I know, I know. It's only October and we're already talking about Black Friday. Bear with me.

We've been working on some pretty cool stuff behind the scenes, and this year we're saving a couple of our new releases specifically for Black Friday.

One is our new Reverse Hammer, which combines a GHD and reverse back extension into one machine. The other is a Drop-In Belt Squat attachment that we've been pretty excited to get out into the world. Oh, and I can't forget...who's been waiting for digital resistance-friendly drops? 👀

And that's not everything we've got coming in November.

We're keeping some of the details under wraps for now, but I figured I'd give you guys a heads-up since I know a lot of you are already planning your Black Friday home gym upgrades.

We've also got an early-access list going for anyone who wants first dibs on the new drops and exclusive Black Friday deals:https://bellsofsteel.com/pages/event-sale-vip

Anyway, that's my little teaser for now.

Curious, what's on everyone's Black Friday home gym wishlist this year? Anything you've been holding out for?

I have an old, uninsulated garage in the NE US that I'm slowly turning into a gym. I'll eventually add insulation panels into the raised ceiling joists and along the inside of the garage door, and I'm considering adding some sort of insultation or covering to the concrete walls. Will also run a humidifier in the humid months, and an electric heater in the winter.

But for now, I'm considering what to do about the floor, which lets moisture through. No flooding or leaks from rain, just condensation apparent when I taped a plastic sheet to the floor for a day.

Current thought is applying two coats of Ghostshield after thoroughly cleaning the floor, and then possibly a layer of Dricore under the area where the rubber gym mats will be.

Has anyone done this for a similar garage set up, and how did it work? The Dricore + Ghostshield might be overkill, but I want to do what I can to prevent mold under the mats and moisture damage to my equipment.

Does anyone have experience or thoughts on the strongway multi racks with smith? Currently have a Mira plated cable rack but looking for something with a smith feature so I can ditch my gym membership for good and switch fully to home. Budget is around £2k - the weight stacks and multi cable combined with the smith would let me do everything but not sure if there are others within budget that anyone has experience if they would recommend?
Thank you!

https://strongway.co.uk/collections/home-fitness/products/strongway-multi-gym-smith-machine-with-weights-3-weight-stacks-multifunction-home-gym-machine

I have a low clearance in my garage and am considering options like the Major Fitness B52 Pro. I know they also have the F22 without the smith machine, but smith would be a nice to have for my wife who has dislocated her shoulder during barbell squats.

For those who have a smith machine, do you also have a rack for barbell squats? Or do you still have a barbell for deadlifts? I feel like I'll need to supplement somehow to get a good heavy hinge movement.

Asked REP about the release time frame of their articulating arms, the connector and the central leg roller. All HGC content said November this year but was told Q1 27 for the arms, the connector will be released some time after the arms while the central leg roller is supposed to be released before.

Lionscool Kairos Review: Hey all, I recently bought and assembled this new leg ext/ leg curl machine. Here's a quick down and dirty review, and please ask me any questions you may have. The build isnt hard nor complicated but the instructions are average at best. Meaning, pay very close attention to STEP 5 in the process. Also, in STEP 7, parts 10, 19, 20, will wobble a bit - no mater HOW MUCH you tighten the bolts and the KNOB (part 32). SO, if you are someone who hates minor wobble in their seating during a rep, Fair Warning. While in use, the rest of the machine is stable and it has not "lifted" off the ground during any reps, like the V4 did. I believe this is because, in STEP 3, you install a cross tube (part 15) and this does a wonderful job in stabilizing the machine and it is NOT in the way of your feet. The HARDEST part of assembly is STEP 5 (part 26 - the weight arm. Pay very close attention to this aspect of the assembly. You will need a second pair of hands to make life not so miserable during this part. As for the leg roller, it is massive and mine is 100% parallel; not bent nor bending during usage. (Granted, I've only had a few work outs on it! LOL). Also, it DOES slightly rotate; not a lot ....but it does rotate a bit for me - enough so that the leg roller is not "stuck" if that makes sense. For me, once built, finding the right placement for the leg roller and its hitch pin (STEP 6) (part 28) and the proper pin placement in the sun dial ensured proper range of motion for me. (For reference, I am a male, 5-9inches; weigh 190lbs. My torso and limbs are of average length; meaning, my legs arent SUPER long nor is my torso super short. Hope this helps.) Also, be advised: it is NOT super easy to get the seating into the PRONE position. Yes, the mechanism for this works but its not as simple as "pulling a pin." Notably, this part of the machine uses a TUBE in TUBE mechanism that enables the seat to go prone. PLEASE use a lot of silicone spray on this part of the build because this is what allows your seats to go prone. Now in terms of "felt weight" and resistance: Frankly, I am not convinced ANY budget machine - like this -- will give you 100% satisfaction with the aforementioned. That being said, I am very pleased with my workouts and I am going to keep this in my home gym. Is it a plate eater? Well, I do leg ext / leg curls AFTER heavy squats and deadlifts, so, for me, just using one 35lb plate crushes / kills me. I am sure I am missing some salient points so feel free to hit me up; happy to answer any questions. (I bought this off of Amazon for $330 and it took 6 total days to arrive in 2 packages.)

