This list of the best power racks offer the best value and will take your home workouts to the next level. Let’s do this.
I’ve dreamed about having a complete home gym since the day I started lifting weights as a teenager.
Finally, as an adult, it’s a reality.
The commute to the gym consists of a short walk to the garage. There is never a line-up for machines. And no scheduled hours or limitations on when I can train.
But the thing holding back most gymgoers and athletes from working out at home is the equipment. Gyms have the best of everything, from treadmills to pull-up bars to squat racks.
This isn’t the case anymore.
Power racks, the centerpiece of the home-based lifter’s exercise equipment, have become highly affordable over the past several years. No more line-ups, no more waiting for the gym to open, and no having to shell out a small fortune to get a gym-quality workout in the comfort of your own home.
Power racks (often referred to as power cages or squat cages) come in a wide variety of price and function. You can get a no-frills version cage with a couple J-hooks and a straight pull-up bar all the way up to a deluxe, bells-and-whistles-included version that has a dip station, pull up bar, U-hooks for bodyweight straps, and more. (It might even do your dishes if you ask nicely.)
Think about the features that you want from your power rack, and then when you are ready to start searching for the right power rack for you and your workout goals, peep my list of the best home power racks.
Sunny Health Power Rack
The Sunny Health Power Cage offers all of the features you would expect from a full-featured rack you would see in the gym with the affordability we all want from our home-gym equipment.
Let’s kick off with the basics—the sturdy J-hooks, thick safety bar for worry-free spotting (which can be easily adjusted for more or less height), and a max capacity of 1000-pounds.
The pull up bar is exactly the kind I look for with an excellent power rack, accommodating every grip variety you can think of, from narrow grip chins, wide-grip pulls, hammer chins, and so on.
An assortment of bars and pegs surround the rack. Three pegs on each side of the base can be used for lashing up resistance bands (for banded squats), and two weight plate holders at the back of the rack can be used for storage and work equally as well to “weigh down” the rack for extra stability.
The Sunny Health Power Rack also comes down with a variety of extra add-ons which can be purchased separately, including an adjustable weight bench and lat pull down attachment.
Fitness Reality 810XT Super Max Power Cage
The Fitness Reality 810XT Super Max Power Cage is one of the cheapest ways to get the full cage experience in your home gym. Exceptionally well-reviewed on Amazon, with thousands of five-star reviews (read them here), the power cage gives you the foundation for building an awesome garage or home gym.
The cage, like most, has a pull-up bar attachment at the top for chins, pulls, and hammer grip pull-ups. Two safety bars, easily adjusted for height, make sure that you can lift safely within the cage. And two chrome lock-on hooks keep the bar secure between rounds and workouts.
Fitness Reality rates this cage as having an 800-pound capacity. Although there are no weight plate holders (the cage can be ordered with add-ons including a bench and/or lat pull down, but no weight plate pegs, unfortunately), two steel bars along the back of the cage provide additional stability while you are lifting.
Footprint of the cage is 50.5 by 46.5”, and fully assembled the unit is 83.5”, making it perfect for most garages or covered outdoor spaces.
AMGYM Power Cage
The AMGYM is a good-looking power cage that nails the essentials of what I consider for an excellent power rack. The cage is surprisingly easy to assemble (I was able to put together a similar model by myself, even after having a couple of beers) and is made of super durable 2×2-inch tubular steel tubes.
Two steel safety bars slide in to provide a spot in the cage, a two pairs of J-hooks (the second one basically looks like shortened safety arms) give you plenty of options for setting down your barbell or hanging fitness equipment like your jump rope or resistance bands.
I’m a big fan of doing pull-ups, and the AMGYM Power Cage has a pull-up bar that gives you the option of every grip imaginable for pull-ups. The 1200-lb limit on the cage means I can also load up my dip belt with a couple weight plates and do weighted pull-ups.
Fitness Reality X-Class Olympic Power Cage
The Fitness Reality X-Class Power Care is basically a commercial power rack repackaged and sold for home-based workouts. Fitness Reality designates it as “light commercial”, so you know this think is going to do work in the garage.
Let’s start off with the big feature of this sturdier build: a weight capacity of up to 1500-pounds, making it the highest load-bearing cage in my round-up. A massive U-bracket at the back of the cage provides extra stability, and the extra long footprint means no rocking, sliding or skidding under heavy weight.
Two thick safety bars give you a worry-free spot while squatting. A pair of J-hooks and safety bars keep the barbells in place. The main safety bars have a dip station attachment, and there is a lat pull-down attachment available.
I was a little disappointed with the pull-up bar. As you have probably noticed by now, I like me my pull-ups (especially hammer grip), and the X-Class (no relation to the superheroes… as far as I know) has a bar suitable only for pulls and chins. But if that’s not a concern, no worries. (Their free-standing pull up bar, however, is pretty awesome.)
You would think that all of the features that come with this power cage would result in a hefty price tag, but the X-Class is priced in the same ballpark as the AMGYM and other no-frills cages.
Didn’t Find the Perfect Squat Rack for Your Home Gym?
We’ve reviewed countless squats racks and stands. Here are more of them.
Best Half Squat Racks. Half racks are a great way to get almost all of the benefits of a power cage with a smaller price tag and footprint.
Best Squat Stands. For the minimalist and experienced lifter, squat stands provide the bare essentials—a stand specifically for holding the barbell and nothing else.
