The REP Fitness Athena Plate Loaded Side-Mount Functional Trainer is an attachment to turn your REP power rack into a functional trainer without a significant increase in footprint. Before you buy, make sure you double check that the Athena will function in your home gym. Unfortunately, the Athena is only compatible with the REP PR-4000 and the REP PR-5000 V2 power racks. It is not compatible with the PR-5000 V1, which was discontinued in 2020. If you have an older REP PR-4000 with 16” crossmembers that do not have vertical access holes, you will need to upgrade to the newer crossmembers. These can be purchased from REP. The vertical access holes are necessary for cable movement.
Additionally, the Athena cannot clear weight horns with plates of any size loaded. If you currently store your weights with weight horns mounted on your rack you will have to change your plate storage system to use this attachment.
The Athena attachment has a 2:1 pulley ratio, which makes 20 pounds feel like 10 pounds. The cable system has a maximum weight capacity of 540 pounds. This can be achieved with a combination of plates and resistance bands using the integrated band pegs.
The Athena cables are made from high-quality galvanized wire with a raw steel core. The pulleys are aluminum and on a trolley system so the height can be easily adjusted with one hand. The front pulleys also swivel 180 degrees so you can perform exercises outside the footprint of the rack.
In the future, REP will make a conversion kit available for purchase if you decide you’d like to upgrade from a plate-loaded system to the selectorized version with magnetic pin weight adjustments.
At the time of publication, there are no customer reviews because the Athena has not yet been released. It is available for pre-order on the REP website and will ship in December of 2023.
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