Iron Bull Strength: Frankenstein Power Rack + Functional Trainer + High/Low Cable Attachment Review

Hey guys, this is Michael with the Jungle Gym Reviews. Today we're reviewing a handful of Iron Bull strength products. Primarily this Frankenstein upright slash power rack. The Frankenstein uprights are their take on the keyhole design combination 1 inch and 5 eighth inch holes on a 3 by 3 11 gauge upright rack, a center mounted high low pulley, a side mounted functional trainer. They also send me some additional products like their lever arms, bumper plates, and even their top of the line adjustable bench to check out.

I've had these things here in the studio for months, so I have a ton of feedback. I don't want to spoil it too much. Some of it's great, some of it's not so good. I have a feeling this is going to be an in depth video and we're literally going to walk through everything on here about the rack, about the other products. And hopefully after today there will be a few things for Iron Bull and consumers to consider, so let's check it out. So for those of you not familiar with Iron Bull strength, they're based out of Quebec, Canada, and they've been making things for somewhere about 10 to 15 years. Primarily powerlifting gear and supplies. I've actually owned some knee sleeves that I used to sell on Amazon, but now they have expanded as you can see into more home gym equipment. One of the things they pride themselves on for a lot of their products, strength training wise, is they now have this facility that they have in the back of their head. They have the in Canada where they make a lot of things in house, things like these Power X and they can actually do things like custom logos, custom colors. I saw their custom dumbbells they can do at home gym con this year. Those are one of the things on my priority list.

I'd love to replace my five to 100 pound dumbbells. They have a lot of cool things like that and I think that's one of their primary value. Ads is the made in Canada, so it's still domestic, the primary downside and all that.

It ends up being price. Now, before I get into the video, do you could clearly hit that subscribe button below if you haven't already. It's going to continue to help us grow the channel. Make sure you get notified when we post these two a week reviews throughout the rest of 2025. As always, if you're interested in purchasing this effort review, please check out the affiliate link in the description below.

All right. The thing that people are probably going to be most interested in is the actual Power Rack is the uprights called the Frankenstein uprights. These are three by three uprights, 11 gauge steel. So industry standard, the cool thing about these, why they're called the Frankenstein is they have this keyhole design where it suits one inch holes or one inch attachments on top. And on the lower side, five eighth inch attachments.

This is really helpful to use both sets of attachments. Different companies like Rogue, one of my favorite budget racks companies, Titan Fitness has already done something like this, but they only do this keyhole design on the side. Other racks like you'll see over here just do a pretty typical standard one inch all around. I personally like the keyhole sides because again, just more attachment cross compatibility. What Iron Bull did with these Frankenstein uprights is instead of just putting the keyhole on the sides like Rogue, like Titan, like others, they made it on both sides.

So now no matter where you are, you can use one inch or five eighth inch, which is pretty nice. Now, as I said in the intro to this video, there's a lot of things they did that I think are really cool. And there's a lot of things they did that I think could be a little bit better. With these Frankenstein uprights, I will say the first thing I wish and would want to be better is if you notice people like Rogue, like Titan, their keyhole has actually more of like a U shape, whereas this sort of looks like an upside down snowman. And the reason for the U is that when you stick in a five eighth inch into the hole, it'll actually drop a little bit lower. Well here you actually have to kind of make sure it lines up exactly in the five eighth inch hole. It's not really a problem, but it's actually a little bit easier to get your five eighth inch attachments if this is just a straight U design rather than these two kind of circles merged together. I think it looks kind of cool though, is the other side. So maybe they thought about that. That's just one thing I've noticed in Hannibal at times, especially when you're going to put in something heavy like lever arms.

Overall that's more of like a nitpick personal preference on my side. What I didn't mention, they now have Frankenstein cross members. So just like the Frankenstein uprights where you have this keyhole system, five eighth and one inch, you'll see on their website, their Frankenstein cross members are just like those, but they're oriented horizontally. So the Frankenstein uprights are pretty cool option here. I received the Frankenstein uprights pretty much the first batch.

