An independent home gym testing crew — we assemble, load and train on every rack and machine.
We assemble every rack and machine ourselves, so wobble, hardware quality and instructions all factor into the score.
No manufacturer pays for placement or a higher score. Rankings are ours alone.
Weeks of real sessions — not a showroom glance — reveal stability, comfort and durability under load.
Iron Pavilion was built for one reason: home gym equipment is expensive, heavy, and hard to return, so the decision to buy deserves better information than a glossy product page or a five-minute unboxing video. We test the gear, live with it, and tell you what actually happens after the first month, not just the first workout.
Iron Pavilion began in a converted two-car garage outside Denver, Colorado, where our founder, a former competitive powerlifter and certified strength coach named Marcus Ojeda, spent years assembling, breaking, returning, and rebuilding home gym setups for himself, his training clients, and his neighbors who kept asking the same question: 'What should I actually buy?' After watching too many friends waste money on squat racks that wobbled, adjustable benches that squeaked apart mid-set, and treadmills that died within a year, Marcus started writing detailed notes comparing equipment side by side. Those notes turned into spreadsheets, the spreadsheets turned into a blog, and in 2021 the blog became Iron Pavilion. What started as a favor to friends is now a small, independent team of lifters, coaches, and equipment nerds who believe that building a home gym shouldn't require a engineering degree or a leap of faith.
Our team is made up of people who actually train, not just people who write about training. Marcus leads product testing and oversees strength equipment like racks, barbells, and benches. He's joined by Priya Nair, a physical therapist and former competitive CrossFit athlete who focuses on mobility tools, recovery equipment, and injury-prevention gear, and by Dale Whitfield, a mechanical engineer with a background in manufacturing who tears down equipment specs, steel gauges, and warranty fine print so you don't have to. Every review is written by someone with direct hands-on time with the product, and every article is edited by at least one other team member before it publishes.
We built our review process around a simple idea: recommendations should survive real use, not just a first impression. Here's what that looks like in practice.
We know 'trust us' means little on its own, so we try to earn it in ways you can verify.
Our goal is simple: help you build a home gym you'll actually use for years, without the guesswork, the marketing gloss, or the buyer's remorse. Thanks for reading, and welcome to Iron Pavilion.
