PLATELOAD NECK MACHINE - BLACK PADS

FINALLY. And yes, before you read any further - It's TOTALLY worth the money. I've been looking for a gym that carries this piece of equipment for years, and only found one. 15 years ago. It is since gone (The gym). This is an essential piece of equipment if you intend on getting a full body workout, without having a pencil neck to throw off the overall balance. Good luck finding it in any conventional gym. PROS - Build quality. It is built very well, gym quality to say the least. Welds are tight and the steel tubing used is quality thick gauge. Powder coated. - Excercises the muscles you just can't excercise any other way. Your whole neck will get a great workout. If you are even looking at this machine, rest assured YOU NEED IT. And no, you probably won't find it anywhere else. IGNORE those silly neck wights and such - they are just waste of money. THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED. CONS - Instructions...? There are NO instructions on putting the device together, so you will probably resort to looking at the Amazon item posting to get a general idea of how the parts fit together. Don't worry - It's not extraordinarily hard to put together, but it would be nice to have a set of simple directions to refer to. Took me about 20 Minutes to put it all together. - Rubber Footings. There are NONE. Grab some rubberized floor mat for the machine, or you may end up with some unwanted scrapes/scuffs from moving this thing (though it is generally lightweight). - The plate loading bar is unusually thin - as a result, my plate retention clamps do not secure to the bar. This can easily be fixed by adding wrap tape (or some other adhesive grip tape) to the plate load bar to give it a bit of extra girth. Easy. Otherwise, a great and useful machine. Trust me, it's worth the money - you simply won't regret it.

Simple and effective design, good fabrication and nicely finished. The square pads you push against are sort of awkward, as has been noted here, but the motion is smooth. Needs pads where it contacts the floor and packaging was pretty bad, but good value for the $$.

Arrived yesterday. I assembled the unit and gave it a spin. Surprisingly high quality, in my opinion. It didn't feel like cheap steel, or flimsy in any way. The seat fits a little lose in the sleeve, so it's not as rigid as you might like, but we're talking a millimeter of play, maybe. That's very nitpicky, and I don't want to knock it for that. Assembly wasn't too bad. You will need a hammer, preferable a dead blow, or soft face so you don't damage it, and two 13mm, 16mm, and 19mm wrenches. I get headaches from a worn disc in my neck, so I mostly bought it to strengthen my neck and help reduce some of that pain. The weight bar is 2" Olympic bar style. It might be a little slim, because my Lockjaw clamp fit a little loose on it. I may have to get an adjustable clamp. But again, not bad enough for me to be sour on it in any way.

I’ve looked for such a machine for literally decades...and now I have one. And it works GREAT! It’s not the one from my high school days (that thing was a commercial grade beast), but it is worth the price you pay. The assembly instruction sheet sucked; that is my only complaint. If you purchase one, make sure that when you attach the bearings the small hex nuts on the sides are loosened. Do it just enough so that when you push the rod attached to the head pads through the bearings there is enough space for the rod to go all the way through. Then tighten the nuts. But this is a GREAT piece of equipment. Just a hint for new owners: I find that I have to drop or raise the seat depending which side of my head/face is in the pad in order to get the most extension out of my neck.

nice machine, but could be better. not commercial gym quality but good for home use. i liked the one i used at the gym better, but of course, those take up tons of space, costs thousands, and more difficult to maintain. this one takes little space and i like how certain parts are welded together, especially the top portion where the two bearings attach. i find that the entire machine tends to move from the ground during sets if i don't put weight plates to hold them down, and that includes putting a couple of 45's on the floor under the seat where the two metal portions are in contact with the floor. not the most convenient since you have to have extra plates or something heavy to hold the machine in place. there are no holes to bolt the machine on the floor, not that i would have drilled holes in my floor anyway. also, i think a round pad would be better than the two rectangular ones as i have a slight issue when doing neck flexion. i place my forehead on the pad at the beginning of the set and the positioning is fine but when i complete the flexion with my head flexed forward, the bottom edge of the pad seems to deviate from my forehead to where it feels like i can't complete the set with full flexion (unless i get my butt off the seat) and that's just somewhat uncomfortable during your set because the pad should remain comfortably on your forehead throughout the set. there's no way to adjust the seat any further as the other settings would be way off for me (like the pad would end up on my face and not my forehead). this is a nuisance but it's manageable. however, the lateral and rear (extension) positions are perfect. just the problem with the flexion position. no, i dont think i have a short neck. my neck is neither short nor long. other than these issues, the machine is good and i like it. it does what it's suppose to do and that's strengthen your neck all four ways. oh, another issue is that the bar where you load your plates onto is a little short. one reviewer said you can fit five 45 lb plates on there, but mine seem to barely fit four plates and that's just the plates without a clamp. would be nice if the bar was a few inches longer. if my neck ever gets that strong i'll have to buy a 100-lb plate or two and that should work. shipping was fast. box came mostly intact. nothing was damaged, but when assembling, the pole did not fit through one of the bearings and i had to use a hammer to pound on the bearing until it was straight so that it would fit. also, the side of the machine had a little paint chip but that's just cosmetic and does not affect the function of the machine but still worth mentioning that the paint got chipped off when it shouldn't have been. this doens't seem to be during shipping as everything was packaged nicely but from your factory or warehouse where someone wasn't careful and scratched it up with another machine or something and didnt' do anything about it.