POWERCAGE BUYING GUIDE – What you need to know before purchasing a power cage
Many of these functional exercises can be performed with just your body weight, but as your strength increase it is then more beneficial to incorporate a barbell and weights in your workout. A heavy duty power cage with barbell and some weights is all you need to train from home and access the benefits of a functional workout.
What Features Does the Power Cage Have To Offer?
A good quality power cage should offer many features. The more the better some these features include the following
- Good locking jay hooks
A good power cage should provide you with good locking jay hooks to support a fully loaded barbell, the more the better so look for a power cage that has at least 4-6 jay hooks included.
- Solid steel spotters
It is important for your power cage to have strong solid steel spotters. They are a crucial safety feature when training alone because they provide a support in cases where you reach your last rep max and need to drop the barbell.
- A chin up / Multi grip chin up bar
Chin ups is a great back building exercise. Good power cages come with some form of chin up bars. A multi grip chin up bar allows you to grab the bar at different angles targeting specific back muscles as well as bicep and forearm muscles.
- A dip attachment
Dips are an awesome upper body building exercise, great for targeting triceps, shoulders and chest. A power cage with the ability to do dips just eliminates you having to buy another machine such as a power tower to do your dip exercises, saving you space and money.
Can You Add Attachments?
Not all but some Heavy duty power cages come with the option of upgrading to a Lat-Pull down attachment and even a Cable cross over. These attachments are vital for any good complete home gym and a good quality power cage will allow you to attach a cable cross over or a lat –pull down with ease.
By combining a power cage, Lat – Pull down and cable crossover you would most certainly be able to perform every single exercise to build muscle without the need of a room full of bulky gym equipment.
When looking at a power cage with upgradable attachments always check to make sure the attachments are built with same quality as your power cage, Check the rating on the attachments is sufficient for your needs and ask about the warranty of the attachments.
Build Quality
When looking at purchasing a power cage it is important to address the issue of build quality, after all you will be performing heavy weighted exercises using your power cage, such as squats, bench press and deadlifts. Using a heavy duty power cage with a good build quality will ensure you train safely and efficiently.
The first thing to look for in build quality is the thickness of material being used. Ask what the thickness of the metal the power cage is manufactured from, ideally you want to aim for a thickness of 2 millimeters and greater to offer you maximum safety.
The powder coating or paint finish of the power cage needs to be looked at closely when purchasing a power cage. Due to rust being an enemy of any metal structure you need to ensure that your power cage is painted well inside and out to prevent rust and corrosion. When metal rusts it loses its structural integrity and can became a safety hazard to use a power cage that has lost its strength to carry heavy loads.
Check out the many exercises possible on this Reeplex power cage.
Conclusion
There are many power cages out there in the market today , don’t be fooled by really cheap imports that claim to be safe, do your research and test out a couple to get a good understanding of a well-built power cage.
A power cage is a good fitness investment mainly due to its great functionality and how it can be used to incorporate various exercises all in one machine. Its simple design means it has low maintenance and allows you to access the benefits of functional free weight exercises.
