Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack – The BEST Home Gym Power Rack in 2025

I’ve been lifting in my garage, with my Rogue R3, for over a decade… I’ve hit many of milestone PRs, reviewed a lot of equipment, and done a wide array of awesome stuff in it. I’ve been offered a dozen power rack options over the years and said no every single time. Nothing felt like a true upgrade, something I needed to take the next step… until today. The Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack has officially replaced my old reliable and is ready for the next decade of fun.

The Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack is now on the Review Pipeline.

Transparency Note

The Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack was sent to me for free for sake of providing feedback and a review, and some of the items I’ll discuss in today were also sent for free or at a discount for similar reasons. I have a number of affiliate relationships with the companies, including Iron Bull Strength, who also sponsors my Garage Gym Competition.

If you decide to grab anything I discuss today, some of the links are affiliate links. Using those links helps me do my thing here and throughout the home gym community. Obviously, my hope is that none of that impacts my judgement and feedback, but keep all of that in mind as we go. I appreciate your support, let’s dig into this rack.

Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack FAQ

I’ll build this out as questions come in.

Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack Overview

Why have I jumped ship from my tried-and-true Rogue R-3? Mostly because keeping a 2×3 rack limits my rack attachment options, and I see all these cool things from Dialed Motion, REP, Prime and others… and I really wanted to fully open that door. And the Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack, which we’ll dig into in a bit, checked all my boxes, and has some nifty tricks up its sleeves.

For me, this will be my rack, in my gym, where I squat, bench, and do a lot of my work from, for the foreseeable future. Expect to see 500lb squats, 300lb benches, tons of accessory work, a boat load of rack attachments tested and reviewed right here, and much more. My last rack was up for over a decade, so I’m excited to see how long this one lasts me.

Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack Specs

• Brand: Iron Bull Strength
• Made In USA: No – Made in Canada
• Material: 3×3” 11-Gauge Steel
• Coating: Textured Powder Coat available in 8 different colors
• Return Window: 30 Days
• Assembly: ~1 Hour w/ Two People and Appropriate Tools

A little history on how this rack came to life…

I was chatting with Flex Marks The Spot about a concept to have a 3×3 rack with 1″ holes in the front and 5/8″ holes on the back for various reasons. He then showed me his idea, which I mentioned to Iron Bull Strength, they loved it, ran with it, and here we are today with the Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack. So, all the credit goes to Mark for bringing this idea to the forefront, and Iron Bull Strength for being excited to make something a little different.

What exactly is the Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Rack?

It is a 3×3 Power Rack that is configurable in a number of fashions from 4 post to 6 post, different heights and depths, and even simply grabbing uprights. I went with a 4 post because it fits better in my space. I opted for the 36in rack which is bigger than my R3, giving me some extra room for activities. And I went with the tallest offering they have as 8t fits in my garage nicely. I also opted for a front crossmember and rear name plate to give me more attachments points and a little more aesthetic pop.

But what makes the Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack truly unique are the keyholes on all 4 sides of the uprights and crossmembers from top to bottom and side to side. They have both a 1” and 5/8” hole stacked together to make the keyhole. Other companies have used this design before in various ways. Nebula I believe was the original creator of it for gym equipment. Rogue, after acquiring nebula, has used it sparingly on the sides of their uprights. But no one else currently is using it like this. And Iron Bull Strength has brought their own adjustments to the design idea as well.

Why is this a feature worth getting excited about?

First, out the gate you have access to all 3×3 attachments without any adjustments. 1”, 5/8”, it doesn’t matter.

Second, is that this opens up the door for Iron Bull Strength to leverage the keyhole design for attachments. Let’s take something like rack handles. You slide them into the appropriate hole, and then you tension them down on the other side. The problem is that they still can rotate, especially under heavy loads. If they had a keyhole design, using both 1” and 5/8” holes at the same time, it is no longer round, meaning it can’t rotate.

You also have the possibility to leverage the keyhole design in a “drop in” fashion. If we look at my mass storage set-up, the way the shelves and uprights connect is a similar concept. Instead of needing something that tensions on the backside, it simply DROPS into place and locks in via gravity.

Both of these would require attachments to be designed specifically to take advantage of the keyhole system, so not necessarily something we have right now, but a possibility if Iron Bull Strength or other attachment manufacturers decide to explore this further.

What Sold Me

And third, with a typical 1-inch hardware rack you get full attachment compatibility by means of a spacer from F and F Steel. 1” attachments work, and 5/8” attachments can be converted. But you lose Westside spacing. As someone lifting by themselves, this is a tough compromise. With 5/8” you gain Westside spacing but lose attachment compatibility. Now you can’t grab any 1” attachments and have to hope for 5/8” for anything you are looking for.

