 something like that So I mean there were quite a few horse stall mats and I was like, nope No chance That I'm carrying those up the stairs or out the you know at the walkout basement home and around And up the hill outside. No, no, no, no, although I did get for those of you guys that do have them They do have the the horse stall mat Carriers now that you can get on amazon the hooks, um, you know the blue and yellow I got those that actually makes a huge difference And I I bought those for my movers Mostly because I was paying by the hour and I was like, here we go This will make this go faster. I'll still I'll still pay less money. So yeah, they're all they're just dead weight They're brutal. They're brutal That's got to be like carrying a dead body, which I've never done before but I imagine something similar We're just like god, you're so heavy. Yeah, but they're and it's I think it's worse because it's just It's four feet by six feet and they're floppy and brutally heavy Yeah, so whereas, you know A body was like carrying a sandbag of dead weight, which isn't fun either But it's not a you know, it's not this giant rain I mean, I actually had to carry my poor dog out and bury him a couple weeks ago and a 75 pound dead dog Not fun to carry in fact Not fun. Oh my gosh, and you got to dig a hole this size of a human to bury it in your backyard But um, yeah, so okay, so the next one for me Here's something that I don't know would have been as high on the list A few months ago, but post covet I think is I think everybody should have a few dumbbells. I don't think you need a big dumbbell set um Something in the range of like 25s to 35s like 25s and 35s Maybe a female just needs like maybe 15s and 25s or 20s and 25s Because you can do like rolling dumbbell extensions. You can do the curls You can actually do dumbbell swings like a kettlebell swing with them overhead presses seated overhead presses There's so many things you can do for excessive. That's right rows Yeah, dumbbell rows There's tons of stuff you can do with those and an entire dumbbell set is really expensive But if you just start with the ones you need, which I actually think is I've started having my clients do that They're just hey just buy, you know by 25s and 35s and then they work out at that I'm like, okay now buy a set of 45s And let's keep you know, and then you can just over time you've got enough to basically get the main Work done I think that works pretty well and and honestly even a place like Again, I know equipment's really hard to come by right now that the accessory equipment is coming back quicker now You can start finding the accessory equipment squat racks and barbells and weights are still harder to get your hand on hands on but even like walmart has the hex rubber Dumbbell sets and those are my favorite the hex especially if they have the knurl on the handle Those are those are nice dumbbells and they're not bad at all a good walmart order from walmart.com And get those again. We're not sponsored by any any equipment company But there's it gives you a lot of versatility there I don't like that that was that was on my list too and the same thing in that range just like Because you can start you can get some that's just a little bit heavy But you can increase the level of difficulty by doing more reps You know, like you get you have lots of room with dumbbells. So yeah We talk about linear progression as slowly add and weight to the bar But with dumbbells what I do is Exactly what you're saying even when my clients have a full dumbbell set So when I start having them do say curls even right? It's like dumbbell curls or something I might have them do like 25 pound dumbbell curls for three sets of eight And then the next workout they do three sets of 10 the next workout they do three sets 12 And then they bump up to the next dumbbell set and go back down to three sets of six maybe and work yourself So linear progression still works And intensity isn't the only way to increase that and especially with accessory movements You'll often default to increasing reps slash volume Until you get to a point where the reps are high enough that okay now I can make the next Incremental increase up and that's one of the tough things about dumbbells is they come in five pound increments And if you buy them in 10 Going from a 25 pound dumbbell to a 35 pound dumbbell is a pretty big Jump by the way, you can go to micro gains. You can go to my with Mike and micro gains and he has those dumbbell Fractional plates that you can add to the dumbbells and you so you can go from 25s to 27 and a half Which is pretty nice at another set you've got 30s, you know, and then it's so it actually makes it pretty nice to do that So I yeah, I like those Uh, okay, what's next on your list? A kettlebell or two same thing Why kettlebells that have dumbbells? Oh, because you you like kettlebell swings for conditioning I do. I like kettlebell swings for conditioning um, and there's other things I could use kettlebell swings for I actually think they work really well for like, uh You know the lift that I call the rolling dumbbell extension Also works really well like a tricep extension with a kettlebell You can actually mimic that movement really well there as as well. So with a kettlebell For for this is again a blanketed statement for guys who are relatively strong I would start with that 50 whatever it is a 53 or Whatever that is that two pood or whatever it's called and then