Garage Gym of the Week:  Ken Mather

1.) What's your name? Ken Mather

2.) How old are you? 51

3.) Tell us a little about yourself: I own a Barbershop in Mass, have a son who's serving in the US Army.  Run my garage gym with my free time.  Can't forget about my pugs, Cam and Max, they never miss a workout.

4.) How would you describe your training style? We strictly do crossfit workouts.  I mix in a little trail runner but mainly crossfit

5.) How would you describe your fitness/strength level, currently? I'd say I'm in pretty good shape.  My fitness goals for this year is to compete in more cf competitions and stay healthy

6.) Describe your garage gym.  As you can see from the pictures I do have a lot of Fringe sports equipment, I have 7 bars, wall balls, kb, dumbbells, lots of bumper plate and they are all from fringe sports.  Tried others and I'll tell you you can not beat Fridge sports bumper plates.  We have boxes, rings, ropes, an awesome rig from Fringe Sports, sleds, GHD machine and bands and jump ropes.  Cant forget about the Airdyne and Concept 2 rower.

7.) Who works out in your garage gym? I have anywhere from 4 to 10 people who train with me, mostly family and friends.

8.) Why did you build your garage gym? After spending about 3 yrs at my local cf gym, which is awesome VBC.  I wanted to take the summer off so I bought a couple of things, kettlebell, box and pull up bar.  Three years later it turned into this.

9.) What's your favorite piece of equipment in your garage? Hmmm, love a lot of it.  I'd have to go with my rig, it's awesome.

10.) What piece of equipment was a waste? I find that we don't use our sandbags as much as I thought we would. 

11.) What’s the next piece of equipment you’re going to get?  I'm really not sure, we have just about everything.  Although I would like to add more dumbbells, definitely need heavier dumbbells.

12.) Any dream piece of equipment? The rig. I got it and love it and maybe a better, high end, GHD machine.

13.) How did you build your garage gym? I built my garage gym over time, like I said I just started with a few items.  I kept adding on each month or so.

14.) Do you have any tips for anyone else looking to build a garage gym? Spend the extra money and get good equipment.  I have boxes, benches, db, and other stuff that is sitting in my shed.  I've bought from quite a few companies out there and I'm not tooting Fringe sports horn but 80% of my equipment is from them.  The  rig, my bars, all of my bumper plates, my wall balls, ab mats,  some dumbbells, my ropes and rings.  I'm sure i'm missing some stuff, but I love there equipment.  It's quality stuff for a great price and everything ships for free, that's huge.  I've had issues and those guys over there are top notch, they care about there customers.