PRx Profile Home Gym Review

Who the full PRx gym is for

This is for somebody whose gym has to share a room. The space I'm talking about is about the size of a single car garage, and the whole point of the PRx Profile setup is that the rack and the bench fold up against the wall and you get the floor back.

If you need the space, that fold is a big deal. If you don't need the space, then maybe you don't have to do this, because you do pay a little bit of a premium for it.

Why it's at my parents' house

This gym isn't at my house. It's at my parents'. In January of 2025 the house they'd lived in for 47 years burnt to the ground from a freak chimney fire, and my dad's home gym went with it.

I reached out to PRx and asked if they'd be willing to help my dad get back to working out and feeling strong. A couple months later we had a whole home gym to install, and I'm forever grateful to them for that. I'd never tried any PRx equipment before this.

So you're getting two very different bodies on the same gear. My dad is 5'10" and worked construction for over 40 years. I'm 6'5" and 270 pounds. He uses it pretty much every single day. I've used it a handful of times when I'm over there.

The rack is what everything else hangs off

The Profile PRO rack is the piece that makes this work. You push it up and it's out of the way. You pull it down and it's ready. On install day I timed it at about three seconds each direction, and it's easy enough that my mom, who's 70 and doesn't work out, can pull it down herself.

The question I get in the comments is whether it's wiggly. If you shake it side to side there's a little bit of give, but no more than you'd expect from a fold-in rack. A rig bolted into the ground and the wall isn't going to give as much. I can hang off the pull-up bar at 270 pounds and it doesn't shake like you'd think it would.

The holes are numbered, so you're not guessing where the J-hooks go. The spacing is 1 inch around bench press height and 2 inches on the rest of the upright, and it takes typical third-party attachments, not just PRx-branded stuff.

Get the multi-grip pull-up bar. My dad's wrists are beat up from construction, and the different grips make pull-ups and grip work a lot easier for him.

Ceiling height, and my one real negative

We put in the 89 inch uprights because of the ceiling. PRx recommends 107 inches of ceiling for those, and says you can go as low as 94 inches with a modified install. I measured 103 inches at my parents' place, so we did the modified install out of the instruction book.

The one negative is that a low ceiling setup brings the rack much closer to the wall. There's not as much space between the rack and the wall as you'd get with a higher ceiling, where the arms stick out farther.

It's not that big of a difference and it's certainly not a deal breaker. But measure your ceiling before you order anything.

The folding bench

The bench folds up out of the way the same as the rack. Pull it down, use it, fold it back. With the rack folded up too, it's not even a hand's depth off the wall. The two of them together are a great one-two punch.

What I was worried about was how it would hold up, because it's lag bolts into the wall and I weigh 270. It's held up very nicely. Once I'm on it, it doesn't wiggle any more than a normal bench would. It's fastened into the wall and it's got a good support down at the other end.

If you can afford it, I'd go with PRx's incline bench over the flat one. My dad has mentioned it would be nice to do some incline bench or dumbbell flyes. If you can't, the flat bench is a great option.

Spotter arms, because most of us lift alone

I'd highly recommend spotter arms if you have a home gym. I live about an hour away, so I'm not there when my dad lifts. With these on the rack I don't have to worry about him dropping weight on himself, and my mom feels much safer about it too.

One time I was pushing it on the bench just to test them, and they saved my life, literally. They're super solid steel. You can drop a lot of weight on them and you'll be fine.

They also help with the low ceiling problem. You can use the spotter arms to bring the J-hooks out and get a little farther away from the wall for shoulder press or squats.

Bars and plates

The Olympic bar has two sets of grip marks, so you know exactly where your hands go. The knurling isn't too rough and it isn't too soft, and the spin is there. I'm not a bar aficionado, and it's honestly more bar than my dad needs, but it's held up really well. The curl bar gets a lot of use too, and I've got no complaints with it.

I'm partial to bumper plates. My dad has a vinyl floor, and dropping an iron plate on that could crack it.

We've got both kinds of PRx plates. The competition plates are dense and thin for the weight, and I love them. The base plates are thicker and not as high quality, but they're still super solid. I have some cheaper 10 pound plates at home that have started to warp. These haven't warped at all and show no signs of wear.

The storage is what I'm most jealous of

This is the thing I think PRx does better than pretty much anyone. They have a storage solution for all of their equipment. The bars hang on the wall. The plates go on a rack with three places to store them, plus wings for the smaller plates. The spotter arms, the bands and the kettlebells each have their own spot.

At my home gym all the plates are still on the floor. If you're doing the whole PRx setup, get the winged plate storage.

Bands and kettlebells

I think you can have a complete home gym with just resistance bands. If bands are all you can afford, you can get a hell of a workout from them. My dad uses these and my mom uses them a little bit, and they've held up really well. Bands don't last forever, though. Eventually they snap, so I'm interested to see where these are at a year.

My dad had never used a kettlebell before these. He likes them, but they're hard on his wrists, so maybe they eventually come to my house. The handle is big enough for my big hands, and that's what I like about them.

Installing all of it

I did the whole install by myself, cameras and all, and it didn't take me more than half a day. Without the camera work and a couple of mistakes I think it could be done in a couple of hours.

The rack instructions say it's a two-person job, and lifting it into place alone was heavy. Read the instructions carefully too. The pull-up bar bolts come in two lengths and I mixed them up, and I forgot the washers on the first bracket. Everything else is lag screws into a stud.

How it's held up, and what I'd buy first

The rack has been fantastic. It's steel, so nothing's going to happen to it. The paint hasn't chipped and it still looks as good as new. Nothing in the setup has failed or worn out on us.

If I were starting from an empty wall, I'd buy the rack first, then the bench, then a bar and plates, then spotter arms, then storage. If the rack isn't in the budget yet, buy bands and start training now.

Would I do it again? If the gym shares a room, yes. Every time I go over there I'm wowed by it, and a little bit jealous that it's at my dad's house and not mine. If you've got a dedicated gym room and nothing ever has to fold, you're paying for something you won't use.