May 14, 2004

2 responses to Happy birthday!

  1. Scott Bird Says:
    May 24th, 2004 at 8:56 pm

    With the sun making a regular appearance here these days I’ve been spending a lot more time outdoors, and was just taking another look at your outdoor gym. I’m curious to know :

    a) how it’s stood up to the test of time,
    b) what changes are you considering to make it more ‘powerlifting friendly’?

    I must say I’m still supremely jealous - particularly at this time of year - lifting outdoors would be fantastic. Not sure how well the mandatory background music would go down though in the otherwise soothing environment.

  2. Kris Says:
    May 24th, 2004 at 11:34 pm

    We’ve had one of the coldest spring in ages in Finland, so the sun doesn’t help too much around here… I hope to get around to opening Toffe’s Gym for the season in two to three weeks. To your questions:

    a) Everything in there should still be solid and good to go, with the exception of the wooden bench. In my eagerness to get it up and ready for benching, I didn’t take the time to apply the layer of yucky stuff needed to keep its legs from rotting. Last summer I had to do with my Weider bench, which used to be part of my home gym. Too narrow and shaky…

    b) Some preliminary thoughts. Buy or build a full or partial rack, get a good bench. I also have to figure out whether to go all out and create a concrete surface for the rack in the woods or go with my current wooden surface. Possibly I could use a couple of 20 kg/44 lbs plates more, as it is I have 160 kg/354 lbs of plates. A stability ball is also a must, plus I need to build a new squatting box as I took the one I had to the commercial gym I train at now. I might also get some chains for benching. I just hope I can allocate the money for all of this, otherwise I guess I will just get a sturdy bench and a stability ball and live with that…

    As far as music is concerned, I used to pump up the volume in the woods, but nowadays I seem to get just as motivated lying on my bench and staring up the spruces. Scott, if you ever come to Finland in the summer time, you are warmly welcome to come train at Toffe’s Gym.

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