They hadn't yet had the Frankenstein rack builder, which is what they now have on their website. And the main difference is I have Frankenstein uprights, but my cross members you'll see are still traditional just five eighth inch whole cross members. The five eighth inch is their PR two or PR one line. The PR two is a six post power rack and their PR one is their four post five eighth power rack.

So this rack was technically the PR two rack builder, but they swapped out Frankenstein uprights instead. So that's why I have this mix and match of one inch and five eighth plus five eighth inch cross members. If you step back and take a look at what I added on to this high, low center pulley, you will actually see how straight or in this case, how not straight this top cross member is. Well, you'll see it kind of slants down a little bit and it will be mirrored on the bottom. When you see the bottom cross member as well for this high, low pulley kit, it's kind of pulled up.

Now this center mount high, low pulley kit, while it works very well for being a center mount plate loaded trolley system basically has these rollers that roll up and down the uprights plates you're able to load on either side. The paint on here is very smooth. So it minimizes the amount of friction and the rollers, everything very solid cables. The pulleys feel great. This feels just as quality as the down motion Ibex that I reviewed earlier last year.

So it feels really good. Big downside about this particularly then one based on where this is located, I have no way to hold down my knees because I'm in the center of an opening. So you can't really move forward because you're hitting this bracket and then your lap pulldown bar would hit this.

So then your option is to kind of move back, which is fine. You just need to get some leg rollers or something here or you need to get something like rep has or Titan has, which is the leg roller slash holder that comes out and in a little bit. And then when we're talking about the low pulley, the low pulley again, everything's very smooth. Works great for something like bicep curls where you could just need to come over and stand right above it and pull or whatever you need to do.

When you want to do something, which I argue is a major use case for low rows. It is super awkward because this close to the rack, you have absolutely no range of motion. So then you or your next option is to do what I did and try to, you know, kind of situate your feet on the little end of the iron bowl logo stopper here, which is also very awkward. Or DIY, some sort of attachments, go get some wood blocks, some dumbbells and brace them on something in order to give you some extra space, which is pretty much what I did in real life in the real world. The lack of original attachments to support doing this easily was probably my biggest complaint about the high low pulley and the fact that didn't really fit with my uprights, which I think they realized after the fact. Because again, when I ordered this, I was allowed to piece all these things together.

PR1, PR2 can get this center mount high low pulley kit, but the Frankenstein rack does not have that currently as an option on their website. So just know that. I don't know if they're improving it. I don't know if they're going to come out with their own version for the Frankenstein rack. And then when the other big things they showed off at home, Jim Con that I didn't originally have with this rack are going to be the FTPL trolley cable attachment. So just like we showed on the high low center pulley, it has a very similar bracket with these rollers and a little pop thin knob on the back, which is kind of integrated in the handle. So you can use it with one hand where you grab the handle, pull the pop pin and now you can slide it up pretty easily with one hand or same thing down and it's locked in. And the front of this is a pretty much little more than 180 degree. It's got two pulleys and I really, really like one of the things they absolutely kill with all their products and kill, meaning do a really good job, nail, do a great job on is the design.

Same thing with things like this. It looks very like sports car wheels, cutouts, and I'm a big car guy. So I do like a lot of their like aesthetic and design on their products. I have had a few issues with several things I got from them from day one that either I was missing parts and then they shipped me parts and then the parts that shipped were missing parts and it got to a point where I really just didn't want to keep having this back and forth because I have a lot of other things going on. I have two jobs as an engineer and reviewing equipment and assembling equipment and a bunch of other things in and out and I can't really just babysit one specific company to make sure I get all the things that's needed. The reason I mentioned that here is when they sent me this, they didn't give me handles. I would hope they would get handles with a $1,200 cable attachment, which by the way is about how much this costs.

And I will say it works really well. It's a two to one cable ratio. Cables are mounted on the front. It's got a high pulley for when you're pulling above it and a low pulley for when you move this up the rack. So just like a normal traditional functional trainer. And this is so smooth, very smooth, buttery smooth.

