Cap Strength Roman Chair

The Cap Strength Roman Chair is a popular piece of home gym equipment for those looking to strengthen their core, lower back, glutes, and hamstrings without breaking the bank. Offering functionality for hyperextensions, sit-ups, and potentially other exercises, it aims to provide a solid platform for essential bodyweight movements. But does it deliver on its promise of strength and stability?Assembly and Build Quality:Relatively straightforward to assemble, with clear instructions and all necessary hardware typically included. Expect to spend around 30 minutes to an hour putting it together.A decent level of sturdiness for its intended exercises. The powder-coated finish offers some protection against scratches and rust. For the average home user the build is adequate.Stability and Performance:It provides a stable base for controlled movements.The padded surfaces for the hips and ankles are generally comfortable enough for typical workout durations. The hip pads are wide and supportive, while the ankle rollers provide adequate cushioning. Adjustability is a strong point, with multiple height settings for the hip pads to accommodate users of different statures, allowing for proper form and effective targeting of muscle groups.Overall:The Cap Strength Roman Chair is a solid choice for home gym enthusiasts seeking a budget-friendly way to perform essential core and posterior chain exercises. It offers decent stability, good adjustability for the price, and is generally effective for its intended purposes. While it may not have the robust feel or premium features of high-end commercial equipment, it provides excellent value and a reliable platform for achieving a stronger core, healthier lower back, and well-developed glutes and hamstrings in the comfort of your own home. If your budget is a primary concern and your needs align with its capabilities, the Cap Strength Roman Chair is definitely worth considering.

Comparing this to the next lowest priced GHD, the price crushes the competition. However there are trade-offs leading to my only two complaints. 1. The flat seat style of Roman chair isn’t as comfortable as the rounded style of GHD’s and if you’re not positioned perfectly will cause tailbone or lower back stress/pain - difficult to do at first with a CrossFit WOD for time. 2. The foam rollers for your legs are undersized and not big enough to keep you from feeling the bar. I bought larger rollers 6x4” to increase the comfort on the ankles. I also had to add tape around the bar to reduce squeaks and bar wear due to a poor weld in the bar-hold. Once you get past these issues, it’s great for a home gym and will last a long time. Construction was decent overall, assembly was easy enough and small enough to fit in a small gym.

I have bought quite a bit of garage gym gear from CAP over the years. It's not as sturdy or smooth as your Rogue or equivalent but I use it hard and have absolutely no complaints, ever. Actually I probably wouldn't buy another barbell, but everything else has been a good value. I would definitely recommend this equipment for a home gym.

This is the <$100 version of a $700 piece of exercise equipment. Set your expectations accordingly and it is a great product. 5’10”, 200lbs and I use it almost daily with no wobble or concern even at full extension. Put together easily in less than an hour. Build/material quality isn’t the best but you get what you pay for and this is the most cost effective option for what I needed in my setup.

Yes this functions as a Roman Chair - just like 25 year old hooptie with 250,000 miles, rusted floorboards, a missing muffler, and 4 mismatched donuts will get you to work 2 miles from the house (maybe). This is a cheap low-quality exercise machine. I was hoping for decent but alas, it was not meant to be. It's made of seemingly 1/8" or .125" steel. The welds and paint/powder-coat are good. The design and asjustablity are passable. The steel is far too thin to be stable. Even bolting down the unit during assembly bends the tubes to an unacceptable degree. They provide reinforcing brackets on a couple of the joints which you'll never see in actual gym equipment. This thing wobles terribly - most notably from side to side when I light use even when my 110lb wife uses it. It's nearly unusable. The instability is a combination of (1) poorly placed and spec'd bolts/holes (2) poor tolerances (3) small/thin flanges and most notably (4) steel which is too thin in the entire design. Do yourself a huge favor and spend a bit more money on a Roman Chair. Look for a more commercial unit which uses at least 1/4" steel. You've been warned.

For context, I am a 5'11 250 pound man. I put this together in about 45 mins and used it for the first time the very next day. I was suspicious about this product because I read a bunch of reviews about sturdiness... and I'm definitely getting close to the weight limit.I've been using it 3 days a week for about a month now and It does feel a tiny bit wobbly, but not enough that I'm not worried about it collapsing or anything. All in all, it's a cheap back extension machine, so you get what you pay for.tl;dr it definitely works and feels safe to me despite being a little wobbly.