Performance Pins Review – 2024

Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 01:42 pm

I love me some nick nacks in the gym. And nothing is more nick nack than the Performance Pins. These pop into your cable stack machine, and allow you to hammer drop sets with ease.

Seriously, just a really cool idea. But do they work? Let’s find out.

Performance Pin Video Review

Performance Pins Overview & Specs

They are spring loaded pins that go into your stacks for your machines. I add mine to my Inspire Fitness FT2, hence why I have four of them total, and get to work. They have done some seriously nasty drop sets on leg extensions, leg curls, and other fun stuff over the course of the past year.

How Do They Work

You’ve got a few simple yet very creative and solidly built pieces to the puzzle here. First is the shaft, which is bright green. Originally the idea was that bright green made it easy to find if it shot across the gym floor. Now they offer them in a few color options, including blue, red, white, green, and even black with the contrast green accents.

Inside the shaft you have the pin, which is then coiled in a spring. This spring is what sends the pin itself into the air. The final piece is the trigger, the black doohickey on the back side. When all of these work in unison, you can pull the trigger, lock the pin, insert it into the stack, and you are ready for some fun. Do your set, rest the weight, the pins pop out, and you can continue with your set without leaving your seat.

Ok, that is the general function on paper, how do they work in practice?

Performance Pins Pros

The pins work as intended. The springs function well, the pins function well, we haven’t had any mechanical issues here. This isn’t an overly complicated piece of equipment, it is intended to do ONE thing, and it does it.

Will these last forever? I would assume that at some point you would wear out the spring and have to replace it. But after 50+ sets of these shooting all over the place in the gym, everything is still in one piece, with no scuffs or scratches or signs of wear and tear. So I think you’ll be doing drop sets for quite some time with your first pair.

Performance Pins Cons

Multiple Sizes

Our first set of hiccups comes at the fact that these come in multiple sizes. They have 5/16” and 3/8” pin sizes. Now, this isn’t the fault of Performance Pin, they didn’t design machines with two different pin hole sizes… but it is the reality. For those of us training at home, a simple message to their team with what stack machine you have will likely set you straight.

You aren’t likely to have multiple machines with multiple different stack sizes. For my friends training in a commercial gym, you might need to grab one of each size. Their site claims they have a PRO pack offering that comes with one of each, but I couldn’t actually find that as an option.

Maxing The Stack

Our second set of hiccups comes into play if you are maxing out your stack. Depending on how your stack is set up, the trigger of the performance pin needs something to compress against. If you place it in the bottom plate on my FT2, there is nothing for it to compress into, thus it doesn’t work. So I can only use it on the 2^nd to last plate on the stack.

Additionally, there are a few exercises where I’m maxing out the stacks on my FT2. This is where the Gym Pin (use code GGC for 15% off a Gym Pin) comes into play. It allows me to load up additional plates on the stack and keep the gains rolling. The problem is mixing these two together. I need to put the Gym Pin at the very top of the stack, and add a 45lb plate.

The 45lb plate covers the stack from 1 through 11 on my FT2 stack, which limits my drop set options. I can put the performance pin in the 15 plate, and then probably have to put a normal pin somewhere around 9 or 10 for a single drop.

Range Of Motion

The last hiccup is around range of motion. Remember that the way these work, is that once you set the plate down, it flips the trigger and it shoots out. So if you happen to go all the way down on a rep, you could prematurely shoot your pin… no one wants that.

Things To Consider

The last piece to consider is really around your training and machine set-up. For training, you need to think about… do you actually perform drop sets? Do you do them enough to warrant buying a dedicated tool for this?

Then the machines. My FT2 and leg extension set up is a perfect example of where these shine. If I wanted to perform a drop set I would have to stand up, walk around behind the bench, change both pins, sit back down, and get back to work. With the Performance Pins, I don’t even have to leave the seat. But some machines in a commercial setting, the stack is right there next to you. It might honestly be easier to adjust by just reaching over and adjusting as you go.

Wrap Up On The Performance Pins

So those are the performance pins… the good, the bad, the pros, the cons. In our gym, I’m pretty happy to have them. My wife rarely uses them currently, because we are more focused on weekly progressions and haven’t tapped into intensity techniques… yet!

For myself, I like drop sets on legs, chest, maybe arms. So these get used throughout the year. Overall. I think for the price, these are a fun tool to add to your arsenal if you do drop sets and have a weight stack machine at your disposal. But you definitely have to think about the potential cons and your set-up before making sure these are right for you.

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