I was fortunate enough to recently be sent the Power Guidance Triceps Pulldown Attachment and Cable Machine Accessories.

The products are officially listed as:

• V Shaped Bar.
• Straight Rotating Bar.
• V Handle with Rotation (I would refer to this as a close grip row or pulldown attachment).
• Nylon Braided Triceps rope.

Power Guidance contacted me through Instagram and asked if I’d be happy to write an unbiased review in exchange for the products. Of course, I was more than happy to.

I already had a triceps rope attachment a straight bar attachment, but I have owned some Power Guidance kit before and been impressed by its quality.

As I unboxed these items, the quality was immediately apparent again. There doesn’t appear to be any difference between these and the like for like items you would find in a commercial gym. They feel extremely sturdy and heavy, without a cheap feel to them. I can tell that these will basically last forever, probably outlasting me.

The set also comes with two snap hooks (carabiners) for attaching the handles to your cable machine. These feel more premium than the ones I already had, and have a nice gold tint to them and the Power Guidance logo emblazoned on them.

In addition, the triceps rope is nice and pliable, rather than being too stiff as is the case with some that you come across.

Of course, these items were kindly gifted to me, but looking at the price that these are available for I think it is an extremely good deal for the set.

Equipment needed to use these products

Of course, to use and review these products, I had to have some sort of cable machine or pulley system to use them with.

Fortunately, I have a Mirafit M100 power rack, for which I have added the cable pulley system attachment. It doesn’t allow for the pulley to be set at any height. It has two fixed positions – the top, and the bottom. This means it is good for certain cable exercises, but not all. It is good for lat pulldowns, triceps pushdowns and seated rows. It is not good for anything that requires the cable to be pulled in any direction other than straight down (from the top position), or straight out (from the bottom position). This means I can’t use it to do overhead triceps extensions with a rope, but I can use it to do triceps pushdowns with a rope. It is also not good for things like cable lateral raises, because that requires a diagonal movement upwards from the bottom position – something that it doesn’t do.

I did not have a V-Bar attachment and had actually never used one before. I had always overlooked it on visits to gyms that had them. I had seen other people using it for triceps pushdowns, but I had always favoured the rope attachment and saw no reason to change.

Using it for the first time was quite a pleasant surprise. It is excellent! The V-Bar allows you to go a little heavier because your grip is not a factor. I often find that towards the end of a set using a rope, it starts to slip through the hands and get uncomfortable. That is not an issue here.

I did not have a “V Handle with Rotation”, or “close grip attachment” – which is what I call it. I do perform seated close grip rows in my home gym, but I had been using a T-bar row attachment which lacked the textured rubber coating. It is also slightly bigger than the standard attachment you’d typically find in gyms, so my “close grip” rows weren’t as close grip as they should be. Using the proper attachment has allowed me to get a better range of motion and have a more comfortable grip. The textured grip is a nice addition too. Prevents the handle from slipping during sweaty sessions, and will also help prevent some calluses too. The rubber coating has a premium feel to it. I am confident that with care it will stand up to the test of time and not peel off like some of the old beaten up kit you come across in commercial gyms.

Exercises you can do with these attachments

Depending on your set-up, you will be able to do a range of exercises with these attachments, such as:

• Seated close grip cable rows
• Close grip lat pulldowns
• Seated straight bar cable rows
• Cable biceps curls
• Cable straight bar triceps pushdown
• Cable V-Bar triceps pushdown
• Facepulls
• Cable pullthroughs

Here are some demonstration videos showing me using the products with my Mirafit M100 Rack (with cable pulley tower attachment)

Cable biceps curl (with straight rotating bar)

Triceps Pushdown (with V-Shaped bar)

Triceps Pushdown (with straight rotating bar)

Triceps Pushdown (with Nylon Braided Triceps Rope)

Seated Close Grip Cable Row (with V Handle with Rotation)

 

Close Up Images

V Handle with Rotation

Nylon Braided Triceps Rope

V Shaped Bar

Straight Rotating Bar and 2x (snap hooks) Carabiners

Overall, I’m extremely happy with these cable machine attachments.

I now have my eye on the lat pulldown attachment set. I’ve been wanting some handles like this for a while. I’ve used this type of attachment a few times (but most gyms don’t have them). It feels a bit strange at first but I’ve found you can target the lats really well and get an amazing back pump.