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Expert Tested: Major Fitness Power Rack REVIEW (2024)
My Experience with the Spirit B52 All-in-One Home Gym Smith Machine!
by Alec Enkiri | 9/25/24
Purchase your Spirit B52 All-in-One Home Gym Smith Machine here!
Other Major Fitness equipment I like
Raptor F22 power rack | Monolift Attachment | Leg Extension/Leg Holder | Multifunctional Handlebar | Bumper Plates | Barbell
Use discount code ENKIRIELITE for 5% off all Major Fitness products!
Looking for a high quality but affordable all in one home gym solution?
The Spirit B52 Smith Machine & Power Rack by Major Fitness might be just what you've been searching for! Be sure to read on as we do an in-depth review of this heavy duty, highly versatile, and multi-functional rack! You can find a link to the product in the description below, and be sure to use discount code ENKIRIELITE for 5% off. I hope you find the review helpful!
I recently received a sweet, new piece of equipment from Major Fitness that I want to showcase: the Spirit B52 All-in-One Home Gym Smith Machine and Power Rack!
This monster piece of all in one home gym equipment boasts:
a heavy duty smith machine
a squat rack
a calisthenics station (multi-grip pull-up bar and dip handles)
a super smooth pulley system
a landmine attachment as well!
So today we're gonna give do an in-depth review of this monster, I'm going to talk about some of the pros and the cons, and I'm gonna give you guys my final opinion of it. So lets get to it!
RACK ASSEMBLY
The assembly process was pretty standard here for this type of equipment. I didn't log it, but it took me somewhere around 5 or 6 hours to get the whole thing put together from start to finish. That is from cutting open the first box, unboxing everything, taking inventory, getting it all put together, and then actually being able to work out on it. So that is really not too bad as a one man job!
I did hit a couple minor sticking points having to simultaneously hold a couple different things in place while trying to also get the corresponding bolts secured, but that is pretty much always how it goes on these things. They're all technically supposed to be 2 man jobs so going into it you kind of have to expect that you're going to hit a little bit of a sticking point somewhere if you're taking it on solo, as sometimes you really just need a third hand to make it easier.
But I got it done well enough! Everything was straightforward overall, the instruction manual was clear and organized, and it's a damn fine piece of equipment.
BUILD QUALITY & FEATURES
SPIRIT B52 SMITH MACHINE
If you follow my YouTube channel you've probably noticed that this is actually the second rack that Major Fitness has sent me in recent history. At the end of 2023 they sent me their Raptor F22 rack, which I really, really like and also did a thorough review on. The thing about the Spirit B52, the rack we're talking about today, is that it is basically exactly the same rack as the Raptor F22 that they sent me last year. There are a couple minor differences, as well as one major difference (the addition of a Smith Machine), but the base model and quality of the rack is pretty much identical. Since I love the Raptor F22 so much this is a very good thing!
Now, the Smith Machine on this rack is quite smooth. It took a little bit of oiling up after I got everything, but once I did that the thing started moving like butter. The Smith apparatus has a nice little safety spring mechanism on the topside of the safeties so you can set the weight down nice and gently without any fanfare. It has 10 different height adjustment points for the safety catches, and boasts a 330lbs weight capacity on the Smith machine bar itself.
There are several exercises that I really like for the Smith setup. Hip thrust variations are probably my favorite because you can really hone in on the glute contraction without having to do too much stabilizing. But I also really enjoy using the Smith Machine for high stimulus-to-fatigue ratio shoulder work, primarily in the form of behind the neck presses and overhead presses from the front.
So overall the Smith machine setup adds some really nice and welcome versatility to what has quickly become my favorite power rack! And that is this all-in-one base model setup that Major Fitness offers with both the Raptor F22 and the Spirit B52, and all of their associated bells and whistles that make these racks so multi-functional and versatile. They really are a game changer for home gyms and garage gyms!
POWER RACK
As I've been saying, this rack so much more than just a Smith Machine. It's also a stand alone power rack, with a dual pulley system added on for good measure, along with a full calisthenics station and a landmine attachment. The rack setup itself is super heavy duty.
the frame uprights are 2 x 3 inches and made of 14 gauge steel
the J hooks boast a whopping 1,000lbs max capacity
the safety arms boast an 800lbs max capacity
So the thing is solid and hefty. The rack also comes with band pegs for using accommodating resistance, as well as 4 pegs on the backside of the unit for weight plate storage, which is always appreciated!
