Black Friday, Prizes and Lawsuits

Gray Matter Lifting

REP Pegasus Review

The REP Pegasus got added to my gym, technically before my IronBull Strength rack did… but only because of shipping delays. It has quickly become one of our favorite rack attachments to pair with the VOLTRAs, though I think it could be improved a little.

The full written review is available RIGHT NOW at the button below, and the video is on the way.

Update On Treadmill Review From FEIER

We’ll talk about how a bad company handles feedback in the community section, but I wanted to call out how FEIER handled my feedback on the treadmill review recently. While we had a lot that wasn’t great, this is the kind of company I would work with again. Because this is some stellar “We want to be better” energy.

What Is Up Next?

I’m going to be finishing my side of the review on the Freemax Weight Releasers, but then send them over to my guy at Gaglione Strength. I’d like to get a geared lifters perspectives on these. So we’ll end up with a pseudo “partnered review”. Not positive when he’ll be done with his side, but the review won’t drop on my end until he is complete.

I’ve got a couple final pieces to test and film for the Prime Prototype Bar review, which will be the next official review launched, looking at the week of November 23rd.

New Addition?

Fringe Sport is almost ready to launch their new BOB Smith Machine, and Peter has claimed I was supposed to get a prototype for awhile now. He technically had one for me at HomeGymCon, but then I reminded him that I live in California and that wasn’t going to work. I commented on the recent IG post, and he said he is going to send over the production one. We shall see!

What I haven’t loved about other smiths, like REPs for instance, is that they aren’t “BYOB” - aka Bring Your Own Barbell. I don’t want a permanent barbell stuck on my rack, forever… I don’t want to pay for your barbell that is permanently stuck inside that smith machine… and I want to use all of my specialty bars. Other options like the VTS from BulletProof are nifty, but I don’t need the cable piece… just the Smith.

With the demo video, I think there are likely some things to be improved on. But this is the most promising offering FOR MY GYM that I have seen so far. Biggest concerns with these things are set-up time, how much they are “in the way” when not in use, and of course their performance. Is this going to be smooth, handle a good amount of weight, and be a legit Smith? Or is it going to be another jammer arm rack attachment non-sense.

Of course I’d pair this with my VOLTRAs for some extra fun. He claims they launch in December.

BIG Changes Happened This Weekend

We sold the Inspire FT2 this weekend to a local guy setting up his home gym. It will be missed, but has a good new home. I realized after selling it, that we managed to sell it almost EXACTLY 3 years from getting it. Picture on the left is my equipment gathering partner helping me load it all up in the truck.

Cleaned up the corner of the gym after it was gone, and we are awaiting delivery of the ForceUSA Tandem Tower. We’ll see how this fits and where everything goes from there, and might be making some more adjustments after that.

One More Change

We sold our rower. Not because we weren’t using it, but because we found something else we wanted to try. I found a new SkiErg on Wal Mart of all places, for under $300! That price is just stupid… So I had to give it a whirl. It is supposed to be delivered this week, so expect some pics in the next newsletter.

Behind The Scenes

I had been thinking about this idea for awhile, but for some reason didn’t try it. Then I saw Jason of Man Who Parks In Gym share his gym walk through on his podcast, and he showed his Roomba that cleans the gym every day. He mentioned how a leaf blower just blows the dust around (my exact experiences), and this was a better solution. I ran mine that cleans our house every day, and it worked pretty freaking well. Mine has a mop feature, so I let it do that as well.

Obviously some hiccups as it can’t get onto the platform, and it can’t get under stuff on the ground. But I let it run twice yesterday and my gym was a MESS before, and it was significantly cleaner afterwards. Enough that I just bought more of the mop rags for it.

They happen to have a monster sale on the same model we have… This might be a better solution than my current mop/vac combo.

Whats New In The Community?

Before we get into the madness that happened last week, I wanted to drop my Black Friday notes. I’m collecting everything I see, from the companies I work with (and some others) so you don’t have to track them down. I’ll be updating this throughout the month of November.

OakClub Iron 3

Oak Club was the second people to put a mini-hoop on their power rack. I still claim that I was first. But they made it a real deal product when they launched the Iron. They came out with the Iron 2, which was a huge step in the arguably wrong direction with the plexiglass backboard. They clearly took that feedback to heart and launched the Iron 3, which looks like a fantastic blend of the first 2 iterations.