With the keyholes, each of the 5/8” holes is 2in apart from each other. And the 1” holes are 2in apart from each other. If I take a 5/8” jcup attachment, and the 5/8” hole is a little off from my ideal unrack position, I can add that same F and F Steel piece and I now can adjust my jcup up another inch. Effectively giving me Westside Spacing throughout the rack for any 5/8” attachments I have, throughout the ENTIRE rack upright, something I struggled with in my rogue r3 as I only had it for my safeties.

Now I get it for my mono’s and j-cups regardless of what movement I am doing.

Some immediate wins with a few potential future wins too

One thing to note, the Iron Bull Strength Keyhole is slightly different than the Keyholes on a Rogue rack. Iron Bull Strength added a little more detail to the 5/8” hole so that 5/8” pins wouldn’t wiggle loose and into the 1” holes. This is a benefit, but does make their system not compatible with any current keyhole attachments on the market.

The rack I was sent, has the keyhole design throughout. Some of the other dudes getting these uprights have gotten ONLY the uprights with the keyholes. My gut reaction is that if you are going for the keyholes, you are better off going ALL IN on them and getting them on every square inch of your rack which would let you use 5/8” or 1” attachments ANYWHERE, instead of just on the uprights.

Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack Shipping & Assembly

The majority of the rack was packaged in carboard boxes, which were added to a pallet, and wrapped up tight. Nice and easy solution. The uprights however, were placed in individual carboard boxes with nothing more than a plastic wrap inside and some tape on the outside. One upright had completely busted out of BOTH sides of the box, and all but one of the uprights had visible damage to the box, one was even lost in transit and created some delays which I’ll talk about in just a second.

If they were bundled together, wrapped tight, fitted with foam, and palletized like the other items, I’m betting you wouldn’t have this problem. So, some possible improvements in the packaging department here.

I borrowed a buddy of mine to help me assemble the rack. One of us holds it still while the other puts the bolts together kind of thing. This made the process pretty straightforward. It took a little over and hour. We only made one mistake, which I found the next day, we had ran one crossmember with the keyholes facing a different direction compared to the others. Quick fix.

If this is your first piece of gym equipment, be forewarned, there are currently NO installation instructions available. It also did not come with any tools, so you’ll need the various sockets, wrenches, etc. My Rogue Rack also had a full set of compression washers for every bolt, which this rack did not. Just something to note.

Otherwise, if you have assembled any kind of gym equipment before and have the various tools, this should be a straight forward process with two people. After assembling and a quick wipe down, I found no scuffs, dents, or dings from the packaging mishaps, so that is a bonus too.

Issues With Iron Bull Strength’s Communications and Processes

When I receive products from companies, I almost always get the full customer experience. Meaning that I get shipping info, tracking numbers, and all the regular updates from FedEx, UPS, you name it.

Here is how my order went

• March 20th – Order Confirmation
• April 11th – Email sent to Iron Bull Strength, requesting an update – “rack would ship that week”
• May 2nd – Email sent to Iron Bull Strength, requesting an update – rack has been stuck at the border since April 20^th and Iron Bull Strength never got a notice, but that they are working on it.
• May 12th – I call the shipping company directly to get details – they only have 4 of the 5 skids from the manifest and they need an update from Iron Bull Strength
• May 12th – Email sent to Iron Bull Strength with shipping notes
• May 20^th – Additional Upright Ordered to replace a lost upright from the original order
• May 29th – Rack delivered through freight company
• June 3rd – Replacement upright delivered via UPS

So it took just over 2 months from order to delivery.

I’m more than accustom to dealing with delays with new products, smaller companies, and especially companies finding their way through the processes. Iron Bull Strength’s production center was finalized in September of 2024, so they have only been rocking with making racks, plates, bars and other items in house for about 6 months. So, some hiccups are to be expected.

But Iron Bull Strength has some gaps in their communication and processes that need to be addressed.

I talked to Michael at Jungle Gym Reviews, who also didn’t get any updates until the freight delivery company called to schedule delivery and he had missing parts and some interesting experiences with assembly. Make sure to check out his video when it drops for the details. John Grieves of Garage Gym Life had similar experiences. And Tim at GymCrafter already mentioned in a previous video that he waited several months for a rack and finally moved on after not being able to get an update or reliable ETA. So, this isn’t exactly a one-off issue that I went through.

