Titan Fitness Functional Trainer
Overall
User Review
( votes) Summary
The Titan Fitness Functional Trainer provides a gym-quality experience with smooth pulleys, one-handed handle operation, and a ton of awesome attachments that come standard.
Pros
- Smooth pulleys.
- Easy one-handed operation.
- Attachments come standard.
- Decent powder coat.
- Awesome pull-up bar.
- Great weight stacks with a magnetic pin.
Cons
- Not every handle adjustment number is marked.
- The inset screws holding the guide rail strip far too easily.
The Titan Fitness Functional Trainer is by far the best equipment the company has produced to date. With 200-pound weight stacks, aluminum pulleys, one-handed adjustments, and plenty of included attachments, it’s well worth the $2599 cost, especially with free shipping thrown in for good measure.
With that being said, we recently received our Titan Fitness Functional Trainer and we were impressed even before the package was opened.
The shipping crate was packed with strategically placed foam and every part of the functional trainer was wrapped with plastic. The crate is a nice departure from the UPS and FedEx boxes we have become used to receiving, the very same boxes that show up destroyed with scratched-up equipment.
After unpacking the functional trainer, the installation was completed in about 90 minutes with no help. Titan recommends having a helper but the excitement of receiving the new equipment led to the quick decision to single-handedly build the trainer. Titan Fitness provides a link to the instructions and they’re very easy to follow. There isn’t a lot to attach since the left and right sides are already built. As a pro-tip, don’t tighten everything down until you’ve put the entire unit together.
We did notice one glaring hardware issue, the small screws that hold the end caps on the guide rails are absolute junk. They are applied in order to hold the rails in place and the connector pieces feature small screws that require an included Allen wrench to install. We barely tightened down one of the screws and it immediately stripped. While the bar is now in place, any future needs are going to be aggravated by the stripped part.
Once built, we were immediately struck by the smooth operation of various parts of the Titan Fitness Functional Trainer. The quick-release handles can be operated with one hand, and they lock firmly into place. The handles are very ergonomic and feel great in the hand.
There is one annoyance we immediately noticed. For some reason, only the odd numbers are laser cut. In the picture below, you can clearly see the number five setting on the left while the number four setting on the right is simply blank. It’s not a big deal for operation, but it seems like a weird choice on Titan’s part.
The pulley system on each handle is excellent. The handles swivel to the left and right without any issues. This is important when performing various movements because we don’t have to think about where the handles are going to pivot.
The pulley system operates with help from what appears to be decent aluminum pulleys. The pulleys feel high-quality. There is no drag while using the pulleys, and there are no annoying noises at low and high weight pulls, even when maxing out the 200 pounds on each side of the machine. A quick note on the weights for this system, they operate on a 2-to-1 ratio, which means when you’re pulling 100 pounds, you’re putting in 50 pounds of effort. It’s enough weight for our purposes and for most people.
The actual weights on the Titan Fitness Functional Trainer appear to be high-quality, I would say they are slightly better than the weights I received with my Powertec LP-LM19 Lat Machine. The weights feature what appear to be UHMW plastic inserts that slide smoothly along the glide bars, and they are assisted by a magnetic pin that remains firmly in place at all weight levels. Several plates arrived with scratches on their undercarriage, something that happens with regular frequency on the weight plates we have received.
Titan has really stepped up their game with the number of attachments that are included with the functional trainer. These include the rope handle, the single D and double D handles, the long bar and short bar handles, and the dual short strap handles. While not the highest quality products we’ve used on cable machines, they feel like they’re built to last, especially the long bar and short bar, which feel good enough to use in a commercial gym.
In terms of depth, we have limited space in the Garage Gym Products testing facility, and we were looking for a mainstay product that didn’t take up more than 60 inches of width. The Titan Fitness Functional Trainer measures in at a height of 82 inches while the width is just 64 inches and the depth is an impressively short 44 inches. At a weight of 672 pounds, the product is also incredibly sturdy, even when pulling the heaviest available weights or using the pull-up bar.
I was worried that the inside of the unit wouldn’t be wide enough for all of my desired movements, but at 5’10” I haven’t had a single issue working out between the uprights.
The pull-up bar is also within reach and offers a solid grip, I simply tuck my knees into my body, and various pull-up options are at my disposal. Here’s a close-up of the pull-up bar.
The functional trainer’s powder coat is pretty nice for a Titan Fitness product. There was no scratching upon delivery of the product, thanks to Titan’s choice to ship the product inside a crate. Between the powder coat and nicely assigned weight stickers, the unit looks very commercial.
Overall, I absolutely love the Titan Fitness Functional Trainer. You can learn more about the product and seen plenty of user reviews right here.
