Best Budget All-In-One Functional Trainer Rack? Mikolo Anubis 2.0 Elite Review

Hey guys, this is Michael with the Jungle Gym reviews. Today we're reviewing the much anticipated and much asked about Mikolo Anubis 2.0. We previously did a review of the Anubis 1.0 on the channel and they took several of my feedback to heart making some key improvements that took this just from an okay rack to now potentially one of the best budget racks.

It's about $2,400 for everything you see here including the attachments from the spotter arms with the flip down supporting legs, J-Cups, pegboard storage, knurled pull-up bar, 175 pound weight stacks, lap pull down and low row, leg holder. This thing comes with everything you need and nothing you don't so let's check it out. So as I mentioned we previously did a review of the Anubis 1.0 on the channel.

I'm going to link that in the description below. Although that was a good rack, there were a couple key things about it that made it not as enticing. They've fixed those on this rack and I'm going to speak to what those are. First of all, this is a 3x3 rack, but it's 12 gauge steel. So most 3x3 racks that the industry standard is used to is 11 gauge steel. 12 gauge steel they use on here that does a couple different things. One, it makes it overall cheaper, makes it easier to ship.

So then you get a lower overall cost, which is absolutely perfect. Honestly between 11 and 12 gauge, 99.9% of people are not lifting or using anything that is going to make a real life. Noticeable difference between 11 and 12 gauge.

So do not stress out over the number. This is perfectly capable for everything you can throw at it. If you want to go on their website and see all the crazy weight ratings, it's something like 2000 pounds maybe for the spotter arms and 1200 pounds for the bench and stuff like that. Point being this is a very capable rack and now what makes it capable again is the 3x3, but they now have one inch holes on the sides. The last rack, the 1.0 only had, I believe it's either half inch or five eighth inch holes. So it did not allow you to take something like the J cups from the front and put it on the side. Obviously J cups are maybe a bad example, but any other sort of 3x3 attachments that you want to mix and match on here now, because it is the exact same 3x3 as any other 3x3 with the offset holes on the front and the side attachments are now mix and match compatible, which is fantastic.

I actually recently did a video of the GetRxd RX3 new tornado attachments. Those are made for metric 3x3 racks. This is also a metric 3x3 rack. So the exact same hole size and hole spacing as GitterRx'd as Titan Fitness as Rep Fitness, which means now because they're universal and they all have the one inch holes, you can mix and match any attachments and stuff between them. If you want to put Rep Fitness spotter arms on here, you could do that or vice versa.

So that in itself is a huge upgrade because now this is pretty much a truly universal rack, whereas before it was one inch on the upper rights, which meant it was only limited to front mounted attachments only. As far as overall size and profile, we are showing it here with the spotter arms fully out. The spotter arms are one of the things they advertise heavily on here. I personally find them to be a little bit annoying just because of all the different adjusting points. And there's probably at least five or 10 other spotter arms that I prefer. The reason being because they have this adjustable leg, which flips up when you're not using it, and you put this little D10 pin to lock it in. So this is how the spotter arm, you can use it like this. Or when you go to store it on the rack, you keep the arm, that little stabilizing leg flipped up.

It's meant for a couple of things. When you flip it down, it has an adjustable leg so you can level it to the floor or whatever height you're at. So if you want it this high, the leg will slide down further with this little pop pin. They do that for safety and stability. So then when you're throwing a lot of weight off the front of the rack on this spotter arm, it's about two feet long. You're creating a big lever for the rack. And since it's not that deep front to back, there is a tipping risk.

However, I personally just find it a little bit annoying. They include it for the price. Everything here is included for the price, by the way. Everything from the Jacobs to the spotter arms to the built-in pegboard we'll talk about and all the attachments.

