Force USA FTR: Curved and Compact Functional Trainer Power Rack Review

I'm here at the Force USA headquarters in Draper, Utah, checking out the brand new FTR Functional Trainer Rack, combining 3x3 uprights into a functional trainer body style. Therefore, it integrates with any existing 3x3 ecosystem, extremely functional, articulating arms, dual weight stacks, and pretty much everything you need to be the centerpiece and cornerstone of your home gym. So let's check it out. Hey guys, this is Michael with the Jungle Gym Reviews. Today we're looking at the brand new Force USA Functional Trainer Rack, also called the FTR. This is a 3x3 rack and functional trainer combo.

Meaning, as you can see here, 3x3 front uprights, 11 gauge steel, 1 inch holes. But the actual profile of the rack is curved, just like a traditional functional trainer, so that it can be a little more compact, fit in a corner. But now you can squat, you can bench, you can do all your barbell lifts off the front uprights.

In addition, of course, to it being a dual stack functional trainer, by default, it's going to come with 200 pound weight stacks, upgradeable to 250 and upgradeable to 300. If you want to do those, it just looks mean, sleek and functional. The articulating arms, just like we've seen on the C20, are a prominent feature here as well. Can be adjusted. Four different increments, angles down all the way up. In addition to that, it swivels in and out 180 degrees that you can lock it in five different angle increments. And their newest technology in this pop thing that you can lock out and put this in free swivel, free motion mode. So if you want to do any sort of dynamic movements that you can think of creatively to do, whether that's something sport specific, whether that's just something for fun, the possibilities are kind of endless with stuff like this from a single arm perspective.

And if you have them both in this unlocked mode, literally you can just find any sorts of creative ways to try to use them together. As you can see on the badging, the branding, this is just like their C20. This is their brand new cornerstone line. I mean, everything from the type of pulleys to the cables and the knurling to the actual finish of the uprights. You know, it's like a flat black, but it's not textured so that then the trolley slide a little easier. Laser cut numbers are actually on the inside window that you can see the height selection that you're on.

Everything on here is well thought out both in design and functionality. Now, when you go to move these arms, there's just a pop pin and a knurled handle. You pull that pop pin, it starts to slide down. No problem.

So let's say I want to go to height 21. It's fully locked in. And then again, obviously the pop pins on the arms allow me to adjust it.

From a height and in and out how I would like. These handles are reversible when you install them, meaning that you can stall it with a pop pin on the inside. I personally like that because then I can go from one side, turn around quickly to adjust to the other, but just know you can install this trolley 180 degrees, meaning that then this handle would be on the outside. So you would walk around, you know, pull the pop pin and move it this way. The other thing with moving these I've showed before with these articulating arms, not just Force USA, you know, they move down pretty easily. But when you want to move them up the rack, you get a little bit like more friction here. So you're trying to move this past here. And basically what you need to do moving any of these arms, whether it's Force USA, any other brand, you need to evenly distribute the force left or right. Just put two hands, slides easy out.

Same thing down. It is a non-issue. So I've seen people complain or ask for rollers. You know, they want rollers in the trolleys. I think that's a nice to have. I don't think that's a need to have. I'm particular with lever arms. Those are kind of awful to move. Those need rollers. These don't weigh enough and literally you have to kind of, you know, get two hands on it anyway.

Even on my rep areas, I have a single trolley system. It's not the smoothest thing on the world. I still use two hands on this to move it up and down. You may have seen this in my C20 video, but they have these new J-Cups and spotter arms that have this secondary locking mechanism in this little ring here, which basically, once you put this on the 3x3 post and set it down, it slides in and basically covers the lip of the power rack so that it can't slide out, meaning that it is fully locked in. And when you shake it and when the barbell's on it and when it slides, it basically won't move side to side.

Same thing goes for their spotter arms as well. From the Gitco, this does not come with any of the 3x3 attachments. They have mentioned to me they do have a new attachment ecosystem coming now. Things like a lat pulldown seat, jammer arms, a few other goodies that will make this rack more functional. So you don't have to stick with attachments from Force USA. If you want to get a different brand of J-Cups or spotter arms or a lat pulldown seat, a chest supported row pad, whatever you want, you can put it on here because it's 3x3. It's the Adult Legos. It's super fun and that's part of what makes home gyms and kind of building it out to your exact needs.

Fun and exciting. One of the things I recommend is some sort of low row foot plate or something to put your feet on for low rows. You'll see I did it here by just pulling up a bench, putting my feet on the bench feet and simply doing low rows that worked fine. Then lat pulldown seat, that can be a little bit harder depending on the weight you're doing.

