leveling lifting equipment in your basement

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

i have a basement in which all the floors are sloped for the drains and i was wondering if anyone had any ideas for leveling my training equipment aside for shims.

i guess shims will work for things like my heavy bag stand (http://users.1st.net/abaddon/fam/hbstand.jpg), but i was wondering if there was something better for my bench and such.

also i figure its probably not ideal to be lifting on a surface that's not level. up until now i been just switching which direction i face when i lilft and such, but i plan on finally getting everything else out of the basement and getting all the equipment leveled and set in their final places this weekend and next.

just looking for ideas.

[bodhitree]

dude I want that freaking stand dip handles, push up bars, speed bag, heavy bag, ball,


i freakin hate you man.

[Chief Fox]

The hard way would be to build a big platform that your machine or bench can sit on. Then you could use shims to level the whole platform. It would have to be pretty freakin big though so you would have enough room to move around the bags. Other than that, I'm not sure. I'd probably just go with shims under your piece of equipment.

Nice picture by the way. ;)

[Oso]

for anything like that bag stand...I'd attach the shims to the machine...otherwise, they'll slip.

figure and cut the wood shims. then, maybe the simplest would be to zip tie them to the feet of the maching. a little adhesive in addition to the zips would probably make them near bomb proof.

or

IF you have a welder friend and
IF you are going to leave them in the same place.
you could have someone weld shims or stabilizers to the feet .

[IronFist]

Depending on the slope, if you're benching, for example, I'd rather bench with the slope going forward or backward rather than side to side. So you'd have a slight incline/decline going on there. I think that would be fine.

It might cause a problem with squatting/deadlift.

Of course, I'd be more worried about the stability of my equipment that is supporting me and/or my weights than the effect a slope would have on my workout. You wouldn't want to rack the barbell after a set of squats only to have it fall on you because your floor is crooked.

How much of a slope are we talking about, here?

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

well i guess its pretty typical for any basement with drains ... it sloaps in all directions about an inch over 8 feet id say. maybe not even that much.

all of the equipment sits fairly comforably by setting it in position all loosened first and then tightening down, but i wonder if it would have an effect over time.

the weight bench looks identical to this (http://www.bodyuniverse.com/mas_assets/images/FM-G3141.jpg) but its yellow.

it doesnt seem to rock or anything, but i wonder if id be ahead to put a piece of plywood underneeth it for a little more give.