Iron Bull Strength was able to remedy the issue for me with the upright, but that only happened after multiple emails, phone calls on my end, and more. When I mentioned some of these issues, I was told that all customers, including the reviewers, receive ongoing and frequent updates about their order process. I had to reiterate that this was, unfortunately, not the case for anyone I had talked to. So their expectations were not their reality.

When I got the replacement upright, it was shipped via UPS and I got an order confirmation, UPS shipping notification, and regular updates. So, I think their issue around shipping and communications is currently centered around freight deliveries. BUT, the UPS Upright was packed the same way, and also had visible damage to the box.

Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack – Rack Attachments

I was sent a set of their Sandwich J-Cups and Strap Safeties. These are pretty straight forward and similar to what you would see from other manufacturers. I plan to use these for my Squats.

For Bench, you know I’ve got my Mutant Metals Snap Back Rollers. Chris sent me over some 3×3 shims to convert my 2×3 pair to fit the new rack, as well as shims for the UDA.

I’ll be using a pair of spotter arms from Bremmy for my bench safeties. These are an awesome low-profile option for spotters, since they pop in sideways. I also plan to use this as mobile arms for a number of other attachments and creative ideas I have. Bremmy also sent me a pair of weight storage pins. Because the new rack has some taller low crossmembers, I need to move on from deadlifting inside my rack. So, my plan is to figure out a solution putting my two pairs of hundos likely on a rear lower crossmember, ditching the platform under the rack to clear some walking space, and see where we land.

Of course I have my VOLTRA Is, and a big upgrade for this rack is the new Darko Quick Mounts, so I can hook them all over my rack, even use the Bremmy Spotters to put them in various positions like a pivot arm for wide crossovers and more. Since the Darko Mounts can be 1” or 5/8”, I have a ton of creative options here too. And out the gate when I showed my wife these mounts compared to the main ones we’ve been using she just said “well that just makes sense”. Nicely done Darko and my dude Dan aka Dr Tatty Waffles for this one.

REP was nice enough to send over their Pegasus which is going to be a bad ass addition to the VOLTRAs for pulldowns, plus I’ve got some other tricks up my sleeve there. I snagged REPs Belt Squat Rack Attachment off marketplace this week, and I’m hoping to use that as well with my VOLTRAs for some belt squats, RDLs, and other variations. I’m hoping to really be able to leverage the VOLTRAs as my main cable system within this rack. Eventually I want to move away from the Inspire FT2, so making sure the VOLTRAs are operating at maximum efficiency is going to be a priority.

I’ve got a pair of the Surplus Strength VECHS speed pins. I chose these for the carabiner hook up for bands since I do bands for warm ups and stretches often.

Throughout my rack I’m using Oak Club Mag Pins with a red finish. I’ve got some 5/8” and 1” options. I also got their KLO step, which is going to get a lot of play for step ups, a favorite in our garage. I’ll mount the Oak hoop for some between set dunk contests.

My original bench dock from Mutant Metals before he was mutant metals still works for the most part. If I go the rear crossmember route, I’ll tinker with a more formal bench dock solution. And we’ll finish it off with a couple super extra pieces… first are the rack badges from Darko to add a little flair to the rack. You can get these in basically any kind of custom orientation or look and feel you want.

I replaced every washer on the rack with a set of red 3d printed washers from Aperture Engineering to give me a little POP of color throughout. And finished it off with the Rack Beanies and Thread Armor from FrogFits. These cover up the basic hardware throughout the rack, and help me complete that seamless look. You can get these in a handful of stock color combos, or custom order to your liking.

What I’m Looking For In The Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack

Obviously, none of this was necessary, but the goal was to really go all in on this rack and take advantage of the last 10 years of my home gym enthusiast knowledge and make it my own. I’m going to take the next several months and dig into what I’ve got laid out here, see what I like, what I don’t, and then make adjustments as I see fit. I’ll likely be doing some DIY aesthetic changes, changing some paint colors, adding accents to pieces, and more, which I’ll share in a full home gym tour video slated for the end of the year.

I’m overall very excited about this rack. Having a hand behind the scenes to make it come to life, having it custom colored to my liking, for the most part, and the overall abilities it brings to my gym compared to other items on the market is what made me finally take the leap. I’ve been offered a dozen racks in the past few years and never said yes. This was finally the one.

I’m really pulling for Iron Bull Strength. Their product launch list they displayed during their r/HomeGym AMA was AWESOME, but I think they have already realized they are taking on too much. So, I’m here for it, I just need to see a few things improve before I can confidently tell you, to send them your business.

Sign Up For More

✅ I’ll have a full review on the Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack here on the site in a few months.

Want to snag the Iron Bull Strength Frankenstein Power Rack? Use this link.