Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

So couple things. First of all, I’m a 5’4” 125lb woman and I put this together BY MYSELF cables included. It may be a little hard, but you do not need two people to assemble despite other reviews, just need some common sense and a ratchet set with the 5/8th bolt size. Second, do NOT rip open all of the cardboard sheets that hold the nuts and bolts. I took my buck knife and only cut out around the exact ones I needed for the next step and only took out the very one I needed. You can easily start mixing them up if you take out different lengths at a time as some of the bolts only vary by an 8th inch. ONLY WORK WITH THE EXACT NUT/BOLT COMBO YOU NEED AT A TIME. I went one page at a time on the directions and one nut/ bolt combo at a time pictured and worked my way through that page until I had completed everything. For some of the cable steps, you don’t attach the cable pulley mount to anything until a few pages later- just let it hang there until it says to attach it to something. Third, and this is VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU’RE SHORT OR WANT EXTRA RANGE OF MOTION. Being 5’4 and wanting to do hip thrust, deadlifts, stuff that requires the bar to be close to the ground, DO NOT PUT ON THE SAFETY HOOKS. As you can see from my one picture holding the safety hook up you lose about 3 inches of range of motion at the bottom if you have these on the pole. Being that it’s a smith machine and you can rack it every few inches I don’t think they’re necessary and it took about an hour to get them off after I had already assembled the whole thing, which can be done by removing the j shaped weight storage racks and sliding them off of the bottom of the pole- not fun. I included a picture at the bottom of my hip thrust range of motion which is the perfect height without the safety hooks being installed. Clamps- upgrade to quick release clamps, I got the amazon recommended black ones pictures they run about $8 a set and are worth not having to deal with the metal ones. Attachments- they’re just okay, I bought a separate ankle strap that is much more padded and a Bar pad from perfect peach athletics- $26 and is so worth it. I also recommend purchasing some quick release carabiner hooks to attach all the accessories with, I found 4 for $7 on here which is better than having to unscrew them each time. Weight types- this machine CAN run off OLYMPIC OR STANDARD WEIGHTS you just don’t put the black sleeves on if you want standard sized plates. Bench- the bench is actually pretty good when it comes to the leg/ bicep attachments and again can work off Olympic or standard weights. Only thing I don’t like is that there’s a lumbar support in the bench it is not completely flat and that you have to unscrew the pin to incline the bench. Otherwise fairly sturdy. Also it doesn’t have wheels which is annoying to move. Take your time putting this monster together, I did it in about 8 hours over a couple days and it went almost completely smoothly since I took my time. This is a great addition to any home gym you can do SO many different exercises with it and is well worth the price. Also, I found an entire set of Olympic plates at goodwill for $112 plus a lot of standard sized and dumbbells. Check out second hand before you spend a fortune on a few plates of iron- I restored mine with a wire brush and some rust oleum spray paint and they look new again. Hope this review helped you make a decision and happy lifting guys!