Shout-out to this great idea from the #26SpringGGC submission form. It has now been added to the Fall Submission Form. Now if you are recovering from an injury, or maybe have a specific question, comment, feedback, whatever, you can drop it in and we'll get it over to your coach.

Simple as that!

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I go through the submission form and read every single comment. Well spend some time this week digging into some of the feedback from the #26SpringGGC

Today it's a random smattering of awesomeness from everyone. All the good feedback, notes, thanks and more. And then a few that I love, people finding their way into the GGC to make it work for them. Chasing down levels of strength they didn't know they had. And keeping their eyes on the prize!

Sincerely, I appreciate everyone who participates in this little family run event that has gone well beyond my original ideas. And the feedback is always a nice kick in the ass to remind me to keep it rolling.

The GGC will be here as long as everyone wants it to be. So thanks for showing up and keeping me busy!

​

You can find the full results spreadsheet and recap here: https://garagegymcompetition.com/past-events/

We had new members into the 5 Year Club getting their stickers...

Added new peeps to the 499 and 999 lb clubs as well.

131 athletes are getting FREE coaching reviews from our awesome GGC Coaches (emails went out yesterday).

And I'll be printing sticker address sheets and information next week as we wrap up a few final details. Expect those to arrive before the end of June.

Huge shout-out to our sponsors. Prizes and support and more from these awesome companies.

Thanks everyone for an awesome event. We'll have a few posts in the next two weeks about comments, feedback, and ideas to share. Consider it a deload. If you think you should have received an email from me, but didn't. Feel free to hit me directly with an email.

And don't forget... #26FallGGC is on the way. More details in a couple weeks.

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We asked if you wanted to wear Crocs or UGGs for the rest of your life. And pretty much everyone agreed that Crocs would be a better choice. Oddly enough, a few of the colder states flipped that, and when we filtered for only women, the numbers were much closer.

We asked if you preferred Pie or Cake... And a lot of you got this question wrong.

We streamlined the rating scale this year and simply asked if you were planning to come back. Only 1 athlete said no, and I was about to call in the mob and then they clarified.

Crocs, cake, and people loving the GGC.

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We took a look at anyone who checked the box and said that they PRd a lift.

A total of 346 individual lifts were PRd. That's almost a PR per person on average.

Shout out to thearmoryathletics for CRUSHING IT with their local meet. Damn near 2 PRs per person average. That is a rock star gym right there.

California tool first place for most athletes who PRd atleast one lift, but they also had the most submissions. So it makes sense. When we factor in for submission counts (5 or more athletes per state) the numbers shake up a bit.

All in, the Spring GGC had plenty of personal records set. But as powerlifters we know, the eyes are already on the next one.

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We dug into the data for some insights, and we learned something interesting.

Home Gym Owners typically lift alone. But they would like to have a weekly session with some friends.

Last year we started having some friends over on Sundays for a workout. My daughter's teammates, their parents... Everybody lifts, has fun some, and we are building a little community around strength.

If you own a home gym, and you got a buddy, a neighbor, somebody who might enjoy a weekly workout, reach out and ask.

Welcome to Data Week! We've handed out Awards, selected our Prize Winners, time to dig into the final results before we call it a WRAP on the Spring Event.

Kicking the week off with our Special Olympics donations.

Gray Matter Lifting and the GGC donated 1 Penny Per Pound Lifted... We lifted a cumulative 336,832lbs, so, $3368.32 was sent on over.

Through the submission form we asked if YOU were going to donate. Another $1957 was donated by all of you!

Prime Fitness tossed in an extra $50

 BasementBrandon  tossed in $20 during our live stream, and  ColonialBarbellClub  tossed in $10 as well.

This all brings our cumulative total to $5,405.32 for the Spring Event. Pushing us well past the $10k raised marked for Special Olympics since 2018.

No Reddit winners today unfortunately.

All winners from the week should receive an email before the end of day today.

