ANCORE and Iron Neck Reviews

Gray Matter Lifting

Update on general GML as well as lead into reviews

ANCORE Pro Review

I mentioned in the last newsletter that the video was with Dan, and here we are. I watched a lot of reviews on the ANCORE Pro before publishing this, and I seem to have some different thoughts on it than a lot of others.

I don’t hate it, I just don’t think the price for a typical home gym, makes much sense. If you can snag it on a deal, or you have a very specific gym layout, definitely. Otherwise, I’m pretty meh on the ANCORE Pro.

Iron Neck 3.0 Pro Review

This was one of the longest term reviews I’ve ever done, and not necessarily on purpose. I kept wanting to try something different, get a different perspective, or learn something I hadn’t already locked down.

In the end, My perspectives didn’t change much from my early experiments. I am glad I went about this the way that I did, but I’m also glad that this is finally wrapped up. Long story short here, I’m keeping it, using it, but not sure I recommend it entirely.

What Is Next?

The next three videos are the REP Leg Developer, Powerblock Dumbbells, and ForceUSA Tandem Tower, followed by cable attachments, and then likely our Summer Vacation. We’ll be traveling a couple weeks before HGC, then wrapping up the trip at HGC, and headed home. I’m hoping to do a video about What I Want From HomeGymCon. We’ll see how that goes. But that takes us into August.

SC2 Stair Climber Machine Ultra

We finally got in a stair climber, and we are PUMPED. Audrey, being the weirdo that she is, has been asking for one ever since I showed her what it was. Unfortunately, the handful we found were either too big, or offered by STEPR who we had some issues with as a company.

I actually measured for one from GMWD, but it was too big. FED reached out and mentioned they had one coming, I hesitantly measured, but was instantly excited. I measured a couple more times before I agreed to get it sent over.

The process to get it from front yard to back yard wasn’t my favorite, but we are in business. It has 24 speed levels I believe, and at 10 and 20 minutes I am HURTING. My wife is using around 7, so we’ve got a lot of room here. Audrey has to wear a weighted vest for it to recognize her, which is unfortunate, but we are almost in business. She clearly just needs to bulk.

It isn’t perfectly designed, but we have a large screen for basic metrics, plenty of speed adjustments, it is stable, easy to use, and we are getting in our cardio in STYLE!

NÜOBELL-S Adjustable Dumbbells

We snagged a set of the new NÜOBELL adjustable dumbbells. These go up to 100lbs, came with the stand, and adjust with a quick twist of the wrist. Initial feedback from the wife and Sunday crew, is that these are preferred over the PowerBlocks. I have to agree. The stand sucks BTW, and it has no wheels. Which is just such a terrible design choice. But overall, enjoying these as a dumbbell option.

MERACH R50 Pro Rower

Last year we reviewed the Merach R50 Rower and enjoyed MOST of it, but the monitor was terrible. The team just sent over their newest offering, the R50 Pro, which has some features updates and a brand new monitor.

Out the gate I can confidently say, yes, it is better. We’ll have to see how this stacks up against the original with the price differences though. I’ll get this up on the Review Pipeline shortly.

Programming Note

With the new stuff, wanted to drop a small line on my own programming. This week was Week 1 of my new program, now that the GGC is tapering off. I’ll be starting round 2 of my diet next week, with cardio being… 3 days of Indoor Footwork with the Sanddune Stepper (on leg days), 2 days of Stair Machine work (arms and chest/shoulder days), and then the weekends will be a mix of Stair Machine, Rower, and Medicine Ball work.

I’m going HARD on the new VOLTRA settings I programmed from my chat with Coach Kaz (side note, will be booking and releasing more VOLTRA Expert episodes very soon). And I’m testing out and refining my cable attachment list and other doodads.

Whats New In The Community?

Fringe Sport x Speediance

PK from Fringe mentioned awhile back that they were going to release a Digital Resistance device this summer. I said the only way that was going to happen, was if they either White Labelled someone else’s product, or partnered with someone else.

Then Fringe posted a video of PK sharing the Speediance NANO. That video has been removed from Instagram since posting, which is interesting. My gut reaction was that Fringe was partnering with Speediance. I actually had that written for this newsletter until late last night. So right now, we don’t actually know what this means.

