Muscle Power crossfit and personal training

Why choose Muscle Power crossfit and personal training?

This is the portable half of the category. Where a box lays a sled, a rope rig and a ramp onto its floor and leaves them there, this equipment is made to be loaded up. Wooden rings, a parallettes set, push-up bars, a slant board, an arm blaster, a clubbell, a macebell, a speed ladder and a set of cones all go out of the door in two hands. That makes the brand a natural fit for the personal trainer who works on location: in a client's garden, on a playing field, in a rented hall where nothing may be left behind after your hour is up.

The second point is the price bracket. The sleds and battle ropes from this brand are the more compact, keenly priced versions, not competition gear for a facility that sends ten groups over them every day. That lets you build a circuit of six to eight stations for the money that fills two stations elsewhere. Anyone fitting out a permanent gym and expecting years of heavy daily use is better off with sturdier equipment. Anyone who needs variety and a different stimulus every session gets more out of this.

What also stands out is that the bodyweight work is complete here, and that is rare in this category. Rings, parallettes, two kinds of push-up bars, a slant board and an arm blaster sit in the same range as the sleds and the ropes, so you do not have to shop around to finish one circuit. Also take a look at the other fitness equipment from Muscle Power, because the brand is present in almost every strength category and that makes adding to your set-up later far simpler.

The Muscle Power crossfit and personal training range

Think in terms of functions rather than individual items. This is how the range is built up:

• Bodyweight and core. Wooden gymnastic rings for dips, ring work and muscle-ups, a parallettes set for L-sits, tucks and handstand work close to the floor, push-up bars as a loose set and as a multifunctional stand, plus an arm blaster for curls.
• Mobility. A slant board: a sloping plank you stand on to bend your calves and ankles through. It is used for mobility work and in knee rehabilitation, and it is by far the lightest thing in the bag.
• Swinging and carrying. A clubbell of 5 kg and a macebell of 8 kg for rotational work, two weight vests of 10 kg in a women's and a men's version, and a weight belt of 3 kg for added load on pull-ups, dips and running.
• Pushing and pulling. Three sleds side by side: a power sled, a competition sled and a slice sled, which differ in shape, in how smoothly they glide and in how much weight they carry. The harness belongs with them if you want to pull the sled on the move rather than push it.
• Rope work. A battle rope deluxe in 12 and 15 metres, a wall hook that turns a solid wall into an anchor point, and a battle wheel that lets the rope roll at the spot where it would otherwise wear through.
• Footwork and timing. A speed ladder, a cone set with speed cones, a marking set for laying out a course, and an interval timer with six digits, so you see round, rest and total time at the same moment.

Which Muscle Power crossfit and personal training equipment suits you?

The six functions cover very different situations. These are the cases that come up most often.

You work on location at clients' homes: start with the speed ladder, the cone set, the marking set, the parallettes and a weight vest. That fills an hour of training without anything to assemble, and it all fits in one bag. The interval timer makes the difference as soon as you are working with two or three people at once.

You have a beam, a rig or a solid frame: then the wooden rings are the most versatile thing you can buy. You need free height so your feet do not touch the floor at the bottom of a dip or a muscle-up. If you have no anchor point yet, look at the crossfit rigs first.

You have no anchor point and do not want one: take the parallettes set and the push-up bars. They ask for nothing more than a flat floor, yet L-sits, tucks, dips and handstand work are all on the table, and after training you slide them under a bench.

You have a hallway or a driveway of fifteen metres: then a sled makes sense. Without that running space a sled does little, because the resistance only builds once you cover some distance. On a hard indoor floor, put one of the mats down first if you want to protect the surface.

You want to train your core and shoulders in rotation: choose the clubbell of 5 kg or the macebell of 8 kg. The weight sits a long way from your hands, so your trunk works hard to slow the movement down. Take the lighter of the two if you have never handled offset weight before.

You want resistance without weight in the house: the multi band is your starting point, for warming up, traction work and assisted pull-ups. If you want more room to progress through resistances, compare it with the resistance bands.

What to look for when buying Muscle Power crossfit and personal training equipment

What needs installing and what does not

Within this range that is the most important dividing line. Wooden rings hang from something: a beam, a rig or a solid frame, with enough free height underneath to straighten your legs. Parallettes and push-up bars ask for nothing but a flat floor, which makes them the only bodyweight equipment you can set down anywhere. A battle rope needs a fixed point, and that is what the wall hook is for. So run through the range with that question first, because a part that needs an anchor point and never gets one stays in its box.

Space: running room and rope length

Most of this equipment gets packed away and travels with you, but two groups do not. A sled needs a lane to walk along, in a hallway, on a driveway or across a field. A battle rope of 12 or 15 metres is doubled around a fixed point, so you need six to seven and a half metres plus your own arm length, and that space has to stay clear while the rope slams onto the floor. An average garage will not take it. Measure up before you buy a rope or a sled.

The surface decides how heavy a sled feels

With a sled the resistance does not come from the weight alone but from the friction with the floor. The same sled with the same plates on it is far heavier on a rubber floor than on smooth concrete, and artificial grass sits somewhere in between. The three versions in this range differ in exactly that: in the shape of the runners, in how smoothly they give and in how much weight you can stack on. So choose for the floor you will be working on rather than for kilos, and expect to adjust your load per location.