Keep in mind, this is completely ridiculous. But still pretty cool. I think they have some room to improve the included mini-basketball, but otherwise this is a cool piece for those of us with everything else on our racks.

Dialed Motion x REP Leg Day Attachment

This might be the biggest announcement I’ve seen in awhile. And this year has been NUTS. REP Fitness just announced that they are collabing with Dialed Motion to release the Leg Developer TOGETHER. This means the previous potential pre-order date of Q4 2025, is now pushed back all the way to Q4 of 2026… BUT, it also means we get a better product with more accessibility and likely better pricing.

I’ve updated my article a bit. If you haven’t seen anything on this, it looks be the BEST Leg Developer option possible.

Gluck Gets Sued

This was the bomb that dropped last week. Gluck’s Gym, one of my fellow home gym content creators, recently released a review on the Vulcan Strength TALOS all-in-one rack. He had ALMOST nothing good to say about it. Lots of issues with the cables, instructions, assembly, weird decisions for where they placed things, and much more. And to boot, it costs over $4k. The EVOLPOW all-in-one we reviewed with my brother in law earlier this year is under $1k, just for reference.

I consider Gluck to be one of the more reputable reviewers out there. He has a different style than I do, but when I compare his take on equipment, and especially the details he shares in a fairly quick turnaround fashion, I’d easily put him at the top of the list for who I go to for information. When I did my bench roundup, I actually watched a lot of his reviews to see if I missed anything.

There are two pieces to this lawsuit that are interesting/concerning to me.

First, is that contracts aren’t always fair. There is a chance that Gluck said 100% factual things, shared his experiences, and didn’t do anything morally or ethically wrong. But he might still be in trouble based on some fine print nonsense in the contract. It is one of the more troubling situations with the way our legal system works. One of the companies I signed an affiliate contract with, who I actually really like the company, has a term included that any legal discrepancies be handled in India. No, they aren’t based in India. But they know you aren’t either. So if you try to file a lawsuit again them, you’ll have to fly out to India every time, which is probably going to be very costly and annoying. So you won’t do it.

Second, is that this deeply concerns me, because we know that if Vulcan wins any ground in the case, either from an actual court room win or Gluck settling out of court, it will set precedent for the rest of the industry. I have posted at least 4 different reviews in the past couple months that didn’t land favorably for companies and their products, outright recommending OTHER options instead. If Gluck gets sued for sharing his experiences, what would hold anyone back from coming after me, or anyone else in this space?

Interesting enough, NoFate also reviewed the rack (literally the same rack, cause he got it from Gluck)… Will we see a similar lawsuit?

I messaged Gluck on IG, told him if I could help in anyway, to let me know. I hope the rest of you do the same. Let him know that the community is behind him, and that Vulcan can go pound sand.

Garage Gym Competition

We are almost done with Prize Week for the Fall GGC. I wish everyone good luck and good fortune for the final days…

The next couple of weeks we will be digging into some insights and data, sharing some cool stuff, and putting a bow on the 2025 GGC Season.

What Is Next?

I’m going to prep a Winter miniGGC. More details on that shortly, but it should launch in December.

For 2026, the dates are likely going to shift a bit for both competitions.

I’m looking at the first week of May for the Spring… so opening day would be May 2nd.

And looking at first week of October for the Fall… opening day October 3rd.

By moving the fall event forward, we can wrap up the entire event, including prizes, right before the Black Friday window opens. That way no one is sitting and waiting to see if they won, while missing out on deals. It means no more costume lifts, but I think it’ll work out best for everyone and their schedules. To accommodate that shift, the Spring moves forward with it.

I’m aiming for a 16 week prep for each event, which fits with the schedule I’ve written out, as well as time for the winter miniGGC, and some time off in the summer and winter months. We shall see!

r/HomeGym

Literally nothing going on here other than Black Friday chats.

One Last Thing…

Soccer season just ended, the fall GGC is (mostly) done, no more AMAs or targeted talks for the year… So I’m focusing on crushing some content for the tail end of 2025. We’ll have some updates on everything as we wrap up 2025, but keep in mind the newsletter will be heavily skewed towards Gray Matter stuff for the next few.

• Joe