REP Fitness Round vs Flat Sandwich J-Cups 2.0

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If you’re like me and are in the market for some of the higher end J-Cups from REP, then you’ve probably considered between their Round and Flat Sandwich J-Cups 2.0.

These J-Cups will give you the exact experience in almost every way. Both come in REP’s metallic black powder coat colorway. Both feature a thick urethane insert that stretches all the way up the J-Cup and wraps around the front lip to protect your barbells against bumps. Both feature recessed bolts to prevent them from rubbing against a barbell and damaging it. Both feature UHMW linings on all sides where the J-Cups mount onto an upright to protect it from getting scratches. Both have a weight capacity of 1000 lbs.

Really, the only difference is in the shape of the actual platform that a barbell rests on. One is rounded to prevent a bar from rolling back and forth. While the other has a flat and wider platform. This allows users to roll the bar back and forth and stage it in a particular position for a lift. The wider platform also allows users to mount certain specialty bars.

Personally, whenever I used J-Cups in the past, it was always the flat style because that’s what the commercial gyms generally had. I’ve never even seen a rounded J-Cup in one of those gyms. So I personally never thought it was a big deal. That is, until I tried a cheap Amazon rounded J-Cup and saw the benefits of such a product. To me, it’s just nice to put a barbell down and know it’s going to be in the same position. Of course, it won’t help you with the side-to-side positioning, but not having a bar be able to roll is helpful in most situations. Now, I rarely ever use the Flat J-Cups unless I need to rack a specialty bar.

I do want to touch on the fit and finish of these two J-Cups. Again, it's going to be the same between the two, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. I found that these REP J-Cups fit too loosely, even on my REP PR-5000 rack. I can shift the J-Cups with the slightest pressure. So imagine if you rack the bar too far to one side and need to pull it back to center. Because both of these J-Cups sit loose, they themselves will shift with the movement, which is just inconvenient and annoying. With my J-Cups, the size of the UHMW is actually inconsistent from J-Cup to J-Cup, as in the actual size of the UHMW is thinner and thicker in certain places and on certain J-Cups. I hate this because as I rack my barbell, the top shifts and hits the rack on top. Then, as I lower the barbell, the whole J-Cup shifts forward and hits the rack on the bottom. So it’s a level of extra noise and inconsistency that’s annoying to me. Because of this, I’ve actually ordered a new set of J-Cups to replace my REP J-Cups for general everyday use. The new ones will hopefully arrive soon, so make sure to subscribe to see that.

In general, I don’t personally recommend these REP Fitness Sandwich J-Cups. They work and function as they should, but the fit and finish are terrible where it counts, and that’s at the UHMW which makes the whole thing stay in place.

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Xero Shoes 360 Trainer - First Workout Impressions

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Over the past few months, in my home gym, the Xero HFS has been my favorite training shoe. However, after a more thorough look at Xero website, I actually think there may be some even better options for my personal training. That being said, I’ll periodically get in and try out the various Xero options that will fit my needs. The first shoe that we’ll be taking a look at in this series is going to be the Xero 360.

Since I just recently got this shoe in, I’ll only be able to give you my first impressions and, in this case, after my first handful of workouts with it. I do want to preface that I mainly just lift weights and focus most on powerlifting movements, and accessory lifts second. So, you’ll be getting an opinion from the perspective of the average gym-goer, not a crossfitter or someone who does Olympic lifts.

Let’s first take a look at the 360. The particular one that I have is in the Lunar Rock colorway with the gum soles. The lunar rock is sort of an off white color, almost heading towards grey. When it comes to shoes, I’m pretty plain and typically buy all black shoes. But this shoe didn’t come in all black but black and grey, which I don’t particularly like so I thought that this was the best available option.

The 360’s upper is comprised of a lot of mesh, which means that this is going to be an extremely breathable shoe and not exactly recommended for cold activities. Something that you may or may not be able to make out behind the mesh are the tensioning straps that run along the sides. These tighten the main portions of the sides of the shoe tighter around your foot as you tighten the laces. This really helps to lock your foot inside of the shoe.

