Millers put together home gym

DUMONT – Since no workout facilities are not open during the coronavirus, the Miller family out of Dumont found a way to improvise.

Brian Miller and his son, Cole, found instructions to build a rack and bench in their own garage and the rest is history.

“I just basically found it, actually Cole found it online,” Brian Miller said. “He’d been bugging me to buy some (equipment) online, (his) mom wouldn’t let him because he has school loans. This just cost $200, and I just threw it together in a couple of hours.

“It’s in our garage. He did buy the bar and the weights and got a curbside pick-up at Dick’s (Sporting Goods) in Waterloo. He asked if he could (do it) on Friday night. I got up Saturday morning and we said, ‘let’s do it.’ Carson helped and we got it done by the time he got back, probably about three hours.”

And the quickly put-together gym has already seen plenty of use.

“Basically, it’s been Cole and the two girls (using it),” Brian Miller said. “Courtney is going to play basketball at NIACC and Cassy has one year left (of basketball) at BVU; they’ve been given workouts to do at home by the coaches, and Cole is working right along with them. Cole put down masking tape for them to work on agility, squats and ladders. I’m thinking about making a lat(eral) press-type of thing with pulleys (to add on).

“They’ve done it every day since I put it in there. It’s definitely getting used. All the lumber used in it came from the lumber yard here in Hampton, and the piping from the hardware store here in Hampton. It’s definitely nice to use local at this time.”

Normally, the Miller sisters and Cole have places to go to in order to lift weights or get their work-outs in.

“A lot of time, the coaches would let them in the high school, either that or (they’d go to) the Wellness Center,” Miller said. “Cole was using a brick-pull from my father-in-law (for weights) until he brought this up.”

Miller added that most of the material was already on hand.

“The bench part of it, I had some scrap iron laying around, and welded the frame together,” Miller said. “My father-in-law (had materials). I eventually want to pad it, but I just got them going anyway. It’s all homemade.”

When jokingly asked if he was taking orders, Miller said he had, in fact, gotten one.

“I got one request after it was posted on Twitter,” he said.