and then for the for the females It's usually at 32 or whatever that one is mid like low 30s and for guys left. Yeah, something like that Um, and I like that for kettlebell for kettlebell swing I just like a kettlebell swing for accessory work for the low back for conditioning work 30 seconds on 30 seconds off Things like that works really well. So and it doesn't cost that much. You only had to buy one Yeah, so I like that just fine. That's pretty good. So what about you? Um, I have a dip belt in there. Oh, I like that too. Yeah. Yeah, so for weighted chin ups weighted dips um I mean you can do weighted chin ups just squeezing your dumbbell between your thighs Which I've done at many a globo gym, but it's nice to have the the belt. Yeah And if you have If you have chains, I actually like chains better than a dip belt There's something about having the chain around my I mean, it's not like it's comfortable around your neck But it's not swinging. Yeah, and I really like chains on dips better than Better than the dip belt. So I don't mind the belt on a chin Although even for a chin, I'd rather have chains around my neck Um, but it just does get really gets pretty tight around the neck there at the bottom of the chin up Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah, that's okay. Still you look really cool Like it's just total like dmx kind of move. That's right Yeah, I took a picture once a civil the first time she did chains up at like two chains around her neck and It took a picture ever like she was mr. T or something. It was awesome So by the way on those chains chains are kind of hard to come by Um, the best deal in fitness is tighten fitness has five eighths inch chain five eighths inch is really what you want And they've got a good price on those if they're in stock If they're not in stock. So first off if you live near the coast You could buy chains pretty cheap at at marine type stores like where they like places that service boats and sell Anchors and stuff. That's where they use chains are that big five eighths inch chain is that that's the yeah That's the diameter of the link of a single link of chain. It's big. It's a big chain for sure If you're like me and you live in the Midwest I have a client in New Zealand client in New Zealand who really wanted to get chains and his wife secretly Well, they couldn't you know shipping from rogue would just be like a bajillion dollars. So she's secretly coordinated with me on instagram and like found all the right chains from like a maritime store She got like the five eighths inch and then she got the half inch leader chains and she got all the Carribeaners it was awesome. So she surprised him. I think it was for Christmas or his birthday with chains. So that's awesome Chain is great If you live in the Midwest or you don't you don't have maritime stores around you You can actually go to like a like a basic home improvement store like a Lowe's or home depot And you can buy three eighths inch chain, but you'll just basically need double And it's not that expensive and so I mean it's it's not super cheap because they're just heavy That's the goal, right? And so I like having about a hundred pounds of chain for most people They're gonna need about a hundred. What do you have you have 80? Is that right total pounds of chain somewhere there? So I don't even think I don't even know if it's that much something around there 60 maybe two sets of 30 or something but Yeah, so, you know double double the amount that you would buy with Uh for five eighths inch So somewhere in the ballpark of of a hundred pounds total In chain is great. Um as you get stronger and stronger and they need some more You know up to maybe 150 pounds 200 pounds something like that But um chains a little hard to get your whole get your hands on and then yeah, you just buy a cheap thinner chain To be sort of the leader chain and again We've got videos and talk about the the chain setup as well And you so you basically just make a loop Of the thin chain around the bar and then you dangle the heavy chain through the thinner loop And the goal there is when you're standing up at the top or or at the top of the bench press You've got one or two links still on the floor So you don't want the chain swinging on you right and the chain deloads as you lower the bar And it loads as you raise the bar But even at the top of the lift the chain is a little bit still on the floor So it's not swinging all over the place. That's kind of the goal with the chain. Yeah So my next big one for me is uh is a lat pull down I think a lat pull down, especially if it's got a high cable and a low cable. There it's so versatile There's so many things you can do Um the best one on the market right now is from titan It's like I think it's 1200 bucks with the stack and I think it's maybe 500 bucks without the weight stack for like free weight and then rogue has the attachment. What's that thing called? Rogue has one that's the pulley system Yeah, they've got a pulley is that what it is And I think I've got a new name for the the actual bracket that goes on your rack So they've got the bracket and you can basically turn any squat rack and you can put a kind of a lat pull down Again, all of these are sold out currently, but they'll be back on the market really soon Um, there's just so much you can do with lat pull downs Tri-set push downs if you get the low cable you can do barbell curls You can do seated rows You do all kinds of