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Anyone into fitness and health relishes the idea of working out in the convenience and comfort of
their home. No home gym is complete without a treadmill, the
all-important piece of aerobic equipment. And here, we look at another essential to round out your
home gym, a strength-building machine.
It may be the ultimate irony of the workout world: As weight training catches on, muscles get
bigger while weight machines get smaller.
The runaway popularity of strength-training machines, now used by a whopping 22.5 million
Americans—double the number of just five years ago, according to American Sports Data, Inc., of Hartsdale, New York—has forced the manufacturers of resistance machines to do some creative
engineering. The result? Seemingly overnight, there is an explosion of smaller, more effective
and more attractive home gyms.
Big on benefits, small on space
The demand is certainly there. Today, with men and women in search of buff bodies, and study after
study touting the positive role of strength training in calorie-burning, longevity, and fighting
osteoporosis, average people are racing to convert old guest rooms into workout rooms. But while
they want the same exercises in a home gym that they’ve gotten used to on the hulking machines at the health club, they just don’t have the space at home.
Strength training renaissance
That’s why the flood of new-generation weight and resistance machines are radically downsized to fit in a corner or along one wall. At the same time, they are ingeniously jammed with enough exercises to work out the five major muscles groups—chest, arms, back, shoulders, and legs. Best of all, decent multi-exercise units with full-blown “selectorized” weight stacks (the type you use in gyms, in which you select a quantity of weights by placing a pin in a small hole underneath a weight plate) have come way down in price. Along with a few surprisingly good infomercial products, you can actually take home an honest-to-goodness home gym for less than $1,000. And if you’re willing to spend double that, you can find multi-station units that approach health-club quality.
Great gyms
Bottom line: It no longer takes big-time money to get a big-time workout at home. Leave the
$10,000 behemoths to Sly and Arnold. For $1,000 to $2,500, you can own a mighty-mite home gym
that’ll work out your entire body without taking over half your home’s floor space. Here, we review some of the best.
EDITOR’S PICK
Bowflex Power Pro ($999)
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS
Schwinn 733s ($1,100)
Body-Solid EXM-2500S ($1,400)
ParaBody 425 ($2,199)
Precor Del Mar ($2,195 )
Editor’s Pick
Bowflex Power Pro
Cost: $999
Highlights:
- Super portability—ultra light and fits in car trunk
- High-tech, space-age appearance
- Allows most popular exercises
Lowlights:
- Movements more freeform, so requires more discipline than weight-stack machines
- Popular options make price comparable to some bargain weight-stack units
Yes, you’ve seen it on infomercials. No, it’s not a rip-off that will gather dust in your den after a few weeks. In fact, the Bowflex may be the space-saving, muscle-buffing bargain of the decade. What makes this machine special is an ingenious design that allows the 72-pound unit to be folded up in seconds and moved around or wheeled away to a closet or your car. (Some
personal trainers actually bring the Bowflex to their client’s homes!) Bowflex looks oddly bare, like a bench with a dozen black, upright poles behind it. Those poles are actually “Power Rods,” black polymer cylinders of different diameters that correspond to various weights. The workout, which comes from bending the rods by pulling individual, pulley-attached, right- and left-hand cables, feels remarkably similar to dumbbells, delivering resistance over the full range of motion and forcing each hand to do the same work.
Other pluses include easy exercise-to-exercise changeovers (the cables hook quickly to any
combination of rods) and a passable aerobic row due to the sliding seat. The only exercises the
Power Pro can’t do well are leg extensions and lat pulldowns, but attachments for those two are available for an extra $200 each. The leg extension Bowflex model is called the Power Pro XT
($1,199) and the model with leg extension and lat pulldowns is called the Power Pro XTL
($1,399).
