REP Fitness Ares 2.0 4 Post Pull Up Bar Extension Brackets

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Manfrotto MOVE vs Xchange Quick Release System

When it comes to using tripods and attaching accessories, something that I’ve come to greatly appreciate is a quick-release system. In this video, I want to share with you two systems that I currently own: the Manfrotto MOVE system and the Manfrotto XCHANGE system. Both let you swap heads, sliders, or accessories quickly, but they differ in price, feel, and design.

Construction & Build
The MOVE quick-release base is fully metal, made from CNC-machined aluminum. It even has a red anodized aluminum ring and a knurled metal X-Lock collar. This all-metal construction feels very solid and premium in hand. The twist-lock collar is easy to grip and turn, and it operates with a satisfying metal-on-metal feel.

By contrast, XCHANGE’s base is also aluminum but uses some plastic parts. For instance, the XCHANGE collar isn’t full metal—it has a rubber or plasticized grip section. The build is still sturdy, but it doesn’t have the same refined heft or “precision-machined” vibe as the MOVE. Both systems are robust enough and are rated for the same ~20 kg (44 lb) load. But MOVE definitely looks and feels like the higher end of the two.

Functionally, the only real difference I see between the two is that the MOVE’s quick-release plate is compatible with both 1/4-20 and 3/8-16 products, whereas the XCHANGE plate is only compatible with 3/8-16 unless an adapter is used. But that’s not really practical with larger accessories, if you’ve ever seen one of those adapters. So in this case, if you’re using 1/4-20 base accessories, the MOVE system may be the better choice.

Operation and Ease of Use
One of the biggest differences is in how quickly and intuitively each system locks the quick-release plate. With MOVE, you can “just drop the plate in and start shooting.” The circular base and plate are shaped so that the plate is funneled into the base; even if you hit it at a slight angle, the edges guide it into place and the collar will twist into the locked position. Then, for added security on either system, you can twist the collar a bit more to really lock it. MOVE is definitely designed for speed.

XCHANGE also uses a twist-lock mechanism, but because of the way the parts are designed and how they interact with each other, you have to be more deliberate with how you position them and lock them together. In practice, I’ve found that MOVE consistently locks seamlessly, whereas with XCHANGE, I’ve missed a few times trying to link it together. In other words, MOVE self-aligns the parts better, while XCHANGE requires me to carefully line them up.

Another difference is what happens when the plate is off. With MOVE, when you take the plate off, the collar stays fully twisted in the “open/catch” position until the quick-release plate is back in the base. It can’t accidentally get locked, so it’s always ready to receive the plate. With XCHANGE’s base, on the other hand, you can actually twist it slightly and get the plate out. Then, if you let go of the collar, it will twist back into the locked position. That means that when it’s time to link back up, the base is already locked and you can’t connect the two pieces. You must twist the collar again to unlock it before dropping the plate in. So with XCHANGE, you have to be deliberate when unlocking the collar and make sure you hear and feel it click into the unlocked position before letting go. Again, this is just a minor fit and finish detail that separates these two products.

Plate Design and Stability
An important distinction and something to consider is the two systems’ quick-release plate design. XCHANGE’s quick release plate is flat and wide. This design has some practical upsides. With this, you can put the base down on a surface and it won’t roll or tip over. This will also allow a balanced and attached accessory to do the same. In contrast, MOVE’s plate is a tall cylinder, and it sits on a narrow end. Unless you’re attaching something small and lightweight to the MOVE quick release plate, it’ll likely topple over, so everything that I attach to this plate basically has to lie on its side. The XCHANGE plate’s flat design helps to avoid that issue.

Visually, this also matters. If you pair the XCHANGE parts with a 75mm tripod bowl or fluid head base, the parts will cover the base nicely, whereas the MOVE’s narrower design leaves a visible gap around it. On the other hand, if you’re using small heads or monopods with a small ball base, the MOVE can actually look neater because it doesn’t have any extra-wide lip around the base. This just comes down to a matter of taste and rig setup.

Ecosystem Integration and Future Support
Manfrotto is clearly investing in the XCHANGE ecosystem. A key example is the new 500X fluid head, which was designed specifically with XCHANGE in mind. The 500X has a flat base that is directly compatible with the XCHANGE quick-release system. In other words, you can drop the 500X head onto an XCHANGE base without an additional quick-release plate.

What does this mean for you? If you invest in XCHANGE now, it’s likely to pay off as more Manfrotto gear comes out. Future heads, sliders, or tripods may adopt XCHANGE as a standard. I personally own three sets of XCHANGE hardware because of this. I don’t think that Manfrotto is going to abandon it anytime soon. By contrast, MOVE is a few years old and it doesn’t seem to be talked about all that much. I only really see it when it’s packaged with one of Manfrotto’s tripod kits. That’s actually how I got my MOVE set.