stuff with those and so and for me for the cables for my clients who can't do chin ups They desperately need a lat pull down high cable to be able to to do that back work If they're not, you know, if you've got if you've got clients that are that are 40 45 50 and older They can almost never do chin-ups in the beginning and it's difficult and for clients Or you know, somebody like cybil who's in her 80s Like I can't have every there's no way she could do chin-ups even with a band around Like there's no way But she can sit on a lat pull down and just knock out lat pull downs all day And so I really like a lat pull down and you can certainly get other ones. You can get cheaper ones Um, but I I think I would either spend the money and go with the titan version, which by the way is An incredible deal for how well that thing is is built Or just you don't spend much money at all and get the attachment that goes around on your rack And that that works pretty well as well So what about you? What's your next one? um I've got I mean these are pretty extraneous Like a box if you need to do box squats. Yeah, or if you just want to sit on something in your gym But also a deadlift bar That's like pretty low on the list But if you really like deadlifting and you compete in federations that use the deadlift bar like get a deadlift bar They're super fun So deadlift bar is let's walk through Or yeah, just deadlift bar is a little different people probably know this but it's it's thinner Um, it's usually got super aggressive nearly and it's longer So you spend some time, you know pulling a lot more slack out of the bar So you get further up in terms of a hip extension without all the weights leaving the floor yet. So it's a Some mind call it cheating So if the normal a normal barbell is say 28 and a half millimeters or 29 millimeters A deadlift bar is going to be 27 millimeters. It's about two, you know, one and a half to two millimeters thinner Um, very aggressive knurling Which means it's going to hurt your hands for a for a while till you used to it And yeah, it's just a little bit longer not a lot longer, but a little bit longer And usually has the ability to Put more weight on it, right? So it's usually a little bit longer from inside of color to inside of color But also at the end of the colors It's longer because most people can deadlift more than they Squat or bench press or whatever so they want to make sure you can put more weight on the bar Especially if you're using sort of competition bumpers, you get a bunch of 55s Or 25 kilo plates, you're gonna put on they want to make sure you can get enough on there That's not gonna be a problem for most of our listeners, but um, that's that's why it's there So I do love a deadlift bar actually on the subject of barbells I like an axle Because they're cheap and those they they're kind of like schedule 80 pipe I just buy the the Hollow pipe and then it's like a 20 pound bar or something like that I like that for people who have elbow problems wrist issues shoulder There's something about the way an axle sort of distributes the way to crush your hands That seems like it takes some pressure off the upper body when you bench press and press and so If you're having some problems in the elbows the wrist, etc I like using an axle and they're cheap And then after that if you're if you're maybe An older guy or you have some shoulder issues Then either a buffalo slash duffelow bar type barbell and everybody makes those at this point So they're all they're all fine Certainly certainly the duffelow bar is the highest end and I think it runs close to like 600 bucks But you can get them for like 200 195 I mean tighten new york barbells places like that Then pretty cheap and for most people they're not going to be squatting 800 pounds on it They're gonna be squatting 400 or less So it doesn't matter so a buffalo bar is just basically a a bowed bar It's just a barbell that's bent basically and it's easier to get into position It is also it's harder to get your your upper back tight on one Because one of the reasons we take that real close grip on a straight barbell is to get real tight posture or posture your delts and And upper back thoracic area and stuff so so it'll tend to be a little looser And another option is a safety squat bar think that that safety squat bar Which has the two handles up front kind of a yoke and again Most equipment companies make those the most of them are fine, right? It just there's not enough difference across the board to really call those out So if you tighten or rogue or lead fts or whoever I'll do a good job. So all of those are are solid barbells to get I like those. Well, and then on a box you mentioned a box squat There's a couple options there. So a You can get a box A lot of companies make these wooden boxes that and they're a different height Based on how you turn them. So they're like 12 and 14 and 16 inches. There's something like that So a traditional bench press is going to be about 18 inches high And so a lot of times when I have somebody try to box walk at first They'll be like, can I just box squat to my bench and like no, that's going to be well above parallel So 18 inches is going to be too high Most of you are going to need something in that in that 12 inch range 13 inches If you're really tall, maybe 14 inches much taller than that is going to be above parallel And so Honestly, one of my my two favorite places to get a box is either from new york