Rogue Monster Rhino Belt Squat
Overall
( review)
Summary
The Rogue Monster Rhino Belt Squat is a best-in-class belt squat rack that offers a surprising amount of versatility with Rogue’s trademark over-built build factor.
Pros
- It’s built like a tank.
- Smooth movement action.
- UHMW plastic protects your unit at the weight horn.
- A small height profile makes it perfect for Garage and Home Gym owners.
- A diverse number of exercises can be performed.
- The Spud Inc Belt Squat Belt is our favorite for its movement type.
Cons
- With shipping expect to pay about $2000.
- It requires being bolted down for safety.
The Rogue Monster Rhino Belt Squat comes in three variations. First, there is the rack attached unit which can be rack-mounted to your existing rack. Second, there is an RM-3 version that includes the Monster Rhino Belt Squat with a 100″ RM-3 half-rack, and finally, there is the version we are looking at today, the Monster Rhino Belt Squat Stand-Alone unit.
This freestanding version of this stellar belt squat machine from Rogue Fitness features a pair of 53.925” steel legs along with two 3×3” front feet that provide for additional stability. Rogue cautions that the unit must be bolted into the floor.
The height of The Rogue Monster Rhino Belt Squat unit is just 78.5″ which makes it perfect for use with lower ceilings. It’s also relatively small in width and length at just 53″ x 60.5.”
But what makes the Rogue Rhino so powerful is the build, safety and versatility that it offers.
Starting off, a 1″ thick UHMW plastic hook stores your plate holder when not in use. Testing out the product for a short period of time made it very clearn that this “Rhino Horn” ensures that your unit doesn’t get scratched up when placing the equipment in and out of the resting mode.
Next, when standing on this belt squat machine it’s easy to see that its diamond-tread plated platform is overbuilt with typical Rogue manufacturing. The unit doesn’t move and the plating is firm. The last thing we wanted to worry about when squatting was the feeling of an unstable floor and Rogue has ensured that isn’t the case in this situation.
We love versatile equipment, especially when the price tag can be a bit hard to stomach (although we think this unit is fairly well priced for all it offers). The unit comes with overhand and neutral grip options and a special Spud Inc Belt Squat Belt that was created specifically for Rogue. The Spud Inc powerlifting belt feels solid even as we continued to add additional weight. I’m 5’10” and found it easy to bend at the knees to attach the weight belt. We love Spud Inc. focus on creating quality accessories for the gym and there were no disappointments this time around.
The weight posts are made from stainless steel, a big improvement over Rogue’s competitors such as Titan Fitness which completely skimped on this feature for its less well-received belt squat machine. The plates are also decently long at 15.75″ allowing for plenty of weight to be added. To put the size of the weight horns in perspective, the Rogue Ohio Bar’s sleeves are 16.40″ in length. Using Echo plates we can place 550 pounds using 10 55-pound plates and still have room for a 35-pound plate on each side. That’s a total added lift of 620 pounds.
Our test facility’s mainstay testing plates are Rogue Echo Bumper Plates and they slid on with ease and stayed in place perfectly. You can easily stack on close to 1,000 pounds in bumper plates, making the Rogue Monster Rhino Belt Squat system an easy choice if you lift heavy or plan to in the future.
One of our favorite parts of any Rogue Fitness specialty machine is fluid movement and in this case, two bearings were added to each Acetal roller to create an incredibly smooth experience. There’s absolutely no drag that we noticed in either the upward or downward motions of the system.
One of perhaps the nicest features Rogue has thought up is placing the attachment area in a position under the plate that doesn’t cause forward tiling when using the system. Many others systems require lifters to move forward to attach their belt. This movement can be awkward, causing forward tilt while lifting, and it places undo stress on the body.
One potential change we’d like to see is a way to lock out when forward motion of the handles. During several lifts we accidentally pushed forward and locked our weights back in their secure starting point. While this is a nice safety feature, it got in the way of several decent sets we were hyped to complete on our own.
Reviewers from around the web have touted the Rogue Monster Rhino Belt Squat units not only for their ability to safely perform the belt squat maneuver but also for additional exercises for both the lower and upper body. From curls to squats, the unit has you covered.
If you’re looking for a belt squat machine that is built like a tank and operates with pinpoint precision this is the unit to try out. The body training benefits of a belt squat machine along with the lack of stress on the shoulders make this an easy decision if you love the training benefits of squats but hate the feel of a bar on your shoulder.
You can check out all of the information about the Rogue Monster Rhino Belt Squat machine here.
Love it
I love my Monster Rhino Belt Squat machine. I’ve been battling ankle mobility issues for years and shoulder issues. For those reasons, regular bar squats have been largely out of the question or at least pretty painful. The Rhino belt squat rack fixes those issues and it does it with very smooth operation. It took me a few hours to put together on my own and it’s so solid that it doesn’t move at all when in use, even at heavier weights.
I’m curious to see what the extra holes by the legs might be used for in the future if anything at all. Even without future additions I highly recommend it if you want to squat more comfortable and in a completely different manner.