All of that is included for the price, which is $2,400 for this version. This is the elite, they call it. They have the standard, which is actually the exact same thing. Just instead of these 175 pound weight stacks, they just have plate loaded trolleys, which saves you a ton of money. I think it's in like the mid teams, maybe like $1,500, $1,600. So if you're looking to save quite a bit of money, you can go the plate loaded route. Personally, I recommend people to go the select rise route over time. I've been the plate loaded machines everywhere in my gym. And after about three years, four years, it does tend to get a little annoying.

But obviously that depends on your own budget and price range and everything. So this again is the elite version. They do have one higher version, which is the exact same everything, but they actually offer a Smith machine there.

So that's called the ultimate. And the rack is actually a little bit deeper. So right in between where the normal guide rods would be here and the front of the uprights, they actually have a drop-in Smith machine. So if you like Smith machines, if you like Smith machine training, that's great. One thing to note though, is you cannot retrofit this version, the elite, with the Smith machine because it doesn't have enough depth between the guide rods and the cross members. So if you want the Smith machine, I think it's $2,800. So for $400 more, you can give a Smith machine. If you're already in that price range, budget range, I recommend to do that because $400 is the cheapest Smith attachment you could ever get, period.

I personally haven't used it. Obviously, I don't have the version with the Smith machine, but Smith machines are kind of hard to mess up. Yes, there might be limitations, but honestly, for $400, I would totally pick that over not having a Smith machine. Just know then, the front posts of your rack and the actual depth is going to increase just a little bit when you add the Smith version on the ultimate. On this elite version, I mentioned it comes with the 175 pound weight stacks.

That's going to be actually the next big upgrade they did over the last model. I think it was somewhere around 150 pounds. This is 175 pounds. You'll see it is 170 to the bottom weight here. And on top, you actually have this removable 5 pound half plate outer weight.

So this is pretty cool. It's just some sort of like rubber coated little weight here. This is 5 pounds. So this is how you get in between the 10 pound increments.

It is a two to one ratio though. So although it lists 170 pounds because that's how much the weight stack is, what you're actually feeling at the cable end is only half of that, which is very traditional for functional trainers or cable systems because you get a little more cable travel off the front. And then you're able to get the 5 pound increments. So when I have 50 pounds selected here, I'm actually feeling 25 pounds.

When I have 130 pounds, I'm actually feeling 65 pounds, et cetera. This is great for functional trainer style. This is very true of every single, pretty much almost all functional trainer machines that exist. Yes, there's some of them that are four to one or maybe some of them that are one to one. Most are two to one for a good reason. And how it feels is so good.

I was blown away by this. Almost every cable system that I can think of that I've reviewed and I've used, when it's on the budget side, when it's in a budget category, in the budget range, the first thing to go and the first thing you notice is the cables. The cable system feel and smoothness is proportionally decreased as much as the price is compared to like some of the nicer systems. This has aluminum pulleys on here, which everyone gets super hyped up about. Aluminum pulleys are the greatest. Aluminum pulleys by itself don't really change too much because it has to do more with the bearings inside the pulleys, the cable width itself, and all the different friction, the cable routing. There's so many things that go into making cables feel smooth.

And the last version, although it also had aluminum pulleys, honestly, it just wasn't very smooth. And I called that on the review. I said, it just feels okay. This though feels fantastic. I'm talking snappy just as good as any top of the line cable system that I have here, whether that's a Ginter X system, whether that's the Rep Aries 2.0, this feels right on par with that.

I could not believe that to be quite honest. So we're talking let's say eight, eight and a half out of 10. Maybe something like the Rep Aries is eight and a half nine.

Some of those other ones are eight and a half nine. I mean, this is really, really good for the price range. I have not had such smooth cable system out of a budget piece ever.

So that in itself to me is just moves away at the top of the list as far as being worth it for the price. The other thing, because you use this as a functional trainer all the time, you have these front uprights. which are the functional trainer trolleys. And just like most industry standard options we have now, there's some sort of pop-in and some sort of rollers or a trolley system. This has four rollers in all four corners to slide up and down. And it slides very easy, very smoothly.

You can see I'm doing this with one hand. The trolley itself doesn't weigh that much. And then the rollers just help it glide up and down. And when you find the height you want, you let go of that pop-in. And now it's locked in.

