Garage Gym of the Week: Sarah M. & Sean G.

What’s your name?  Sarah Miller & Sean Goff

How old are you?  35 & 38

Do you have an Instagram handle or website you’d like linked? @diggindaisytx & @liftwithsean

Tell us a little bit about yourself: She's a mom of a 14 year old boy who works in South Austin and lives in Bastrop. He's a father of 2 who attends and coaches classes at CrossFit Giddings and works in La Grange. Trying to make time for family, work and still maintain an active lifestyle can get tough but we've been making it work. We've added hiking at state parks and recently purchased bikes which has given us the opportunity to get out and experience new things with each other.

How would you describe your training style? She attends CrossFit classes 3 days a week at CrossFit Strive in Bastrop. He attends CrossFit classes 4 days a week at CrossFit Giddings. On the weekends we like to get in extra lifting at home, things we feel we could use more work on or just want to see what we can do.

How would you describe your fitness/strength level, currently? She says: My fitness/strength level now vs what? When I was in HS playing Softball? I'd say I'm in better shape now for sure. Even after participating in a year of HS powerlifting I can out lift 17 year old me and I can do it with better form and for more reps. He says: My fitness level is better than it's ever been. Up until I began CrossFit 2 years ago I had never really been into any type of extra physical activities that were outside of work.

What are your fitness/strength goals? We agree, currently our only real goals are to be better than yesterday. After many years of not taking care of our bodies and minds, what better time than now to correct that?!  Lifting, and lifting with people you enjoy being around has a way of helping to rid some of the stresses from the rest of the day.

Describe your garage gym.  It consists of pretty much all of the equipment we need to perform the movements we do in our CrossFit classes. We've tried to make sure to purchase enough of the items, like barbells, dumbells, kettlebells and bumper plates, to allow us to both work out simultaneously on similar movements. With different strength levels on most lifts, having these additional items allows for less changing of weights between sets. 

Who works out in your garage gym? Usually it's just the two of us. Occasionally the kids like to come out and show us what they can do. Whether its busting out a few pull ups or just swinging on the rings, having a place where they can see that being active, whatever that means to them, and staying active is something that we enjoy and that we hope they will also learn to enjoy as they get older and are able to do more.

Why did you build a garage gym? We needed a place to spend more time on strength and conditioning. Attending CrossFit classes 3-4 days a week left us with a feeling like we were not getting to focus on some areas that we wanted to work on. The garage gym has helped us keep our fitness levels on the right track and has allowed us to still get work in when we cannot make it to the box. 

What’s your favorite piece of equipment in your garage? We agree that our favorite equipment in the gym would be the barbells and bumper plates. The One Fit Wonders are still better than the other brand bumpers both of us use at our respective gyms. Lifting is something we both enjoy.

What piece of equipment was a waste? Hmm I'm not going say that anything we currently have was really a waste. We did have a treadmill that we gave away before we started assembling our current gym. That was more of something that was unneeded and took up too much space.

What’s the next piece of equipment you’re going to get? Who knows.... That's Sean's department. I'm content with what we have now but he's always finding new things to add or try. Boxes, like for box jumps would be the most practical purchase. Though he'd probably say a GHD would be next on his list maybe even jerk blocks. 

Any dream piece of equipment? After attending the Games this year I (Sarah) wanted a Pig! Those things are huge and seem like quite a challenge to flip just once! Sean has his sights set on acquiring a rower or assault bike.

How did you build your garage gym? Our garage gym is a mix of new items and used. The bars, bumper plates, kettle bells, medicine balls and sleds were all purchased at the last 2 Fringe garage sales. The dumbbells were purchased at Academy. The rack was purchased online from a company called Titan Fitness. The platform was built by us one weekend using sheets of plywood and stall mats from Tractor Supply.

Do you have any tips for anyone else looking to build a garage gym? Build up piece by piece if you're not looking to go broke while building it. And don't be afraid to buy used items.