barbells, which is I think nybarbells.com and their website looks like it's from like 1996 Hasn't changed at all. Uh, it's super throwback. It's like the crappiest website you've ever been on your life Yeah, they're yeah, that's exactly right facts in your order But the the box is great and it's pretty cheap elite fts makes a really good one as well Um, I have the rogue one and cooped from garage team reviews told me not to get that one Because it's built like a tank and it literally weighs like 200 pounds It's so difficult to move. It's great, but it's brutal To move and adjust because the thing is yeah, it's crazy. It's a workout in itself To move the box so as a box box could be any worse now That's right. That's exactly right So my next few start getting a little expensive. Do you have anything else? That's sort of cheaper on the list No, well one little thing and this is that the last thing we thought of was um I assume everybody has safety arms or safety pins But the safety straps are really nice if you do a lot of rack pulls Because of the straps the bar is always going to go to the same spot So you don't have to like roll around and constantly change your setup So yeah safety straps would be cool. Yes, and again almost every equipment company makes those Once you get beyond those first and again, most of these we've talked about aren't expensive These most of these things are are under a hundred dollars. The lat pull obviously is significantly more Although the lat pull down the the attachment for the racks are pretty cheap as well Once you get to the point where you've got those and you start going. Okay. What's the next step? Then we start talking about the next level of equipment Which would be things like a glute hammer ease Which is a big footprint but a great a great piece of equipment a reverse hyper which is a big footprint Or you could get the donkey or the combo machine from either one of these from like titan or rogue And it's even a bigger footprint, but you can do both glute hammer ease and reverse hypers I like those a back extension machine which by the way I used to kind of be against And I think I like a back extension machine I think you can do so my argument for years against a back extension machine Was that it caused people to go into back flexion and back extension But if you do it right, I actually don't think that's the case I think you use your low back your lumbar and extension the entire time and just bend at the hip I've been doing those once or twice a week and you just have to make sure that The hip height is correct on your quadriceps and not crossing your hips And you have to just be really aware of your range of motions that you are not Uh, like you just said going into function to lower back, but yeah, they're pretty they're pretty great You can really you can really work the erectors. I mean again, if you do it right The back really what happens is you you end up you end up lifting the back And if you use weight you lift the back plus the weight with your glutes and hamstrings But there's sort of a tremendous amount of isometric contraction moment force Um on the back itself and so they get they get very spicy That's right. So I really like those Um, those are my favorite lower body accessory accessory pieces ghr versus hyper back extension And after that I start getting things like although I might buy these even earlier things like the some of the conditioning pieces So like a prowler or sled Um an echo bike from rogue is my favorite. You can get an echo a schwin aerodyne and assault. Those are all very similar I love the echo bike again not sponsored bought one paid full price for it. It's quiet It's belt run instead of a chain. So it's it's quiet. It's not real loud I love a c2 rower I hate the c2 the erg ski machine although it works really well. I just I It's awful. If you ever I mean, that's a that's a vomit machine You do a ski erg for 60 seconds. You're gonna throw up. Oh my god And just so much arm pump. I imagine like yeah, it's yes brutal brutal So uh if I had to buy one piece of cardio equipment It would probably be the prowler although it might be the echo bike I would say Having bought just one piece of cardio equipment Which I brought a sled and then I sold that and now I have zero pieces of cardio I only use this love like six times Yes Yeah, the downside of a of a prowler while I think it probably works better than anything else You have to you have to do it like out in your street Yeah And so one if it's either too hot or too cold or rainy. It's it's not really doable and you talk yourself out of it Yeah, if you know, you've got to deal with the neighbors and you're like it's pretty loud in it Sometimes it scratches up your street pretty good now. You can get that's actually what happened with me is I To forgot to get the plastic skin feels like it doesn't matter. She's gonna be an asphalt and so I like I would Push it down my alley and it was so loud. It was like that dumb and dumb Sound like the most annoying sound in the world Yes, I felt so horrible. In fact, actually The cops rolled down my alley one time after I was working on the prowler like, hey, have you seen just a woman Breaking glass back here or someone called in that there's just a woman breaking glass And I don't know if it was me pushing my prowler. That's what I heard, but yeah, so that's hilarious I used to do strongman in my very first house. I own in this little suburb of springfield I