I mean, really good. In theory, you can load the outside. It'll evenly distribute the weight that's loaded on the outside between all four rollers. Well, what happens though at very heavy weights, basically when you put anything more than, let's say, 90 pounds on this, what happens is it sort of pulls it down, which isn't a problem in and of itself, but it creates more tension on the inside rollers. And you can actually feel a little bit of the vibration of the rollers getting pulled in and the holes as it goes up each hole. You'll kind of feel that like click, click, click, click.

It doesn't make it less smooth at all, but it definitely gets some noticeable vibration. And the reason for that again is because you're essentially torquing, loading one side only. So it's always going to twist, you know, towards one side. These inside holes get felt just a little bit kind of like you're going over the littlest tiny little speed bumps. That's the best way I can say it. So how they can fix that is simply by just having the option to have a little bit of weight horn on each side. As you can see, this is like a welded design or pressed design. So they do not currently have that option, but I would strongly suggest to them to take in dialed motions, footsteps, and at least offer some sort of removal weight horn on the inside, then people can load the weight same, then they can be evenly distributed.

Then you completely negate that issue and it is just truly smooth. When you're paying the kind of money you are paying for this, for this rack, for this main Canada stuff, this rack, by the way, anywhere from three grand to pretty much how it's shown here, $5,500. That is a lot of money that you are paying. I don't know that that's worth it unless you specifically want like something like the color options or you really like the fact it's domestic. I'm moving away from the plate loaded cable attachment lever arms that currently are an offering as part of the package. So you can build these out. They have some unique or cool features or features that I mentioned they have taken from similar companies and kind of tried to make their own. First things first, things like these handles here. They have this little key, which I think is awesome.

Again, some of their logos, aesthetic design, as I mentioned, they did a really good job with. These are basically like multi-angle handles. So you can lock this into your traditional straight handle here or move it in. I don't know what the degree increments are. I'm going to assume that's like 30 degrees maybe.

60 degrees and then 90 vertical. You can do the same thing on the downside. So no matter if you're pressing, pulling, you can find a grip that's comfortable for you. I really like that. I maybe like to see these a little bit longer towards the middle. You know, when you think of something like mutant metals that might actually come out another inch or two, depending on the handle length, like 12 to 14 inches, this might be, you know, somewhere in like a 10-ish range. So I'd like to see at least another couple inches there on the handle length or interchangeable handle options.

But overall, as is lever arm, this is probably pretty as good as it gets for the price and being simple while still providing some nice quality of life features. That's one nice thing. You put the little key in there and now it's locked. The other cool things about their lever arms here, they have the key slot up here. So you can do one of two things, lock it, and then you want to five positions like this, laterally or in the modern day with the jammer arms, lever arms, I would like them.

You take this out, you take both sides out, and now you've created like a little more free swinging, free motion arms that can go wherever you want to do them. So I like doing things like pressing like this feels pretty natural. You know, when you have them a little bit lower, things like rowing, it gives it just a little better feel. And with the different angle grips, you can kind of just really figure out what works for you. Lever arms in general, though are kind of a hassle to move.

And that then is the only real downside of these. You can lock them vertically. So just like we've seen in the Vendetta Strength and Athletics brackets that go 360 degrees, these have something similar where you can lock them at a couple of different angles to start.

So whether that's more of like a incline like this, you can start them there or like that, you can start them there. Their version of the, you know, let's say the original Vendetta brackets, I'm sure it somehow gets around some sort of patent there. The fact they don't go all the way around, although I would really like to see them have more options because I would personally like to store these even higher out of the way, let's say up on an angle like this, but you currently can't do that as is because there's no holes to do that. That's the benefit of the things like the Vendetta brackets. So a VirenBull could implement that without maybe infringing on some intellectual property.

I would think that's pretty cool. Now again, with the small learning growing pains, this is gonna be one of them. These hitch fins are five eighth inch hitch pins. You can see just how wrecked these are, just from inserting them in and out of that hole slot. The reason being is because these holes and the tolerance is just a little bit too small to match like the paint and powder coat on this five eighth inch hitch pin. So I'd literally get stuck every time I'm in here, moving it in and you have to get the jammer arm in the perfect place just in order to lock it in a position and as you'll see here, you might wonder why I have a band peg as the main locking pin.