There's no secondary latch or lock or anything, which again is pretty standard. So that's the height you want. All the way up here to down there. You know, we're talking somewhere in the, when this is in the highest range, this is somewhere around 74 inches to the center of the cable. And when you're in the lowest range, somewhere around, let's say 16 inches or so.

So you have that range to work from. Very adequate height, very adequate size when it comes to functional trainer. Speaking of the actual size and dimensions of everything, the height of it is 91 and a half inches. And that's the same for the elite and the ultimate. The front to back depth of this version, the elite again with no Smith machine.

So it's going to be the same for the plate loaded version. The standard is 28 inches if we're just talking about the rack itself. So from the back of the back cross member to the front of the front cross member is 28 inches, which is honestly, in my opinion, some of the best depth for Power Racks.

I actually have done a video where I make like the ultimate compacts Power Rack, which I will also link in the description below. I like to do like 16 inch cross members. So 16 plus a three inch front post and back post. So we're talking like 22 inches. I like the more compact racks because then they don't take up all the rest of your gym space.

So you can do more other things, as long as it's stable, as long as it has space for storage. And that's really all you could ask for. It's a 42 and a half inch interior width. Again, it is metric three by three.

So if we take 42, add three inches on one post, three inches on the other, 48 and a half inches exterior width. So plenty of overall room as long as this can fit in your ceiling considerations. The pull up bar though is a little lower than that at seven feet, so 84 inches.

So about seven inches shorter than the max height. The pull up bar is another thing I really like. They haven't changed it at all. As far as I know, from the 1.0, it's lightly knurled as you would want for a pull up bar. And it's got all the different grip options.

So this is honestly fantastic. Other than that, one of the cool things they have about this is this included back, I'll call it a storage post, utility post, whatever you want to call it. It's just another cross member and obviously it provides stability, but then it also doubles as storage. So when you're done with the spotter arms or if you're not using them, I mostly leave these at the back, except when I really, really need to use the spotter arms, which again, is not very often. So I think it's nice to have the storage in the back. So that way you can get these out of the way, you can keep your nice compact profile and still get your bench in here, get everything you need in order to incline bench everything else. The other thing they include, as I mentioned, is this pegboard storage. They had this on the 1.0 as well.

It's not anything to write home about, but it gives you some way to get attachments off the ground, which is always a huge thing and then you don't need to drill on your wall, you don't need anything else. So I like that. I wish they offer more options for you to buy this. Maybe I'll a cart if you wanted to add a second one. And then maybe if you wanted to install this post a little bit lower, you could still use your spotter arms, stuff like that. But overall, I mean, everything about this rack, if you took a different branding and put something on it, let's say your favorite, insert favorite brand here, you would not know this is a budget rack. You'd not know this is 12 gauge steel. You would not know that these aren't some of, they're just very smooth trolleys and very smooth cable system, cable pulleys. So I think that's exactly what they're going for, is how can we maximize overall functionality, get people the things they need, don't get people the things they don't need.

Now, as far as improvements on this, there are a couple of things that I would still like to see. They did increase the weight stack. So yes, now you have 175 pounds instead of 150, but since it's a two to one ratio, it's halved still. So when you go to do things like a lap pull down, even though they include a lap pull down bar, you're talking about 87 and a half pounds is all you have for that max weight. So that's where you have to get something like, I've recommended in the past, a weight stack adder pin. This is from Bear Steel Equipment Company.

It's magnetic. You put it in any of the plate slots, and then you're able to load Olympic plates on the side. This can fit about three Olympic weight plates. So that's 135 pounds. Now you add that to the 170 pound stack, or 175 pound stack. Now you have something in the 310 ish pound range, which halved as now 150 pounds, which is a little more adequate for lap pull downs. They at least recognize that people also want to do lap pull downs on low rows.

