The only reason i'm docking them so much on the value, is for the simple reason that you could very easily use wooden blocks or boards to accomplish the exact same thing, which we did for years prior to purchasing these. I also found them to be a tad on the pricy side when we bought them several years ago, but man they are handy, quick, and versatile over all sorts of other applications. Value's not great, but I'd still recommend them and buy them all over again. They're also quite tough against uneven cast plates, I worried that they might not hold up to that as we kinda love old and mismatched plates in our place but they've held up very well.

If they'd let me give it a sixth star for value, it would've gotten it! I think I caught this on sale maybe 2 years ago and I'm pretty sure my all-in cost was $100, and man is it worth that. It might even be the best EZ bar i've ever used, and I've actually grown to prefer the thicker grip now. The build quality on it is still more than serviceable, but admittedly it does have some larger welds on it along with a very basic powder coat and no knurling, but that's also the intent with it; to be a no-frills, to the point, economic EZ bar, and all of that it is.

Another example of "man these aren't quite the same as the piece of equipment they're trying to replace, but man they're close enough for most folks". The swing they have coupled with the fact that you do have to reach up and forward to re-rack I don't love, but still allows for great practice of mono picks. I think they're very underrated for bench self-handoffs as well, and really like that you can easily pin them to convert to a regular j-hook. Build quality is typical Rogue; probably overbuilt if anything, but your grandkids' grandkids will also get to enjoy them. We still use our real mono the vast majority of the time, but if I don't have anyone to run the rack or need a second mono, these perform great.

Look for what these are, they're fantastic, and I believe the class leader. Having said that, literally any brand of "real" dumbbell will always be better than any adjustable DB, so just know that going into anything in this class, however you're saving tons of money and space by going this route. The only performance ding i'll give it is that ours is a real booger to keep the plates in the carriage aligned properly when re-engaging the handles back in them for weight changes. I'll also say they're weathering a bit fast in our non-climate controlled garage gym in SETX. I would still buy these all over again, even though when we soon move gyms, I intend to complete my actual DB set from 50 currently up to 150; I don't think i'll be getting rid of these when we do! I'd like to also give Rep directly tons of credit for the pop pin replacement they sent us. Yeah, i'm sure insurance and liabilty came into play there, but it's still a really nice customer service touch and I'm going to try my damnedest to buy whatever my next piece is from them, purely as thanks back.

I mean, Lou didn't name it the "Mostly Decent" Reverse Hyper for nothing... Between the table tilting and using the rollers vs strap, there's probably a good dozen or more variations you can now use it for, and that's just the hypers themselves. Easily the most stable, smoothest hyper i've ever been on, and i've been on my fair share. The ONLY ding i'll give it, is the value when you consider if you actually NEED all those variations, which, admittedly, even though we've had ours for 5 years, 99% of the time we use it in it's normal configuration. As I type this, I don't think i've used the rollers in close to 2 years, and only tilt the table a handful of times/year; however that tilt is deadly. Tilting down hammers your hamstrings as hard as anything i've ever done does, and the tilt-up is great for beginners and hammering the low back. It's a Cadillac, if you want the best, here it is, but even as conjugate biased as I am, a standard reverse hyper will serve just as well at much less cost.

As far as cable belt squats go, this is second only to a true ATP-style platform that i've used, although this is a fraction of that footprint, and far superior to any lever-style system, including Wenning's and Pit Sharks. Super smooth, fairly easy to assemble, and you still have the option to convert this to a stand-alone as well, which we'll likely be doing once our shop-gym is complete later this year. Band pegs are great, between the horn and handles, you have limitless adjustability, and the carriage really does weigh 45lbs so you can basically just use meathead math for all your weights. I will say the belt that comes with it kinda sucks, and I would suggest looking to Henny or Spud once you give it a go and find you do/don't like it, but otherwise it's a great product. Everyone knows about belt squats and marches, but don't sleep on all the low-cable movements this also suffices; confidently I'd say we use ours for 3x as much non-squatting and non-marching movements ie RDLs, curls, rows etc.

Bought it the day Lou died for fear of discontinuation, and it's been a workhorse ever since. Knurling is certainly towards the extreme side, and stiffer than a frat boy at a wet t-shirt contest. We actually use it primarily for rack pulls, which should be a testament to its build quality, given that's probably the most stressful movement any bar could experience. Also acts as a great sub-in when prepping for meets using 29mm bars, plus it's murdered-out, which I think has to be anabolic, so careful on your fed's testing procedures...