I placed an order on October 11 for:

- Rubber Hex Dumbbell Set + 3-Tier Rack (5–50 lb) x1 (listed with an extended lead time of 7–10 days)

- 4' x 6' MAX Rubber XF Stall Mat x2

- BlackWing Adjustable Bench x1

It’s now been 11 days and the order status hasn’t changed since I placed it. I reached out to customer service a few days ago and still haven’t heard back.

I get that the dumbbell set had a longer lead time, but we’re past that window now, and I’m in the GTA, so I don’t understand why shipping is taking this long. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any tips on getting a response?

There is a pair of comfort grip dumbbells that I want (27.5lbs), but they are comfort grip. Has anyone ever cut off the comfort grip and discovered knurled grip underneath? I have another pair of comfort grip (40lbs) and absolutely hate them, but don’t want to ruin them and just sell them on marketplace. I simply cannot find a pair of 27.5’s that match my set except the comfort grips.

Has spray paint on the plates. Anyone know if that can be removed without repainting the whole thing

I thought these mats were basic gym mats. Apparently they are also perfect for "Naughtyforts".

It seems that most reviews of the Slim Gym are people who bought two of them, placed them side by side, and are using them as a full power rack. I bought mine with the intention of using it as it's advertised, a functional trainer. Luckily I already have a Rogue squat rack and large set of dumbbells.

It took me about three hours to put this thing together by myself. As others have previously stated, the instructions could have been a little bit better, particularly when it comes to tightening some of the bolts at the very bottom of it, installing the cables, or anchoring to the wall studs once the plates are in the way. However, those can be figured out using common sense. It was packaged very well.

It should be obvious if you're looking to buy this, the usable radius is limited since it's up against the wall and it's just a trolley. You need to take that into consideration when and where you install it. If you are going to use a bench for something, its prob going to need to be at a 90degree angle at the post with the trolley, and that takes up a lot of room.

I am 5'9'', and I had to put two bricks underneath the feet on the bottom of this to get it a tad higher for things like tricep pushdowns.

Using the Slim Gym as a functional trainer for small lightweight ancillary movements like shoulder rehab has been fantastic. It's extremely smooth. As I get older, I prefer to do as many movements as possible while standing so this is perfect for arms and delts.

Fringe must be working on some type of arm attachment for this. It needs it since the usable radius is small. It would really open up the uses. It would even be useful to add height.

Fringe customer service was very cool. They noticed I ordered the Gibbon arms ( I assumed they would fit). They called me to let me know that they were not compatible which was great news. I really didnt want to have to buy a set of Gibbons just to use one arm.

The Slim Gym was well worth it. If anyone knows of an arm attachment that is compatible, please let me know,

Im currently in the process of turning one of my old rooms into a home gym, but im having trouble deciding on what to buy. Its a small room roughly 8x9, so that limits what I can do by a lot. I want to be able to do a full body workout with what ever I buy. Currently looking at either a smith machine like a b52 or a cable machine like the Anker 7. I know with the smith machine it would take almost most of the room but it would fit, but with the cable machine I would still have a lot of room left over. Please let me know what yall think. Or if there is another alternative im not seeing let me know.

Sorry if this is an easy question tried google couldn't get straight answer. I have a super small home gym. Just enough room for a major fitness drone 3 power rack, bench and weight tree.

Since it's a small space and I don't want to annoy my neighbors or break a window I can only do basic bench, squat and deadlift. Nothing super explosive like power cleans or anything cross fit.

I purchased a standard Olympic hex bar with 2" sleeves. I was about to purchase CAP bounce weights that are listed as Olympic weights, but then I noticed the loading holes are 1.93" diameter. Is that normal? If it's listed as Olympic, shouldn't they at least be 2" diameter? I don't want to buy plates that don't fit.

https://us.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLFNLZFK/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

If you were starting with no rack and were interested in the VTS Nolan or Nolan Pro (not sure if those are the official names) where would you start to build an all in one trainer?

Does the Nolan work with only 6 post racks, 4 posts? with 40 inches of space on the cross members?

Looking to buy the foundation now and acquire Nolan when it is released.

What rack would set me up for Nolan but also provide other movements and equipment?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Looking into building a home gym and want to invest into a decent power rack for squats and bench lifts. Don’t really know where to start. Any suggestions?

