The Best Home Gym Equipment 2023 - Fitness Most Wanted Awards!
Hey guys it's cool from garage gym reviews and today I'm going to be detailing the best gym equipment of 2023 and what is our first annual you could say it's the second time doing it but to be official it's the first annual Fitness Most Wanted Awards this is going to be what I think is the most Innovative or the best released within the past year or thereabouts and so today after using the wide gamut of gym
Equipment that's available I want to tell you which ones impressed us the most this past year let's get into it [Music] before we get started like we do on every video for transparency sake there's a couple things I want to call out most of these products although these aren't necessarily reviews I will be giving my take on pretty much all these products so I want to say these ones that we've tested many of them were
Sent to us free from the company so we could review them and give our honest takes number two if you want to purchase any of these check out the links below like button we'll put all of them there with links and any discount codes that we've negotiated specifically for you but if you use those links the company will pay us a small commission which doesn't increase the cost you pay but does allow us to continue to do the great work we do at garage gym reviews
So this past year has actually been quite great for most home gym owners the reason is there are more small companies entering the space more of the big companies are feeling pressure so overall there's more Innovation happening in the home gym space than I'd say in any other year I think one reason is because the pandemic kind of shut down most of companies for innovation's sake then they ramped up in 2021 and then in 2022 they released a lot of
These things so I have over 30 product categories with items that I think are the most Innovative ranging from ones that are extremely cheap all the way to ones that are very expensive and so these are both products that are practical functional designed really well and ones that I think maximize the amount of training people do in their Home Gyms so without further Ado let's get in the first category in the first category is the most Innovative
Adjustable dumbbell this is one of my favorite product categories it's one that we find and it's synonymous with most Home Gyms and this one I think will surprise you but I think a lot of these will I have some of the big names in here here but really most of these are new companies or companies that are smaller that are trying to compete and beat the bigger companies by being more Innovative and this first one is definitely that this one goes to Pepin
Adjustable dumbbells they're fast Series this is a very unique adjustable dumbbell one of the heaviest adjustable dumbbells that's out there uses full cast iron is made in North America like it's just a very unique dumbbell pedman started making adjustable dumbbells during the pandemic and then they're like okay how can we actually make these better the fast series definitely did that that's not to say like these are the dumbbells I recommend for everybody
That's out there but for innovation's sake these blew me away and I think are the most Innovative of this past year the next one is for benches benches are something obviously we see in Home Gyms throughout if you're doing any upper body day you're probably going to be using a bench this bench I think is going to be surprising because it's not the highest tier it's actually a midpoint price product but this one I think impressed me because it brought a
Lot of the basic things that we like to see in a bench and offered it at a good price and that's the rep AB 4100 rep offers a lot better benches than this bench like if you want a more expensive bench they have the new batwing bench or the 5200 these are awesome benches one of the reasons I'm saying this is one of the best is because I want this to be more of a trend for the industry and that is not making bigger heavier more hard to move around items but make ones
That are more practical and so AB 4100 although I'd love to see some attachability and things like that I think for the price and the fact that it's lightweight and does pretty much everything their higher end benches do like this one at least in my opinion was a home run so I like this one the best this next category is kind of specialty bars I've got a few items within here and I'm just going to run through them the best I think trap bar this past year
Is the Lego opin bar their 2.0 it is not I want to be clear here it's not the one one that I think works for most people because it is very expensive but I think officially they unseated Kabuki strength with this bar whereas before I think it was neck and neck now if you're going to be spending that much I do think the Alaco is the best then you have the most Innovative trap bar I definitely think that was the rep open trap bar reason being is the removable handles multiple
Handle angles some that rotate and also the ability to use it as a legit camber bar I love the open trap bar for that purpose and the price point I mean it's really the one that we recommend for a majority of you that are watching and I do recommend it for most that are out there over the oleko opandela bar now one bar I do want to call out that is an amazing trap bar is definitely the giant lifting trap bar if you're on a budget that thing blew me away we did a review
On it I was not expecting to be as good as it would if you close your eyes never use the Alaco you would get just as good of a workout and feel just as happy with that one as you would something thing that was way more expensive in the Alaco next in specialty bars I have two for multi-grip bars the one that I think was the most Innovative was rogue's multi grip bar specifically the mg4cn the first one they came out with I dogged on because honestly I did not like the
