This is a review of Vulcan Strength’s Incrementor Magnetic Weight Set, an extremely fancy and clever take on a way to micro-load dual-selectorized weight stacks.
If you own a multi-function power rack like the Rogue Fitness FM-6 Twin Trainer or Vulcan Talos Multi-Function Trainer or a standard functional trainer like the Rogue FT-1 Functional Trainer, or if you’re a global gym member and you’d like to include a way to micro-load one or more of your gym’s many cable machines in your gym bag (maybe the lat/row machines, cable crossovers, TechnoGym machines, etc), this product may be right up your alley. Let’s get into it!
Vulcan Incremental Magnetic Weight Set Specs
Below you will find the specifications of Vulcan’s Incrementor Magnetic Weight Set. These can also be found on the Vulcan website.
- Solid 304 Stainless Steel construction (both the bases and pins). There is no aluminum or plastic components.
- Each set includes five pairs of 52 mm weights – 0.75-lbs, 1-lb, 1.5-lbs, 1.75-lbs, and 2.5-lbs.
- Weights are precision machined and knurled with laser etched Vulcan logo and weight.
- Set also includes 2 stainless steel screw in pins and a vinyl storage case.
- Each individual weight contains a magnetized base so the pin stays in contact with the weight stack.
- Works with nearly all selectorized weight stacks – both retail and commercial equipment (for compatibility checks, the pin fits 10 mm weight plate holes).
- Swapping out weights on the included pins takes seconds, and requires no tools. No more balancing change plates on top of your weight stack(s).
Benefits of Incremental Weights for Weight Stacks
Most of the mainstream rack / functional trainer combos on the market have either 5-lb or 10-lb weight plates, with a select few functional trainers having 2.5-lb plates. For many (if not most) cable exercises, a 5-10-lb jump is completely reasonable and doable (think stuff like tricep pressdowns and overhead extensions, cable curls, chest flyes, and so on.)
That said, there are a number of movements where increasing weight by 10-lbs (or even 5-lbs) is asking too much (for instance – lateral raises, rear delt flyes, cable tricep kickbacks, etc.) It’s movements like these that would benefit from some form of micro-loading, which is exactly what Vulcan’s Incrementor Weights allow you to do.
By simply choosing the amount of weight of the five available options you’d like to progress and then attaching the included pin to each weight you can replace your machine’s included “weightless” pins with Vulcan’s weighted and magnetic pins, and there you go – much more manageable jumps. Also great for those who lift off percentages and really want to be able to fine tune their numbers to match their programming.
Vulcan’s Incrementor Magnetic Weight Set is really designed around the most common 5-lb weight stacks; a pair of them, to be more precise. With a variable weight range of 3/4-lb up to 2.5-lbs, you can really fine-tune how much you increase your weight between sets. If say you’re doing strict cable lateral raises at 10-lbs but moving up to 15-lbs is just too much of a jump, with Vulcan’s weights you can make that a jump to 7.5-lbs instead; or less even!
While not as useful for those who have 10-lb stacks, Vulcan’s Incrementor Weights still can be helpful; especially for single stack exercises, or with lat towers. With only one stack in use, you can simply use both 2.5-lb weights in order to cut the jump in half. Go from 50-lbs to 55-lbs instead of 50-lbs to 60-lbs.
If you’re working with a double stack of 10-lb plates, I would take a look at something like the GymPin, which I will discuss further below. A couple Gympins instead of Vulcan’s fixed weights will allow you to fill in any part of that 10-lb gap, not just the low end of it. Again, I’ll discuss the pros and cons of the Vulcan Set vs something like the GymPin in a bit.
Even though I have a pair of 5 kg stacks and a single-stack lat tower with 10-lb plates, I use Vulcan’s Incrementor Weight Set all the damn time. I use them way more often than I use a loading pin; and that’s despite the fact that I have every change plate known to man. When one leans so heavily on the 2.5-lb pair of weights like I do, it is just so simple to pull out the standard pin and slide in the Vulcan pin. It’s just that easy.
To be fair though, there is definitely less value in the entire set if you don’t intend to use the entire set; or at least most of it. I may only use two different weights 95% of the time, but at least there are others using my gym here and there that will utilize the others. If you’re not even a garage gym owner but want to keep these in your gym bag, you may find that some other members of your lifting crew would appreciate the large variety of include weights. It is something to think about when I discuss alternatives in a couple sections.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Super quick & easy, tool-free way to micro load the plate stacks of functional trainers.
- Extremely high-quality design. The knurled bases make attaching the pins hassle-free, and they will last for generations.
- In addition to being well made, they are attractive. Stainless always looks great, and the laser etched logo & weight and the knurling are all nice touches.
- Large variety of bases for fine-tuning your jumps in weight. Great for injured folks doing rehab on small muscles, or simply for newer and/or weaker lifters.
- You don’t have to have your own garage gym to find this set useful. It can just as easily be taken to the gym and used on their massive variety of cable machines. Think of all the selectorized body-part machines just about every global gym has – pec deck, hack squat, leg extension and leg curl, lateral raise, omg I could go on forever, but I won’t.
Cons
- Not everyone will utilize all five pairs of weights, meaning you’re paying top dollar for just a couple of weight bases – probably the 1-lb base and the 2.5-lb base.