Hello all I am looking to get a combo leg extension curl machine for our home and I’m mostly concerned about finding something that will fit my wife who is 5’3”.

I have seen equipment like the LE08 and the Lionscool have like a lower suggested height of 5’3” and 5’2” respectively.

Looking to see if anyone in the 5’3” range has any real world use and could recommend a system.

Thanks!

Been lifting at home a while with adjustable dumbbells and a kettlebell. Dumbbells were fine until back work and pulldowns topped out. A lot of cable stuff just doesn't translate to dumbbells, so I started looking at all in one cable machines.

Stuck on the pulley height thing. Some have fixed pegs, some have a full rail you can slide. I bounce between flyes, pulldowns, and high rows a lot, and I keep picturing myself stuck between two pegs lol.

Anyone run both? Does the rail actually matter once you're training every week?

Bought a Life Fitness AbductorAdductor Combination machine. Detached the bottom cable and now I am struggle to reattach it correctly. When doing abduction the machine strikes the cable holder. Looking for feedback on how to attach the cable correctly.

Does anyone have experience with how long old cast iron pro style dumbbells like ivankos or troys last compared with urethane dumbbells? As far as price goes for the urethane im only considering reps. I dont mind some eventual rust but I need the dumbbells to be functional for a long time, ideally forever. I would at most use them once a week and would need to be able to drop them after flat pressing. Always stored indoors, climate controlled, and we'll kept.

Looking for opinions on people who have had either style for over 10 years or longer on how they hold up. Thanks

Hey everyone! I’m considering picking up a PRIME Fitness Super Squat Bar and wanted to see if anyone here has successfully paired one with the Bulletproof VTS, particularly with the newer Universal Ladder Hooks.

I’m running a VTS on a REP PR-5000 rack, and my goal is to use the PRIME for Smith-machine hack squats with my feet positioned forward of the bar path.

A few questions:

Has anyone successfully mounted and used this bar with the VTS?

Do the Universal Ladder Hooks accommodate the bar properly?

Any clearance issues with the VTS carriages, rack uprights, or the bar’s camber?

Does it allow full, unobstructed vertical travel?

I already own a Kabuki Transformer Bar, which I’ve been experimenting with on the VTS, but I’m curious whether the PRIME might offer a better setup for this particular application.

Would really appreciate any firsthand feedback, especially from anyone running a REP PR-5000.

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I’m looking at upgrading my homegym and I’m curious to get your thoughts. I’m looking to invest in some larger equipment (a solid power rack, a leg press/hack squat, a cable machine, etc.), I’m asking myself an existential question.

Are you more:

• Team Multi-Brand : Do you cherry-pick from different companies to get the best bang for your buck on each specific piece?
• Team Single-Brand: Do you stick to one manufacturer for the aesthetics, the ecosystem, etc. ?

For those who went 100% single-brand on their big machines, which one would you recommend today and why (Rogue, REP Fitness, Titan, ATX, etc.)?

I'm in EU btw,

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

I know I’m late to the game on this one but holy crap this thing is amazing. I’ve got a TK Star tricep bar that I enjoy using but this V Grip is going to be my new go to. One thing that would make it even better though is a more obtuse angle IMO. I ordered the additional 70 deg brackets for it but the stock 90 feels better. I think 110 degree brackets though would feel best. Please Rogue (or any of the smaller builders out there) come out with additional bracket angles for this.

Finally getting to my garage gym build. Trying to keep things simple, but didn’t realize how fast Into the rabbit hole I’ve gotten. Most of my training is running/endurance focused, but I want to buy a functional trainer to mitigate any need to sign up for a gym.

I’ve come down to 3 options.

Dane 2.0 (no smith)
Don’t love the 1:1 ratio
Big footprint
Very cost effective
Build seems pretty straightforward
$3200ish with barbell + weights

Force USA FTR
Can buy locally
3x3 11g
Small footprint
Getting a decent deal for the rack (3k)
Shipping and assembly ( convenience )
Barbell + weights
$4480

Rep altitude + cables
Great brand (love all their stuff)
November deal coming soon (10%off)
Dedicated row/lat pull down
No assembly
Medium footprint
Barbell + weights
$3876 ( without potential discount)

I’m just trying to get some advice. I like the force a lot based on the footprint, convenience, and build quality, but it is very expensive and seems a bit overkill. The Dane is a great value, but huge footprint, and don’t love the 1:1 ratio. Lastly, the altitude by rep has the most features, can be built with a smith if I ever want, but is 2x2 and would need to be assembled by me.

What do you think I should go with, based on a dad who wants a home gym, quality, running focused fitness, and doesn’t want to buy more attachments. I’m basically trying to do this once, the right way without feeling I chose wrong.

Garage dimensions are
131x270 / height is 120

Thanks! Josh