Apex Adjustable Bench Initial Review
Non affiliate link: https://www.apexfitness.com/products/apex-adjustable-bench
Just a few thoughts on the release of the hyper pro x by freak athlete. I’ve gotten to see tons of video and reviews of this since home gym con.
Overall my thoughts are that this seems like a good upgrade and direction for freak athlete. For new people considering, it looks better than the original hyper pro. There will be slightly less set up and it does look more stable. I watched someone test its stability by over doing exercises hard, with lots of motion, and it was pretty good and held up. Pads seem updated but on first glance I don’t see huge differences there in the amount of foam.
As far as it being smaller – yes its shorter. So on the floor it will take up less space. Vertically, well if you needed that extra vertical space then yes, but for me that vertical space could be 10′ tall for all I care. There is a very simple mod to take off the legs of the current hyper pro to make it a similar height too.
I also really like that the leg developer from their bench is the same one for the hyper pro. That makes a ton of sense to combine the ecosystems. Good job there FA.
Would I upgrade this if I had the current hyper pro? No reason too unless you like to have the latest and greatest. Old one is more than fine and does all of the same stuff. In fact you can prob find one used for a good price.
Concerns? There are several. Some of these are my original concerns of the hyper pro itself and some are new concerns.
First concern, that is no longer a concern of mine, so I prob shouldn’t even list it, was how well it did GHRs. But FA owner even reached out to show me a video of him and others doing them just fine. Seems like this concern was overblown by me. This is a non concern now.
Second concern has been a concern of mine since first version – pop pin security. I like pop pins that go all the way through the crossmember (so two holes). I am a little paranoid about this as I have had benches where the pop pin missed the hole and slipped. I think this new hyper pro x is better about this, seems much better here so this isn’t a huge concern of mine but I’d feel a lot safer if it went through the entire crossmember.
Third concern is more a rumor and I am not sure I trust this rumor at all until I’ve seen people use this device. There’s a video of someone doing a leg curl where there isn’t enough length on the machine to properly do it. There is some speculation that you can’t change that length for leg curl. I sort of doubt this to be the case. Its really tough when they are just demoing machines and don’t have time to set them up perfectly because they are just trying to show the movements. So I don’t think this concern will be true. On the current hyper pro I do need to put the roller down so that my head is comfy during leg curls, so I do see what people are saying with this new one but I really think this will be a non issue.
And that’s it. My initial thoughts on the current hyper pro. Will I buy it? Remains to be seen. As of now I am leaning towards no only because my DIY GHD is working just fine and I did sell my hyper pro a while back.
Here is a non affiliate link to FA Hyper Pro X – https://freakathlete.co/products/hyper-pro
Finally getting around to reviewing the Ironbull uprights I got in that have both 5/8 and 1″ holes.
Overall I really like them, super cool to have both options on a rack. I really think this is a good design for uprights but Ironbull is no longer shipping these in the US and supposedly stopping production of them in Canada too. Bulletproof fitness is creating a similar rack that should be coming at some point and will be interesting to see if this catches on or not. The keyhole design was never utilized by rogue but maybe other companies will use it.
In my video I did say these would be great for VTS but someone pointed out that if the VTS hook got caught in the 1″ hole, it could slip, and with a lot of weight could potentially break or get damaged. So that’s something to think about. Otherwise I think this design only has advantages. Nice to be able to swap out any attachment like this.
My current set up with this is 96″ frankenstein uprights and 24″ titan series crossmembers. Still need to get a few more stall mats to put it on.
Also for clarity, I did get these for free. Ironbull said one of my previous videos helped inspire the design so they sent me these as thanks. It did take them a very long time (like 1.5yrs) from that original email to me actually getting them. I am not an affiliate with them or any company.
DIY GHD for GHRs
Since selling my Hyper Pro and debating buying the next iteration, I’ve had to figure out how to do GHRs. So after playing around for the past few weeks, I’ve finally got a version of a GHD that I am happy with, has no weird or uncomfortable issues, and feels as solid as my Hyper pro or really any GHD did. I do GHRs 2x a week and sometimes use weights. This set up is stable.
Its a very simple set up, takes no longer than 15 seconds. Here are the materials:
It took me a few tries to work out the kinks but I am not sure what I can do to really improve this at this point. I am going to keep using and see if I decide to buy the hyper pro x or just use this set up.
The disadvantage of this set up is that you can’t set angles, although I guess I could increase the height of the pads. The other is you can’t do a hyperextension off it, but that’s something I never do with a GHR. I do my hyperextension separately and actually just prefer a roller on my rack for it.
Designing the perfect adjustable bench. Does the perfect bench exist? I don’t think so and here is how I would design it if I could!
This video goes through what I think the perfect bench would look like because currently I don’t think it exists. I do think there are many good benches out there though but none are perfect!
Here are some of the features I’d like to see and all are in the video.
Height: 17″
Width: 12″
Pad length: 38″
Angles: 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 85 at a minimum
Seat angles: 30, 20, 10, 0, -7, -15 at a minimum
Attachment ports on the front, back, and sides
Attachment ports to fit multiple size attachments both vertical and horizontal
Bench under $500 in 2026 dollars
Slim profile back legs
Stability bar for back pad that folds away
Small gap (no need for zero gap)
Ladders preferred but either would be ok
This is a mod I’ve been playing with for a while now. It basically does two things:
Allows me to start higher on the lift, allowing me to move the unit down for a better stretch while still allowing me to the top of the arc for full ROM
And second, it moves the handles 1/2″ closer to me.
Non Affiliate Link to Product: https://gmwdfitness.com/products/3-in-1-bench-press-shoulder-press-machine-v7
Bumper plates look great and at first, we all think we need them. But the truth is they are not great for most home gyms! Here are the reason to buy and not buy them:
Reasons you should not get bumper plates:
I made the mistake of buying bumpers when I first put together my gym. Please dont make my same mistake. Get them if you need them for oly lifts, otherwise, save yourself the trouble and get iron plates.