Link: http://www.bowflex.com
Schwinn 733s
Cost: $1,100
Highlights:
- Bargain price
- Takes up tiny corner floor space
- Most popular, all-body exercises
- Major league, 220-pound weight stack
Lowlights:
- Not adjustable, so incline and military presses not possible
For those looking for a conventional weight-stack machine, meet the metal that most of the
infomercial wonder gyms hate: the 733s. With all the popular exercises accessed from one seated
station and a tiny 4 1/2- by 4-foot footprint, it’s ideal for apartment dwellers with only one empty corner to spare. Although a model of efficiency, the setup is not perfect: The pectoral pads are placed higher than normal, and incline and military presses are not possible (the
nonadjustable back pad and bar only make regular vertical bench presses possible). Still, this
little Schwinn delivers a 220-pound weight stack (among the heaviest anywhere) and a ton of
exercises: chest press, pectoral fly, lat pulldown, leg extension, low row curls, and abdominal
crunches. Incidentally, if you have more room, an even better deal may be Schwinn’s 701s, which has the same exercises in two back-to-back stations for just $899. If you’re looking for something closer to health-club quality, check out Schwinn’s two-station 734s model ($1,899) and one-station 8100s ($1,599).
Link: http://store.schwinn.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/Equipment/scfframescat.d2w/report?cgrfnbr=270
Body-Solid EXM-2500S
Cost: $1,400
Highlights:
- All popular exercises, including dips
- Uses thicker steel than others in price range
- Durable stitched vinyl pads
- Good 210-pound weight stack
- Very good total price for base unit and popular options
Lowlights:
The reason I’m presenting this unit with two optional stations included is that, simply, there
may be no better, complete deal than this when it comes to quality construction and quantity of
exercises. The 2500S begins life as a $899 two-station base unit and reaches $1,400 by adding
optional leg press/calf raise and vertical knee raise/dip stations. Its lineup includes all the
standard exercises, including all-position presses, lat pulldown, pectoral fly, leg curl/extension,
and more. Nice touches abound: It uses powder-coated, 2- x 4-inch, 12-gauge steel (thicker than
others in this range), includes a respectable 210-pound weight stack, has stitched-vinyl pad
covers (another rare touch), and even has grips designed to fit the shape of your hands. Heck, you
even get a workout poster with step-by-step instructions for proper use and positioning.
Not sold online. For dealer information contact Body-Solid: 800-833-1227.
Link: http://www.bodysolid.com
ParaBody 425
Cost: $2,199
Highlights:
- Huge number of exercises
- Fits against a wall
- Adjustable press station allows many different press positions
- Allows dips and pull-ups, a rarity
Lowlights:
- Standing leg curl instead of prone position
- Light, 160-pound weight stack
This two-station machine (a chest-press and a pectoral/leg station, with low and high pulleys)
gives you every imaginable exercise and the smooth, solid feel of far more expensive
machines in a compact, 6 1/2- x 10-foot footprint that fits against a wall. The 425’s key is
its ingeniously designed press station, which has an adjustable seat and bar to allow standard
bench, military, incline, and decline presses. The bench also pivots out of the way when not in
use, allowing you to use the stable press bar for unhindered calf raises, squats, dips, and even
pull-ups. On the other station, the pec dec perfectly simulates a classic dumbbell fly. For this
price though, I wish it had a prone-position leg curl instead of a less-efficient standing one,
but it doesn’t ruin an otherwise super value. Options include: A second 160-pound weight stack
($369), leg press ($599), and glute/squat station ($189).
Not sold online. For dealer information contact ParaBody: 800-228-4334.
Link: http://www.parabody.com
Precor Del Mar
Cost: $2,195
Highlights:
- Very small footprint
- Huge number of exercises
- Attractive appearance
- Beefy club feel
- Decent 205-pound weight stack
Lowlights:
Nothing looks like it (an efficient semi-prone position), feels like it (rock solid—like a
commercial machine) or works like it (a unique, patented bi-directional press arm). The latter is
the key to the Del Mar; you change the resistance of the two-way press arm from push up to push
down by simply slipping a pin into the correct position on the cam as you lay there on your back.
Push-up exercises include arm presses (incline, decline, regular and shoulder, depending on the
angle at which you set the back pad). Push-down exercises include lat pull downs, triceps push
downs, squats, and stomach crunches. Leg extension/curl, triceps dips, and pec flys exercises
round out the main exercises. With a shrouded, graduated 205-pound weight stack, handsome looks,
and a beefy, club feel, the Del Mar packs a classy, full-bore workout into a very small
space (4 feet, 2 inches by 6 feet, 6 inches). Options include: leg press ($549), calf raise
($109), weight-stack shroud ($219).
Not sold online. For dealer information, contact Precor: 800-4PRECOR.
Link:
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