Reinforcing at the toe box, heel, and eyelets is a suede-like material. This is a synthetic material as this shoe is 100% vegan. At the toe box, you’ll also see the rubber inlay lines, which Xero advertises as being helpful for “stability and control when climbing rope and scaling obstacles”. I don’t do those things, so I will have to take their word for it.

Moving to the sole, we get a zero-drop sole that’s very minimal in both material and design. This is a very thin sole that lets you stand barely above the ground and allows you to really feel the surface that you’re on. This is good for weightlifting because it means that the user can transfer the forces while pushing directly into the ground and not have to worry about excess cushion messing with that or contributing to an unstable lifting surface. I really like this sole. It’s basically a thin sheet of rubber with some minor grooves cut into it. Exactly what I’m looking for.

Again, at this point, I’ve only used this shoe for three workouts, but that is enough to make me say that this is better than my previously favorite training shoe, the Xero HFS. First of all, fitment with this shoe is just more comfortable for me. The HFS seems to be a more narrow shoe all around, so in general, the increase in comfort was immediately felt by me. But that doesn’t mean that this shoe is loose because, again, the 360 has the tensioning straps running along the sides of the shoe that you can use to really lock your feet into place. The main difference for me in terms of training is going to come from the sole. I previously praised the HFS’s sole for being very minimal, but it still has some pronounced and separated lugs. Compared to the 360, the HFS looks and feels like a hiking boot. The 360’s approach to a minimalistic sole just takes it to a whole other level, and I’m all for it. Now, if I can get just a plain sheet of rubber for the sole with some minor texture to help prevent slipping, I’d take that, but until then, the 360 comes pretty close. Its tread pattern is very close to each other and not very pronounced, which is exactly what I’m looking for. To me, the sole is everything in a training shoe, and this is pretty close to perfect. Moving forward, I’ll be wearing this shoe almost exclusively, so that tells you how much I like this silhouette.

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MAG Grip Palm Press

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When I was making my MAG Grip purchase, I wanted to order potentially everything that I wanted at once because you have to pay for shipping and that actually does add a lot to the final price. That being said, one of the attachments that I was on the fence about was the Palm Press.

Now, just looking at this attachment, it may look a bit confusing. It is essentially just a sheet of metal with some knubs on top. I mean, I personally had no idea what this was upon first look and wrote it off. But that’s kind of MAG Grip’s whole thing. They do such a poor job of advertising and explaining their products that the customers actually have to look around to see what each handles do and what the benefits of the various grips are. However, I think because the Palm Press is pretty far out there, MAG Grip actually dedicated an entire page on their website to explaining this product. This explanation is also included with your order of the Palm Press. But to save you some time, you can basically think of the Palm Press as an alternative to a straight bar attachment.

The main benefits of the Palm Press, at least according to the included pamphlet, are that it’s more comfortable because you’re able to distribute the load across a larger area of your hand rather than a strip, like in the case of gripping a bar. The Palm Press also forces you to maintain tension for longer because when you use it, you naturally want to flex your wrist at the top of an exercise rather than pull up and have the handle above your wrist like with a traditional bar. The Palm Press also provides more stability as it allows you to hold onto a larger surface area. The rubber coating and thumb posts also help with this by providing a more secure connection with the attachment.

To use this attachment, you take your cable and attach it to the eye bolt. You then place your palms flat on the attachment with the nubs between your thumbs and index fingers. From there, you press with your palms, as the name implies. So again, think of this as a straight bar replacement. Standing upright, you can use this attachment for exercises like tricep pushdowns and curls. Laying down, you can use it for exercises like skullcrushers or pullovers.

After having this attachment and using it for a couple of workouts, I think that it’s interesting, to say the least. Straight up, I think that this is a better option than a straight bar for standing movements similar to a tricep pushdown. Those types of movements with the palms open and pushing down, just feel very natural and comfortable. However, I would say that changes when you’re lying down. Movements like skullcrushers and pullovers get complicated. It’s not like the movement itself is bad; it’s more that the shape of this attachment itself just makes it awkward to get into position and to put it down. If you’re someone who doesn’t just let your attachment go and fly back into position, I find that putting this attachment back just takes a bit more time, and that’s annoying. I much more prefer to use this attachment while standing than laying down, so I probably won’t do that with the Palm Press anymore. This just means that for me, the Palm Press is pretty much only going to be used for tricep pushdowns and straight arm pulls until I can think of other uses for it that fits my lifting program.

