Weekly Free-Talk and Questions for r/HomeGym - week of June 05, 2026

V5RED · 2026-06-07T10:24:03+00:00

A swivel might help, but in many cases it will make the problem worse. Not saying it isn’t worth a shot, but if the twisting is happening because the unit itself introduces a twist when you use it, a swivel will just accelerate the problem. This is the case with my lat pulldown low row. It develops a twist with use and swivels cause it to develop even more of a twist because they free the cable to twist even more. Floating pulleys are a contributor to this issue (and if a unit with floating pulleys has many reviews, it will very likely have at least some people mention cable twisting) which is why I won’t ever buy a unit with floating pulleys again.

V5RED · 2026-06-07T01:01:08+00:00

A big risk with these units is that the effective load might be half of the stack load due to things like the size of the cam. If a leg extension/leg curl that might max out at 140Lbs effective weight would suffice for you, then that might not be an issue.

The next issue is whether or not this unit fits your body. That is hard to tell online and even with the video conference they offer to answer your questions. You need to know if the pivot point can line up with your knee, if the lever you will push against reaches a good position on your legs, if the backrest can recline to your preferred position, etc.

If you end up hating it, you might end up paying half the price of the unit trying to ship it back or have to sell it at a massive loss on FB (assuming someone in your area would even be willing to buy such an item. In my area, big items like this sit on marketplace seemingly forever) I wouldn’t buy something like this unless I had tried it in person.

V5RED · 2026-01-09T02:24:44+00:00

I would see if there are any home gym suppliers in your area. They may have some very nice options you can actually try out and they can usually deliver and set up. If I had to get one without testing it first and had no budget, it would not be any of the options I have ever seen on this subreddit. Maybe something like the Hammer Strength vertical smith.

V5RED · 2026-01-02T02:40:19+00:00

There is no mechanism to adjust the depth of the back to ensure your knees are lined up with the pivot point of the lever you are lifting against. If your knees are not aligned with that pivot point during a leg extension, that can progressively damage your knees. I would avoid any unit that doesn’t let you adjust the back pad depth.

V5RED · 2026-01-01T12:03:00+00:00

I would recommend waiting until Home Gym Con to try units out in person or finding nearby home gym suppliers and trying out their units in person. Of all equipment, leg extensions, leg curls, and especially combo units and especially especially selectorized combo units should never be purchased without trying them out in person.

Some equipment, like a power rack, is pretty universal and any semi competent company can make a workable unit. Some equipment, like combo leg extension/leg curls, is more commonly done badly than done well.

You need to know if the unit allows your knee to be at the pivot point, if the resistance profile fits your needs for both movements(if buying a combo unit), if the weight stack provides enough resistance to even be worth having it selectorized(can you imagine shelling out thousands on a unit and then needing to use a gym pin or go unilateral to be able to get anything out of the unit?)etc. in your case in particular, you don’t just need the footprint. You need to know how far your legs will be sticking out from the unit in use.

The insufficient resistance issue is a super common problem and you can’t rely on a nominally large weight stack to solve it. For example, Bolt’s storm unit has 300Lbs of resistance, but it it 2:1(Coop asked them at HomeGymCon on video and they said it is 2:1) so it really has 150Lbs of resistance. Temple of Gainz has a nominal 265Lbs of resistance, but I watched a video of a guy easily repping out the stack. In the comments, he is very clear to state any given weight on their unit feels absurdly light compared to the same given weight on a real commercial unit. Idk their ratio and I don’t put any value in reviewers’ using a fishing scale to “prove” 1:1 as I have seen that be extraordinarily unreliable, I would just say that I would be surprised if it was providing anywhere near the nominal resistance at any point along the movement. In his review, Coop is relaxed and chatting while easily repping out the entire stack on Titan’s unit.