Well, that's because somehow the five eighth inch hole on the top of the jammer arms, this hole, and doesn't perfectly center a line with these holes to be able to put a five eighth inch pin at all through there. I've tried, trust me. So bear with me here, five eighth pin. We can get it through one side, but we are not gonna get it through the other side at all, ever.

And if you do, you're not gonna get it out. So that was the extent of my success right here is that's how far I got that five eighth inch hitch pin. So for whatever reason though, these are a little bit narrow diameter so they fit through just fine. That pretty much, I would say sums up my experience with this rack, which is they have a lot of great functionality. They have a lot of great things that look really nice, but when you start to like use it, you'll just find the little thing where like, oh, I wish that could be better or, huh, I don't know why that hole is not a little bit bigger so that fits in there. Or why would they supply these if they don't fit in that hole? Stuff like that, stuff like this cross member, things like if you walk in here, well, we have a six post power rack, we have this high low pulley kit, and our builder shows the high low pulley in the center.

Completely fine, I chose that, I built it. Well, when it's in the center, front portion of this to, you know, squat in, bench in is useless because this is in your way. So you can't get your head here, you can't squat here, you can't get a bar here. Then my thought goes, okay, let's move this to the back of the rack. That's fine, well, now I've just created the depth of an eight post rack because I'm moving this to the back. That seems like a lot of unnecessary space for a high low pulley kit. Well, what if they had it, so instead of mounting just to the uprights, it could mount to the cross members. Then I can move it just a little bit further back on the cross members, still be able to bench, squat in everything on the inside of my rack, how a six post should be.

Again, I'm only saying this because I care and because I want to see them succeed and improve, and as soon as they can figure out some of those little things, the better. So that's why I'm mentioning all these for them and for people who see this because it looks great, their marketing's great, their advertising's great. They go to buy this and they're like, sweet, I bought a $5,500 rack, boom, here it is. I would be a little bit disappointed, scratch it. I would actually be very disappointed if I spent $5,500 on this and it showed up and I had all these minor little quality and quality of life issues, instead I could have bought a GetRX Tornado, which I still think is one of the best value racks right now for like four grand with tornado arms and a Smith machine. Man, that's a lot better value. Not to mention the new C20 that just came out, which is like top of the line form functionality aesthetics. That's $6,500, but it has, you can attach a leg press to it and it has articulating arms. I mean, when you're paying that kind of money, you expect things to be like, they should be top of the line.

I think iron bowl is going to get there. I just don't think they're there yet. And that's why I think it's important for them to hear this kind of feedback. There are a lot of good things.

I take so much good out of this. The pulleys, like I said, are smooth. I love to see that they're integrating plate loaded systems and now they have weight stack systems. And if you see from the home gym con, they're not just doing the standard traditional, you know, weight plates that everyone's doing.

They have these really thin ones, they look sweet. They have a different locking mechanism. Other things like this pull up bar are awesome because for me at six foot two, even on a 96 inch rack, the pull up bar is lower, I can grab it. Well, what if I want it a little bit higher to do literal full range of motion pull ups on? Well, now I can use these adjustable hole increments and set it to whatever height I want. So for me, I set it to where I actually need a little platform or something to step up or jump up on and look at that.

Now I'm actually, you know, four, five, six inches off the ground. Things like that are really cool. Things like their custom options are really cool. One of the last couple of things on the not so good side, again, quality, things like these end caps have fallen off on me a handful of times. I've had to glue mine on, on the center mount, high low pulley, not a problem. I'm handy, but again, when I'm paying this kind of money, I don't want to be gluing and DIYing things.

Other things like when I received the center high low pulley, I don't know if they've changed this, but they included just a massive cable that had like a foot extra slack. And I asked them what I was supposed to do with that and they said, well, you're supposed to cut it. Like cut it with, with what? I can cut uprights with a sawzall. I can build my own DIY garage. Like I'm very handy.

