Why Steelfit?

There was a time when I thought that a good day in the gym meant working my way through a circuit of weight training equipment, doing 5 miles on a treadmill and dropping in some occasional free weights for affect.  Most of the workouts were either pulled out of magazines or were a series of other simple isolated muscle group exercises I patched together.

It was about three years ago that I was introduced to Crossfit  by friend and trainer Blair Morrison. Blair is a world class athlete and avid crossfit practioner.  Check out his blog at www.crossfitmobile.blogspot.com. Needless to say, after my inaugural "Filthy Fifty", I was hooked and wouldn't look at exercising the same way again.

While Crossfit and fitness overall has become  a passion and an integral part of my life, the ingenuity and creativity demonstrated by Blair and others like him is what inspired me to start Steelfit.  There were more than one occasion when we would be working out in the early morning in Washington DC and I would be introduced to  a new toy just acquired or proudly made by hand the day prior after a trip to the Home Depot; a giant slosh pipe, beer kegs for pressing/cleaning or a pair of parallettes made of PVC pipe.  This always got us talking about the endless possibilities for using all sorts of things for the purpose of adding interest and challenge to a work out.

It wasn't long before I was ready to test my own sense of inventiveness.  When the topic of conversation became the "lame" wall mounted pull up bar in our gym (too close to the wall to kip) or the only other options that were incorporated into a rack system, the mission seemed obvious.  With a brother in the steel fabrication business (and the ability to build just about anything I could dream up), Steelfit was born along with a 12 foot, multiple station, varying grip, group pull up bar.  The combination of my passion for fitness and my partners expertise in steel started us down a path that resulted in the formation of Steelfit Strength Systems LLC.

As I travel, I try to check out boxes whenever I can and am always impressed with the ingenuity and creativity demonstrated in putting them together. While there are plenty of standard products out there, I love checking out the "bars" to see what the local guys have built.

The purpose of this blog is to share ideas as a live "laboratory"  or focus group of sorts.  I will post images  of new designs we have created and show previews of some of the custom pull up bar systems and other gym build outs we are working on.  If you have seen something cool or have been thinking about a way to improve a current piece of equipment, share it. 

The only limit we have is our imagination !!!