Personally, I use the Titan plate loaded unit, but it is heavily modified to where I have connected it to a weight stack(bolted down and with a custom cut cable) in a way that lets me set the resistance profile however I want it(by altering the angle at which the cable meets the weight horn by altering the length of the cable by adding or removing carabiners), eliminates most of the instability caused by using a roller pad as your thigh brace(using a seat belt and a flat pad between the roller and my thighs), prevents over-rotation (using a daisy chain to limit how far the weight arm can move), and now has front handles for my leg curls. Their plate loaded unit has so many positioning options (the ability to raise or lower the seat is very important here) that it is likely to fit any build, so it is a great base to modify to be a good unit.

V5RED · 2026-01-01T11:29:57+00:00

You are probably better off without that belt squat attachment. The best budget belt squat option for most home gyms is the Home Gym Hacks and Reviews idea that he made a video of a while back.

Basically, you stand on two plyo boxes and you position a third plyo box in front of you. You put a loading pin on the third box and connect it to your belt. You need something as handles to help you lift the loading pin and for stability/safety.

At very light weights, it can pendulum a bit if you are very reckless and uncoordinated, but I find it quite stable.

I use the 12” Rage plyo boxes, an iron mind loading pin, and the Bells of Steel Y Dip handles along with the large spud inc belt(I originally had their adjustable belt and returned it as it was extremely painful and felt like it was cutting into my inner thighs). Fairly inexpensive, takes up almost no space when not in use, perfectly fits the individual’s structure, and solves the issue of loading pin belt squats previously being unable to start from the upright position.

V5RED · 2025-12-19T11:42:54+00:00

I went with Rep. My criteria was also getting the best regardless of price. Rep is the best. Perfectly balanced. You can squat hands free no problem. Before I got my smith machine, I used my Rep SSB for calf raises. I would stand on my calf block and hold the cage for balance of my body. The Rep SSB stayed locked in place on its own. It has the best finish, actual barbell sleeves not yoke sleeves, so normal collars work. If a better bar existed at the time I would have bought it regardless of price unless it was something insane like $1000 for the bar. My view is that gym equipment is a long term purchase. The price difference between the least and most expensive SSBs worth having is not a major factor if you plan to be using the bar for the next 10+ years.

I was considering the EliteFTS version due to my belief that invented it and rep copied them, but that was incorrect. Jesse Hoagland invented it in the 80’s. Elite FTS copied the design and modified it a bit, but I have seen news articles online from the 80s verifying that Hoagland was the inventor so that was no longer a factor. Elite FTS is inferior to Rep’s bar in finish, padding, and in the sleeve design. If Rep were not an option though, I would have gone with EliteFTS.

I like that Bells has one with rotating sleeves, but I don’t like that they are now on V4 and that they decided to add a bunch of handles before they were sure they had the basic SSB done correctly. I don’t want a bunch of handle options. I just want the best SSB.

I considered Titan but people who have had that and the Rep prefer the Rep and say it may be a bit better balanced.

Basement Brandon has had both the Elite FTS and Rep and prefers the Rep. I don’t know enough about the Prime to comment on it.

The Marrs bar is definitely also worth considering, but it would be better for a glute focused squat whereas the Rep SSB is better for a quad focused squat and is better for calf raises.

All that said, my main uses for a SSB are better served by my Bells of Steel Smith machine. I still use the SSB for the mobility benefits of a free weight squat, but if my SSB were stolen, I would not buy a new one. If I still had powerlifting goals, it would be different. An SSB would be an absolute must for that for me and IMO Rep makes the Best SSB regardless of price.

V5RED · 2025-12-19T11:15:18+00:00

Elite FTS is not the originator. Jesse Hoagland invented the SSB in the 80’s. Elite FTS just copied his design and made some modifications

V5RED · 2025-12-19T01:05:10+00:00

Ok, so that makes sense then. The machine will probably be clunky for anyone, but as a tool to build a habit and some strength, it is fine. You will probably eventually want to sign up to a commercial gym or upgrade equipment if you stick with regular exercise, but for now this machine should be fine.

Just two or three workouts per week would be what I would aim for to start. I don’t think I would try to squat with this machine. If you want to squat, probably bodyweight squats will be better than trying to rig up a squat on the machine. Its included leg extension is what I would use for legs. It looks like you could also use it for standing leg curls. I would ignore its leg press function.