I don't have a tool to cut a quarter inch or 3 1⁄8 inch or whatever steel braided wire this is. Not something I want to be doing when I'm spending this kind of money. While we're here too, one of the other things that I think could be improved, if you look at this, every other power rack I've ever assembled, the bolts will have some sort of locking washer or locking nut. You'll see here, it's just a nut and a washer. If someone's squatting 400 pounds and constantly setting a bar and weights back on here, I'd be concerned that there is the potential for one of the frame bolts or something to come loose. Every rack I've ever assembled, a locking washer like this in front of the nut or it'll have a locking nut with the nylon threaded insert, something like that.

Iron bolt does not. Maybe it's a problem. Maybe it's not a problem. Again, not a mechanical engineer.

I don't know. That's just one of those things I noticed when assembly, which is like, huh, this is different than every other bolt that's come with any piece of equipment ever. I just don't know that they've ever had someone tell them they should do it another way or if they really thought through this.

And maybe they have and maybe I'm just worrying about it too much. The last thing is going to be the rack and the feet and the stability. You'll see this is literally just a three by three upright with a little bracket for the feet. That's only maybe about like two inch by two inch that you bolt in.

Well, in theory, that's fine because you have two different sides and feet on all the sides. Now, every other rack I've had has this welded big foot pad. Well, you look at a rogue rack. You look at a Titan rack. You look at a rep rack.

You look at a GRX rack. That's like a four by six or a five by eight pad for a reason. That is the stability of the whole rack.

Well, you take these little tiny little feet and now you're talking about, you know, a two by two. And by the way, it's not welded. It's bolted, which in theory, when you have enough clamp force from big enough bolts shouldn't be an issue. But I'm telling you, when I assembled this thing and there was no weight on it, there was noticeable amount of play. So the first times this was unloaded and I tried to do pull ups, like it was a little wobbly. Now that I have everything on here and the weight plates, now it's a little more solidified. Now moving to the last thing is their bench.

They have a ladder style bench. They came up with their own, you know, like padding design. Goes just with the wheels here, you know, this like expensive sports car theme, just like the cable mounts here. Same thing goes with the bench. The ladder style works fine. You know, they have the light knurling here.

I think it should have the knurling on the bench, ladder adjustments itself, but you know, it works and it's a stable bench. So I have no problems here. The padding densities, the vinyl, obviously it's beautiful. I mean, it looks sweet. It looks, it looks awesome.

Goes from zero to 85, you know, 15 degree increments through 75, then 10 to 85. Comfortable, stable, and it can store vertically. You can grab the ladder style from either side, but this little cutout here on the feet, this bracket that's holding the wheels in place is a little too angled. So when you want to start moving it around your gym, pull it out or it's like, oh, I need to move this in a tight space.

Nope, right here. I am now rubbing on the rubber mats. So as soon as you get to this height, like the wheels start locking because the wheels are no longer touching the ground. I understand they're trying to make it so it stops so you can do this little kickstand thing. But again, as an engineer, they're off by just a few degrees.

So I want to like all this stuff. I really do, but there are some things that need improvement. Overall though, the bench is super stable. It looks super sleek.

I mean, it's a tank, it's super heavy. And it's really cool knowing that they are unique because again, they make everything in-house when it comes to like the racks and the rack attachments, stuff like that. And so they have a lot of control over the specific design. They're not just importing a generic design and slapping their brand on it.

No, they're actually making things from scratch. So that I really admire and them on and that I give them the brownie points for. But as with some of the things I've mentioned and will continue to mention, there's little things that you can tell they're still in their, let's say, infancy or learning phase when it comes to some of the specific design and things they need to improve. But I can't at all fault them for that. And that's part of the learning and growing experience. And I'm sure they're gonna take my feedback and feedback, letters and implement it and grow. Cause that's what good companies, hungry companies do.

And that's what'll make them successful long-term. So guys, that's it for this review of Iron Bull Strength and a handful of the Iron Bull Strength products. I'm hoping to try some more of their stuff as it comes in the future. They have a lot of cool rack attachments I'm interested in. They have a lot of cool machines that are supposed to be coming out. And I would like to give them some more feedback and give them more chances to improve on their products. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them down below. I'll be happy to answer at least try. Thanks for tuning in to the Jungle Gym Reviews. We'll see you next time. Take it easy, peace.