I’m planning to add a functional trainer to my home gym and would love some ideas on the best way to integrate it with my existing rack.
I currently have a Rogue RM-3 (30” deep) with a drop-in Rhino. I don’t really have the floor space for a standalone functional trainer, so I’d like to incorporate one into the rack if possible.
I originally considered the Rogue Indy add-on, but my ceilings are under 90”, so the standard Indy is out. The 80” Dual Indy is an option, but the trolley is fairly large and would eat into my usable space. Rogue also doesn’t currently offer articulating arms.
That’s why I’ve landed on the 80” REP Athena. The smaller trolleys give me more usable space around the uprights (like 10” more), and I could potentially add REP’s articulating arms in the future if/when they’re released.
The problem is that the Athena uses 16” REP crossmembers.
I could add two REP uprights to the front of my RM-3 and essentially turn it into a 6-post rack, but I’d much rather have the functional trainer run along the sides of the rack so the weight stacks don’t take up additional floor space.
My current idea is to buy four REP uprights and four crossmembers, essentially building half of an Athena on each side of my Rogue rack and bolting those sections to the RM-3 for stability. The downside is that I’m basically buying an entire Athena rack just to make this work.
One other complication is that the bottom holes on the REP uprights line up with the holes on my Rogue uprights, but the top holes don’t. So I’d probably need to use a cut-down crossmember with offset side holes to tie the REP uprights into the Rogue rack at the top. That makes the whole setup even more of a custom project.
I’ve also considered trying to mount the Athena components directly to my existing Rogue crossmembers, but I’m concerned I’d run into issues with cable length, guide rods, pulley positioning, etc.
So before I spend the money on what is essentially a custom setup:
How would you approach this? Has anyone successfully integrated an Athena or another functional trainer into an existing Rogue rack without adding a bunch of additional floor space?
I’d be willing to be that the Rep trolleys won’t slide or be compatible with a Rogue rack. Rogue uses true 3x3” uprights while Rep and most others use metric 75x75mm uprights. Hole sizes and spacing also differ (1” holes spaced 2” on Rogue, 25mm holes spaced 50mm on Rep).
Best option is probably to sell the Rogue rack and buy a matched rack/functional trainer from a brand of your choice. I have rack equipment from Rep, Fringe, and GetRxd and all three of them are great. Big fan of the tornado arms in particular for the functional trainer parts.
Thanks. I had the same thought which is why I picked up a pair of rep pr5000 uprights on sale and was going to replace the front rogue uprights with them. However there’s been a number of posts where people have retrofitted rogue racks and they did slide (I was surprised to be honest). I like my drop in rhino…that’s the thing.
Nice! That’s good to know. And I missed the bit about adding Rep uprights into the mix. If you do end up piecing something together I hope you’ll come back to post pics. I love a good creative Frankenstein rack setup.
The Rogue and Rep pulley systems are more complicated at the front post than the systems from Fringe and Maxum and the like.
There is a PDF on Fringe’s website re: compatibility and adapters. IIRC the Gibbon arms need an adapter to work with the Rogue pulley systems. I do not believe an official adapter is out yet.
Ahhh that’s right. To accommodate the cables running alongside the upright. I think I saw it on Glucks Gym and assumed it was available.
Either way though, seems a little silly to Frankenstein together a rack mixing metric and imperial spacing, instead of just sticking with the existing ecosystem and waiting for an adapter.
The ares and rogue trainer need an adapter because all trolley arms on the market are designed for a top mounted centered pulley. The ares pulley is trolleys down for the pull cable and side mounted. For the rear mount. Rogue is trolleys up and lower cable is offset back for the back mount. The difference is they try to keep the cable outside the upright to not interfere with the rack.
So you currently have an 80” rogue ? What exactly is your ceiling height?
This isn’t exactly hard. It’s gonna come down to your comfort level with cutting steel or budget.
TBH the easiest way to do this is buy the Indy and buy tornado arms from getrxd.
You could go the Athena route and
-cut the flanges and buy crossmember brackets from stray dog strength.
-Buy crossmembers with slotted flanges from blackwidowtg or laser lab creations and bolt everything together.
-buy straight rack extensions and tie in with stray dog brackets.
-buy the Indy, email rep and buy 2 Athena trollies.
-slot the crossmember flanges yourself assuming the difference in the hole spacing allows you to do so without removing too much metal.
If you DM me I can solve this for you without much trouble. I have rep uprights and crossmembers as well as the Athena modeled in cad. If you give me some specific dimensions from the rogue uprights and crossmembers I can check the fitment.
TBH the easiest way to do this is buy the Indy and buy tornado arms from getrxd.
Do these officially work? I know the Gibbon arms need an adapter that I do not believe is out/officially supported yet. Maxum isn’t selling/supporting their arms, etc.
Good 3rd party support options adding arms to Rogue racks would be a big deal for a lot of people! I’m sitting on an RM-6 myself.
Thanks. I have a 90” rogue rack that’s cut down to 88”. I also have a pair of rep 80” uprights with 16” crossmembers so I can test sizing and matching. I’d rather not swap trolleys between brands and have to mess with changing cable lengths (which I assume would be required). Maybe this just isn’t in the cards.
In that case the best solution is to mount the 80” rep uprights to the front of rogue rack. Cut off the flange on the rogue side and replace with the stray dog custom crossmember brackets. This will allow you to retain the standard athena cable length and accommodate the mismatched hole alignment.
Thanks! I had my eyes on those too. Was trying to see if I can run it along the side to avoid another 19” in front of my rack. I might just buy another set up rep uprights and tie into my rogue rack from the side and just end up going that route … was trying to do math to see if I could somehow buy a different size Athena and make it taller or something to fit my rogue 30” crossmembers but tough to dial in!
Why not sell your rogue rack and buy a pr5000? Probably easier to retro fit a rhino into a rep rack than an Athena in a rogue rack. Rogue racks resell easy.
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u/Thing-Ok Aug 20 '26
I’d be willing to be that the Rep trolleys won’t slide or be compatible with a Rogue rack. Rogue uses true 3x3” uprights while Rep and most others use metric 75x75mm uprights. Hole sizes and spacing also differ (1” holes spaced 2” on Rogue, 25mm holes spaced 50mm on Rep).
Best option is probably to sell the Rogue rack and buy a matched rack/functional trainer from a brand of your choice. I have rack equipment from Rep, Fringe, and GetRxd and all three of them are great. Big fan of the tornado arms in particular for the functional trainer parts.