The FT Max Functional Trainer: So Versatile, It’s Scary.

Jul 14, 2022 / By: Jeff Brown

It doesn’t exactly look like a warm hug, does it?

The PFX FT Max might look imposing, but it’s built upon good intentions. This all-in-one functional trainer/power rack/Smith machine makes your day-to-day tasks easier and less painful with an array of functional exercises:

Isolation exercises: Working a muscle group around a single joint
Compound Exercises: Working several joints and a chain of muscle groups
Strength Training: Building strength through “overloading” – continuously increasing resistance or increasing reps.
Power Training: Quick, intense exercises that train your muscles for explosive power.
Aerobic exercises: Increasing the blood flow and oxygenation, feeding your slow-twitch muscle fibres for greater endurance.
Anaerobic exercises: Creating larger fast-twitch muscle mass to store glucose, which fuels quick energy.

Learn more about these exercises here. Here’s how each component of the FT Max delivers:

Power Rack

The FT Max features a heavy-duty cage made of commercial-grade Q235 Stainless Steel. It comes with sturdy J-cups and safety spotter arms with an 850 lb. capacity. With six Olympic plate storage pegs on the back, a 7’ Olympic bar and one pair of spring clips.

Sample Exercises: barbell curls, squats, bench presses (with optional bench), contrast loading.

Cable Machine

The FT Max’s comprehensive cable exercise system offers:

Commercial cable rated for 2000 lbs of static weight
Heavy-duty nylon pulleys
Two 220 lb. weight stacks
Adjustable machine handles
A frictionless 2 to 1 pulley ratio
19 numbered vertical adjustment positions.

You can move your body in ways you can’t with fixed weightlifting machines, building your balance, power and overall strength.

Sample Exercises: cable concentration curl for your biceps, chest flys, rhomboid cable squeeze, alternating cable pull, presses, squats, rows, pushdowns, lunges, overhead wood chops and side cable trunk twists.

Fixed Wide-Grip Pull-Up Bar

This pull-up bar offers a 500 lb. capacity. You can work a muscle chain that ranges from your neck's trapezius muscles down to your hips. Arm muscles between your shoulders and wrists benefit as well. A narrow-grip option allows you to focus on your biceps or lats and is excellent for beginners.

Exercises: Wide and narrow-grip pull-ups

Lat Pulldown Bar

The lat pulldown bar likewise targets your latissimus dorsi, but its resistance comes from the weight stacks, not your own body weight. Lat pulldowns can be done standing or sitting (with the help of sit-up foot anchor/pulldown knee pad and an optional bench) – trimming that upper-body V-shape and making tasks like opening doors and starting lawnmowers much easier.

Exercises: Standing and sitting lat pulldowns

Olympic Commercial Smith Bar

Although some lifting purists prefer their free weights, the Smith bar has many charms. Sliding straight up and down on sealed linear bearing, it’s safe, stable and balanced – a plus for novice weightlifters perfecting their form and those recovering from injuries. You don’t need a spotter, as the bar is equipped with a safety catch and lower emergency shocks. Weight changes are quick and easy, and you can do some ballistic exercises to build your power.

Exercises: Several (and more with an optional bench), including squats, presses, shrugs, rows, raises, pull-ups, incline and decline pushups and exotic ballistic exercises the curl bar throw (make sure this is right for you).

Removable Vertical Leg Press Footplate

Easily attached to and removed from the FT Max’s Smith bar, the footplate allows you to lay on your back on a mat or bench and push upward with your legs. It’s great for strengthening a muscle chain that runs from your glutes to your ankles. The plate is wide enough for short and tall users alike to target their quads with a narrow stance or wider to work the inner thighs. Just keep your back flat, your hips directly under the bar, and the bar set at a height that gives you a full range of motion.

Exercise: Verticle leg press

T-Bar Row Handle

The T-bar row handle slides over the sleeve of the Olympic bar. The other end slides into a hinge-like landmine, or you can nestle it in the hole of an Olympic plate laid flat on the floor. Either option forms a stable base while you use the handle to lift the other end of the bar, which is weight-loaded. Primarily focused on the back, the T-bar row also does wonders for your lats, traps, posterior deltoid, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, hamstrings, glutes, and core muscles. And your spinae erector muscles (which run the entire length of your back on either side of your spine) will thank you.

Exercise: T-bar row

Dual Grip Attachment

Dips are a tremendous push-type bodyweight exercise that you can overload via extra reps or by adding weight on a dip belt. Users can also use resistance bands to decrease the load. Either way, you'll target muscles in your chest, shoulders and arms. For more specific targeting, choose between the FT Max’s two sets of handles. One exceeds shoulder width for working on your chest, while a closer grip develops your triceps.

Exercises: Wide and narrow-grip dips.

Sit-Up Foot Anchor/Pulldown Knee Pad

This dual-purpose feature holds your knees in place during pulldowns (as discussed above) and also locks your legs during sit-ups. Unlike doing crunches, an isolation exercise, sit-ups are a compound exercise with a broader range of motion that targets multiple joints in your spine, abs, chest, torso and hips.

They bolster your slow-twitch fibres, increasing your strength and endurance so you can perform other exercises for longer periods. While sit-ups improve your posture, energy, lung capacity, circulation, digestion, balance, stability, power, and neck and shoulder health, they reduce jaw and back pain, tension headaches, and risk of injury and uneven joint wear.

Exercises: Lat Pulldowns and Situps

Low Row/Calf Stretch Footplate

Bring one of the adjustable pulleys down low, hook on your included low row attachment, take a seat on a bench or mat, brace your feet against the low row/calf stretch footplate, and you’re ready to row! You’ll note rower’s physiques are about halfway between that of sprinters and marathon runners. It’s a balanced exercise with great cardio for your endurance-building slow-twitch fibres, but you can also build muscle with fast-twitch-fueling anaerobic exercise.

Exercise: Rowing

Take Another Look.

So does the FT Max still seem like a scary monster machine? Or is it starting to look like the big, thoughtful friend that brought everything to your fitness party? Maybe now you’re starting to see what it can make you look like – muscular and quick, sleek with stamina to spare or perhaps something in between.

Maybe you see a more enjoyable time with your kids, your hobbies or your rec hockey team. Whatever it is, don’t plunge in too fast. Instead, talk to your doctor about what your body can do and consult fitness experts about your goals and how you can realize them. To keep from seeing too much of the former, may we recommend a great place to speak with the latter?

Get to Know the FT Max at Flaman Fitness

It’s safe to say nobody’s better acquainted with the entire Progression Fitness line than the experts at Flaman Fitness. The exciting new FT Max is no exception. To find out how this machine can help you stay fit for the long haul, fast-twitch it over to your nearest Flaman Fitness location.

Category: Your Fitness Resource
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