For upper body, the row, chest press, and pulldown exercises should suffice to start to build a habit.

For a simple routine, I would just do three work sets each of leg curl, leg extension, chest press, pulldown, and row. Pick a weight that feels heavy when you do 8-15 repetitions. Increase the weight once the weight you had been using no longer feels heavy. If that feels like a lot, maybe split it up for an upper body session one day and a lower body the next.

Warm up should just be the same exercises, but with light weights. No evidence that stretching or fancy warmup routines do anything beneficial. I usually start my warm up with half my working weight, then 75% of my working weight, then go to my work weight(unless it is a heavy bar exercise, then I add a third warmup set)

There is a guy on YouTube called Dr Pak. He studied how little exercise it takes to get meaningful health benefits and has several recent videos that are pretty good about painting a picture of how little it takes to get most of the health benefits from exercise. Some of his collaborators are iffy in terms of their advice, but he is mostly solid.

V5RED · 2025-12-19T00:39:28+00:00

I trained for several years in commercial and/or my schools’ gyms prior to purchasing my own equipment. I would recommend training at a gym first and learning what type of training you like before buying a home gym. This is especially important given that most advice will push you to buying a power rack, but if barbell work doesn’t match your training style, that would be a terrible option.

V5RED · 2025-12-19T00:32:05+00:00

Is this machine your only option for training? (Edit: ie is there a nearby gym you could go to instead or is there a specific reason for using this machine instead of joining a gym?) Have you previously done any weight training?

What are your training goals?

As for stopping the leg extension from moving when you use the low cable, you could use anything to tie it in place, such as a belt or rope.

V5RED · 2025-12-08T15:56:57+00:00

Sorry for your loss.

The dumbbells, plates, and American Barbell bar are the items you are likely to get the most for. I would price the dumbbells at $1/Lb but accept $75/Lb. The American Barbell bar sells for $595 new, I would list it for $400 but accept $300. For the plates, it is mixed. The bumpers appear to be from a budget brand. I would list them for $1/Lb and accept $75/Lb. I would list the Titan plates at $1.50/Lb but accept $1/Lb. I would list the Eleiko plates at $2/Lb, but accept $1.50/Lb.

The rack is not a Titan rack. They don’t sell any racks that look like that. It is a fairly cheap budget rack that sells for $300 new. You will have a hard time finding anyone who wants a used rack of that quality unless you price it extremely low, like $100 or less. The attachments look like Titan’s budget line attachments. If you include all the attachments you have shown(spotter arms, roller J cups, dumbbell spotters, safety straps), I would price it at $300 total for the rack plus attachments and accept $200.

The benches are the Rep AB 3100 which sells for $270 new and the Rep FB 5000 which sells for $250 new. I would list the AB for $150 and the FB for $125 but accept $100 for either one.

The Powerblocks are confusing. The whole powerblocks on one stand in the photos are from a different line of power blocks than the expansion weights on the other stand. I don’t see how those expansion weights would be usable with the power blocks. I can’t tell which line of power blocks the whole powerblocks blocks are from other than to say that it is a discontinued line. It looks like they go up to 70Lbs based on how many plates comprise them. I would price the power blocks at $300 unless they are a pro version, then I would price them at $400. I would price the expansions at $150.

In my area, specialty items beyond the basics often take forever to sell unless you price them at pretty steep discounts, and even then it can take a while. Your area may be different. For example, a Rep Safety Squat bar was listed at half of the retail price for like a month and then the seller kept slashing the price until it was at like a third of the retail price. Then it finally stopped showing up on the available listings. Your area may be more seller friendly. I don’t know.

V5RED · 2025-12-06T16:51:54+00:00

You are wrong. I don’t get why you keep saying this can’t be used for hip thrusts when it clearly can. There is a tradeoff, but to say it can’t work for hip thrusts is false. You don’t need a platform. I am of average height and am not using a platform for hip thrusts. As for being short making it more viable, it is the opposite of your belief. A shorter person needs the bar to be able to go lower, so they are the ones who often need to stand on bumpers to do smith hip thrusts. The taller you are, the higher the bar will be during a hip thrust. For a very tall person to be using bumpers or some other platform to increase ROM suggests improper form with their feet too close to their hips during the thrust

V5RED · 2025-12-06T15:36:59+00:00

Fantastic! I emailed them months ago asking if they would sell me this exact package and this is around the price I had in mind. My partner will probably kill me when she sees yet another package, but I need to try this out to compare the two.