I pulled up a bench. The limitation then ends up typically being for people, if you have a 200 pound weight stack, that's only 100 pounds of weight for a lat pulldown or low row. Against it's 2 to 1 if you had it in 250 pounds, that is 125 pounds of effective weight that you feel on the end. So either you need to upgrade to 250, upgrade to 300.

Even if you're at 300, that's only 150 pounds. That's where things like I've recommended in the past to people like a weight stack adder pin. It has a weight horn, a weight plate sleeve, and then you can slide on Olympic weight plates. This also has built-in storage as a functional trainer. I kind of asked, well, hey, what if you want to get more storage and onto it over time? They're aware that people might have that want or need.

Just know this is what you get baked in. Some 3x3 storage on the back, modifiable pegboard keyhole kind of style storage here, and a little shelf, whether that's for attachments or kettlebells or maybe a couple dumbbells, whatever you like. Now, one thing I didn't mention with the functional trainer stacks, half slash outer weights. So as we've seen on similar systems, as you've seen on the C20, little pop pin holds this basically 5 pound weight. That's how you get in between the 10 pound jumps on the weight stack.

And then when you're done with the half fatter weight, it locks at the top out of the way. The weight stack itself also has magnetic weight selector pins, which is part of their new cornerstone line as well. In addition to the band peg mounts, which you'll see on the front here, they also include these one inch band pegs. So whether it's on the front for storage or for using with squats, something like that, you can simply put these outside to in or put these on the back, throw on a band peg on the backside. That's one way to add more weight or just change the resistance profile of the cable system a little bit more.

Now, some of the other benefits of the 3x3 besides the cool power rack attachments, anything else you want to add, the top is now 3x3, customize it to what you would like. They do include these pull up handles, which have this nicely knurled knob on the back. I'll try not to drop on my head, two knurled handles with a little protective, some sort of thermoplastic, something like that. Basically, you can adjust these left to right, or you can take them off, you can put them somewhere else, install your own handles, install your own attachments, as a functional trainer, as a power rack. I can't believe no one's done this type of concept yet, but because of this little narrow profile, it fits better in corners. And because it has six posts, you can do more things for weight plate storage on the back or different attachment storage. The concept, the idea of you already have a functional trainer, let's make it make a little more sense and let's cater to what people are asking for.

Now, as far as pricing for this, it's going to be somewhere in the range of 34.99. Again, that's not going to include things like the J-Cups or the Spotter Arms, but it will include the articulating arms here. It will include the 200-pound weight stacks and the storage and some cable attachments and the pull-up bar handles. It's super capable because not only is it just a cable stack in a corner, but now you have these articulating arms, which add a ton of versatility to functional trainers in general. This now can kind of get you bridge that gap to a true cable crossover if you want to do some things really wide. If two people want to work out together and not get in their way, you can do that as well. The other thing I would say is the inverse, which is if you want to go super narrow, some of the things I really enjoy doing. If you want to do something like unilateral closed-grid pulldowns, obviously you'd have a seat, but you can do things like this.

I think these feel fantastic. One of the reasons I like the wrap-aries, one of the reasons I like the GetRx Tornado, you can change the exact angle you want of these, both in and out, up and down, angle-wise, and actually the height you'll see for lat pulldowns. This gave me plenty of clearance. I was nowhere near bottoming out the range of motion, so even if I add a lat seat or something similar, this height is accommodating of what it needs to do. Now speaking to the height, the height of the rack is about 88 inches that I measured here.

The width is 49 inches. That's to the exterior. The when you do have the arms in the fully upright configuration, like I showed for lat pulldowns, for example, it does extend the height by about three inches, so now it's closer to 90, 91, but obviously you do not have to store them like that.

You can store them lower. Overall, the FTR is a really unique product and product category. We have the Functional Trainer PowerRacks already. They're not necessarily trying to compete with the budget or entry end.

No, this is meant for a very specific purpose, a very specific use. All the design decisions were made in order to bring this cohesively together. It's narrow profile. It'll fit in the corner.

It'll fit in small spaces, but you get six posts of three by three storage. You get built-in attachment storage. You have the option to go 200 all the way up to 300 pound weight stacks. With the articulating arms, it adds a lot of versatility to the dual Functional Trainer stacks compared to traditional Functional Trainers. So guys, that's it for this review and initial impressions of the brand new Force USA FTR Functional Trainer Rack. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them down below.

I'll be happy to answer these. Try. Thanks for tuning into the channel with your reviews. We'll see you next time. Take it easy. Peace.