Dimensions I thought it was too wide I thought the handles were too thin they since came out with a new version that's now narrow has thicker handles that thing is awesome it really is but I still think the best one for this past year wasn't that one I think the best one was the Kabuki strength times Rogue Fitness Kabuki Cadillac Bar like that bar is absolutely sick they made a bar that was already my favorite even better by increasing the handle diameter making
It knurled also putting that bottom plate lower so it sits on the chest when you're pressing that bar is the best even though the Rogue mg4cn is a very cool Innovative option with the replaceable handles I do think the Kabuki I think it's the best and I love that they combined two of the Titans in the industry to have Rogues like super high-end manufacturing processes made in the USA with Kabuki's really Unique Designs from Chris Duffin I hope and I
Kind of foresee where eventually maybe Rogue is making all of their equipment so the next within barbells is an actual Olympic barbell honestly this past year there wasn't a ton that was I thought was very unique or noticeable within the barbell space part of that is because I think people are just running out of ways to innovate on a straight Olympic Bar it's why we're seeing such good specialty bars but the bar that I still think Takes the Cake it was last year's
Two is the gungner bar there's just nothing else out there that has that clip system that's the bar honestly that is the Olympic Bar out of the hundreds literally I have available to me that's the bar I use the most and not because it's the best the highest tensile strength the best knurling it's because it's just the easiest to use I'm gonna say this till it happens please Gunner license that product so other companies can use that on their barbells I would
Love that on Alaco a kabuki or a rogue I just love that function okay this next one I would actually give if I'm like a Best in Show this would actually be my best in show for everything that was released last year this is the thing that I think stood out the most and was just the most outstanding but the category this is really fitting into is the most Innovative squat rack and that is definitely the rep Aries the amount of engineering and design that went into
This is amazing it really reminds me of when the Rogue Rhino was initially released it was like man that was the product of the Year this is the product of the year although I really like the Athena the rep Aries is just amazing combining super heavy Stacks with tons of pulleys throughout the rack still allows you to use the rack just like you would any other rack takes up very little space that is already dead space within a rack dual pulley pull Downs low
Rows but also a functional trainer out the front that thing is seriously good you've got that and then the rep ab5000 zero Gap those are refs like Premier Products but in my opinion I think the Aries really submitted rep as a legitimate company that's innovating that everybody should watch out for like that product is I love that thing seriously okay keeping in line with the cable machines I think the most Innovative cable machine from last year
Is the new Encore trainer Encore is a really small cable device that sits on a squat rack or on a wall you can actually wrap around a tree or whatever you'd like and then it has these pucks that adds resistance 10 pounds at a time or five pounds at a time on each side the new version is much better than the old version it feels like a more Complete product it's assembled in the US it's using rollers like this thing can get I think quite heavy for a functional
Trainer they recommend it 65 pounds but I've gotten it much heavier without issue it simulates something that is much more expensive in the Kaiser functional trainers I just think it's a really cool product I think it's overpriced part of that is because of economies of scale for the company they're very small but right now I don't think it's perfect for most home gym owners but I'm hoping that over time they can increase the resistance
Decrease the cost and I could see those in a ton of Home Gyms because they attach very easily and can get heavy and are very versatile so I love The Encore okay another cable machine this is what I'm gonna say is like the most Innovative lap pull down is the strength Supply UPS high this thing I use every pull day I use it for low rows because I've got the low row one that attaches to my Rhino or use the high one to attach to my rhino in my squat rack
There's other stand-alone lat pull-downs that are out there you could also say like the Aries is a great lat pull down or rep's Center Mount but this one allows you to use cable machines if you've got it attached to a cable machine or allow you to use your weight plates you've already got I just love the design it's a superior upgraded version of what Rogue did with their Slinger and Rogue this is really what I think Rogue should have done in the
Beginning they've kind of allowed some of their Innovations not to push as far as I think they could the Rhino is a perfect example and now companies are creating specific items that will fit their equipment and I think the UPS high is a perfect example of that this thing is made in the USA very well done powder coat is beautiful welds are beautiful and it just functions extremely well I love this thing now this next one is just the most Innovative Rack attachment
This is one that I'm actually doing a full review of today while I'm filming and it'll go out after this so if you'd like to see it make sure you subscribe but this I think uh this definitely impressed me more than I thought it's not just a hunk of junk you'll have to wait for the review for me to give my full thoughts but I think the most Innovative Rack attachment was by far the bulletproof isolator and that's saying a lot because there's a lot of
