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Introduction
Alex and Kevin from the Home Gym Discord discuss the beginning days of the channel, what’s going on these days, if there is any beef with the Reddit group, their home gyms, and more.
Find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts (YouTube, Spotify, Apple, etc.).
(0:10) Background on these two
Both are your typical guys who are interested in the home gym scene. They are family men into powerlifting, have experience with Starting Strength, and founding members of the Home Gym Discord.
(1:44) What is Discord?
Discord is a big group chat with lots of corners with specific conversations going on throughout. The “real-time” chat is an important feature. Kevin compared it to using Microsoft Teams or Slack in the corporate world.
Within their community of the ‘Home gym Discord,’ there are powerlifting, bodybuilding, nutrition, and training channels. They are primarily known for helping people find equipment for their home gyms.
(3:36) The best parts of the channel
Kevin’s favorite part of Discord is building relationships and the community in the online setting. Alex echoed somewhat the same message.
It’s evolved into an important part of their lives. Alex even mentions how it went from looking for barbells to being at Kevin’s wedding and having powerful bonds with the people on the channel.
(5:04) The founding story of the Home Gym Discord
It all started with gym equipment stock issues.
The founding members of the Home Gym Discord started on the Home Gym Reddit but were having issues with how Reddit works. As the stock was popping up, you would have to continue to refresh your page, whereas, in Discord, it works like a live chat. It was brought up to Reddit that they should start a Discord, and someone did.
In the early days of the pandemic, the Discord group posted stock updates, and people would follow the links and make their purchases.
In this section, Hogie reminisces the chaos of the stock updates. He plays a vital role in the story as he eventually deletes the entire server at the height of its membership (11,00 strong). At a certain point, the then founder of the group gave over the reigns to another member; in steps the notorious Dimillio.
Currently, they are in the rebuilding stage. They have built back up to 2,500 members.
(9:34) Beef with r/Home Gym?
There is no official beef with the Reddit side, only the s specific mod on Reddit who deleted the original Discord.
After that happened, there were some meetings between the two groups where sides were shared, feelings were explained, and there is no current issue between them.
(12:13) Reddit vs. Home GymDiscord
The Home Gym Discord was started because the guys felt that it was just the better server to use for what they wanted to get done. Since Discord offered a more ‘live’ chatting feature, it was easier to communicate stock updates.
This seems to be why most that prefer Discord continue to use it. The group chat element of Discord allows the conversations to get deeper and with a large group of people.
In addition, there are a ton of equipment manufacturers who are involved and reach out to this group for advice/conversation. REP, American Barbell, Mutant Metals, Irwin Fitness, and more have all been involved.
(23:17) What is the Ice Cream Classic?
The Ice Cream Classic is an online powerlifting meet. It is treated like a real powerlifting meet. Participants need to weigh in the day of, submit their three attempts, get their name into the raffles, and experience what a real powerlifting meet might feel like.
The community rallies around the event. On the day of the event, many people are on the servers watching the videos posted and cheering on the lifters.
Also, a few of the members are USPL judges, and they help with the meet.
(29:23) Home Gym Tours
Hogie
Hogie has a bedroom gym!
His Gym is in the extra bedroom in his house. It features a REP PR4000 configured into a half-rack, a lifting platform, two benches, and a few specialty bars (Texas deadlift bar, the Rogue Aggro bar, and a Marrs bar), all in a 10’x10′ room.
Brick
Alex has a garage gym. It is padded with gymnastic flooring, which gives it a nice ‘silencing’ effect. The centerpiece of his Gym is t e Rogue RM-4 with the Williams Strength pull-up bar, monolifts, and bands hanging off it. Behind the rack, he stores his Rogue Deep Dish Plates and Havok Triad weights on unique wall storage he made f om some uprights.
Additionally, he has half of a cable cross-over with the lat pull down attached and barbell storage complete with a War bar, Bella bar, Kabuki Power bar, Big Hess Fat bar, Cadilac bar, Duffalo bar, and the Marrs bar.
More to Check Out
- Join the Home Gym Discord
- Follow Home Gym Discord on IG
- On a previous podcast, Joe Gray explains what r/Home Gym looks like these days.
- Get additional summaries and analysis by subscribing to Knurled News