And you can do pretty much any type of free weight exercise you can think of on the power rack setup. So far I've used it for Anderson squats, pin squats, zercher squats, good mornings, regular AD presses, pin AD presses, overhead presses, BTN presses, seated overhead presses off the pins, and more! It's a really nice setup.
Heavy squats sans cage do come with risks.
My only complaint is that I do prefer the safety of a cage for my heavy squat work, but overall this rack is pretty awesome. It's easy to setup different movements, and the multiple modalities that are available here make it really easy to seamlessly transition from one segment of your workout into the next, while also encouraging you to make use of mixed modality style workouts, which is probably one of the best things we can do for our long term gains, as well as overall fitness and longevity.
For example, let's analyze a recent upper body workout I did on this rack!
I started with free weights
Then I moved into calisthenics work
Then I finished up with some solid pulley work.
For free weights I did some seated overhead press work to kick off the workout, where I worked up to a heavy set of 8 with 145lbs followed up with a heavy set of 6 with 155lbs. I used a standard ramp up protocol here to get in a high quality strength and hypertrophy stimulus for the shoulders and upper body.
Seated OHP is fun!
CALISTHENICS STATION (PULLUP BAR)
Then after that I switched things up entirely, shifting from free weights into calisthenics. On the calisthenics segment I just spent 30 minutes logging reps, first by spending 15 minutes on the wide grip pull-up, and then after that by spending 15 minutes on the weighted dip. My goal was to hit 40 reps of each movement before the 15 minutes were up for each respective segment.
I really like the pull-up bar setup here. It's the same as on my Raptor F22 and the wide grip bar is just perfect. Something about the angle they picked for the handles just makes the wide, pronated pull-up feel amazingly smooth and way stronger than usual.
Butter
But I also really enjoy the semi-supinated grip handles on the inside as well. They are spaced apart at just the right width and the angle is pretty much perfect. I randomly hit an easy 3 plate chin-up on it a few weeks ago just to see if I still could even though I haven't done heavy chin-ups in quite some time, so I might have to chase the elusive 4 plate chin-up with this bar!
I do wish it also came with a straight handle somewhere so you could also do full supinated chin-ups, but I'm not complaining too much because the handles that are already there feel amazing.
CALISTHENICS STATION (DIP HANDLES)
In this workout I actually decided to try out the wide grip on the dip handles for the first time ever. I'm not a huge fan of the dip handles Major Fitness sells because neither grip width they offer really suits my build very well. I mentioned this in my last review in hopes that Major Fitness would create some different options for how to set up the dips because I really like the idea they have come up with here, which is adding two separate sets of handles onto the same dip attachment so that you have different grip width options available for dips. This is an awesome concept.
The only problem for me is that I want to be right in the middle of where the two setups are. The narrow grip is a little too narrow for me and feels a little bit awkward, and then the wide grip is a little too wide for me and really doesn't feel very strong because of that. I need the goldilocks zone right in the middle of these two options.
Still I decided to try the wide grip handles out for this segment anyway since I had never done so before (at least not in a true training session). I loaded up a moderate weight onto the dip belt (90lbs) and I knocked out the 40 total reps in right around 15 minutes. I thought the wide grip would be potentially buggy on my shoulders, which I was actually wrong about. My shoulders felt fine. But it was definitely substantially weaker for me than a more moderate width handle spacing is. I get much less pop out of the hole. This was quality work anyway though and the wide grip dips will probably make a good secondary variation for me to use in conjunction with my regular weighted dip work.
Wide grip dips are not my forte!
PULLEY SYSTEM
I rounded out the day with some work on the pulley system. Here I did cable French presses to smoke the triceps, and I paired those with some high rep seated cable rows, which I always enjoy!. Both these movements felt great! The pulley system on the Major Fitness Spirit B52 has a 2:1 ratio, so that means if you load up 100lbs onto the system you need to apply 50lbs of force to move it.