So for me personally, with the Palm Press at $64.95 and another $15.12 for shipping, this turns out to be an $80 attachment that is really only good for two exercises. But hey, it does those two exercises really really well, possibly the best at them. So I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself if that’s worth the cost.

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Custom Spotter Arm Wall Mount

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A uick look around my gym and you’ll be able to tell that my solution to organization is often to hang whatever it is on the wall. However, something that’s been a major pain for me are my spotter arms because after some research, it seems like only one spotter arm wall mount exists, and that’s the one made by PRX. I actually bought this product, but it didn’t work with my REP Fitness spotter arms. The hole spacing was just too close for the wider REP arms. So, it was back to the drawing board.

After a good bit more Googling, I randomly stumbled upon an Etsy listing from SPL Performance for a 3D printed spotter arm and other rack accessory mount. I was really intrigued about this, but just from the pictures, I didn’t think it would fit the REP spotter arms, so I reached out to the seller. His name is Benjamin, and he is great to work with and very knowledgeable. I sent him some pictures and measurements for the REP spotter arms, and he was able to custom make for me both the block that holds the 1” pin and the support block that helps to hold the other end up. Even with the custom work and shipment from Montreal, Canada, I received my products in about a week.

And here they are all mounted up on my wall. In terms of installation, it’s pretty much just a matter of drilling a couple of holes. But if you’re a perfectionist like me, you can throw up a laser or some other means to level and space everything out. However, it should be noted that because of the spacing of the holes on the blocks, you won’t be able to hit the studs with all the holes. You’ll be able to hit one column, then will have to use anchors with the other column if that’s what you want to do. I personally had to use anchors with all my screws because of how I wanted to mount my spotter arms and had to go through all drywall. But they’re holding up just fine.

In terms of options, you can get these mounts in a variety of sizes that’ll fit the most common rack sizes. You also have two material options and these are broken up into residential and commercial grade. Residential grade is made from PLA and commercial grade is made from PA6CF, which is a carbon fiber reinforced nylon, so from now on I will refer to it as nylon. I personally am not familiar with 3D printing, so I didn’t know the difference between these options and especially why one costs basically double, so I asked the seller. I’ll add his exact response, and you can read that for yourself. It’s a great explanation, but the main takeaway is that the nylon is going to be stronger.

“The Nylon is stiffer, the material itself is stronger and it has a stronger intralayer adhesion which means it is less likely to delaminate at a layer line when a force is applied to it. The material itself is more expensive and also causes more wear on the machine which is why those parts are more expensive”

I do want to note that the seller himself uses PLA in his home gym and only started to offer nylon because the owner of a condo with a gym requested for something stronger since his blocks will see a lot more use and abuse.

I personally have both versions. For the spotter arms, I went with the commercial grade nylon. I naturally just like the idea of over-engineering so I wanted the sturdiest option for the heavier spotter arms. But for holding something up like a J-Cup, I think PLA should more than suffice, and that’s exactly what I’m going to use them for. I just have some other stuff coming that I need to finalize wall space for before I can mount these blocks and the J-Cups up.

Something else to consider is that the two materials have a slightly different look to them. Side by side, you can see that the nylon looks like it has a rougher, more coarse surface texture, while PLA is smoother. Because of the slightly rougher surface, the nylon does look more matte black, while PLA is more satin. I hope that helps if any of those things will affect your decision.

Overall, I’m happy with this purchase. These are some great rack attachment mounts, and if you’re like me and want to mount up some spotter arms, these are basically your only option unless your spotter arms fit the PRX mounts. Even if they do, I’d still recommend that you consider this option because of how flexible the seller is and his ability to custom-make these blocks to your sizing needs.

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Rogue Monster Matador Dip Station Attachment

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In building my REP Fitness PR-5000 rack, I actually had to put a lot of thought into the dip station that I wanted for it. Because I also have the Ares 2.0 cable attachment, I knew that I wanted a dip attachment that can attach to a single upright, and this would allow me to utilize the cable system for weighted dips more easily than one that mounts on two uprights. Not to mention that this would also save a lot of space.