had a big this was back before I went strong or anything So I had all these guys train at my house, especially on saturday mornings It was like a huge group of guys And we would you know, we'd flip tires in the street and we pushed prowlers and do yoke Runs and farmers walks and stuff all those are options by the way All those are fun things to get at some point The kind of high impact, which is I'm not a super big fan of some of those things because they're just they're hard on your body So this is not really a funny story, but it's one night. I'm working out with one of my workout partners and this guy was like 330 not fat 765 deadlift, you know, the two of us are we're big time I was a pro strongman and he was on the top amateur strongman at the time and we were training the garage door was open It was nighttime. I remember and there was a domestic violence call across the street And cop pulled in real quick and then another cop pulled in real quick and then a third cop and then I mean within four minutes like eight cop eight cop cars separate cops And they went in and dealt with it and then after like and we're just working out We're just like watching across the street We kind of knew the people and they were our neighbors and normal well, you know After about an hour one of the cops came over and he's like hey He's like they they called that domestic violence in and I thought it was you And I called the entire Police department. I said listen if it's the guy I think it is we're gonna have to kill him I was like he's like I've seen that guy flip in tires in the street And so he's like I was so happy when we got here and it was across the street and wasn't you It was just a normal guy. I was like, yeah, I guess I am too But yeah, it was it was strange. So yeah, that's the downside It's doing some of that cardio stuff out in the out the street is uh, so I like that echo equipment So the place here's the thing just like anything else we do even even equipment purchases You can kind of approach it with a minimum effective dose Sort of philosophy right like what what are what are the cheapest? Things you can get that are going to give you the best bang for the buck and that's stuff like we talked about Like obviously you should already have shoes and belts and and micro plates And after that you start doing things like wrist wraps and straps and sling shots and bands You know things you can put in your gym bag Things that cost under 50 dollars Um, we didn't even mention chalk because that's one of those things everybody should have from day one By the way, I I hadn't used for years I used uh liquid chalk on my hands the entire time I was in mexico because I was training at the hotel gym and Oh stuff works great. Yeah liquid chalks awesome You know what I screwed up with the liquid chalk because I had used germx so much That when I put the liquid chalk on my hands I would rub it around the back of my hands and stuff too like I'd wash my hands with it And then the back of my hands would be solid white and I'd be like, wait a minute I really didn't need it back there look like a new rookie lifter Everywhere This is exactly right And then from there like eventually over time You'll start to add pieces of equipment one of the things I love one of the things I love about strength training and equipment is that one Equipment holds its value. Well You don't need multiple other than barbells. So it's not it's not like gun guys that buy like 65 they have to have a million of the same thing, right? You don't need that other than barbells. Everybody needs too many barbells Like you don't need two glute ham raises, you know, you know, it's not like that You don't need two boxes for box quest things like that. So it holds its value Well, and it's not that expensive and so over time it's, you know, if you compare it to something like playing golf Like golf golf equipment is expensive And it's really expensive to play golf and nobody has their own golf course So everybody has to go pay a bunch of money to go play golf So over time, you know, you spend a few thousand dollars But over the course of several years and it never really feels like that It's a 50 dollars here and a hundred dollars here and a few hundred bucks here And the next thing you know, you've got a really nice collection of stuff and you can do everything you need Far more than what you could ever get at a globo gym and it just makes training more fun You know, you don't necessarily need you don't have to have Any of this stuff But it often makes training more fun. It makes training more efficient Which makes training more sustainable And that's really what it's all about that consistency and and so um, I love to collect that stuff Coop's always been a he's, you know, Cooper from graduation reviews is here in my town He's been a great resource for us and um, yes, it's been great to have that stuff Yeah, definitely. I I think one of my clients Alex is really gonna love this because he I think he's messages me about six times Saying what's the next gym thing that I can buy? So here you go, Alex, here's your list. I got a couple guys like that They got just a little bit too much money and they're like, should I get this? I was like, I don't know like, okay I'm gonna get that The next thing I know it's like in there I had one of one of our close friends. He bought one of the the donkeys from From rogue, which is the ghr and Ghr and reverse hyper. He also bought the belt