This is a comprehensive review of the Body Solid Pro Clubline Lat & Mid Row Machine; an aggressively-priced, commercially-rated cable machine that allows one to perform both lat pulldowns and cable rows from the very same, surprisingly compact piece of equipment. The SLM300G is exactly like the machines you used back in your global gym days. This [...]
Equipment Reviews
This is a comprehensive review of the Victory FT-5000, Rep Fitness’ take on one of (if not the most) versatile pieces of gym equipment available – the functional trainer. For those of you who knew this review was coming and have been waiting patiently for me to complete it, I apologize for the longer than [...]
This is a quick review of the Rep Fitness FB-4000; a lightweight version of Rep’s infamous FB-5000 Competition Bench. In this review I get straight to the point about the FB-4000. I’ll go over the specifications and features, discuss any of those features that warrant discussion, and then I’ll dive right into a comparison between [...]
It’s finally here! My review of the Buddy Capps Texas Deadlift Bar! This review took a little longer to finish than I had originally planned. I tend to do so many barbell reviews that when a couple of non-barbell review opportunities came up (the Body Solid Leg Curl / Leg Extension and the Rep Fitness [...]
This is a review for the Rep Fitness HR-5000; a heavy-duty, space-saving, fully-loaded and competitively priced beast of a power rack. And it’s a half rack! the perfect type of rack for a home or garage gym. Why do I think half racks are the perfect rack for a garage gym? Because half racks offer all [...]
I love leg curls. Not only do I love leg curls but my programming prescribes them on a fairly regular basis; a couple times a weeks sometimes (Hybrid Performance Powerlifting; for any of you wondering.) To put that another way, I want and need to be able to do leg curls in my garage gym. [...]
Between Rogue, Spud Inc, and all the smaller equipment manufacturers, there appears to be no shortage of tricep straps, ropes, and grips to choose from. There are products made from actual rope, leather, nylon, and even plastic. There is also no shortage of ways to add a pulley system to your garage gym these days. [...]
About the time I was wrapping up my review for the Rep Fitness AB-5000 Zero Gap Bench back in December, Rep released the ever-so-popular FB-5000 Competition Bench in all the same colors that the AB-5000 was being offered in. In addition to there now being five color choices rather than just the one, there were [...]
This is a comprehensive review of the Rogue Monster Half Rack; the bigger, beefier, more intimidating, and more expensive big brother of the Rogue HR-2 Half Rack; Rogue’s only other half rack (surprisingly). I’ve had the single-station variant of the Monster Half Rack in my gym for about two months now. I’ve had a lot [...]
This is a comprehensive review of the new Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar. In this review I will be addressing all of the specifications and dimensions of this new bar, and discussing all of its major features. I will even begin my briefly tackling a few of the reasons you may want to consider [...]
This is a review of the new 20 kg Starting Strength Bar; a bar developed and manufactured by Buddy Capps of Irving, Texas. As many of you know, Buddy Capps of Capps Welding is the creator of the infamous Texas Power Bar; a bar still considered to be the gold standard in the power bar [...]
This is a review for the most up-to-date version of the 20kg men’s Wonder Bar V2 by Fringe Sport, a bar that has been heavily refined over the years while still maintaining it’s sub $200 price point; a price that even includes the shipping, mind you. Like all other products that they sell, Fringe Sport is [...]
This is a preliminary review of the Rep Fitness AB-5000 ‘Zero-Gap’ Adjustable Bench. It is extremely thorough and should answer most questions, but it is not complete. The reason I don’t consider this review complete is because I just haven’t had the bench for very long. A week just isn’t enough time with a product [...]
So who’s hungry? For reasons that I’ll never understand donuts seem to be extremely popular among strength and conditioning athletes. How this trend started I’ll never know, but I definitely see a ton of donuts on Instagram; and I pretty much only follow people in the strength community. Now personally, I try to avoid being [...]
The Rep Fitness PowerSpeed Bar is a power bar much like any other mid-range power bar. It has a very strong and rigid 29 mm shaft with a fairly aggressive knurl, a center knurl, and bronze bushings. What makes the PowerSpeed Bar different is the total absence of knurling on the outermost section of the shaft; [...]
