Hammer Strength Equipment Buying Checklist: Power Racks, MTS Chest Press & Free Weights

Some equipment orders have a ninety-day runway. Most of the ones that land on my desk have a lease start date, member deposits, and a three-week window. I coordinate commercial gym equipment for a living—170+ orders in the past six years, many of them Hammer Strength projects that came in under deadline pressure. This is the checklist I use when a client’s opening date is not optional.

Before you start: this checklist is for people with a date

This is for gym owners, facility managers, and strength coaches who have an actual opening date and a fixed space. If you have three months and can move the timeline, you can weigh more options and make slower decisions. If you have 30 days and you’re already selling memberships, follow these steps in order. The first one is the one everyone gets backwards.

Step 1: Count stations and lay out the floor first

The conventional wisdom says start with a machine list. I understand why. When you picture a serious training facility, you picture equipment: a solid power rack, a big chest press, rows, pull-downs, benches. That’s the fun part. The problem is that a machine list can’t tell you whether you’re buying enough equipment or too much.

Stand in the actual space with a tape measure and answer three questions:

• How many members or clients will train here during your peak hour?
• How many square feet are actually usable for strength work?
• What is the minimum station count you need to avoid a line at the rack?

In practice, a 1,500 sq ft strength zone and a 5,000 sq ft strength zone lead to completely different orders. If you need eight stations, one power rack and one chest press are only the beginning. If you need two stations, the power rack plus a chest press covers most of it. In a rush, people often overbuy specialized machines and underbuy racks, benches, and floor space. That’s how you end up with a lat machine nobody can reach because the dumbbell area became a storage room.

Step 2: Anchor the zone with a power rack

Once the station count is clear, the power rack is usually the anchor of the whole strength area. It handles squats, bench presses, rack pulls, and pin work in one footprint. If you want commercial durability, the Hammer Strength power rack is a natural fit from that perspective. It’s one of the pieces I spec first when a client wants a simple, durable base for heavy barbell training.

Something I’ve learned the hard way: check the ceiling height before you get excited about a rack. Most power racks assume a standard commercial ceiling, but not every fitness space has one. If you’re in a lower-level space or under a mezzanine, “standard” size may not be standard for your building. Measure from finished floor to the lowest obstruction, not from the concrete slab. That’s a mistake I’ve seen cost a client an entire install day.

Step 3: Choose plate-loaded or selectorized after the rack, not before

When it comes to the main pressing movement, the conversation is usually about plate-loaded versus selectorized. There’s no universal answer—it depends on your member base.

For a facility that trains athletes and serious lifters, plate-loaded equipment often makes sense. The loading process is slower, but the feel is direct and coaches are usually standing there anyway. For a commercial floor with a wider member base, a selectorized piece is easier to use. The Hammer Strength MTS Iso-Lateral Chest Press is the selectorized option I keep coming back to. It gives lifters independent Iso-Lateral movement, but in a format that’s quick to adjust and easy for newer lifters to use safely.

That independent movement matters more than people think. With a fixed bar or fixed-arm machine, the stronger side can quietly take over. With independent arms, you can actually see the imbalance. It doesn’t fix the problem by itself, but it makes it visible—which is the first step in correcting it.

Step 4: Add free weight coverage for arms and accessory training

Here’s the part that surprises a lot of first-time buyers: you don’t need a big row of single-joint arm machines to run great arm workouts. A good pair of dumbbells and a small set of kettlebells will cover more programming than another machine, and it takes up less floor space.

Dumbbell workouts for arms

For most general-population clients, dumbbell workouts for arms are the most practical place to start. They’re easy to scale, they allow full range of motion, and they don’t require a machine change between sets. The basics I keep going back to are incline dumbbell curls, neutral-grip hammer curls, supported dumbbell triceps extensions, and rolling skull crushers. That gives you something for almost any client in the first session.

Kettlebell arm workout

Kettlebells are a little different. A kettlebell arm workout isn’t about chasing a pump the way a dumbbell bodybuilding session might be. Kettlebells shine for grip strength, shoulder stability, and total-body tension. Bottoms-up presses, waiter carries, two-arm bent-over rows, and heavy suitcase carries all do more for functional arm and grip strength than a dedicated curl machine will.

So when someone is planning the budget and asks whether they need both dumbbells and kettlebells, my answer is usually yes—but buy the dumbbells first, and buy a smaller kettlebell set than you think you need. That might seem counterintuitive, but in a rush order, dumbbells get used every hour. Kettlebells are important, but they’re not the bottleneck on opening day.