An obvious option would be to go with the REP Dip Station. But I decided agaiunst it for two reasons. One, for the price, it wasn’t fully welded but assembled with a couple of bolts. It’s not like this wouldn’t work; I just personally would rather have an attachment that’s mostly welded because I perceive that as providing more value for my investment. But this is something that I could’ve lived without. The ultimate determiner is the fact that the REP Dip Station had no optional wall mount. This is something that I really wanted because I didn’t want the dip station to just sit around on the floor or constantly take up space on my rack. After some research, I decided to go with the Rogue Monster Matador dip station.

If you look this product up, you’ll see that there are three varioations. There’s the Monster Matador for 1” racks, Monster Lite Matador for 5/8” racks, and the Matador for the infinity Series, which is Rogue’s 2x3” racks. Most people are going to be looking at either the Monster or Monster Lite version so I’ll focus on those.

Something important to note about these two versions is that they are identical in size and shape. dimension, and build. The main difference between the two is going to be the hole that’s drilled out for the retaining pin. However, in terms of price, the Monster version is $80 more. So, something a lot of people do is buy the Monster Lite version, drill the hole out to fit a 1” pin, and save the money. This is actually what I did. I just used a step drill bit that I already had, some 3-In-1 oil as a lubricant, and went at it. In a couple of minutes, I got it to the size that I needed and saved $80.

Another difference that I do want to point out between the Monster and Monster Lite Matador is the amount of protection on the inside of the mounting area. With the Monster Lite, there’s nothing so when you go to mount it on a rack, it’s just bare metal on metal. So if you care, the Matador Lite is going to rip your rack up basically immediately upon use. With the Monster Matador, you get one piece of UHMW on the front and weirdly felt on the two sides. I thought that this was kind of lame, which was another reason that persuaded me to go with the Monster Lite version because I knew I could just pick up some anti slip, anti scractch pads, stick it on and that would offer more protection than what Rogue was offering with the more expensive Monster Matador.

Again, I wanted the Matador Dip Station because Rogue offers a separate wall mount option. And this item is going to be fairly straightforward. There’s nothing really to it as it just acts as a place for you to put the Matador on. In terms of installation, it’s just held in place by two bolts, which are not included. Luckily, the ones that came with my REP plate wall mount fit perfectly.

When I was researching this Matador Wall Hanger, all of the photos showed it in use with the handles up. This does seem to be the proper way to use this hanger as there’s a small tab on the hanger that presses against the Matador to keep it in place. However, because I was hanging my Matador higher up, I wanted the handles down just to make getting it up and down easier. I want to share that this orientation works perfectly without issues.

Something that often comes up with these single-post rack attach dip stations is fitment. For some reason, they always seem to be sloppy and allow a lot of wiggle room. Again, I’m using a Rogue product on a REP rack. The two are not the same in terms of physical dimensions, with Rogue being a bit larger, so it’s only logical that their attachments are going to be even looser on a REP rack. But, again, I did modify my attachment by lining it with the self-adhesive pads, so my fitment is very usable. I actually left it slightly loose on purpose to make getting on and off easier, but for sure, you can make this rock solid snug with the pads.

Overall, the Matador itself is a good product that does exactly what it’s designed for, and that’s to allow you to do dips. This is also probably the most heavy-duty, in terms of construction, rack-attach dip station that I’ve ever used. It’s built like a tank. However, I do want to touch on Rogue for a bit. In building my home gym, I went with a lot of REP stuff for the large purchases and some Rogue stuff for attachments and accessories. For some reason, every Rogue item I ordered either has some defect from the factory or was damaged in transit. This Matador is a prime example of that. The black powder coating on the Matador itself is just terrible. A couple of areas were either not coated or were damaged to a degree that the coating came off, and they still shipped it off. With the hanger, Rogue shipped it along with other stuff in the same box but didn’t think to properly package them, so the items just bounced around in the box, destroying each other. I really don’t know what they were thinking with that. Then, when it comes time to contact Rogue about the issues, it always seems like customer service is put offish and are just going through the motions. Assisting you because it’s their job and they have to, not like they care even in the customer service sense. So again, this is a good product that gets my recommendation, but I personally will probably not be buying from Rogue for some time.

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