Introduction
As most of us reading this blog post know, many companies are creating numerous rack attachments that replace standalone machines for our home gyms.
This allows home gym owners to add many “strength machine-like” items to their power racks, saving space.
While space is the biggest problem for many home gym owners, these rack attachments come at a price.
The first is that many do not perform quite as well as a standalone machine. Certain cuts need to be made to get these attachments onto a rack.
Secondly, it has the potential to lead to a very cluttered rack and certain movements may feel tight.
This leads us to our survey results, where the community was asked whether they would prefer to add individual pieces to their gym as a rack attachment or standalone machine.
The results with notes are below.
| Machine | Rack Attached | Standalone Machine | Not Interested in Either |
| Dip Attachment | 81.24% | 10.53% | 8.24% |
| Lat Pulldown/Low Row | 49.89% | 45.31% | 4.81% |
| Belt Squat | 38.11% | 30.83% | 31.07% |
| Functional Trainer | 37.33% | 44.34% | 18.33% |
| Smith Machine | 35.16% | 17.81% | 47.03% |
| Leverage Machine | 25.22% | 21.07% | 53.71% |
| Single Column Trainer | 23.48% | 31.82% | 44.70% |
| Leg Curl/Extension | 18.43% | 62.44% | 19.12% |
| Adjustable Dumbbell Storage | 10.30% | 66.74% | 22.95% |
Rack Attached over Standalone
- The Rack-Attached Dip Attachment received almost eight times more votes than a standalone option. This isn’t surprising, considering how easily a dip bar can be stored when not in use.
- The Smith Machine on a rack had almost 2x more votes than a standalone option. This is something that can be relatively easily integrated into a rack whereas a standalone option would take up quite a bit of space. In addition, standalone smith machines are not usually cheap. For example, the Titan option is $1699.99, but you can get a G3 from Force USA, which does so much more.
- The rack-attached belts squat also beat out a standalone option, most likely because of its space-saving ability. I believe that the Rogue Rack Attached Rhino Belts Squat and a cheaper alternative like the Mammoth Belt Squat have helped shift this view. While a belt squat like the SQUATMAX-MD is more performance-based than many of the rack-attached lever belt squats, the space-saving potential is huge.
- Leverage machines received the highest “not interested” votes, but more chose the rack-attached option over standalone.
- Lastly, the closest “rack-attached winner” was the Lat Pulldown/Low Row. Most racks now have this option, and while you may feel a bit tight within the rack, it doesn’t typically add much space. Plus, it may not even interfere with the rack posts. Nevertheless, this was a close one.
Standalone over Rack Attached
- The adjustable storage option as a standalone item received about 6.5x more votes than a rack-attached setup. Since a standalone storage setup would not likely take up much space, I think this dominating choice was not too difficult to foresee.
- A standalone leg curl/leg extension machine dominated as well, with about 3.4x more votes than the rack attached.
- The single column trainer surprised me. About 32% voted standalone vs. 23% rack attached. Nearly 45% said they were not interested.
- There are some really solid/budget-friendly towers from companies like Bells of Steel, but I was also considering items like the Beyond Power Voltra & Ancore, but maybe people did not consider those options?
- The closest “standalone winner was the functional trainer, which received about 19% more votes than a rack-attached setup.