Step 5: Verify inventory and freight terms before you place the order

This is the step that separates a smooth project from a disaster. In the commercial equipment world, “in stock” doesn’t always mean what buyers hope it means. It might mean the item is on order. It might mean it’s in production. It might mean it’s sitting in a warehouse 300 miles away, but nobody has checked.

In my role triaging rush orders, I ask one direct question: is the item physically available and can you give me a delivery window in writing? If the answer includes the word “usually,” I don’t build the schedule around it.

Another source of pain is freight. Big strength equipment ships on pallets and crates, not through standard parcel delivery. You need to confirm the freight quote includes a liftgate if there’s no loading dock. I watched a client try to save roughly $650 on expedited freight—or rather, they chose the cheaper ground option to keep the budget tight. The truck arrived at 5:15 PM instead of 10:00 AM, the install crew stood around waiting, and the added labor cost more than the freight upgrade would have. The cheaper option wasn’t cheaper.

Also: if you’re on a tight timeline, skip custom colors and custom finishes. I know the custom look is impressive. It’s also a possible eight-week lead time. For an opening date that can’t move, a standard finish in stock is the safer path.

Step 6: Finalize payment correctly—and know the HSA answer

Equipment won’t release until the payment side is locked. If you’re buying for a commercial facility, you’re usually looking at a business credit account, equipment financing, or a direct wire transfer. Those channels make sense because the equipment is a business asset.

One question keeps coming up from clients, especially owner-operators: can I buy gym equipment with an HSA? The straight answer is no for a commercial gym build. A Health Savings Account is only for qualified medical expenses. General fitness equipment doesn’t qualify, even if the person buying it is very committed to training.

Under IRS Publication 969, HSA distributions that aren’t used for qualified medical expenses are subject to income tax plus a 20% penalty. There is a narrow path where a doctor prescribes a specific piece of equipment to treat a specific medical condition—for example, after an injury or for a diagnosed chronic issue. In that case, with a Letter of Medical Necessity, an individual piece of equipment used personally may be reimbursable. But that doesn’t cover a power rack that will be used by members, clients, or employees. And if you’re not sure, talk to a tax advisor before taking a distribution. The 20% penalty is a nasty surprise.

Step 7: Walk the space 48 hours before delivery

By this point, the order is placed, the payment is scheduled, and the install date is locked. The step that still gets skipped is the final site walk. Don’t skip it.

Walk the entire path the equipment will travel from the loading area to its final position. Measure doorways. Look for low ceiling clearance. Check if there are stairs, tight corners, or a step that a pallet jack can’t manage. And designate a staging area with clear boundaries. Send your installer a photo, not just the address.

I once had a client confirm that the staging area was clear. In my head, “staging area” meant an empty space next to the rack pad. In their head, it meant the back hall near the restrooms. Both of us said the same phrase and we found out what it meant when the first crate blocked the route to the strength zone—or rather, when the delivery driver pointed out that he couldn’t get the crate around the corner. That mistake cost about three hours of the install crew’s time and a lot of unnecessary stress. Nobody wants to make that discovery on delivery day.

Common mistakes to avoid when the timeline is short

Four mistakes show up more than anything else on rushed Hammer Strength orders:

First, people customize too late. If the opening date is fixed, don’t choose custom frame colors or special upholstery unless you’ve verified the lead time in writing. Standard commercial equipment moves faster. Second, people forget access. A power rack is tall. A chest press is heavy. If it can’t get through the door, nothing else matters.

Third, people buy from gray-market sellers because the price looks like a bargain. If the quote promises a full commercial warranty but doesn’t show an authorized dealer invoice, serial numbers, and a warranty registration path, treat it cautiously. Under FTC advertising rules (ftc.gov), claims like “commercial grade” and “full warranty” need evidence to back them up. A too-low price from a reseller without documentation can jeopardize the entire timeline.

Fourth, they forget the floor setup. Even a straightforward power rack install takes more time than you’d guess if the floor is uneven, rubber mats aren’t down yet, or tools are stored in the same zone. Get the space ready before delivery, not after.

When I walk out of a well-run job, it’s usually because the checklist was followed in order: stations first, rack anchored, machine choice made for the right users, free weights in place, freight verified, payment solved, and the room proven ready. If you do that, the opening date remains the opening date. If you skip one of those steps, the equipment might still arrive—getting it installed is where the trouble starts.