A few things in my head here if that is indeed what is happening…

My gut tells me that Fringe will handle the “gym” stuff, meaning mounts, attachments, integration into racks, functional trainers, etc. We’ll probably see a Dane 3.0 with the NANO for instance. And Speediance is going to handle the tech side of things. This gets Speediance a step in the door with the home gym community, and gets Fringe away from hiring an entire team of computer people.

The rumors have this coming in at around the same price as the VOLTRA. Which seems like a HUGE swing and a miss. The only common complaint on the VOLTRA, is the price. If they aren’t able to beat that, they’ll need to get REALLY creative on how they go about this.

Their design is essentially the same format as the VOLTRA. A rectangular box, with a cable in the center, and a screen on the right hand side. So no wins there. If they launch with some cool features, the fun part about software updates, is the VOLTRA could bring those to life right after. So no wins there either.

Speediance partnering with Fringe, is going to likely make the NANO less “open format” than the VOLTRA, and that is one of the best features of the VOLTRA, the ability to combine with anything you want.

I’ve shared my feelings about Speediance before, but just a quick rehash. They have been banned from multiple online communities for creating fake accounts and posting fake reviews. They have been called out and name checked by other companies in the space for stealing their materials, marketing programs, and more. And every single content creator who works with them that I have talked to, has complained about them (the only one who says it out loud is Tim at GymCrafter, and me). Their contracts require them to see the final content beforehand, with the ability to require you to make edits or even not post the reviews entirely. This is FAR from a company I would want to support in any fashion.

As much as I am a huge VOLTRA fan, I’m also really excited about competition. The Freak Athlete ATOM, wherever it is, has me exited. That RepOne rack integration looks wild. The newest 1080 belt squat is awesome. I’m here for this next step, because if Beyond Power is the only one dragging us along the way, its going to be a much slower ride.

But this? Same design, same price, same features, from a shitty company sounds like a bad deal to me.

Garage Gym Competition

The spring GGC will be wrapped up and done this week, aka Data Week.

Data Highlights

I donated 1 Penny Per Pound Lifted... We lifted a cumulative 336,832lbs, so, $3368.32 was sent on over.

Through the submission form we asked if YOU were going to donate. Another $1957 was donated by all of you!

@primefitnessusa tossed in an extra $50, @basementbrandon tossed in $20 during our live stream, and @colonial_barbell_club tossed in $10 as well.

This all brings our cumulative total to $5,405.32 for the Spring Event. Pushing us well past the $10k raised marked for Special Olympics since 2018.

We had 383 total athletes participate who snagged 185 total PRs!

We handed out 76 prizes, 16 swords, and 2 pies!

The full results spreadsheet is now available.

Well be launching Full Details for the Fall event the week of June 15th. Until then, that is it for the 26 Spring GGC.

r/HomeGym

Porter Phys Ed is doing an AMA next week, which should be cool. Matt is an awesome dude, looking forward to see what the community has in store for him.

With the GGC taking up my life, I didn't catch much on Reddit this month. I'll get caught up into the summer.

One Last Thing…

Me and my wife just finished our summer planning and one thing we've been working on, is how to make sure we pack enough cool shit into the year. With kids, work, sports, etc. Sometimes the days turn into months and then the year is over. I saw a video a few weeks back, and it gave me a formula that I enjoyed. 

 1 BIG Milestone In A Year: This can be getting married, buying a house, new job, finish a degree, or some big vacation, or whatever. 

For us… We'll be hitting 4 national parks this summer right before our HGC trip. It’ll take us almost 2 full weeks, we’ll see a number of states, and we’ve got white water rafting, and a few other awesome things planned.

6 Small Adventures A Year (one every other month): Something that you wouldn't normally do. A water park trip, check out a local museum, hit up a new town nearby, you name it. 

For us… We went Go-Kart Racing earlier this year, and we just booked some Zip Lining activities, we are going to check out a pseudo-local Cavern Tour during the summer, we’ll hit up an Art Museum in Sacramento, we are doing Falconry Lessons later this year, and then a train ride through the mountains during December.

Date Nights: If you are married, I’d add in a couple nights a year where you go out and do something specifically with your significant other. 

For us… Smash Room, Park Dinner at Sunset, Min Golf Bar (we don’t drink much, but the idea of watching people drunk mini-golf sounds entertaining).

Next time you see something that piques your interest, add it to a list, a word document, something. Keep a running list of places to see, things to do, experiences to tackle. And then start doing them.

• Joe