Rogue Donkey vs TITAN plate loaded chest press

This is a comparison between the Rogue Donkey and the TITAN plate loaded chest press including pros, cons, and alternatives. Follow the links for more details.

Overview and review of the TITAN plate loaded chest press $464

This is an overview of the TITAN plate loaded chest press including pros, cons and alternatives. This article was originally posted in Which gym machine to get from TITAN. Follow the links for additional information.

Overview of the TITAN plate loaded chest press machine

The TITAN plate loaded chest press machine is a chest press machine with a foldable bench which makes it unique. Again TITAN designs a machine with the spacious home gym in mind that saves money and space. The plate loadable chest press can be used with regular Olympic plates. The bench is adjustable for incline presses and has multiple grip variations. The full specifications of this TITAN machine are:

- Fits Olympic plates and features (2) 9.5-inch loadable weight posts

- Fully adjustable bench for the incline or flat reps

- (13) Bench depth positions to easily adjust to any size athlete and to accommodate hand placement for presses

- (5) Lifting arm positions to easily adjust the angle of your lift

- Bench easily stores on top of the frame when not in use to

- Minimum Footprint: 64-in. W x 63-in. L

- Maximum Footprint: 64-in. W-in. x 23-in.

- Seat Pad Dimensions: 11 - 8-in. x 12.5-in.

- Lifting Arm Length: 34-in.

- Vertical Handle Spread: 26.5-in.

- Weight Post Length: 9.5-in.

- Weight Capacity: 1,000 lb.

- Weight: 155 lb.

This is a great machine for bench presses and replacing a dumbbell rack, if you have the space for it.

Pros of the TITAN plate loaded chest press machine

The pros of the TITAN plate loaded chest press machine are:

Multiple grip variations
Foldable bench
Plate loaded
Price

Compared to a barbell, rack and bench setup this machine provides you more grip variations. This could also be done with dumbbells and a rack, but then you have to factor in the storage space for multiple dumbbells and that they are awkward to work with by yourself once it gets heavy.

The foldable bench saves some space when you want to free up the center of your gym for stretching exercises, runs or other stout ones which need space. The footprint gets smaller, but you still have the metal frame to consider.

Plate loaded machines are great for home gyms as you can use one set of plates for all the machines you own. This saves cost in getting your little park of machines together as you not pay the weight stack for each and every machine.

As with all TITAN products you will have a hard time to find something that is priced better. Especially as this machine already includes an adjustable bench which already can easily cost $500 or more by themselves.

Cons of the TITAN plate loaded chest press machine

The cons of the TITAN plate loaded chest press are:

Plate loaded
Space requirements
Bench is attached

While plate loaded designs can be great in smaller gyms it can turn into a trip hazard and bottlenecks in high frequency commercial gyms. If you have a lot of footfall with a varying level of experience combined with little supervision, than go for a chest press machine with an included weigh my stack.

If your home gym is very crammed you might not have the space to get another machine in like the Titan plate loaded chest press. In this scenario you might want to get three pairs of dumbbells (light, middle, heavy) and spotter arms for dumbbells for your rack. This makes the setup more modular.

A further disadvantage of the TITAN plate loaded chest press is that the be cj is attached. This means that you can not move things around in your and might even need to get a second bench for that purpose. Just keep that in mind based on the plans you have for your gym and the exercises you want to do.

Alternatives to the TITAN plate loaded chest press machine

Alternatives to the TITAN plate loaded chest press are:

The Titan functional and plate loaded functional trainer can also be used as bench press stations as long as you get an additional bench. With the different grips you can have more variety than with a barbell. These two machines have $1300 between them. In a home gym scenario you might want to use the plate loaded version to save considerably.

Conclusion for the TITAN plate loaded chest press machine

The TITAN plate loaded chest press machine is a serious consideration to get instead of a full rack of dumbbells. If you have the space for a full rack of dumbbells you can most likely also fit this machine. You can do all of the dumbbell exercises you need with this machine and load it with plates instead. For a home gym this is a definite alternative. In a commercial setting you can not replace a dumbbell rack with this machine as you have to cover more people at the same time. It can however be used to make the bench press more accessible toi wider community of your clients.

Overview and review of the Rogue Donkey

The Rogue Donkey is the ultimate machine from Rogue to address your lower back and core for $1945. You have everything in one place and with 500 pounds of weight, this thing is not going anywhere, just like any good old donkey.

Overview of the Rogue donkey

The Rogue Donkey brings the reverse hyper and GHD space to a new level. Rogue thought about their designs again and combined the Z hyper and the Abram GHD into an all-purpose lower back machine.

The benefit of this is that you only need to buy one piece of equipment which fits both purposes. This means money and floor space saved. The dimensions of the Rogue Donkey aa followed:

Made in the USA
Color: Black
Weight: 500LB
Length: 73”
Width: 44”
Height:54.5”
3x3 Gauge Steel
73” x 44”

This is a great machine to have in a serious home gym or powerlifting establishment. Some CrossFit boxes might also want to consider getting one of these.

Pros of the Rogue Donkey

The Rogue Donkey has a lot going for itself, of you are interested in a machine for back extensions, reverse hypers and glute ham raises. I have yet to find a machine that is better thought through for these purposes and therefore saves space in your gym.

Cons of the Rogue Donkey

The price and weight might be off-putting for some. Not everyone wants to have a 500-pound piece of equipment in their home gym or get on one in a commercial gym. Reverse hypers and back extensions are also not the most popular movements, so watch out whether you are getting your money’s worth.

Alternatives to the Rogue Donkey

I think there are no better options than the donkey from Rogue for what it does. However, $2000 can be a hefty price tag, especially for first-time buyers. Here are some other options from Rogue for $2000:

The fortis rack is the best rack from rogue under $1000. Combined with an adjustable bench and with a little stretch of the budget an Ohio bar you have a fully functioning gym for the price of a donkey. The only downsides would be no color option and that you somehow have to take care of plate storage.

If you prefer plate storage and a color option because you already have a bench you can go for the RML 690C and Ohio bar. The budget would even allow getting one of the fancy Cerakote bars. My favorite is the Fraser bar.

If you want to build a garage gym with all of the things needed to do CrossFit you can also go for the 3WC and Alpha CrossFit package. This way you will have a foldable rack and everything including plates to get started with CrossFit.

Summary

If you already have the bases covered and you are looking into expanding your gym the donkey is a great option to be considered. It is not necessarily your first big purchase from Rogue.