Offset weight feels heavier than the number

On a clubbell and a macebell the mass sits at the end of a handle, well away from your grip. That means you are slowing a long lever rather than a compact weight, which is nothing like holding a dumbbell or a kettlebell of the same mass. Five kilos on a handle easily feels like double that in a mill or a 360, and your shoulders and forearms notice it first. The fact that this range carries both a 5 kg clubbell and an 8 kg macebell is useful: you groove the path with the short, light one and move up to the longer handle once the movement is clean.

Vest, belt or band

All three make an exercise harder, but each in a different place. A weight vest of 10 kg spreads the load across your torso and leaves your hands free, which makes it the obvious choice for pull-ups, burpees and running. A weight belt of 3 kg hangs the load at your waist and sits more comfortably for dips and weighted pull-ups because your trunk stays clear. The multi band gives no fixed load at all but resistance that grows the further you stretch, which is most useful in warm-ups and assistance work.

Our advice: decide first whether you work from a fixed spot or out of a bag. If you work on location, the combination of parallettes, push-up bars, speed ladder, cones, marking set, weight vest and interval timer is a full hour of training with no assembly, and therefore the fastest start. If you do have a beam or a rig, add the wooden rings, because no other item gives you as many exercises for the money. Only buy a sled or a battle rope once you have genuinely measured the running space or the rope length, and with offset weight the 5 kg clubbell is always the sensible place to begin.

Who is Muscle Power crossfit and personal training equipment suitable for?

• Personal trainers who work on location. Almost everything fits in a bag and needs no assembly, so you can run the same programme in a client's garden or in a rented hall.
• Bootcamp and circuit coaches. With cones, a marking set, a speed ladder and an interval timer you lay out a course for a group in ten minutes, and the timer keeps every round the same length.
• Home trainers on a limited budget. Because the individual parts are keenly priced, you can set up six stations at once instead of a single expensive one.
• Anyone working towards gymnastic strength. Rings and parallettes are the starting point for dips, L-sits, handstands and muscle-ups, and that bodyweight side of things is complete in this range.
• Rehabilitation and mobility. The slant board is used to bend the calves and ankles through, which is why it also turns up in knee rehabilitation and in physiotherapy.
• Strength athletes looking for variety. A clubbell, a macebell and a weight vest deliver stimuli you will never get from a bar and plates; combine them with kettlebells for swings and carries.

Less suitable if you are fitting out a permanent, heavily used facility. Then heavier sleds, thicker ropes with a protective sleeve and fixed structures such as a handstand walk ramp are the better investment, because they are built for dozens of users a day. And if your space is a garage of three by six metres, you are better off taking only the bodyweight and footwork items from here and leaving the sled and the rope alone.

Need help choosing?

Would you like to buy Muscle Power crossfit and personal training equipment but are you not quite sure which equipment suits your programme and your space? We are happy to help. You can reach our fitness specialists by phone on +31 85 773 00 57, send an email or visit our fitness store in Volkel, the Netherlands.

Frequently asked questions about Muscle Power crossfit and personal training

Do I need a rig for the wooden gymnastic rings?

You need an anchor point, and a solid beam or a thick branch will do just as well. More important than what you hang them from is the free height underneath: in a dip and a muscle-up you have to be able to straighten your legs without touching the floor, and when getting into the rings you want a little room above your head. Count on roughly two and a half metres of free height as a minimum, and more is nicer. If you have nothing to hang them from, the parallettes and the push-up bars are the alternative, because they only ask for a flat floor.

What is the difference between the three sleds?

They differ in shape, and the shape decides how smoothly the sled travels over the ground and how much weight you can stack on it. A power sled is the classic push sled with uprights, a competition sled is built to cover a lane, and a slice sled has a slimmer running surface. In practice you notice the difference mainly in the resistance at the same weight and in how many plates will fit. So which one suits you depends less on your strength than on your surface and the length of your lane.

How much space does a battle rope really need?

A rope of 12 or 15 metres is doubled around a fixed point, so half the length is the distance you need: six to seven and a half metres, plus your arm length and a little margin. That space has to stay clear, because the rope sweeps across the floor and catches anything in the way. The fixed point can be a rig or a heavy structure; if you have neither, the wall hook turns a solid wall into an anchor. On a rough floor the battle wheel spares the rope at exactly the spot where it wears out first.

What does a slant board do, and what does an arm blaster do?

They are two very different things that happen to end up in the same bag. A slant board is a sloping plank: you stand on it with your heels low and your toes high, which bends your calves and ankles through. That is used for mobility work and in knee rehabilitation. An arm blaster is a curved plate that hangs from a strap around your neck and rests against your stomach, so your upper arms cannot swing forward during a curl and the biceps does the work.

Is a 5 kg clubbell not too light to start with?

That is almost always the first reaction, and almost always wrong. Because the mass sits at the end of a handle, you are slowing a long lever instead of a compact weight, and in a swinging movement that feels like a multiple of the number on the label. Five kilos on a handle is exactly right for most people in a first session, especially around the shoulder blades and forearms. If you want to go heavier afterwards, the 8 kg macebell with its longer handle is the next step, and that step feels bigger than the three kilo difference suggests.