Price and Value
It’s hard to ignore the price gap. The MOVE base and quick release kit sells for about $100, while the XCHANGE base and plate kit is around $55—almost half the cost. That means you can essentially buy two XCHANGE sets for the price of one MOVE set. For budget-conscious shooters, XCHANGE is a clear win here.

Of course, you get what you pay for. The MOVE’s higher price buys you its premium feel and slightly faster operation. It’s all metal and very well finished, so if you want the smoothest, quickest workflow (and don’t mind paying more), MOVE has the edge. XCHANGE is still well-made and lightweight, but it uses some plastic parts and the collar isn’t as refined.

Both systems handle the same load and both use a twist-lock method. But with MOVE, you get the knurled metal collar and the ease of that “just drop it in” design, whereas with XCHANGE you get a flat platform and lower cost.

Conclusion: Which Would I Choose?
In the end, both Manfrotto systems work very well—you really can’t go wrong technically. If forced to pick, here’s my take: I personally lean toward XCHANGE. Its lower price, wide flat base, and future-proof design make it a smart long-term investment. I already own several XCHANGE kits and use them almost every day. Again, I got my MOVE set with a tripod that I purchased, and even though it feels more premium and is easier to use, I probably wouldn’t purchase it just because of the previously mentioned reasons. If I had to build up just one system, I’d go with XCHANGE for its price and ecosystem advantages. It’s the safer bet for the long run.


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REP Fitness Stainless Steel Black Diamond Power Bar vs Cerakote Double Black Diamond Power Bar

I’ve been using the REP Fitness Stainless Steel Black Diamond Power Bar for a few months, and this has become my favorite bar to use among the ones that I own, and that purely comes down to the knurling. It’s provided me with just the right amount of bite when doing pushing exercises like the bench press, and it grips very well when it’s sitting on me, like during a barbell squat. However, there are times that I feel like I want more, and that’s during pulling exercises like barbell rows and deadlifts. That’s where the REP Fitness Double Black Diamond Power Bar comes into play.

In terms of specs, these two bars are identical. The only difference is the knurling. Whereas the Black Diamond has what REP calls “Deep Volcano / Aggressive,” the Double Black Diamond has “Deep Mountain / Very Aggressive.” When I made my original purchase, I went with the Black Diamond because I was worried that the Double Black Diamond would be too much. That’s because of the Giant Fitness Northland Open Trap Bar that I own. That thing has the most aggressive knurling I’ve ever felt, and every couple of workouts with it, it’ll rip a chunk of callus off, which just slows my entire workout split down because I can barely grip after that. I didn’t want to deal with that here and went with the Black Diamond.

But after owning this, I do find myself thinking that maybe I want a little bit more. This particular Black Diamond is the stainless steel option, which is going to give us the most tactile response in terms of feeling the knurling. It is just bare metal with nothing on it, so we really get to understand the knurling. And because of that, I almost exclusively only buy stainless steel bars. I only own one barbell that’s not stainless steel, and that is the bar that I bought for visitors to use when they come to my gym so they don’t mess up the good stuff.

But for my purchase of the Double Black Diamond, again I was worried that it may be too aggressive, and that could potentially be the case if I bought the stainless steel version. So I made the decision to go with the Cerakote option because Cerakote is an additive process. This is a coating that’s applied to the metal and physically adds a layer of thickness to it. In terms of the knurling, Cerakote can fill in the knurling a bit, making it less aggressive than it would be without it. So if we were to look at the knurling in terms of a scale of aggressiveness between the Black Diamond and Double Black Diamond bars, you’d have Cerakote Black Diamond as the least aggressive, then Stainless Steel Black Diamond, then Cerakote Double Black Diamond, and finally Stainless Steel Double Black Diamond as the most aggressive.

In person, I would say that’s accurate, at least with my two samples. The Cerakote Double Black Diamond is a bump up from the Stainless Steel Black Diamond in terms of knurling aggressiveness. It’s nothing crazy, and upon first impressions, I would say that I wouldn’t mind switching to it for everyday use. I actually think that I like it more than the stainless steel Black Diamond. I can already tell that it’s not crazy over-the-top aggressive and doesn’t just rip your skin off all the time. But again, that’s just first impressions. I’ll have to report back in the future.

That being said, I do want to share that my Double Black Diamond is the worst condition bar that I’ve ever received. There’s a list of things wrong with it. First, during shipping, for some reason the person packaging this bar didn’t feel the need to reinforce one of the ends of the shipping tube and just taped it up. This, of course, allowed the bar to move, and one of the ends ended up slightly damaged. From there, we move on to the black Duracoat sleeves, which have the most terrible, inconsistent coating I’ve ever seen, possibly on any product. It’s super spotty and looks awful. The red Cerakote is better, but not that great. In person, I can see that certain areas of the Cerakote are glossier than others. So again, it’s inconsistent. This bar looks so bad, and I’m sure this isn’t representative of all of them, but it has certainly deterred me from buying another Cerakote or Duracoat bar from REP. From now on, I’ll probably just stick to their stainless steel bars.

