New to home gym, I don't like my power rack.

This is what I bought: Amazon.com

The rack is too narrow. It's an inch or two narrower on each side than every power rack or squat rack I've ever used in a commercial gym. I have to keep my pinkies inside the rings to squat inside the safeties.

The three options I see:
1. Deal with it and squat with a close grip. I'm not sure if this will lead to form issues down the road. I do high bar squats though which might overcomplicate the form question.
2. I'm looking into building a 4x8 deadlift platform for power cleans. I have 1 pair of iron 45s and 2 pairs of bumper 45s scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. Would squatting outside the safeties and learning to dump the bar behind me work since I'll have bumpers and a platform?
3. Try to return the power rack and buy a wider one.

Thoughts?

1. Can I see a video of you squatting? I'm having a hard time understanding why you would need such a wide grip when you high bar squat.

2. You spent all this money on a rack with a safety device. You should use it if possible or just buy a new one

3. Yeah probably. You got what you paid for on this one.

You should squat with as tight a grip as you can manage. Wide = loose. I have a client that has a very wide grip due to injury and age so we just deal with it but it’s not ideal.

I’m the “buy nice, not twice” king of guy and I think you’ll soon be done with that thing. The R3 is good but if you have some equipment, you can build a SS rack for about the same price. I’ve done 2 that way, one for my basement and one to coach with.

maybe you could find a fabricator and have the spreaders rebuilt a few inches longer

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neilc1

maybe you could find a fabricator and have the spreaders rebuilt a few inches longer

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Good luck on that, most fabricators won't have anything to do with fixing cheap crap from China.