Looking to take your home gym leg workouts to the next level?

This 2 in 1 Leg press and hack squat machine by RitFit Sports might be just what you've been searching for! So be sure to read on today as we do an in-depth review of this monster!

In today's review we cover the assembly process of the RitFit BLP01 2-in-1 Leg Press And Hack Squat Machine, the build quality, some of the unique features of the machine, it's pros and its cons, and then we give it a final rating out of 5 stars. So let's get to it!  

So I'm quite well versed in building and assembling fitness equipment, and I won't lie, this one was a little bit of a challenge as a solo endeavor! It took me around 5 hours to put the whole thing together, which is a good chunk of time, and there were several minor sticking points during the process that ended up feeling a little bit tedious to get through.

For example, the part that really sticks out to me was getting the footplate in place. I had to hold the foot plate up, keep it balanced, run the rails through their small slots without losing that balance, hold the rails up, and get the bolts lined up and threaded through with the nuts attached while not having any of those pieces fall out of place or onto my foot. 

And none of that secure until the nuts were threaded onto the bolts but small shifts made it difficult to get the bolts lined up and the nuts threaded on. So that was the hardest part and it took me a few runs to get it right, but overall, not that bad in retrospect. 

In RitFit's defense, it does say like 20 times throughout the assembly manual that this is a two person job! I did the assembly all by myself which is why some of those parts were a bit tedious for me.  So if you have a buddy help you out with the assembly that will most likely circumvent the issues I ran into.

On the flipside, two aspects that I really appreciated during the assembly were the type of bolts they chose to hold the machine together as well as the way they packaged all of the nuts and bolts.

Regarding the first point, the assembly uses bolts with a square head. So all you have to do to tighten them is make sure that square head is pushed into place on the backside of the bolt and then you can easily tighten the nut onto the bolt with a single wrench. Whereas, most other pieces of equipment I have assembled over the years did not have this square head that locks the bolt into place, meaning you have to tighten the nut with one wrench while the holding the bolt in place with a second wrench. This is very common, but also becomes very tedious when you are securing 50+ bolts in place. So having these square head bolts and only needing to use one wrench during this assembly process was a welcome addition. 

Further, the nuts and bolts came pre-packaged on a step by step basis. So all you have to do is tear into the package for each step that you are on and then you know that you already have all the right hardware for that particular step. Most companies just jumble all the nuts and bolts into a single package and then you are constantly having to search for the right number and type of pieces for each new step from a massive pile of hardware, and that leaves you constantly referencing the manual to make sure you have the correct type of nuts/washers/bolts/etc. as these pieces often come in multiple different types that vary by just a quarter to half inch in size and are referred to by alphanumerical names that make it difficult to keep everything organized in your brain.

So these two things were kind of minor, but overall very welcome additions that made a somewhat challenging assembly process much less cumbersome to get through.

In totality this was not the easiest piece I've ever assembled but it was not overly tough either, and honestly it ended up going pretty much how I figured it would going into it based on the type of equipment that it is.

Another cool thing is that in terms of using the machine as a leg press you're actually able to adjust both the angle of the back pad as well as the angle of the foot plate. This is cool because it allows you to tinker with multiple different setups within the same exercise and emphasize different muscles during that exercise, as well as find a setup that works best for you based on your anthropometry.

With the hack squat it's a similar deal. The back pad is locked in place in this case, but you're still able to adjust the height of the footplate to find the setup that works best for you or make small changes in emphasis to the movement.

So this just ends up being a nice little perk of having a two in one machine like this. Not only do you get access to both exercises, a leg press and a hack squat, but you also get the option of tinkering with the setup of the machine to alter the characteristics of the exercises themselves.

As far as leg press machines go this is actually quite an unusual feature. Most leg presses that you run into in a commercial gym setting do not allow you to tinker with the angle of the backrest or the foot plate. Rather everything is just locked in place and the movement pattern just is what it is. So again this is a nice perk to have!