- The set is less useful for functional trainers and crossovers with 10-lb plates vs those with 5-lb plates, as there is no way to cut the jump in half unless using both 2.5-lb bases on a single stack (which I’ve demonstrated above is possible.)
- I think the included case should be sturdier considering the total weight of the contents, especially since it’s implied by the handle that it’s meant to be something you can move around the gym (or take to the gym). Though to be fair, the case is a bonus. Having the set show up in a case is better than having all 10 weights and 2 pins just shoved in and rolling around in a shipping box. The case is attractive it’s just not very functional.
Not Pro or Con, Just an Idea for Improvement
- Offer in metric, with the heaviest weight being 2.5 kg. I’d be all over that considering my Vulcan Talos has 5 kg / 11-lb plates, and my Rogue Lat Tower has 10-lb plates.
Are There Other Options?
There is another product on the market that will allow you to make similar, smaller jumps in the amount of weight you’re tugging on when using your cable machines, and it’s called the GymPin. I’ve had one of the Original GymPins for years now. It’s essentially the same sized pin that fits into your weight stacks, only instead of a little magnetic knob or handle there is a 2″ plate horn that allows you to hang your existing Olympic plates off of your weight stack, thus accomplishing the same thing as the Vulcan set.
At first glance, a pair of GymPins appears to be a more affordable option for micro-loading your weight stacks when compared to Vulcan’s Incrementor Weight Set. With a base price of $62 per GymPin before shipping ($147 for a pair shipped Internationally from the UK), it is about $80 less to go this route; that is assuming you already own change plates to hang from your new GymPins. If you do not already own whatever change plates you think you’ll need for your cable exercises, you’re not really saving any money by choosing GymPins.
If you know you only would use, say, 2.5-lb plates so you can cut your 5-lb plates in half, then you may save a few bucks after buying only a pair of 2.5’s, but if you want as much loading variety as you get with Vulcan’s weight set, you’re going to spend a couple hundred dollars or more on change and micro-change plates.
To illustrate the pricing difference, Rogue Fitness offers a pair 2.5-lb change plates for $51 (plus shipping.) Vulcan comes in a little cheaper at $45 plus shipping for comparable plates, or even less at $32 for their completely rubber V-Locks. Two basic GymPins ($125) + a pair of 2.5-lb plates ($50) would cost you about $170 before shipping. Vulcan’s Incrementor Set is $229 but ships for free. Keep in mind that the estimated $170 is for 2.5-lb plates only and doesn’t include shipping, whereas with the Vulcans you get 5-pairs of weights ranging from 0.75-lbs to 2.50-lbs.
Pricing aside, one benefit of going with the GymPins is that there’s no set limit to how much weight you can load on the pin. I’ve seen images of a couple 45’s on a Gympin. The Vulcan weights, however, are a fixed weight (and no, you cannot place an Olympic plate on any of the Vulcan Incrementor weights.
Having said all that, the whole point of this review is to review a micro-loading product, not one intended to overload an existing stack. The ability to upgrade an already too-heavy-for-most-humans weight stack is solving a problem almost no one has, so converting a 200-lb stack into a 300-lb stack isn’t exactly relevant to this review. I did, however, want to at least point out that the GymPin does offer a function that Vulcan’s product does not (for those of you who may be considering both products.)
Vulcan Incrementor Magnetic Weight Review Summary
No bullshit, I love these little weights. Not only are they a fully functional and useful addition to my garage gym, it’s obvious that they’ll last forever based on how well they are designed and built. They’re sturdy, machined brilliantly, and they look pretty damn cool as well. There are so many design decisions that didn’t need to made and implemented for the product to still serve its purpose; such as knurling each weight and laser etching the weight when they could have just been cast much like cheap, steel weight plates; yet they were, and I believe these decisions make these weights stand out and not feel overpriced despite the relatively high price tag of $229.
The only complaint I have really is the case. Well, not even the case itself, but the fact that the weights are sitting in a foam tray that doesn’t hold the weights very well if the case gets used as intended; i.e. carried around by the handle like a briefcase. If Vulcan were to find a better way to line the case I think this would be a solid 10/10 product (though I still believe that the case’s shortcomings don’t take away from the weights themselves being a 10/10. I have these in my own gym. I don’t intend to take them to a gym, and as you’ll see below, I don’t even need the case anymore.
In summary, I dig Vulcan’s take on micro-loading selectorized weight stacks, and I definitely highly recommend them to those who could and would put these to use.
For Those Who Care, My Case Solution
The case is not so bad for those who have a permanent place near their weight stacks to put it. I did not, so the case and included weights were basically always on the floor near the trainer. I’m too clean and OCD for this, so I wanted a different solution, and so I made myself a basic, wood, wall rack to hold all 10 of the weights, with the two rightmost slots I store the most commonly used 2.5-lbs weights featuring a hole for the pins.
I don’t intend to do a build guide on this as I believe it would serve so few people, plus I am sure anyone who even owns power tools is adept enough to just look at this and see what I have done. I mean, I’m not even that bright and I did it, so… But I’ll include a picture or two below that give some hints as to what’s happening here.
In any case, I certainly could have done without the trim. There are, in hindsight, a number of simpler ways one could go about creating something to store and display these weights. You could probably even take advantage of the fact that they are magnetic weights if you’re comfortable working with metals. I just figured I’d share by throwing this in at the end for all who care =p
Have a great day!