Iraq attachments that were released last year but the bulletproof isolate later allows home gym owners to suddenly use the upright of their squat rack for a ton of different machine based movements that anybody that likes to bodybuild or has been to a commercial gym is already doing this is one of the reasons that keeps people from starting Home Gyms is they want to be able to use machines this allows you to do that highly impressed especially because it's up
From a brand new company from a guy who obviously trains and is very passionate in the space I'm a huge fan of it it definitely impressed me and so for this year the best rack attachment definitely goes to bulletproof isolator now extending further the idea of smaller companies innovating on top of other companies big products one was like the strength Surplus UPS high that can attach say to the Rogue Rhino these next two are designed to extend the usability
Of Jammer arms Jam arms are awesome I love the ability to use Jammer arms I've used them for years but I found that I use them less and less because they are missing some some versatility that I think they should have when I went out to Gunner Peterson's gym in Beverly Hills he had these custom sore necks Jam arms that went in basically 360 Degrees they allowed him to go side to side and rotate there is now a company Jim pin which has collaborated with a guy on
Instagram called Kaizen to create an attachment that allows you to go side to side with the Jammer Arms This improves the versatility of the Jammer arms and allows you to do different movements also allows him to lock in at different angles this is an awesome attachment I love that they're adding versatility to products that are already out there when companies like Rogue are just letting them sit and not really innovating on them so I love this feature another one
Though that I think extends on that is very similar is the Vendetta 180 adapters these allow you to basically lock the Jammer arms out at different places so if you want to do shoulder press you can lock them out unweighted then put the weight on and then you can start where you'd like to similar like what you do with shoulder press or j-cups on the rack it then allows you to not have to clean it up every time I love these features and it goes onto Jam
Arms that you've already got okay so Tech continues to be involved in Home Gyms more and more I really just see us kind of at the beginning of those days I'm starting to use more and more Tech in my gym but Smart Home Gyms is definitely one that some people that's all they use now I've talked about many of these in the past we've reviewed pretty much all of them I think tonal is kind of the premiere that's still available but I think the one that was
Most Innovative this past year is vitruvium Vitruvian is the heaviest smart home gym that's out there at the moment that's commercially available it goes up to 440 pounds when you combine both sides the hardware itself is extremely impressive the software continues to improve I'm hoping that over time they continue to add functionality in different modes to the device but the device as it stands I freaking love that thing it's not only
User friendly for the person that's kind of just new to lifting it's also can get heavy enough where I think somebody that's legitimately very strong could get great training and increase their strength okay this next one is a pull-up bar this is not a category we see a ton of innovation in but one that really stood out to me and we did a full review on is the RPM adjustable pull-up bar I mean the mechanism is just extremely well done also the quality just blew me
Away it felt literally like an Apple product I think for a lot of people like you don't need to spend this much for a pull-up bar but I do love seeing innovation in categories that we don't often see so I wanted to call it out really I think the king of innovation and weight vest is kinsui they currently have their kensory weight vest it was also the one for last year but the reason I left it on this year is they continue to improve the design now
Rather than having a sleeve that sticks out really far all the time they have a new design that has this flat cap that allows you to put a similar amount of weight as you would on the long one and bring it in tight this is basically a plate loadable weight vest if you've never heard of it I think this is the most Innovative weight vest that's out there and they just continue to improve upon the design so I wanted to call it out okay this next one this is in my
Opinion the most Innovative plyo box over the last couple of years when I did the review I was kind of harsh on it I still stand by the review and I think for a majority of you that are out there you should not buy this but I found I used this product more and more than I thought I would because it's in my garage and it's just very easy to use very easy to set up and is very versatile and that's the Titan Ronin I find myself using it all the time for
Upper body days lower body days whether I'm using it just put my feet on when I'm doing push-ups at an angle or whether I'm doing box jumps or I'm doing step ups there's just a lot that can be done on it it does take up a lot of space it's not portable it's from Titan which it seems like just a weird product for them to produce I don't know if they'll continue making this but I do think it was the most Innovative in the plow box category okay let's look at
Storage one thing Home Gyms owners do a lot and like a lot of is the ability to take them things off the floor and put them on the wall I think the PRX dumbbell storage shelves are the most Innovative over the past year these allow you to have dumbbell shelves bolting them into the studs in your wall they are very strong like most of prx's products they're very well done they look Sleek they've come out with other ones that are weight plate holders but I