As far as actually using the machine goes, the exercises are pretty straightforward. So far, I've used it for leg presses, unilateral leg presses, hack squats, reverse hack squats, and unilateral reverse hack squats. All of these exercises are pretty self-explanatory. You just need to find the right set up for you and then be willing to suffer through some pain in the name of building big strong legs! But if you've got the guts to work hard, this machine gives you the ability to do so.

However, the unilateral leg press actually feels really good on this machine for me. It feels much less awkward, much smoother and much more natural. So I will likely be taking advantage of that and making the unilateral leg press much more regular feature in my training moving forward!

Con #2: hack squat range of motion 

Even when I elevate the foot plate as high as it goes on the machine my hack squat still bottoms out a good bit before the depth that my body naturally wants to go to on an exercise like this. Personally, I prefer taking a movement like this through my own personal full range of motion, but I can't do that here because of the constraints of the machine.

In order to reach my full range of motion I have to add pads or blocks or something to elevate the footplate a little higher so that I can get more range of motion before the stoppers bottom out.

Now, I will say that not everybody will have this problem. It's really going to depend on what your mobility is like and what your anthropometry is like. Some people will find that the machine gives them as much range of motion as they could ever hope for, and others will be more like me and find that they want a bit more range of motion than what's available.

This is a similar issue that I have run into with hack squat machines across different brands. I've used several that allow me to sit at the bottom in a fully ATG squat if that's what I want, and I've run into several that bottom me out somewhere around parallel.

So this range of motion thing ends up being a bit of a con for me. It may or may not apply to you, but there is a way for me to work around this issue.

Pro #1: maximize precious space in a home gym setting

The ability to house both a leg press and a hack squat in a home gym setting without taking up any extra space is pretty bombtastic.

Pro #2: seamlessly transition from one machine to the other

In about 15 seconds you can go from doing leg presses to doing hack squats, and vice versa. Going into it I honestly thought that once it was fully assembled you would have to unbolt a couple things when you wanted to switch from leg press to hack squat or hack squat to leg press, so I was pleasantly surprised when I figured out that it was as simple as removing a little pull-out bolt by hand and flipping the foot plate up or down.

Pro #3: ability to adjust angles & settings (an uncommon feature!)

As I mentioned earlier most of the time on a leg press the angle of the backrest and the angle of the footplate just is what it is, at least in my experience. There is no changing angles to change up the stimulus or change up the setup to make it work better for your build. So this is a nice feature of this particular machine.

Pro #4: easy to move the machine by yourself

This portability aspect is very helpful. I really thought that once I put this thing together it was basically going to be stuck where it was and that was going to be the end of the story, so again, I was pleasantly surprised to figure out that in spite of the hefty build of this machine, that it is actually pretty easy for me to move it all by myself. That's really nice because I'm constantly reorganizing things in my home gym and trying to make the most of the precious space that I have available.

Pro #5: but still very heavy duty! A solid piece of home gym equipment

The heavy duty build of this machine cannot be overstated. It's rated to hold up to 1,200lbs (not that I think you'll ever need to go that heavy as this machine makes 200-300lbs feel pretty freaking hard), and it feels very solid and very stable while you're using the machine. There is no fear that something is going to give or bend or break while you are pushing yourself hard during it's use, and that is important because you will never really be able to work very hard if the fear of equipment failure is always resting in the back of your mind. Make no mistake, this will hold back your gains!

I try my best to avoid janky home gym equipment, while finding a good middle ground between durability and value. As far home gym stuff goes this is a very solid piece of equipment for a reasonable price considering what it is.

FINAL RATING

That pretty much wraps it up, guys! Like I said there are a few small cons here, some that I can work around and some that I can't, but overall it's a pretty cool machine. It's heavy duty, it has some nice features that you don't see very often, and it lets you work your legs hard in a variety of different machine exercises. The 2 in 1 aspect is really neat and I'm excited to put in some good work on this bad boy here.

Overall, I give the BLP01 2-in-1 Leg Press And Hack Squat Machine by RitFit Sports a solid 4 out of 5 stars! If you decide you want to purchase one for yourself be sure to use the link above along with discount code RFENKIRI for 12% off your order!

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