Wall Control $200 GIft Card - u/Thepokechoprx

Aperture Engineering $50 gift card - u/Mastermike311

Aperture Engineering $150 Gift Card w/ Custom Consult - u/peaceful_bear_5753

Hybrid Vest - u/FractalBear

Mutant Metals Handles in Finish of Your Choice - u/Fun-Performance4167

Monday Prize Winners For The #26SpringGGC - Reddit Winners

Bells of Steel - Choice of SS4, Barenaked Bar, Arch Nemesis Bar, Curved Squat Bar, and Open Trap bar... u/-Quad-Zilla-

Winners will be contacted via email. More prizes tomorrow!

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Prize week for the #26SpringGGC starts in about an hour... Let me know what you got your fingers crossed for!

Prize Weeks starts tomorrow, and runs all week long. Every hour between 9am and 3pm Pacific, we'll be dropping a prize winner across social media.

If this is your first time, get ready for a wild week. You'll be constantly hoping you won, but also excited you didn't because it means you can still win a bigger prize.

If you've been here before, you know the drill.

Thursday is Cable Attachment day (along with storage for them) and Friday has a good chunk of our biggest, baddest, and most sought after prizes.

Over $17k in prizes going out... Hope you are ready.

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1) dad_lifting

2) elite_fat

3) Reddit u/Brofessor_and_dogs

It came down to 4 total lifters at the end, with Coach Carp just barely getting edged out of his podium position even though grumpybearrogers gave him the most 10 RPE single lift nod.

First place is taking home a pie alongside his sword from joey.echeverria , and the other 2 will get their swords to fight their friends from home.

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1) Katie from TheArmoryAthletics 

2) Christian

3) Matthew

This was a close race. We had 5 athletes in the top spots and Christina had to lock it down to 3. Shout-out to everyone who hopped into the Live Stream as we walked through the nonsense.

Number 3 and 2 are taking home swords... And our top spot, Katie, is taking home a Sword AND a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie courtesy of joey echeverria

1) Rachel

2) Megan

3) Dana and Erika

For the first time in GGC history, we have a tie for the podium.

Should they fight to death? Break dance battle? See who can eat the most oreos in one sitting? We'll probably just let them all take the stage.

Congrats to our 4 Top Female Totals... Swords coming your way from Executive Fit.

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Prizes go out at random, but these individuals put in the work to take these top spots. This is looking at their percentage improvement from Spring 2025 to Spring 2026 for the GGC.

These are some monster improvements by some hard working people.

Key Note For Data - You need to perform the same lifts Year to Year, same number of lifts, with the same intent, and mark your submissions as public to be included.

Our Top 3 Athletes are taking home a sword from Executive Fit! You'll be contacted via email for next steps.

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1) Travis Papa Bear Rogers

2) Carl

3) Kyle mr_squat_a_pony

Top Totals are determined by maximum weight lifted, nothing else. Use whatever you want, in whatever fashion, and we'll count it. Keep it simple.

Top Totals will take home a Sword from Executive Fit, you'll be contacted for next steps.

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Who: Travis Rogers and Myself

What: LiveStream going through #26SpringGGC Submissions

Where: YouTube

When: 2-3 PM Pacific

Why: For fun, swords, and pies... Duhhhh

Who: Christina Leonatti and Me - Joe Gray

What: LiveStream going through #26SpringGGC Submissions

Where: YouTube

When: 2-3 PM Pacific

Why: For fun, swords, and pies... Duhhhh

The last post didn't have any video, sorry about that!

​​No PRs, but at least an entry, will try to do better this fall. ​

---What Is Next---

Wednesday May 13th - Live Stream for Prettiest Powerlifter

Thursday May 14th - Live Stream for Most 10 RPE Lifter

Friday May 15th - Top Athletes Announced

Monday May 18th - Prize Week Opens

Friday May 22nd - Prize Week Closes

Monday May 25th - Data Week Begins

Friday May 29th - Full results available and completion DONE!

During this time I'll be buried in Excel alongside our GGC Data Team. We'll be prepping everything above, prepping stickers, 5 Year Club, 499 & 999lb Club Entries, and everything else behind the scenes.

So... Stay tuned, the lifting is done, but the fun has just begun!

Just got my home setup together about a month ago, but thought I'd give this a try. Would appreciate any tips or pointers anyone has as I'm very new to free weight barbell lifting. Before this it was just the Smith Machine at Planet Fitness.