My Platform

You will need the following:

4-2×6″x9′

Rubber mats. 

Lots of old carpet. 

Lots of plywood. 

The frame awaits carpet for the sides and plywood on the center.

The first thing I did was lay 2 pieces of 3/4″ plywood down in the center of my garage. Put them were you want your 8×8′ platform. This will make your base of your platform.  Then I put 2 more sheets facing the other way. I screwed them together. 

Next I filled up the center with with old sheets of 4’x8′ 3/4″ plywood until I got to the top of the 2×6″ frame. If you do not have plywood around or you want to save money; you can lay 2″x 4″x8′ boards on edge in the center then cap it with plywood to have a smooth top.

Now you are left with 2- 2’x 8′ empty wells on each side of the platform. This is where the  rubber weights will be dropped.

I layered 2’x 8′ carpet and carpet underlay strips in the wells. to provide cushion. When I got closer to the top I

Almost finished. Just need to add the 2 floating plywood sheets fastened together with carpet in between. Cap it with a rubber mat and lay it down in the trough.

used a 2’x 8′ piece of plywood to go on top of all the carpet layers. Then I put another layer of carpet on top then another 2’x 8′ piece of plywood on top of that. So I basically had a plywood/carpet sandwich for my top layer screwed together. Then I added a 2’x 8′ rubber strip on top to finish it off at the right height of my platform’s center.

Note: especially if you are lifting with a women’s bar, you will probably want to make the side wells 30″ wide by 8′ long and the center 3’x8′. The collars on a female bar are a bit more narrow so you will want the weights to land on the sides instead of the center of the platform.

If you want to take it a step further, you can build this whole platform on top of carpet. Or you can use a carpet on top to drop the weights on. That will dampen the noise a bit more. Here is a video of dropping 150kg on the platform:
Oh yah, don’t forget to put your doggy bed in front of the platform so he can watch you train!

This platform will dampen noise and the blow of the weights hitting the concrete. Post any questions of the platform construction in the comments section and I will be happy to answer.

To get started, you do not NEED a platform, the only required equipment is a barbell and bumper plates.