REP Leg Developer Review

Gray Matter Lifting

With the Spring GGC completely wrapped up, training is back in action, and I’m working through the pipeline as well.

REP Leg Developer Review

We’ve owned damn near every leg developer on the market, and I was VERY excited when REP finally fully announced their offering. Unfortunately it came right in line with Dialed Motion announcing theirs.

The REP Leg Developer isn’t “bad”. I save that term BAD for equipment that I wouldn’t keep in any iteration of my gym. Stuff that isn’t safe. Pieces that are terrible to use. You name it. This isn’t that.

But I would say it is far from what I expect from REP at this point. The shipping was handled poorly. The plate load performance of this piece isn’t any better than the old school attachments that cost $100 (this costs $600). You really only get a solid piece when adding in the cable attachment. And that takes you over the $700 mark.

I have parts falling off, pieces that just really feel like they never used this thing themselves, and an experience that had my wife tap out on Day One. I actually was in rare form here, the only one who used it for testing. Because no one else in my space wanted to use it. I tried to get my mom onto it, but it was too tall. The rollers weren’t comfortable for Audrey. All around this is a piece I am not sad about it leaving soon.

If you own a REP bench and want a leg developer, this thing isn’t garbage, just overpriced for what you get. REP could have done better. Should have done better.\

The written review is done, the video should be here by the end of the week.

HomeGymCon Planning

We are in full swing HGC planning mode. One thing I am planning to do, is a couple days before the event, sending out a special email for people that are going with some extra details. Where we’ll be going for dinner, early access to the Scavenger Hunt, AMA Schedule, etc.

This is stuff that will be completely irrelevant if you are NOT attending, so… if you hit that Yes button, you’ll get it. If you don’t (or you hit No), you won’t get it. That way we don’t waste anyone’s time.

If you are attending, are maybe have attended other conventions and seen something cool… Something you think we could pull off, add to the list, you name it. Fire away. Something you think would be cool during the convention, before hand, after wards.. whatever. Hoping to make it an awesome couple of days.

Speed Run - SC2 Stair Climber

Overall, we are really enjoying this thing. Here are my quick and dirty notes so far (only for all of you).

1. There is a weight setting to make sure that it accounts for the athlete appropriately. It is in metric, and I don’t think you can change this. It defaults to 68 kilos I believe, where I’m about 120. If you need to make large changes between athletes, it can take awhile as the up and down buttons are the only things that work.

2. The monitor and overall back of the machine could be a little smoother, or more vertical in general. I think if you were fitting this directly up against a wall, you’d get a few more inches of space.

3. I’d like for the support steps on the back to fold up, and maybe be magnetized? I like them exactly where they are, but if the machine is not in use, I’d like them out of the way to avoid any running into them.

4. I think we probably have too many overlapping buttons for the machine. We have a full touch screen, buttons on the dash, and buttons on the handles. There are 5 different ways to make the machine stop for example. I think that’s a bit of cognitive overload. Personally, the touch screen isn’t needed.

5. The infrared works, but it’s a little slow. Anything above about 6 or 7 speed, and I fall onto the ground before it kills the steps.

6. I ended up adding a USB powered fan, which is awesome with the USB port on the side of the monitor. Unfortunately, with the contours of the machine, it can be difficult to find a good placement for this.

7. I bought a longer power chord, I don’t think the included one is long enough.

8. The programs need a little more customization, as they tend to jump in LARGE jumps, where if it starts at 2 it might be at 16 by the end of the program, which is the difference between a very slow pace and a sprint.

9. It has a bluetooth speaker for your phone, but it sucks. My phone speaker is better.

For packaging… I like that the machine is REALLY well packaged. But the VERY large Styrofoam inserts are very difficult to dispose of afterwards. I had to break them into multiple smaller pieces, spread them out across multiple weeks, to fit inside my garbage can. And when you break apart Styrofoam like that, it leaves a mess EVERYWHERE.

We’ve had a few incidents where athletes have noted that the speed changed on them. I haven’t seen that myself, so we’ll keep testing. And the last one, the weight requirement is somewhere around 85lbs. The team claims 100, but we tested and that isn’t accurate. Audrey has to wear a weighted vest to use it. Which I guess just means she’ll be even more of a tank lol

Whats New In The Community?

Notorious Lift Sale

I finally destroyed my older Squat Shoes for good prepping for the 26SpringGGC, so I replaced them with a pair of Notorious Lifts. I didn’t like their original slippers, because they weren’t wide enough. But their newest shoes are, and they are VERY awesome.

They have a sale going starting 6/10 and running through 6/21… 15% Off with code FORDAD.

Speaking of Father’s Day sales, it looks like Strength Warehouse USA has 15% off PowerBlock Adjustable Dumbbells this weekend as well.

Garage Gym Competition

Next week we will be dropping full details for the Fall GGC. So you get them right now.

The Fall event has been moved forward several weeks this year for a couple reasons. First, is that the Halloween timeframe was crushing me as a Dad going out to do stuff with the family. So I’m hoping this alleviates that pressure for a lot of us.

Second, is because companies now start Holiday Shopping in early November. So you were waiting for prize details, while missing sales and deals. That felt wrong. So now you’ll know if you won anything or not, just in time to keep an eye on the greatest deals of the year.

Third, this works better for a lot of the end of year processes that I do, running the miniGGC, lining up the following years sponsors, organizing Black November/Friday sales and deals, wrapping up the year, taking time off, enjoying the holidays, you name it.

So… first week of October, put it on the calendar!

Sponsors and Prizes

Same sponsors, same prizes. Which means over $17k in prizes up for grabs, from bars and plates to gift cards and apparel and cable attachments and more cable attachments.

As always, completely free, you just gotta lift.

Non-Profit

We met the team at HomeGymCon last year, and I mentioned that it might be cool to partner for the 26 Fall GGC. We connected earlier this year again, confirmed it, and we are ready to rock!

We’ll be donating One Penny Per Pound lifted from the GGC side of the house. We’ll also have a Belt Raffle through Pioneer, where we’ll have a custom belt up for grabs where every dollar donated is worth an entry into the raffle.

r/HomeGym

Speaking of the REP Leg Developer, a post this week was on the only other currently available leg developer for the REP bench ecosystem.

Do You Color Coordinate

We are currently talking about the idea of aesthetics in the home gym, specifically around your equipment. If you care what it looks like, what color, shape, size, etc. Or if you are just buying it cause it works.

Check the chat.

Upcoming AMA

Frog Fits is doing an AMA next week, covering all things 3D printed gear!

One Last Thing…

Audrey has been doing Ninja for the past couple years, and we’ve been looking for a better gym for awhile now. Luckily, a brand new gym just opened in town near us. Lightning Ninja Academy is owned and operated by a family who both their youngest son and the father compete in Ninja competitions, even competing at a World Championship event last this year.

We have had 2 classes so far, and it has already been a HUGE improvement. Ninja is just an awesome community, like lifters, who are there to get better and support each other. The strength and agility and personal resolve that comes from this activity is huge.

If you happen to be in the greater Sacramento region, they’ve set up a few things for us.

Friends of Audrey, sign up for a FREE Trial Ninja Class here: https://lightningninjaacademy.com/booknow

And you can use code GRAY25 to save $25 of your Ninja Enrollment: https://portal.iclasspro.com/lightningninjaacademy/booking?promo=GRAY25

These aren’t affiliates or anything, I just really want to support what they are doing. This is a cool family doing cool things. So check it out if you are in the area.

• Joe