RitFit BLP01 Leg Press and Hack Squat Review: The Best Value HOME GYM Machine?

Introduction

This is one of, if not the most, affordable leg press and hack squat on the market today, and made by a company called RitFit. They make a bunch of home-gym-oriented equipment from all in one power racks, to benches and smith machines. This is one of their most popular offerings and what I would personally consider their flagship product simply due to the price and the functionality you get, compared to any other competitor in this equipment category.

Let’s take a look.

Hey guys this is Michael, with the Jungle Gym Reviews. Today we are today we are reviewing the RitFit BLP01 2-In-1 Leg Press And Hack Squat Machine.

After getting multiple requests to try this machine and seeing it pop up over and over in my ads and the Home gym Facebook group, I am glad we finally got a chance to check it out in person and put it through the paces in my workouts.

I wanted to say thank you to RitFit for sending me this product to review and provide my honest and concise feedback on, as I will continue to do so for all product reviews here on the channel. Please check out on the link in the description to purchase the leg press and hack squat machine from RitFit. 

If you’re interested in purchasing the product after the video, please use the affiliate link in the description, as it allows us to receive a percentage of the sale at no cost to you, which helps to support the channel and allow me to continue to provide honest and concise product reviews like this one.

Price

So as I mentioned the price of this machine is the driving factor of its popularity. It is typically listed at around $1000 but is almost always on sale has a coupon from their website or Amazon which puts the price at or under $700 or so. At the time of filming this review they have a code to get it for $650 directly from their site. Especially at that sale price, it is really hard to complain about nearly anything, as any new machine that is both this relatively large and has this much important functionality, easily costs that price and typically much more, unless you are one of those who spends time searching for that lucky secondhand score.

On thing to note though, is that price mentioned does not include any plates however, but I assume most people looking for this or an equivalent plate loaded piece already have Olympic weight plates at home already to use. If you don’t have them, you can obviously add them as part of one of their package deals like what they sent me here.

Design and Capacity

So, the design of this machine is very similar if not the same tried and true design as all the other manufacturer versions you have seen in the past, but where I think they differ is how they cut some of the costs to make this machine so affordable. Almost everything is fully bolt together design, with brackets and braces, rather than using a lot of welded of thicker pieces throughout the entire frame, which helps lower the overall weight and therefore lighter and more consolidated for smaller packaging dimensions.

From day one, I noticed the weight of the frame and the machine overall was in fact lighter than I expected, along with the thickness of the steel being relatively light compared to other machines or gym equipment pieces I currently own. This felt the “lightest duty” of any machine I have owned so far, so was originally slightly concerned that it wouldn’t hold up to any real loading.

However, after a few weeks of using 2-3 times a week now for both movements and calf raises, I have been pleasantly surprised that, for the price, and it definitely gets the job done. I plan to keep it to have as an alternative leg accessory option to barbell movements.

If you want specifics about the overall design, please check out the machine dimensions, weight, and loading capacities on RitFit’s website, you can use our links in the YouTube description which takes you directly to the product page.

One thing to note, is that the weight capacity says 1200 LBS but that is the static and not dynamic weight capacity, which is not listed on their website. During some online digging I found the number 560LBS given to a Home Gym Facebook Group community user in an online RiFit support chat. I am not the strongest guy but can comfortably rep out nearly 300-400 LBS on various leg presses, so the overall loading capacity may be a concern for stronger users. If you can squat 275+ LBS for reps, or if you are one of those strong enough to ask the question about max weight capacity, I would unofficially say you are probably getting close to maxing out this machines capacity and to consider something more heavy duty for your strength tier, coupled with the fact that even if the machine holds up you will likely run out of room on the weight horns if you are doing those weight increments as well.

Functionality

So, with the lighter duty-geared-toward-home-gyms design I was curious about how well it would function in the real world, but to my surprise it has been just fine. The linear bearings slide extremely smoothly down the guide rails, the leg press plate had multiple angle adjustments to allow for different leg press angles and/or easy calf raises on. The hack squat has an excellent range of motion, coming from someone who is a deep squatter, but the leg press range of motion has the same limitation that most of these 2 in 1 hack squat and leg press machines do, with the leg press range of motion being a bit less.

Just like the Titan Fitness version of this machine I used to own, out of the box it doesn’t allow me personally to get a full range of motion. But please note I am a deep squatter so if you go the typical “90 degrees” knees to hips then I think you should be fine. RitFit did a really good job and did their homework on the exact range of motion distance and calculations, detailing the user heights vs. expected range of motion on their website.

My way to fix this singular range of motion issue is simply to add an old bench pad on top of the RitFit back pad. This pushes me forward a few more inches which allows for the equivalent range of motion increase. If you don’t have something like this laying around, could use something as simple as a weight plate or a couple 2x4’s behind the back pad, so this is not a dealbreaker for me.

Besides the range of motion, everything else with the machine it simply just works as intended with a decent amount of adjustment options to fit each user’s preference and individual biomechanics.

Alternate Options

So as far as alternatives go there are so many options I could make an entire video comparing, however just a consolidated rundown to this RitFit machine would be the obvious equivalent ones like similar import versions on Amazon and Walmart which are more or less around the same price range, although the RitFit is generally the cheapest and to my knowledge has more “real-world” verified users and feedback that I have personally seen online than some of the others potentially.

If you want a step up in either the functionality, heavy-duty construction, more loading capacity, etc. you jump into that $1300-2000 range with the likes of Titan Fitness, Gronk Fitness, Body Solid, Force USA, Bells of Steel, Hoist, etc., and that list goes on.

And finally, if you want the real jump to much better quality, durability, functionality, ergonomics, etc. then you should check out the likes of some Bolt Fitness and French Fitness overbuilt versions, but at those prices I could also see an argument creeping in for used or new commercial versions and/or standalone versions.

At the end of the day, it’s just down to the individual users budget, strength, body type, and overall use case to weight all the aforementioned and other options, but the RitFit certainly holds the current best price per value of any of the competition, hence why we are here today.

Overall

Functionality: 8

Features/Design: 7.5

Build/Fit/Finish: 7.5

Value: 9

Overall: 8

Overall, although I was slightly skeptical when assembling the machine due to it’s notably lighter duty feel compared others I have owned or tried, it fit’s my needs perfectly for the time being in my training so now I completely understand how this has become a viable option in the competitive home-gym-leg accessory machine market.

Other quality of life things to note like the padding density and locations on the seat and shoulders are comfortable, although the overall padding leather does also feel a little bit on the thinner side, so I will be curious how well it holds up over time. The handles also feel more on the economy side but are just fine and comfortable soft foam, and the diamond style grip on the leg press plates keeps your feet, even in sweaty socks, (I tried), on the pressing plates just fine.

The locking arms have some weird rubber sleeve/stopper sitting on the arms to protect them from the trolley catch and a few of these stoppers have been rotating around and looking like they will fall off. Maybe I will superglue or duct tape them in place down the line.

It is nice they use some sort of polished chrome or similar material on the weight loading horn in order for the plates to slide on an off easily and not get scratched and that they also added some weight horns on the frame both for storage and for solidifying the machine if needed.

All in all, after these months of use, I will keep using this machine in my gym going forward and if you have it in your budget and are just an average user and not Eddie Hall or Brian Shaw, I don’t think you can go wrong with the multi-functionality per incredibly low price.

Thank you for checking out this review of the RitFit leg press and hack squat machine, if you have any questions, please comment down below and I will be happy to answer or at least try. Thanks for tuning into The Jungle Gym Reviews, we will see you next time, peace.

Michael - The Jungle Gym Reviews