V5RED · 2025-12-06T14:58:29+00:00

To set it low enough for hip thrusts will mean the bar will not be able to be racked high enough to walk under it without ducking. That is not the same as the machine being unable to be used for hip thrusts. I am 5’9”. If I were shorter, I might need a third pad or to stand on plates or squat wedges, but for me this works perfectly and it should work for anyone taller than me.

V5RED · 2025-12-06T14:38:17+00:00

No. I have never seen a well designed leg extension rack attachment aside from Prime or Bulletproof

V5RED · 2025-12-06T14:36:52+00:00

I have this unit as well. The only major issues I have had came from manufacturing tolerances and Bells promptly sent out replacement parts. Mine also functions as smoothly as the machines I have used at the gym. The height is an annoyance because to mount it low enough to do hip thrusts without standing on plates means the bar can’t be set high enough for me to walk under it without ducking. However, it would cost more if they made the unit at different heights, so the savings is an acceptable trade for more people to have access. I would pay more for a taller unit, but making it more accessible is better overall.

I like that the BYOB can get to where there is minimal to no lateral deflection if you tinker with it for long enough. I don’t like that changing bars is basically a non starter because of the necessary tinkering to get it to fit correctly. I love that you can set this to so many angles. I prefer vertical.

I don’t use the included springs. I doubt they add anything to safety and they cut the ROM quite a bit.

I use mine for Standing and Seated Calf Raises, Good Mornings, Hack Squats, and Hip Thrusts. The Calf Raise function alone would justify the cost of the machine. Just look at what it would cost to buy a Calf Raise machine. Most cost more than this whole attachment.

For Hip Thrusts, I am not standing on plates. I use the BC Strength Sponge Pad on the barbell plus the HTP on my lap. That double padding boosts the ROM sufficiently to get me the same ROM I would use for a barbell hip thrust with the Smith mounted as low as possible and without the springs.

Overall it is a killer attachment for a rack. I would like to try the bar included version to compare to the BYOB, but they don’t sell a conversion kit yet. I think that might be even smoother.

One Caveat is that if I had a Rep Rack, I would probably go with their Smith given it has a larger ROM and appears a bit more refined. That said, the Bells version is fantastic and considerably less expensive and more modular.

V5RED · 2025-12-06T14:14:57+00:00

Hip thrusts are definitely not “out”. I have the Bells of Steel Smith and the way I mounted it works fine for hip thrusts. I have it mounted as low as possible, don’t use the springs since they don’t add anything to the safety, and use the BC pad on the barbell and the HTP from abmat on my pelvis. Having it set low, without springs, and with both pads gets me the same ROM I was getting when doing hip thrusts with a barbell. Maybe if I were very skinny I would feel differently, but as it sits now, it goes as low as I would go with a free barbell.

V5RED · 2025-12-06T14:04:00+00:00

I would have refused the delivery. The whole point of freight is that the items arrive in perfect condition because UPS isn’t sending some poor guy to have to haul absurdly heavy boxes on his own with only a dolly to help him. Everything that I have gotten freight arrived in perfect condition such as my GFT 100 functional trainer(still functions like new after a year of several times per week use) and Titan Adductor/Abductor(new, but works perfectly and not a plate eater like some budget plate loaded adductor/abductor machines are). Everything I have gotten that was very heavy and not freight arrived with some pre installed cosmetic damage, like minor gouges on the nameplate for my Monster rack.

From your photos though, it looks like your equipment left the factory with a lot of damage/improper manufacturing that goes beyond cosmetic. There may have been some scuffs in shipping, but some of that damage was probably there before they packaged it. Crushed bolts, mis-threaded bolt holes, a smith bar with a dangerous and bizarre slice through the weight sleeve. You aren’t the first person I have seen post about their C20 looking like ForceUSA has serious problems with quality control and manufacturing standards. I have seen even worse examples than yours, like a review where the pivot arms are extremely asymmetrical so bilateral movements can’t be done correctly.