Another thing I called out last time, because it's just kind of awkward and hard to do them from here with, you know, no real place to block yourself in or hold yourself down. So that's where they included this really nifty dual lap pull down leg holder and low row foot plate attachment. You put it on any hold in the upright. It's got a safety pin underneath it so it doesn't slide out of the way.

So it mounts just like a J cup would. This little pop pin allows it to, when it's in this upright mode, this is for your feet. When you're doing some sort of low row, you roll up a bench or you can put it lower, put it on the floor. And when you want to do a lap pull down, you pull this pop pin and the padding is now on top of your knees to hold you down. So you can do lap pull downs comfortably.

As long again as you have some sort of way to add more weight, I would like to see them conclude a weight stack adder pin like that. A lot of companies have like very generic aluminum versions. They don't cost that much for them to provide. So I would like to see them do that. I don't know if it's some sort of safety issue, if the cable ratings or something on here, they don't want people loading up 400 pounds on a weight stack and then doing lap pull downs and something snaps.

Obviously I don't know. I can only speculate for me, when I want to do heavier things, I need to use a weight stack adder pin, but again, do so at your own risk. The only other thing on here that I can really complain about is when I received this, we're putting it together. We found that one of the weight plates was actually not all the way drilled through. So they had to send me a whole new weight plate. So my 160 pounds on one of the sides, this spot where you actually put in the magnetic selector pin had no hole drilled through the other side. So you couldn't actually get the selector pin through. Obviously I just sent them an email, they shipped me a new one, no harm, no foul.

Things happened to manufacturing. But overall, besides this, I've had absolutely zero issues. I cannot speak highly enough to this for the price it's at. And I've gone to test and try a lot of different racks.

If I had a friend or family or someone asked me, like what is the best value or like, hey, I have a limited budget, but I want a three by three rack, what would you do? This is it. This is it. I mean, this is fantastic for the price. So yes, as long as you understand the caveats about the weights, I'd still much rather than have lighter weight stacks, I have to figure out a way to add more weight, but then come in at that price point that I think is very affordable people. And in the end, price is really king for people. Price is king, space is king. This maximizes on all of those things.

So there's not a whole lot more you can ask for. Now the last thing I want to mention is not so much about the rack, but their new bench that you can buy with the rack and included in the package, I think for a very small discount, this is the McColo Bastet Bench 2.0. This was one of their big first benches that we also did a review of the 1.0 and the unique thing about this that we've now started to see with other similar style benches is this chest pad slash headrest pad slash adjustable angle multi-use pad that has some sort of pin where you can adjust this to a couple of different angles and or move it out of the way. So if you'd like to move it out of the way completely to do things like, I don't know, overhead tricep extensions, or for me, I like to move it out of the way actually when I do like an overhead shoulder press, whether that's with dumbbells or cables, because then I can move my neck a little bit back out of the way rather than just hitting against the back pad.

So it's really kind of endless as far as what you can think of and what you want to use this for. I've seen some other people do some reviews of this bench. I think BJ from Iron Clinic, maybe I can link his video in the description below if you're interested in like an in-depth review into this bench and all its capabilities.

I just want to give a quick PSA slash overview that they did update this bench. This is an option if you're wanting to add even more functionality to a dual cable system because stuff like this, full-down headrest, and the fact you can use it for chest supports, like I like using it for chest supported rows. Again, whether it's cables or something else, you can get really creative with this kind of bench. And the fact it's ladder style means it is very easy to quickly adjust to the height you want, get on it, go.

Everything is just very nice and easy and it looks obviously nice and sleek and goes with the bench. It actually has a little bit of a decline too. If you want to do that, this back post here has like a little threaded stopper knob so you can unthread this out. Just pop in down and now you can actually get a slight decline.

So again, just nice little things. It's not game changing, groundbreaking, but for the price when you want this like multifunctional maximizing your home gym space, it's just another good idea, another good option. So guys, that's it for today's review of the Nicolo Anubis 2.0 and a quick preview of the Vastette Bench 2.0. As always, give any questions or comments, please give 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.