squat from them, which by the way is another nice piece It's a great piece. It's just a massive The footprint is so big. Listen. He took a picture of that donkey I was like, he's like, do you have no idea how big this thing is like the size of a car It is like it's like an automobile So if you don't have you know, that's the problem So my my rule of thumb with equipment is I use horse stall mats So I've got my main gym in the bedroom and then I've got my accessory equipment in the garage for me A horse stall mats four foot by six foot if the thing's too big to fit on a single horse mat I'm not buying it. It's too big And and maybe a donkey will no, I don't think it will I don't think a donkey would fit because you're basically doing gluten ham raises on one side And you're doing reverse hypers on the other side. So it has to be it needs 10 feet of length Probably yeah, that's pretty big. Yeah, so but that's a great place to start start cheap Get the stuff that'll fit in your gym bag if you train at home you start adding stuff like chains And you know like matador connections things like that work great And then you'll start collecting barbells because that's fun And of course then you start to get you kind of geek out on like storage stuff So we didn't even talk about like barbell storage and dumbbell storage and right and that stuff's Wonderful to play around with but uh, that's a great place to start and again We don't have any relationship with equipment companies right now other than dominion for belts microgains for fractional plates We love both those guys. Um, we've been pretty uh What is the word a I'll say a political about the equipment companies Uh, we're just like listen, we love those equipment companies and right now post covet I just get what's in stock, right? I mean a lot of these one of the nice things about the current culture is that All of these equipment companies are fantastic. There's not a lot of bad ones out there And so find find what you can get what you can and start building that collection Yeah, another thing that comes to me is if you're getting like a A lat pull down or even if you're doing like leg or hip extensions or whatever get stuff that's plate loaded I think rather than the stuff that comes with the plate stacks Yes, right the weight stacks because the shipping will be so much lower And then you already have your your weights available to you. So yes, although I do love the titan Lat pull down with the stack But in general I would almost always do the same thing because it's just so much easier to throw plates on Whatever you have by the way, I also ordered I ordered the leg extension leg curl combo from titan Last week because um, yeah, because everybody knows I got bad hips I'm squatting two times a week and I don't think I can maintain squatting two times a week I'm gonna just gotta squat one time a week I think or at least one time heavy and maybe one time light And so I need something else to get additional leg work in and it's a pretty nice piece And it's not that expensive either. It was like well under 500 bucks. And so it's and it's combo Yeah combo leg extension leg curl from titan Oh, man, I can't we see that I actually this is funny joined a globo gym Just so I could do all the success research because I don't I don't have a lot of room in my garage anymore So I joined a whole new gym and they have and it's still I even like shopped around for which globo gym to join Because you still can't get everything you need in a single gym. It's so interesting. Yeah You know That's so there you have that one you bought good. Yeah, I'm excited for it to come in So there you go. There's another episode of barba logic Hope this was uh helpful for you brought your value and and kind of pointing the right direction of what equipment you should get next Especially if you're a client of barba logic talk to your coach about what they might want you to get next They'll help steer you in the right direction You can listen to this episode and then say hey I'm kind of trying to decide between these three things and see what your coach says If you're not a client of barba logic, we'd love to have you But we always love for you to be able to get value out of the podcast regardless And so hopefully this did that for you so hope you are enjoying training in july of 2020 It's in the dog days of summer. This is when everybody else stops training because it's too damn hot But those of us that are pursuing that voluntary hardship. We know how fun that is. I'm loving training right now I'm training like five six days a week. I love it. I feel great Yeah, it's it's good. It's good. So thanks for listening and listen a little teaser a week from today We're coming out with our first series the best of barba logic. That's the beginnings of barba logic It's the best of the first 25 episodes bringing back Matt and Scott here for for a big series and we're going to push that out like a Netflix series So that our our listeners can binge listen. It's got all kinds of it's got new stuff in it too So kind of new narration some updates and stuff, which is really really cool And we kind of tightened up the podcast so that we could put them out and and they're not 50 minutes long they're 25 minutes long and they've got all the meat still there and still funny stuff and good conversation. So Listen for that. No week from today next Monday. Cool. We'll see you guys soon. Thanks for listening. Thanks everybody