Bixby Man Builds Concrete Weights for Home Gyms

A lot of people around the country were struggling to find a new workout routine when gyms closed at the beginning of the pandemic.

This caused a big shortage of gym equipment because so many people were trying to find weights to stock their home gyms.

"Gyms were closing and it was kind of messing up my workout routine so I decided to just build a home gym," said Jeff Johnson. 

Like many others during the pandemic, Jeff Johnson had to find a new place to work out, but when the prices of weights skyrocketed on Facebook, he had to get creative.

That’s what I do, I solve problems, so I found a problem and came up with a solution for it,” said Johnson.

So Johnson started making concrete weights out of his garage and with a little encouragement from his friends, he decided to list them on Facebook. 

 "They were like hey I think other people would want to buy these things because you can't buy weights anywhere," said Johnson. 

 Johnson says from there, it took off!! He says so many people started messaging him wanting weights.

 "I wasn't sure what the response would be, but it's been really good,” said Johnson.

 But it took a few tries to get the mixture just right.

 "I probably have at least 120 hours in developing the molds and prototyping the concrete," said Johnson. 

 Johnson says he looked for steel weights about a year ago and they were going for a dollar a pound, but during the pandemic, they were going for about $3 a pound.

 "I thought the prices on that were just crazy so I am making the concrete weights for about 50 cents a pound so it's way more affordable for the average person,” said Johnson.

 Johnson is a mechanical engineer but lost his job in September because of the pandemic, so he's thankful he had something to fall back on.

 "It went from my hobby to actually providing a little bit of income while I am looking for a new job,” said Johnson.

 Johnson is even finding ways to do custom logos and can also change the colors of the plates.

 He says even though it's not where he started the year, the new hobby has helped keep things interesting along the way.

 “It’s not where I thought it would end at all but you just never know what you're going to think of," said Johnson.

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