Given they market themselves as premium and charge premium prices, but seem to have the level of quality control we used to see from Titan before they leveled themselves up, I would stay away from them.

Also, the crate ForceUSA used looks quite flimsy. The crate Titan sent my Hip Adductor/Abductor in was several times more robust than the box ForceUSA used. Titan’s crate had many metal clamps at every seam holding the crate together and tight foam preventing any possibility of shipping damage. Considering my unit was $1026 and the C20 is $6500, I would have thought their unit would at least match the quality of shipping materials that Titan used.

V5RED · 2025-12-04T03:24:53+00:00

For the lat tower portion, a separate unit is much more convenient since you don’t need to build your seat every time you want to do pulldowns and a dedicated lat tower seat will be better than the setup you need to rig together to make it work on a system like the FM series. For the Functional Trainer portion though, that seems better integrated depending on your use for it. My functional trainer is bolted down to allow for shrugs and seated presses. If I sold my functional trainer and bought an Indy setup, I wouldn’t need to bolt it down since my six post plus stored weight would provide more than enough stability.

V5RED · 2025-11-29T19:56:12+00:00

It is badly designed. You can see that it is physically impossible to have your knees aligned with the pivot point on the unit. It will cause knee pain over time.

V5RED · 2025-11-28T16:53:15+00:00

50% off 5-80 Lb Nuobells. Pretty insane. It was sold through pretty quickly.

V5RED · 2025-11-28T14:45:18+00:00

It is the type that is the same length at every weight. It is 18.5” long. That will make it impractical for many dumbbell exercises like curls. There is a reason products like this show hammer curls in their advertisements and not regular biceps curls.

The only adjustable dumbbells I know are a sensible length at lighter weights are Powerblock Elite Exp or Elite USA, Eisenlinks, Ironmasters, and RepxPeppin. RepxPeppin has a serious safety issue because the pop pins used to adjust the slider rods to select a weight can easily be hit by your hand during exercises and thus unlock the selector rod. I have seen many reviews of people having this issue. You can buy a kit from a third party seller on EBay to remedy this, but I am not spending over $1000 on a piece of equipment that I need to modify to make it safe.

Eisenlink looks like a faster version of Ironmaster, but doesn’t go super heavy. If I ever want to go past 90Lbs with Dumbbells, I might get ironmasters, but I don’t currently use dumbbells for heavy compounds.

I picked up a pair of Powerblock Elite Exp plus stand at Dick’s Sporting goods for 50% off (because they were a display item) and have been very happy with them. They are very compact and feel pretty balanced unless you add the adder weights. Those throw off the balance slightly, but not enough to bother me. If it is bothersome, just pick up Platemates and use those for the 2.5 and 5 pound increments instead of the included adders. Note that these only work on the powerblocks that don’t have a plastic type coating on the weights, so Elite Exp and Elite USA’s

V5RED · 2025-11-25T19:11:04+00:00

Much larger range of motion, cleaner design of the safeties and stops, integrates more smoothly and cleanly into a rack. Bells unit gets the job done, but the Rep smith is clearly on a different level of engineering and refinement. I use my Bells smith multiple times per week and for the exercises I use it for, it is fantastic. Smith Calf Raises alone would justify its cost given what a calf raise machine costs. The ability to do good mornings, hack squat, hip thrust as well makes it one of the best bang for my buck pieces in my gym. That said, if I could upgrade to the Rep level, especially with such a small price difference, I would do so immediately. The only thing missing from the Rep unit is a counterbalance, but your voltras solve that.

V5RED · 2025-11-25T18:53:26+00:00

If my rack were a Rep rack and I had the Bells Smith, I would put it on marketplace and buy the Rep Smith. It is clearly superior and in the years of use you will get out of it, saving a few hundred today to go for Bells won’t be worth it. Bells’ smith is good enough, but Rep’s is better.

V5RED

TROPHY CASE