The Folding Functional Trainer Power Rack with a Smith Machine! BRUTEForce UM2 Review

This is the Brute Force Australia UM2 folding functional trainer. It's a power rack, functional trainer, Smith machine, one to one cable ratio, meaning that you feel the entire listed weight of the stack on each side.

And as I mentioned, it folds to a super narrow 26 inch front to back depth when not in use. We're going to check out how this compares to the rest of the competition in this price range based on all the features and other functionality. So let's check it out. So let's check it out.

Today we're reviewing a company that's recently servicing the US and that is Brute Force Australia. This is their UM2 functional trainer. I'll show in a minute how the folding feature works and what exactly that's all about. But just know this thing is a power rack. It's a functional trainer, meaning it's got dual weight stacks for cables on either side. Multi-grip pull up bar, Smith machine, and a handful of other attachments and ecosystem they offer. Now before I get into the video, if you could quickly hit that subscribe button below if you haven't already, it'll continue to help us grow the channel and make sure you get notified when we post our weekly review videos throughout the rest of 2025.

And if you're interested in purchasing this after the review, please check out that affiliate link in the description below. So first and foremost, this is a dual sided functional trainer, meaning that there are two functional trainer chollies, one on each side, that have a simple pop pin mechanism on this upright to slide up and down. It's pretty easy that you can do it with one arm, 200 and one pound weight stacks.

As you'll see kind of in the back here behind the shroud with a magnetic little pop pin. The cool thing about this functional trainer, and I don't see many like this often, is that is a true one to one cable pulley ratio. What that means is two things. One to one means the exact weight you select on the weight stack is the exact weight that you feel here at the end of the cable system. That means if you select 200 pounds, you get 200 pounds of resistance on each side.

That's pretty crazy and that is a lot of weight, meaning combined that's 400 pounds that you can actually feel at the end of the cables. Most functional trainers do not do that. Most functional trainers are at a minimum two to one, meaning that you get half the listed weight and that ends up being the problem with a lot of functional trainers, especially ones I've reviewed in the past.

You're only feeling half of the listed weight. Again, with this one to one ratio, that is fantastic because now you can use the full weight of the weight stack. The only downside to that, the cable travel in a one to one is the exact same as the cable travel on the weight stack. If the weight stack goes up by one foot, you are getting one foot of distance here on the weight stack. In a two to one ratio, weight stack cable goes up by one foot. The front of the cable will actually come out two feet.

So that is the benefit of two to one typically is that you have longer cable travel. Don't try this at home, but you're going to see what I do here. If I step out a little bit too far to do a chest fly, it bottoms out the weight stack at the very top. Now, in a typical functional trainer that is this big, what is that?

I don't know, somewhere in the four, five feet range. So I can't really think of a good use case where you need to take one cable and go that far away. And that's really not brute forces fault or anything. They've chosen to make this one to one ratio, which I actually appreciate because you get more usable weight. I haven't really found any exercises where that's an issue with the exception of something like this where I'm going across my body and I'm going to step away from the rack. But I would argue, what am I doing stepping this far away?

So simply all I do then is step a little closer and now it's no problem. Besides the cable travel limitations of a one to one, the other downside, my lowest weight is simply now the lowest weight, which is 11 pounds, which is the top plate. So if you want to do drop sets or potentially just someone who needs a little bit less weight at the end of my shoulder flies, usually I like to do a lot of drop sets, whether a single arm or rear dealt flies. Two to one is nice because typically the lowest weight then is five pounds.

Again, this lowest weight in the one to one is 11 pounds. Now the next big thing is going to be the Smith machine and Smith machine bar. How this works is very traditional like a Smith machine. They have these catches on either side so that the Smith machine can go locked in any height of your choosing. It is a vertical Smith machine on these guide rods and the Smith machine itself actually has little spotters at the bottom, which are these just little rubber stoppers so that when you drop the Smith machine down, it can't go past a certain point. This Smith machine itself has a little play in it because of how it ends up being folded down. And when you see it flip down, you will completely understand this little bit of side to side play so one side can end up going about a half inch up or down from each other. If anything, I actually don't mind it because it is like in between a typical Smith machine and barbell. So you'll see a little bit of wiggle and stuff here.

You're still on that fixed path. So whether you're doing things like squats or calf raises, you still have to exert a little bit of left, right lateral stability because I'd rather have that than no Smith machine, which is the alternative. Another reason you would obviously buy this is to do your barbell movements, your power rack.

It is a 2x2 uprights with 1 inch holes. They make J-Cups and everything for this and include it with the rack. These are just very utilitarian.

They do have nice rubber inserts though, so it doesn't scratch your barbell or anything like that. But when you do unrack it, you have to make sure you lift straight up and out rather than on an angle, which is kind of typically how you unrack. So now I'm going to show you the main point in this, which is the folding feature. There's a couple of things you do. Nifty little latches or levers at the bottom that you simply release. You can use your finger. I use my feet.

Basically takes all the weight off of these front feet. You come over to the Smith machine. There's a threaded knob right here. Obviously you want to make sure your Smith machine is on the catches before doing this. Otherwise it will free fall. But you let this linear bearing trolley go to the bottom. Now very carefully, you are going to lift the Smith machine off.

And as you'll see now, it's not on the right side trolley. So a wobble is this is part of what you're supposed to do. And you bring the Smith through the right side upright and on this left side through right underneath the upright push it above. And the bottom will go into this little bar holder.