Think the dumbbell shelves really show some of the Innovation they're doing in the storage space most people are thinking bigger or heavier more weight capacity I love the idea of just having something simple that goes on the wall using the studs on your wall which are much stronger than I think most people give them credit for it a lot of you have a place where you can put legitimately quite a bit of dumbbells on the wall then we have the Nordic board
Nordics are a movement that I've been doing a lot of I still think this is a product category that needs and deserves a lot more Innovation because I see more and more people doing this movement I'm doing it a lot I just think there's more that could be done here but the product that I think was the best in this last year was the freak athlete Nordic board it's small it's priced well it's from a smaller company they're adding extensions and accessories to it just
Overall I really like this product at the price point it allows people to save space and also save money on something that normally takes up a ton of space this last year we did quite a few reviews on bands I did it on X3 I did it on harambe I think the one that was most Innovative that I used was harambe it uses similar bands as the other ones that are out there maybe a little bit shorter but I love the foot plate I love the knurling on the bar it feels like a
Legitimate barbell it's just another company that's doing something unique for I think home gym owners and just people that like to travel and want to use equipment when they travel overall I think over the past year this is the band product that impressed me the most okay adjustable dumbbells are obviously very popular but a product category that isn't as popular doesn't get as much attention I don't think it necessarily should but adjustable kettlebells
There's a lot of adjustable cutter bells that continue to come on the market I think the one that was most impressive was the one that we dropped from like a couple hundred feet and still survived and that is the rep adjustable kettlebell I think the rep adjustable kettlebell is not necessarily the best product that rep makes but I do think it's the best in the category they offer two versions it's better than the majority of that are out there although
It doesn't get as heavy as some of those I think generally the form the function the feel the price point of it it definitely stands out okay now we're moving on to some small items I have three small items that I want to call out one is the what I'm going to call the most surprising piece of equipment and that is the Rogue tf1 this is essentially a tib bar I had never done any tibar exercises this is basically something you put on your feet to
Increase the muscle size and strength of your tibs which is basically the muscle on the front of your femur this isn't a movement that I've done a ton in the past I don't do a ton of calf raises but I'm trying to strengthen that part of my lower body I don't want any part of my body weak there isn't any part of my body that's weak this is something that I've dealt with in the past which was shin splints and so I started adding these in and I now no longer get shin
Splints the product is just extremely well done there's many companies that are offering this but road comes into space and they just blew it out of the water with this this thing is really well done then you have the best neck attachment there's not a ton of companies in this category but the one I do want to call out that definitely has the most Innovation and one that I actually use at least once a week is the iron neck Pro 3.0 the 3.0 is a better
Version than their 2.0 I still think and we'll probably do a full review on this in the future I still think there are ways to make this product category better but I will say this one is definitely an improvement over the two although you still look like a goofball when you're wearing it then I'm going to call this the most Innovative creme de la gyme product this is something very small it's not something that most of you should spend your money on but I
Absolutely love it and so I want to call it out and that's the oak Club mag pins these things are over the top they're anodized heads with different colors they've got the great engraved logo they've got knurling on the outside magnets that go into one inch holes to allow you to attach attachments I love these things every time I attach attachment on my squat rack I love reaching for these and putting them in there they're I know it's kind of silly
But they are they're very good I want to call now lastly I've got three things for cardio one is the most Innovative rowing machine definitely the hydro wave the hydro wave was by far the best release in the rowing category last year in my opinion it took all the things we loved about Hydro the more expensive unit and put it into a really cool design that still feels as good or in some cases better than their much more expensive option then we have the
Exercise bike category I think the Carol bike 2.0 Carol bike was the one that won last year KERO bike 2.0 is this year I think that's a product that just sat on because it's so expensive there is not another product that I know of that uses AI in the way that the Carol bike does I don't like doing a ton of long steady state cardio I want to get in I want to get out and so this is what I use I really like the 2.0 and then lastly is the sled this is one that we just
Reviewed this is the torque tank M1 I think it's the best in the category still I think the new release kind of just built upon that okay whoa that was a lot that was a lot of products 2023 was a great year for home gym Innovation one thing I'd ask was there anything you think I missed was there any products that you're like man I wish you would have called this out so we can include it next year any products
That you want us to specifically review this year was there anything that you felt was off anything that should replace any of the ones that I said let me know in the comments this has been Coop from garage gym reviews we'll see you next time peace [Music]
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Equipments Fitness