i wanted to love this, which might be part of why i hate it so much. it just misses the mark on every front. its overpriced, underbuilt and only does 1 of the 2 movements it claims to do, with any level of usability. the ham curl sucks, no easy way to say it, its bad on every front, especially if your tall and have long legs like myself, might be better for shorter people but idk cause im the only one in my house that has used it. also since its contraction biased the leg extension function is better as a rehab tool than for building real muscle, and if you can squat 315lbs/140kg or above youll defo top this things max weight capacity even on high rep sets. so if your specifically buying this as a rehab tool for low intensity leg isolation work, then i can see some use case. but in literally any other context, id just wait and save your money, and either get the bulletproof isolator or something equivical thats tougher and more versitile. oh one last point about this thing, if your are strong and using near its weight capacity, the whole thing is kinda loose fitting on metric racks so it shakes pretty violently even when your going slow and trying to be super controlled.

i like these plates a lot but have 2 small complaints. 1 - plates in general i think are stupid to buy new, but i dont drive so hauling plates in my mates car is a hard sell (and really as far as new bumpers are priced its pretty middle of the road). 2- these are quite thick even for bumper plates, so if your a big boy and can move a lot of weight, these may be limiting for you on deads and squats. however i will say, having the small ridge bult into a bumper plate is incredibly useful cause your not constantly relying on your pinch grip to lift them. ive taken a star away for the thickness of the plates cause to me that is something that effects performance despite technically being tangentaly related to their build quality, and ive given them only 3 stars on value cause they are what id consider a very middle of the pack option. better for newer lifters, and arguably slightly annoying for more experianced lifters. but broadly speaking plates are plates, its heavy and you can bench it, so on that front it does its job

okay so i bought this, kinda as a meme cause of the aesthetic of an old timey circus strongman being kinda cool. however after regularly incorporating it into my training in a serious capcity, i have to say this is the gold standard for lat, trap and rear delt training (and to a lesser extent triceps and side delts). i think in the context of low set volume assistance work, for a powerbuilding type of athlete you cant really beat this thing. its also great for instability work, and the resistance profile is similar to bands but smoother in a fashion i cant quite articulate without having someone just use it. some people like to point to its contraction bias as a downside, but i disagree wildly for a bunch of reason. The main one being that its bias towards the contraction, actually means you can work way closer to failure then you can on an even force curve, or a lengthened biased force curve. which in turn means you can get away with a lower volume approach. secondly it grants access to a variety of movements that are difficult to replicate with bands and cables, that are also easier to progressively overload, because extension springs can be bought almost anywhere for not much money. in all likelihood your garage door literally uses the same types of springs as this thing. movements like the reverse grip overhead pull apart, the horizontal pull apart and the behind the back press are all game changers. and yes technically bands can replicate these movements, but the jumps in weight with different types of bands is typically a lot more than with the springs, and they just feel better on springs cause youve got nice knurled handles that rotate and dont pinch your skin when they bunch up. overall i cant recommend this thing highly enough, it costs about the same as a commercial set of bands that will eventually snap on you, and ill likely keep this thing in my training in some fashion for the rest of my training career