And it is super smooth! It rivals literally any commercial grade pulley system that you'll find in a gym in terms of smoothness and feel during use. It's got an adjustable foot plate for rowing movements, so you can get some different setups there, which is handy.
The pulleys can be easily adjusted from floor height to all the way to the top of the rack, so you can use them for pretty much any cable movement you can think of. I like to make use of this type of work for the sake of variety, and to get in easy to recover from pump work to finish off my upper body workouts.
I do enjoy smooth cable rows though.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Spirit B52 rack is sweet, man! It's a multi-functional, all in one home gym solution.
The footprint is relatively compact considering all the stuff you can do with it.
It makes it easy to alternate back and forth between lots of different types of movements, whether you're using the pulley, the Smith machine, the calisthenics station, or free weights.
It makes it easy to accommodate multiple people working out simultaneously.
It's super solid and stable and hefty.
Like I mentioned in my review of the Raptor F22, I have visited more gyms than I can possibly even remember at this point, and lifted on more different types and brands of equipment than probably 99% of people (even more so now than when I did that other review last year!), and this rack, which is designed for home use, could easily be used in commercial applications and most people wouldn't know the difference. It is a high quality, heavy duty piece of equipment that is built very solidly and comes standard with some really cool add-ons that make it super versatile and incredibly valuable for a home gym setup.
IMPROVEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
After thoroughly testing out the rack I do have a few recommendations that I would like to Major Fitness that I think will help them improve future models of their products and make them better than they already are! This is high quality equipment, folks, it's well engineered, and they have the opportunity to make it even BETTER so I hope they take me up on making some of these small tweaks!
Make the safety arms a little bit longer. The safety arms are a bit shorter than I would like for them to be. They're right about 20 inches long, which means that you could move outside the safety zone without realizing it since after unracking the bar you have to move far enough away from the rack so that you don't risk clipping the pins while you're working.
With these short safety arms the margin for error is pretty small. In the event of a miss or something catastrophic occurring you could fall backwards and miss the safety arms entirely. So my hope is to see a few inches added onto these safety arms even if that decreases the weight tolerance a little bit.
Create a 3rd grip width for the dip handles. I really like the multi-grip concept for the dip handles, but like I mentioned earlier the wide grip is too wide for me and the narrow grip is too narrow. So we need a 3rd one in the middle there that finds the Goldilocks zone and ends up being just right.
Add a pair of straight handles onto the pullup bar. I really love the wide grip handles on this bar. They are perfectly engineered for strong and comfortable wide grip pullups. I also love the semi-supinated handles. This just feels like a better version of a true neutral grip chin-up. Still, it would be super easy to add a straight handle in between the neutral handle and the wide grip handle. Then you could do any type of chin-up that your heart desires! I would also like to see these rubber coated handles replaced with knurled ones in the future as that provides a much better grip once you start to sweat during a hard workout.
Add more holes for the safety pins and J-hooks. There are 14 holes that you can put the J-hooks and the safeties in. This means that it's approximately 4 inches up or down every time you adjust the J-hooks. This is a pretty decent jump that might not provide an accurate enough adjustment to be able to get a safe and efficient unrack on all exercises. If they added a few more holes and cut the spacing down to, say, 3 inches instead of 4, that would be a huge improvement for this rack.
FINAL VERDICT
All in all, I'm really happy with the Major Fitness Spirit B52 All-in-One Home Gym Smith Machine and Rack! I've been getting in some really solid workouts on it. It's quality, it's smooth, it's heavy duty, and I love the multi-modality approach and the versatility that it gives me in my home gym setup. These racks really are a game changer for home and garage gyms, and Major Fitness engineers their equipment well. Overall, I give the Spirit B52 by Major Fitness 4.5 out of 5 stars!
If you're in the market for a new quality rack, or a high quality bar and plates, or other quality fitness equipment be sure to check out Major Fitness! Discount code ENKIRIELITE will get you 5% off your order.
I hope you found this review helpful. If you did and you want to support the production of more content like this please consider purchasing one of my training programs! Super code HYBRIDATHLETE will get you 30% off of my Conjugate Manual! As always keep training hard, and I will catch you guys next time.
This article in video format on my YouTube channel!
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