Lat Pulldown & Low Row Rack Attachment - Hydra & Manticore

Commercial quality at home

Feels like a commercial quality lat pull with the aluminum pulleys - the design is also top-notch, I love that it adds more stability to my flat foot hydra. They nailed even small details like the angled weight horns and padded leg bar.

Hard to find a better option for 70” RML

I believe Dr. Mike Israetel has said that all you really need for your home gym is a rack, barbell, plates, (adjustable) dumbbells, and an adjustable bench. But if you want to level up, just add a lat pulldown/low row,. Starting my home gym during the pandemic, and having a low ceiling in my basement, I opted for the 70” Rogue Monster Lite squat stand. It is of course built like a tank. But Rogue has no lat pulldown/low row option for this setup, unlike BoS. I ordered the BoS attachment for a 72” rack/squat stand, plus the 43” BoS crossmember (has holes in the top/bottom). All good. However, the great couple I hired here in Seattle to put the lat pulldown/low row together warned me that a squat stand alone wouldn’t provide sufficient stability for the attachment. Oops! I found a couple of Reddit posts where someone had used Rogue’s HR-2 HALF RACK CONVERSION KIT, which is intended to convert a 90” RML squat stand into a four-post rack, and had instead used the kit to convert their 70” RML SML-1 squat stand into a four-post rack. (Rogue explicitly says don’t do this / it can’t be done / etc., but the kit’s uprights are 70” and the Reddit posts/pics looked solid to me.) So I bit the bullet and ordered the Rogue conversion kit, and the couple I’d hired came back and put it all together. The result? A more versatile rack that does what it needs to rather well, though not perfectly. The 70” height combined with somewhat short cable travel means that I have to adjust my position at times to not reach the end of the cable. I’ve also had to play around with attaching a chain for certain exercises (I’m looking at you, standing isolated abductors/adductors!). I think these limitations are due more to the squat rack height than to the attachment itself, though I imagine even the 90” or 108” attachment versions are no match for a dedicated cable tower, which would also allow dual cable crossover movements. But I digress. The other small gripe I have is with the leg hold bar. It requires lots of unencumbered upright space to position, which I didn’t have at first due to where bolts were positioned in the rack. (I have several plate holders bolted into the uprights, and the bolts got in the way when trying to insert the leg holder.) But I moved the plate holders/bolts, and now I have “clean enough” uprights to be able to use the leg holder. The pulleys are aluminum and work well. Regularly-performed exercises: Lat pulldowns (of course) Low rows (of course) Cable bicep curls Cable abdominal crunches Isolated abductors/adductors with ankle strap Isolated shoulder (delt) variations Seated overhead cable tricep extensions with long rope Overall, this is a solid addition to my squat rack. Though converting my two-post squat stand to a four-post rack was not an anticipated expense when I ordered the attachment, I’m glad to have the extra stability and versatility that a four-post rack offers over a squat stand.

A very good product that with a few improvements could become a great one

This attachment is the reason I decided to upgrade my current power rack to a Manticore rack. Overall, I am very happy with the lat pulldown and low row rack attachment, but there is a design flaw that keeps me from loving it. The Good: The leg holder is exactly what I was looking for in a lap pulldown attachment and the one that comes with this attachment is excellent. I could not find this detail anywhere before my purchase and I tried, the weight horns have about 10.5” of usable space. This was important to me to ensure that all the plates that I want would fit. The overall build quality is excellent. The aluminum pully system is very smooth. The lat bar and curl bar are very basic and seem misaligned compared to the rest of the Manticore line, but they will get the job done. One minor issue is that the bumpers for the weight carriage will stick with heavier weights and then come crashing down with a loud sound. It is minor, but something that could be improved upon. The Bad: I found that a review on YouTube had mentioned issues with the angles that the lat pulldown part was useful due to the frame cutting into the cable. I also ran into this same issue, but it was not mentioned that holder can compromise the cable as well. In all the photos of the lat pulldown attachment, a chain is used with the lat bar. I understand why, now. I am only 5’8” tall and with the 84” Manticore cage using a chain would not allow for a full range of motion with the lat pulldown so I opted not to use it initially. However, this caused cutting into the cable. I see the design problem as twofold: the angle in which the lat pulldown needs to be increased without cutting the cable and the arms that hold the lat bar should be aligned with the end of the pully to again prevent cutting the cable. It is a very good product that with a few improvements could become a great one.