🏋️ Rubber vs. iron plates: which is better?

Welcome to Home Gym Club! When it comes to weight plates, some lifters may say, “It’s called pumping iron, not rubber.” But we think there’s room for both in your gym.

What’s in today’s newsletter:

• Coop weighs in on the weight plates he can’t live without.

• We tasted the Swoly Creatine Gummies.

• Is the Rogue HR-2 Half-Rack your next home gym investment?

• Our team put the Aaptiv Fitness App to the test.

Watch Party

2024’s Best Weight Plates

These plates are so nice, that you may be tempted to ditch your fancy dinnerware and serve a meal on these bad boys.

Coop tackles everything you’d want to know about outfitting your home gym with the best weight plates, including:

• Rubber vs. iron

• Brands to know

• Best options for every budget

Coop also divulges which plates he would choose for his gym. WWCC (what would Coop choose?)

Supps Corner

Swoly Creatine Gummies Review

Gone are the days when creatine was exclusively available in powder form. If you want the benefits of creatine but don’t consider yourself a powder practitioner, you’re in luck, creatine has evolved and is available in gummy form.

Enter GGR’s best creatine gummies pick: Swoly Creatine Gummies. But are these delicious gummy bears just a gimmick, or will they help you build muscle mass and improve athletic performance?

For this Swoly Creatine Gummies Review, we asked registered dietitian Sydney Lappe and GGR Senior Director of Content Kate Meier, NASM-CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1, to investigate.

Half-Rack Hero

Rogue HR-2 Half Rack Review

A squat rack is one large piece of equipment, so if space is an issue you may have to find a more compact solution like a squat stand or half rack. With a half rack, you’ll still be able to perform many of your greatest barbell hits while using up a fraction of your square footage. Sounds great, but which half-rack ticks all the boxes?

In our Rogue HR-2 Half Rack review, we look at one of our favorite half racks from home gym stalwart Rogue Fitness. We talk about its build, footprint, and the ideal uses for it, to help you determine if this half rack is right for your home gym.`

App Avenue

Aaptiv Fitness App Review

Want the benefits of a fitness app without being dependent on your phone during training? The Aaptiv Fitness App offers audio workouts as a convenient way to break a sweat without needing your phone in front of you. This is certainly a unique approach to virtual training, but how well does it work, and is it superior to other apps that allow you to follow along with streaming video workouts or pre-made programs where you track your sets and reps at your own pace?

We thoroughly tested this app and will explain everything you need to know in our Aaptiv Fitness App review.

Quick Hits

Brrr, It’s Cold In Here

• We climbed into the Redwood Outdoors Alaskan Cold Plunge. Here’s our experience.

• Revolutionize your core workouts with the kettlebell around the world exercise.

• A greens powder that’s actually tasty? We tried Legion Genesis Greens.