So to sum things up, if you want an opinion on the Black Diamond line of bars from REP, the single Black Diamond in stainless steel is a good all-around bar, no doubt about it. But for my personal taste, even as someone who doesn’t like super aggressive knurling that tears your hands up, I think the Double Black Diamond in Cerakote is better. In my short time with it, I already like it more for everyday use, and again, I don’t think it’s overly aggressive. So the logical next question would be, how aggressive is the Stainless Steel Double Black Diamond bar? Is it really that bad? Personally, just from my experience with my two bars, I’m willing to bet it’s not, but unfortunately, I don’t think I’m willing to fund another $400 bar when I already have some good options here.


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VEVOR Sliding Truck Bed Organizer

As I travel more for work, I’m getting more and more annoyed at having to pull stuff from the inside of my truck bed. After some research, I came across a category of products that is essentially a slide platform, which you can load up and pull everything out when needed. There are quite a few options out there, but the one that I landed on is the VEVOR Sliding Truck Bed Organizer. This organizer comes in various sizes, and to figure out which you should buy, you just measure the space between your wheel wells. I own a 2024 Nissan Frontier with a 5’ bed and purchased the 58”x41” option. If you’re in the same boat in terms of fitment, front to back it’s almost exact with only millimeters to spare. Side to side, you’ll have a few inches, but nothing too crazy.

In terms of installation, I have to be honest and say that on paper and looking at the directions, it’s a very straightforward install, and it really is. It’s just tedious. The first step is to install the side rails. This is very straightforward. Just tighten a few bolts. But this is where I ran into my first problem. One of the side brackets was completely bent, so that side rail doesn’t sit properly. I’ve contacted VEVOR and hopefully I can get a new one.

Next, we bring the entire organizer into the bed for a dry fitting. Again, if you have a 2024 Nissan Frontier with a 5’ bed, you should be good to go. Now, because this is a universal product and not made for any particular vehicle, you might run into some issues installing it. There are pre-drilled slots in the mounting bracket for you to use as a template for drilling locations, but that might not work for your truck. You might have to drill some new holes, and that might be a pain because this is some decently thick steel. Again, if you have a similar truck as me, you’ll have no problems with drilling location, but the Frontier’s bed has high and low ridges. Unfortunately, all the pre-drilled slots fall in the low spots. So this part of the install could be better, but it’ll work just fine.

Once you get all your holes drilled, this is where you get to the fun part, as in the most annoying part of the install for me, and that’s installing the riv nuts. Because I don’t have a riv nut gun, I had to do it the manual way that the instructions show you, and it’s just tedious and takes a long time. No doubt, the riv nut installation in the truck bed took the longest amount of time for me. But once you get those in, the install is basically done. You just have to put everything back.

On a side note, you may have noticed that I have a bed mat and decided to install the organizer on top of it. I did this because the mat is easier to clean than the sprayed-on bedliner. It’s also grippier for when I put things on the empty space along the sides of the organizer.

Okay, so with all of that out of the way, how do I feel about this product? Let’s consider that I didn’t get a bent bracket and everything is functionally perfect. I would say that this product is pretty awesome. Obviously, I haven’t used any of the other options on the market, so I don’t have a good frame of reference, but I would say that this product completely changes my use of the truck bed in such a good way. Accessing things that are stored at the back of the bed is so much easier. It really takes close to no effort at all. I just have to strategically place what I need along the edges of the organizer so that I can easily access it.

After using this for a bit, I can only think of a few minor complaints. First is with the sliding mechanism, as it does require some force to move it. I don’t want to say that it’s heavy, because it’s not like I’m struggling at all to move it. It’s more so that pulling the organizer out is an active thing. It’s not going to just easily slide out for you with no force. But again, I’ve never tried any others, so maybe they’re all like that.

The second complaint would be with the surface of the top deck. It’s slightly textured, but that really doesn’t do anything for grip. I can definitely see stuff sliding around on this surface, so I’ll have to look for some sort of rubber mat to put on top of it to prevent that.

Lastly, I personally feel that the side rails and general tie-down system are not all that strong. Clearly, the brackets can bend, but beyond that, it all flexes and moves a bit. The tie-down rings are plastic that fasten to plastic blocks. I’m pretty sure that if you try to use ratchet straps on them and crank down, the plastic threads would just rip apart. This is definitely something that you want to use bungee straps with, just to prevent putting too much force on the tie-downs and to stop lighter-weight items from sliding back and forth. For more secure tying down, I would use the truck’s OEM locations.

Again, those are minor complaints that would not deter me from purchasing this product again. It works great and will make my use of the bed much easier.


