Backyard Barbell - San Jose, California

Murali M.

Diego is a great coach at this gym. I’ve been working with him for over a year, and he has helped me immensely. He’s very knowledgeable about powerlifting and does everything from making your program, nutrition suggestions, rep to rep feedback, and help with mobility and more.

The gym itself has 5+ squat racks, great equipment and 24 hours access. Highly recommend!

Alex G.

This is a great facility for people into power lifting or strongman training. There are plenty of racks, machines and almost every specialty barbell you can imagine. The coaches and clients are all very friendly.

I've been training at Backyard Barbell under Coach Brian for almost two years now, and I've had a great experience. I had thought my lifting days were over due to a pre-existing shoulder injury and knee injury that never fully recovered from physical therapy. Thanks to Brian's programming I'm now lifting way more than before the injuries and my recovery has exceeded what I thought was possible with barbell training. Not only am I much stronger but my quality of life has improved a lot as my injuries have become nearly asymptomatic.

I would recommend backyard barbell to anyone interested in strength training, and I would highly recommend Coach Brian to anyone struggling to work around injuries!

jisocook

I was looking for a powerlifting gym and stumbled on Backyard Barbell. I was impressed with the gym and how orderly everything was and how clean it was for a powerlifting gym. I inquired about personal training and was paired with Diego. Diego is a great coach! We have been training for over a year and I have made some awesome achievements in my lifting. I recently competed in my first WRPF meet and placed. Squatted 518, benched 320, and deadlifted 484. These results would have never happened if it wasn’t for the expertise Diego drew from to train me. From pointing out weaknesses and deficiencies and training them out with accessories to giving me the confidence to throw 500 pounds on my back. I would recommend this gym to anyone seeking strongman and powerlifting training. Both Diego and Chandler have the skills needed to get you where ever you want to go.

Aaron M.

Great gym, friendly and helpful trainers, lots of equipment, and good price for the quality of coaching. Diego helped me put 200lbs on my deadlift in a few months, highly recommend.

Varun D.

It’s the best gym in San Jose!
If you are serious about pursuing your strength goals, Backyard Barbell is the place. They have the perfect setup to do no-nonsense, no-BS workouts. Chandler is also quite active on acquiring equipment that targets specificity in powerlifting and strongman.

I’ve been personally working with Coach Diego since February 2024, and the strength gains have been massive.
Diego is very knowledgeable about sport-specific issues, and excels at pinpointing and correcting the minutest flaw in technique.
I started as basically a beginner, and Diego has transformed me into an intermediate level lifter in a matter of months. Specifically, I’ve seen my S, B, D maxes go up by 140lbs, 70lbs, and 120lbs respectively.
I’m currently training off-season with Diego, and he has successfully rounded me out as a lifter - strengthening my weak points while holding on to gains during a cut.

Lastly, the community at BB is very supportive, and friendly. You’ll find no lack of people cheering you on, when you’re going for a max-out.
All coaches are more than willing to provide a spot, if needed. And, might even add in a critique or two that comes from a place of tremendous experience in the field.

I highly recommend giving Backyard Barbell a try!

Premkumar M.

Backyard Barbell is an old-school powerlifting gym. The first thing I noticed is that, there are no mirrors. No one is showing off, but minds their own business with the weights. Everyone I met so far in the gym are helpful and also showed respect and support for the beginners like me. I never felt out of place, even when I joined the gym.

I took group training sessions with my coach Diego Rivera. He started from the very basic movements, what to do, what not to do etc. He stressed the importance of diet, hydration, sleep and stretching again and again over many sessions. Please listen to him 🙂

As I progress further with heavier weights, I started getting pains in different parts of the body. Diego is knowledgeable and suggested different exercises, additional stretching movements to get rid off those pains. I am super happy and thankful to have Diego as my powerlifting coach.

I started from no experience in powerlifting and able to do squats @ 360 lbs, bench @ 215 lbs, deadlift @ 365 lbs, in just 8 months. See the videos in this review.

I highly recommend Backyard Barbell and Diego for your powerlifting needs.

Derek S.

Powerlifting pandemonium! Are you new to powerlifting? Have you been doing it for years? If you are serious about lifting and putting in the work, you need to be a member of Back Yard Barbell.

Credit to Chandler and Nicole for BYBB’s magnetic environment. With its old-school iron-first style, BYBB has the coaches and the equipment you need to reach your highest potential.

Go see Diego; thank me later.

Whether you're brand new to powerlifting or have been doing it for years, Coach Diego is the resource you want in your corner.

When I started with Diego at the end of December 2023, I did so for two reasons: 1) I needed help getting into better positions in all three big lifts: Bench, Squat, and Deadlift; 2) I wanted a team environment and accountability.

I ended up with far more than I anticipated. Over the past nine months of working with Diego, I have lost over 52 lbs of fat tissue and dropped 12% body fat, with zero loss in lean tissue (data achieved via Dexa Scan). In addition, we simultaneously surpassed all of my collegiate personal records.

Goal #1: ✅ Definitely achieved better positions. Here are my maxes after each block while recomping:

Squat: 260 - 325 - 330
Bench: 185 - 215 - 215
Deadlift: 315 - 385 - 395

Goal #2: ✅ As for accountability, in the last nine months, I've missed 5 out of the 96 training sessions, achieving a 93% attendance rate - A.

All the BYBB coaches are knowledgeable, educated, and skilled.

What impressed me about Diego is his ability to adjust and adapt a true powerlifting program for everyone, no matter your strength or skill set. D1 athlete? No problem. Finance manager who can barely squat? No problem. The guy who takes two trips from the car? Diego can fix that. That's the magic of working out here; we all start from the same place.

With Diego, you are guaranteed to get the true powerlifting experience, no matter your starting level, gender, or age.

Go sign up with Diego; the dude’s a one-way elevator—the only pathway is up.

Curtis S.

I have trained at Backyard Barbell for the past 4 years. The gym is well equipped with nearly every specialty bar, multiple power racks, monolift and accessory machines.

The best part of this gym is the people, the coaches are always open to helping and will push you to make progress. Chandler, Diego, and Brian are highly knowledgeable and have consistently helped me improve all of my lifts. Chandler has been running my programming since day 1 and I couldn't be more pleased with the progress. I started lifting in my 40s and that comes with some limitations. Chandler has worked around every nagging injury and ache keeping my progress consistently going up.

While I work with Chandler, I train at times that other coaches are working with their clients. Brian has always been there for a quick spot, random question and between set banter. Diego is always helpful and makes room for me to train even when he is running group training sessions and the gym is packed (Thanks Diego!).

Big thanks to the Backyard team, keep up the great work!