XMark Leg Press Hack Squat XM-7616

Solid piece. Only issue is it began making grinding noises a week after use. Still trying to figure out the cause. Overall good home piece of equipment

I bought this after reading the reviews and because it looked like a well built sturdy machine from the pictures but that just goes to show that pictures don't tell the whole story. So far I've discovered that XMark equipment looks pretty but performs terribly, it must be designed by someone with a cadcam program that never lifted a weight in their life. I've been lifting weights for thirty years and have a pretty good idea of how good equipment performs compared to poorly designed equipment. Here's why I don't like this Xmark Leg Press. Firstly, XMark uses button head bolts to assemble their products. Button head bolts require an allen wrench which is very tiny and can strip the top of the bolt head especially with the soft bolts like the kind you will get with this machine which then makes the bolt useless. Secondly, this machine uses a modified linear bearing design. A Linear bearing is basically a cylindrical cage with slots that run along the length of the cage. In those slots are little tiny ball bearings that travel along carrying the weight of the load. The assembly is held together by a pillow block which holds the cage together keeping the bearings in precise alignment. The problem comes when you have a split block design like in the Xmark unit. By splitting the block you destroy it's ability to hold those bearings in precise alignment because the block can now distort when you load up the weight sled to the upper end of its max rating like in the 800-1000lb range. This distortion allows the bearing cage to open up or spread out which can cause the ball bearings to bind or lose their precision alignment and make the machine feel like it's sticking or not moving properly. I notice this when I get up to 800lbs and beyond, the bearings grumble and squeak and the sled feels like it's moving on a gritty surface instead of a nice smooth polished surface. Why is the pillow block split on this machine? It's split because this leg press has a bolt that comes through the frame about midway along the slanted supports of the weight sled that secure the polished load carrying rods that the weight sled moves along to the frame. The pillow blocks had to be split to allow the bolt to pass through them when the weight sled is in motion. For someone who is never going to exceed five or six hundred pounds on this machine it's no big deal cause you probably wouldn't notice any binding in the bearings but when you do exceed that poundage you're going to notice the sled starting to feel like it's gritty or not moving smoothly. Thirdly, the hack squat bars that bolt into the top of the sled where your shoulders would contact have a very cheap feel, I can actually wiggle them slightly and I have them tightened as much as the button head bolts will allow. Fourth and finally, the seat back pad at the bottom is only attached with one bolt and slides around easily and the other part that keeps you from sliding down is very small, almost too narrow. I loaded the press up to 810 lbs which is all the 45's I could fit on the hanger bars and it creaked and grumbled like a medieval torture device from the movies. If you're a heavy duty leg presser, shop around for a model with a higher load rating in the 2,000lb range but if you are someone that's only going to press a couple hundred pounds it would be ok, still don't like the button head bolt construction though. I prefer normal headed bolt construction like a lot of the Valor products are built with.

I used to hate leg days, now I actually look forward to them. Versatile, smooth and effective in all positions. Takes some time to assemble, especially since most of the pieces were mislabeled from the instructions. But that debacle aside, the the quality of the machine still gives it a deserved 5 stars.

Great investment! Very commercial like!!

Love it!

Nice machine. The design is solid. Here is the problem: The directions suck big time. If you are not handy be prepared to keep the kids out of the room due to the fowl language coming out of your mouth.