Bolt Fitness Gemini Peregrine Lateral Raise and Chest Fly Combo Review

Introduction

Today I am reviewing the Bolt Fitness Gemini Lateral Raise and Chest Fly combo attachment.

This is really innovative power rack attachment made for all 3x3 racks with 1 inch holes so you don’t have to have a Bolt Fitness Rack to be able to use it, it will work on REP PR5000, Rogue Monster, Titan Fitness Titan Series, Bells of Steel Manticore, you name it - it’ll work.

This attachment is part of the modular power rack attachment line made by Bolt Fitness Supply, an equipment supplier based out of Houston Texas. These guys make everything from singular cable attachments, to all in one power racks, dedicated cardio machines, and even commercial gym standalone equipment pieces. You pretty much name it, they make it, have it, and generally sell all their product for a pretty fair price compared to their competitors.

If you’re interested in purchasing the product after the video, please use the affiliate link on our affiliates page.

Price

So the price of this attachment as exactly shown here in the video is $790 with shipping included. As I mentioned however, since it is modular, the coaster or trolley that attaches to the power rack uprights is actually sold separately as part of their rack attachment ecosystem. The coaster can be used for their attachments like lever arms, chest supported row pad, and a cable pulley attachment that turns your upright into a functional trainer.

If you already have a coaster from one of those other options then, it bring the price down to $600 including shipping. I do want to reiterate if you are not interested in any of their other attachment offerings, you need to purchase the $790 version with coaster included for this version to work, so expect to cough up that up for the full functionality shown here.

Design and Engineering

So I am an engineer by trade so this type of innovation excites me and I am always eager to learn and see how it works and how everything was thought up from a product design and engineering standup. You will see here a ton of knobs, pins, adjustments, and overall moving parts. To some people this may seem a bit daunting like “how am I ever going to figure out how to use this” or “this looks like it will take a really long time to setup”.

And I will admit my initial impression was more or less the same, but honestly after just a week or two of using this machine, and it’s even been a few months now, you realize it is actually much much easier than it seems to move, use, and store.

Setup

So first you have to move the trolley to the desired height which is about shoulder height per the instructions I received. From there I attach the, I’ll be honest I don’t know what exactly you call these – rods? arms? With the supplied detent pins. Then its finally time to setup the base, attach the bottom portion of the sticks? I don’t know, then secure the base to the rack with the supplied knurled knob.

Now I timed it and from start to finish it takes exactly 1 minute of setup which is very realistic amount of time between exercises but obviously somewhat longer than just grabbing a pair of dumbbells so if you’re the lazy between-sets type, you might want to take a hard look in the mirror before splashing out $800.

Once you get this far, all you then do is adjust the length of the arms to your liking with the pop pins on the side, and the angle of the handles/arms with the numbered pop pin on top and that’s it.

Lateral Raise

Now it feels very smooth but there is one thing in particular I have noticed while using it. It feels very similar to a dumbbell resistance curve, meaning the most resistance is when your arms are perpendicular to gravity or 90 degrees with your torso, so there is almost no resistance at the first foot of travel distance of the movement in the lateral raise configuration. I think this could easily be solved by moving the weight stopper arms up a bit, therefore biasing the bottom of the movement and making the overall resistance curve more even throughout.

Even considering the resistance curve, as with a set of dummbells, you can get a great dedicated shoulder fly or lateral raise that already fits with your current rack setup without adding much overall or really any lasting footprint, other than the detachable trolley that I choose to store at the top of my rack for convenience.

Chest Fly

The chest flys feel fantastic as you will see here in a second but one quick thing to watch out for in the chest fly configuration, is that since these handles bend, when they are flipped upside down, they come flying back at your face due to gravity when you’re not holding them. Not a deal breaker, and definitely not Bolt’s fault at all, it really just is what it is as far as a being realistic quirk of using this type of multi-functional-plate loaded-hinged-and-gravity based contraption.

So with the chest flys if you do they standing up they more or less hit your lower pecs by default but the best way I have seen to use this per one of their product videos and my own testing is to pre stretch your pecs by leaning over to make it feel more like you are using a dedicated seated pec dec fly machine. Once you do this, this movement feels awesome.

Overall, I actually was pleasantly surprised at the chest fly functionality, and it’s on par or perhaps even feels more machine-like than the lateral raise movement.

Overall Rating

Functionality: 8.5

Features/Design: 8

Fit/Finish: 8.5

Value: 7

Overall: 8

Overall, I have been very satisfied with the Bolt Fitness lateral raise and chest fly combo rack attachment. It works really well, has no real lasting footprint, and allows you to incorporate two movements that although you can use dumbbells or cables for, really help bridge the gap between that and a dedicated machine, all still in your home gym and without really breaking the bank.

They do advertise some other movement like one arm bicep curls or tricep extensions, or even a single arm front delt fly, but I would assume if you are buying this piece of equipment, you already have a better way to do all of those things like a functional trainer or dumbbells, although it is nice to know you can be creative in incorporating other movement if you want to give it a try, but I would really only consider this to be used for the two movements as stated.

The other small but notable features like rotating lightlu knurled aluminum handles, the laser cut logos, overbuilt bearings, aesthetic color scheme and pop pins adjustments plate, show Bolt is really paying attention to the details and not just spitting out a generic product just for the sake of it or to have a stake in the game. Besides the resistance curve for lateral raises, the only other feedback I would have is to have the ability to lock the arm hinges in place or maybe adjust the angles of the handles ever so slightly to match the angles of your wrists, but that is being super super nitpicky.

All in all, after these months of use, I will keep using this machine/attachment in my gym going forward and if you have it in your budget, don’t think you will go wrong with the multi-functionality per footprint, which is crucial to most home gym users.

Michael – The Jungle Gym Reviews