This is just meant as a light read recapping my second year at FIBO 2026 with pictures and video from some of the many booths.

First of: 6 Good tips for visiting FIBO

Just a few quick travel tips if you ever consider going to FIBO.

• Flying to Düsseldorf Airport instead of Köln Airport provides you with many more flight times and cheaper ticket prices.
• You can then take the train (either S-bahn or Regional) straight from Düsseldorf Airport to Köln Messe Center in 30-40 minutes. It is easy to buy the train tickets at ticket automats or via the app DB Navigator.
• If you are going straight to FIBO from the Airport then you get of the train at “Köln Messe Center”. The station after that “Köln HBT” is likely the station you want to get of at if you need to check into your hotel or find a restaurant.
• The queue to get in just as the doors open on saturday and sunday is insane. So either come at least 1 hour before the doors open. Or consider coming a few hours after the doors have opened to skip the queue entirely.
• Food options in the Messe Center are not impressive. Toilet facilities are good.
• Köln has many museums and good restaurants. So you can definitely take a day just to explore the city.

First stop: Hold Strong Fitness

We had so many things to see this year, so the Hold Strong booth was one of our many too short visits this year. Hold Strong still has the record for most smooth cable carridge on a functional trainer that I’ve ever tried. Apart from that we tried their adjustable dip attachment and saw their simple and solid solution for offering both a 1:1 and 2:1 weight ratio on the functional trainer of the front upright of their all-in-one power racks. Kingsbox, GetRX and other companies have used a similar approach.

ELEIKO: They finally finished their trinity of specialty bars

Eleiko brought their new prototype SSB and prototype cambered swiss bar. Just as you would expect from Eleiko, both bars had excellent build quality combined with an elegant yet unigue design. The cambered swiss bar was nicely balanced in hand despite the cut-out that makes it more suitable for overhead pressing as well. The SSB was extremely well balanced. But when I laoded it to 110 kg the pads were a bit uncomfortable. Importantly, both bars were only prototypes.

I also saw the new EPP Foam Plyo box from Eleiko, which I was very impressed with (see video below). It currently retails at xxx euros. I recently bought a version from XMASTER Europe* at half that price. And my initial thoughts are that they are identical to eachother.

*Affiliate link

Overall, I left the Eleiko booth with the sensation that Eleiko is finally innovating again. And the rumour from one of their distributors at FIBO was that Eleiko has moved even more of their production to Sweden (the EPP box for example), so they are less dependent on supply routes, global politics etc.

APEX (formerly The Tib Bar Guy): The new bench to beat?

The Tib Bar Guy started out as a small accessory brand focusing on pieces such as tib trainer and nordic benches. But with their new APEX Bench they also switched their name to APEX. And to my great pleasure they reached out to me and asked if I wanted to come and take a look at their new APEX Bench at FIBO 2026.

I ended up spending around an hour with the two owners and their APEX Bench. And I think I can sum it up really quickly. Once the APEX Bench comes to Europe, I will sell my ATX MBX-660 and buy the APEX bench. I think it ticks all of the boxes for a adjsutabel bench for a home gym. You don’t only buy a bench. You also get access to so many well made attachments. And this was obviously a passion project for the two owners.

They are currently hoping to enter Europe in the beginning of 2027.

Speediance Gym Nano: The New Contender in Digital Resistance for Home Gyms

Unfortunately, I only spent very short time with the Speediance Gym Nano at FIBO. Partly because I had so much to see this year. But also because their booth was placed in the supplement hall. And ask any person over 30 – the extremely crowded supplement hall is a terrible place to be. But I had just had my hands on the Beyond Power Voltra 30 minutes earlier, and I could not feel any difference between the two machines. Generally, I am excited to see where the digital resistance market will go, and I am fairly sure I will have to get one as a supplemental cable setup one day. But also as a way to mimic many expensive and big strength machines at home.

REP Fitness: New Cardio Machines and The Altitude Series

At FIBO 2025 I spent a lot of time in the REP Booth answering follower questions and interviewing their team. So this year I had to prioritize other brands. But in 2026 they again absolutely filled their booth to the brim with equipment and brought in a large group of knowledgable people who were constantly ready to answer questions and engage with visitors. This made the REP booth stand in sharp contrast to the Rogue booth that was positioned just opposite the REP booth again this year (more on that later).

We got to try the adjustable dumbells (Reppins) made as a collaboration between REP and Peppin, the Strive Bike and the Altitude Rack. And I was impressed by all of them. During FIBO it even seemed that they discovered a minor mistake in the design of the Reppins that was taken very serious by the team. I believe this has since been corrected. Just another reason that it pays of to bring the right representatives to FIBO.

Rogue: Feels half baked

Look. I am a Scandinavian. I love minimalism. But not when I visit a booth at FIBO. I come to be burried in gym equipment. And for the second year in a row the Rogue booth seemed almost empty, both in terms of people and equipment. I would love if they brought more equipment. But more importantly, I would appreciate if they brought more representatives and perhaps som engineers. No one greated me or seeked any interacting when we came to the booth. Comapred to the other big home gym oriented equipment brands at FIBO the missing engament really sticks out. Yet, it important to acknowledge that I may just have come by at an unlucky time. And I still love their built-in Rhino.

Gungnir: One day we will be together

I had to show my wife the Gungnir booth so I could convince her that we should get a Gungnir bar at some point. Their barbells with built-in collars are absolutely beautiful. Their main focus these days seem to be commercial gyms as well as their new barbells with 30 mm sleeves for body pump classes. Yet, despite that they did still bring something new and highly relevant for home gyms – a new powerlifting barbell with a 29 mm shaft.

ForceUSA: They listened!

When we saw the ForceUSA booth I had one goal in mind. I had to see if they had brought an improved version of their CLP (compact leg press). I had owned and used the v3 for almost 6 months prior to FIBO 2026. And I and many others home gym geeks had suggested a number of improvements that you potentially eleveate the old v3 to a home gym stable. And to my joy ForceUSA had listened to all of the feedback and made huge improvements to the new v4 prototype that they brought this year. It is so cool to see the companies listen to feedback from the users. And that exact pre production prototype now lives in my home gym where I am currently testing it out. And so far I am very impressed with it!

ForceUSA also showcased their new collaboration with Dialed Motion on their sliding bench. Yet another great tendency in the home gym setting. We are seeing more larger companies collaborate with smaller companies to acquire more innovation. They also brought a brilliant back extention machine that is unfornunately from their commercial line. So it was way to big for most home gyms. A have however tried to convince them that a much smaller version of it would be relevant on the home gym market. And it is currently not on their website. So perhaps they went back to the drawing board to reduce its footprint.

Strengthshop: They entered the mainstream home gym market

Previously Strengthshop has been more of niche brand that focuses on powerlifting and strongman accesories and equipment. They were on a the few places where you could find many of the more rare pieces used in strongman at an affordable price. So most of their items were fairly simple and heavy duty. Not much engineering going on.

But that has changed in 2026. Strengthshop came to FIBO with an entirely new line of selectorized cable systems – both rack integrated and individual solutions. And they showcased new specialty bars, their new rack ecosystem and much more. I unfortunately had very little time to look around their booth. But I was exited to see strengthshop take steps towards being a brand that can truly outfit your entire home gym. And their representatives were friendly and knew their stuff.

More booth experiences might be added in the coming weeks. Overall it was another great year at FIBO. Especially the home gym centered market in Europe keeps improving year after year. We are no longer hopelessly far behind the selection avaiable to the American home gym community.