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HVO Leg Curl / Extension Machine

I was recently contacted by the company HVO, which makes various fitness equipment, with the hopes of me possibly reviewing their products. After some discussion, we settled on the leg curl/extension machine because it is something that I would actually use as someone who enjoys leg day.

Again, this product was sent to me by HVO for free. But I explained to them that this is going to be an unbiased review with me expressing my own personal opinions.

First, in terms of packaging, everything arrived in one cardboard box. All the parts are bubble wrapped, and mine was largely unscathed, with only one part that had some noticeable scratches.

Installation of this machine is relatively straightforward, as most of it is already pre-assembled, and everything is put together with only a few bolts. The bolts are also well labeled, so you can get the entire thing put together relatively quickly.

As far as the machine itself, it’s relatively compact and is a good bit smaller than a single horse stall mat. This is partly why I wanted this machine. It doesn’t take up too much space, and I felt that it was worth giving up that space in my single-car garage gym.

In terms of use, I’ve only put a few workouts in on this machine, but I would say that overall my experience has been good. I do want to point out that you can use this machine sitting up or lying down, depending on how you set up the pads. I personally only use this machine sitting up to save some extra space. The only reason to make the pads lie down is to do lying leg curls, but with the 24-position sundial, you can basically achieve the same thing sitting up. Lying vs sitting will hit slightly different muscle groups, and you can look that up for yourself, but for my uses, it’s close enough, and I’d rather save the floor space.

Speaking of adjustments, this machine does offer a few different options. The back pad goes back and forth, up and down. The Seat pad’s angle can be adjusted. The thigh roller goes up and down. And you have two sundials to adjust your leg positions. With the larger sundial, I really appreciate that they added position numbers because I do adjust this multiple times a workout to change between leg curls and extensions. There are no position numbers on the smaller sundial, but this isn’t a problem for me because I keep it in the same spot for everything, so it never gets adjusted. I can see this as being annoying if you constantly have to adjust it. Overall, there’s a lot of adjustability with this machine that I think most people are going to be able to make it work for them.

As far as the pads, I really have no complaints here. They are both 2 inches thick and offer adequate stiffness, but are not uncomfortable.

Now, let’s talk about actually using this machine. Personally, I only wanted this machine for doing seated leg curls and extensions, so I have the most experience with that. For these exercises, I think this machine does a great job once you get your proper positions dialed in. I haven’t used a similar machine since I worked out at a commercial gym years ago, so I don’t have a good frame of reference, but I’m so surprised that I can get such a pump and burn from just one 45lbs plate. It can get pretty difficult when doing a lot of reps. That being said, I think this machine would be beneficial for those who don’t own a lot of plates because most people would not need it with these exercises.

In terms of versatility, you technically can do quite a few different exercises with this machine. But some of the more practical options are highlighted by HVO, and I think that this machine is viable for those exercises. For example, you can position the leg roller to sit above your thighs and do calf raises. The machine is actually really functional for this. Then for those who like split squats, again, the leg roller can easily be positioned to give you a place to rest your foot. I really wish that I got this machine sooner because I spent hundreds of dollars on a pair of Rouge leg rollers that attach to a rack. I much prefer to use this HVO leg roller because it’s already there, and there’s really no setup time.

Again, overall I would say that this is a good machine, but not all is perfect. There are a few minor things that I think can be updated. First, there are two little square tubes that are used as storage locations for the thigh rollers and back pad. What I don’t like is that it’s just metal-on-metal contact. Over time, this black paint is going to get destroyed and I think these areas are going to be prone to rusting. I say this because my machine already shows signs of rust internally. This is something exclusive to this particular product, but really any gym equipment that’s imported can show signs of rust because it’s sitting in a container for potentially months, going over the ocean, then sit some more in a warehouse for who knows how long when it hits the US. So I’m not necessarily knocking HVO for this, I’m just saying that if this area gets scratched up, it too may start to develop some rust. My next complaint is with the selector pin for the smaller sundial. For some reason, when some weight is added and the machine is in use, this pin constantly makes a popping noise. It’s something that I’ve personally gotten used to, but is an annoyance nevertheless. Lastly, the handles that are attached to the back pad of my machine are angled weirdly. This is because the circular couplings that they attach to are welded unevenly. This is one of those fit and finish things that separates products. Aside from looking weird, I also don’t like how these handles are just held in place by a small bolt that loosens very easily under use. From my experience, it’s basically impossible to tighten these handles down and not have them wiggle out of place over time. This should definitely be addressed. But luckily for me, I never use this machine lying down, so I never have to worry about this.

And that’s the HVO leg curl/extension in a nutshell. For under $400, I think that this is a good buy. It offers a good amount of versatility for those who want a multipurpose machine and but is also very good at what it’s primarily designed to do, and that’s leg curl and extensions.



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