And there you go. Now the Smith bar is stored in this upright bar holder. So it's out of the way.

And you can leave it like this if you want for normal everyday use. And the last step is the pull up bar. As you'll see here, there's again a little detent pin which you pull up. And now that you've released the weight off the front feet, you can push this out of the way. And these sides will now fall a little more freely. Now you just push each side closed one at a time. And bam, you've just freed up literally a couple feet of space on the front. This will fold up in a corner, fold up in your bedroom, fold up in a gym. Your garage saves a ton, a ton, a ton of space.

And that is probably high up on the list of value to people. Again, the front to back depth of this is 26 inches while completely folded up. And you can see now that huge functional trainer with all these things is just this minimal little footprint. Now, now one thing I want to mention is this takes very little time.

So live time, I'll show you how long it takes to set up. Move each side open, start with the pull up bar first. Put it back on top.

The first couple of times you do this, it will take you a second, but after you use this, it is super intuitive, super easy. Then lock in the front sides because again, they're still a little free moving. Press that little lever, now they're not going anywhere. And then take the Smith bar out of the holder, move it underneath the top upright into this right side slot and pick a height that you want to lock it at. Bring up the Smith guide rod trolley, thread it back on.

And just like that, in under 30 seconds, you're live back doing cable exercises and stuff. Really fantastic idea. The space saving is huge and extremely functional and extremely valuable.

So I think this is well worth the money for those of you particularly who are very interested in saving a lot of space, but not losing any of the functionality that you would get otherwise. So they include some attachments in order to do things like lat pull down and low rows. It comes with handles, dip bars that attach to the sides. It comes with J cups, spotter arms. They also have the option to give these half weights or adder weights that help bridge the gap between the 10 pound jumps for the weight stack. This is what they include with it as well. It's a leg roller holder thing. Nice idea.

I just think doesn't work well in reality. Has a little detent pin, hitch pin struggling just to line up both sides. Now, if you come around to this side, you'll see there's actually an angle selection plate with a little pop pin. So there's five different angles to which you can put this. The goal here in theory is that you can bring up some sort of bench or chair or even move this down to the floor. I don't find this to work very well in actuality or practicality.

Okay, let's say this is where it's going to be. Sorry, you have to see my pasty Polish thighs, but you can see if I'm not exerting the right amount of force here, it's kind of shifting a little bit left to right. In theory, you can do lat pull downs.

I have found personally that trying to do like heavy lat pull downs with this default leg roller is not great. It works. And I like that they thought about this and included this as a way to reuse the J-Cups.

It's a nifty little engineering idea. But if you get this, I highly recommend getting one of their packages that has the lat attachment seat. Attachments like a low row foot plate.

Now you actually have something for your feet to rest on. Put in an attachment to do your low rows. When you get in, I actually move the seat to the absolute lowest setting. Now I'm getting a pretty good full stretch, but I have to position my legs. And now much more comfortable.

I do also wish there was that secondary locking mechanism on this lat seat. You'll see a little bit of play when I go up and down. You might see it come off a little bit. I had a X mark commercial lat pull down and there was still enough play in that as you were coming up that you can sort of feel like you're floating a little bit on the seat. Honestly, at the end of the day, you're never gonna be able to eliminate that completely without some sort of set screw or threaded pop pin or something like that.

There is always a compromise for a rack mounted lat seat versus a standard lat pull down. Now the price of this is typically $39.95. It's almost $4,000.

Right now it's on sale I believe for about $3,300 last I checked. And code jungle gym five or just double check the description to make sure that code is right. We'll save you an extra 5% off the sale or full price. That's somewhere in the realm of 31 to $3,200 still. Now they do offer free shipping to the US.

They do have a US warehouse, but still about $3,200 which puts this somewhere in the price range of things like that GitRX tornado or even the Rep Aries which is about $3,000 for the cable system plus about $1,000 for the rack. I would say above all else this has two things. The most amount of weight that you will typically ever see available on a functional trainer because of the one to one ratio. Again, 200 pounds on either side. So that is super valuable for people who wanna go heavy and the folding functionality above all else the space saving footprint. That is really the biggest selling point here I think in comparison to other racks.

Someone can use it in their home, in a bedroom, in a garage, wherever and they can make this work. Everything else I really like from the fact they have different multi-grip pull up bar here to the aesthetics, the shroud, the weight plate storage, the Smith machine, again, the little bit of wobble is intended due to the nature it needs to slide. I, my only two complaints about this overall is the smoothness of the cables. Because the cables have to go in a couple different planes of motion as it kind of goes towards the center and down and around, not everything is like very vertical and linear. Because of the mechanics of how the cables and everything work, you just do end up getting a little more friction, whether it's because of the one to one pulley ratio, whether it's because of how the cables are routed, et cetera. But just know this isn't as smooth as, for instance, the GitRX Tornado, which I think was just one of the smoothest cable machines I've used recently, or even as smooth as things like the Rep Aries. I would say this is just a very average feel as far as overall cable smoothness compared to some of the higher end rack mounted options I've used. So guys, that's it for this review on the brute force Australia UM2 folding functional trainer Power Rack. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them down below.

I'll be happy to answer or at least try. Thanks for tuning into the Jungledrum Reviews. We'll see you next time. Take it easy. Peace.