If you don't want to spend money on gym membership, don't want to lose time traveling to and from commercial gyms, but you like to workout at the privacy of your home, you are on the right place.
Need home gym exercise machine? Check these categories:
Need something else, or want to learn more about working out and workout equipment? Check these categories:
Here is the list of our latest reviews, recommendations and articles, feel free to check them ... Enjoy! :)
ProForm Cardio HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) Elliptical Trainer is built to maximize a user’s exercise in minimal time. HIIT is currently one of the most popular trends when it comes to fitness and entices people who don’t have much time to exercise and want to make most of the available time.
The aim of HIIT is just to offer maximum effort for a stipulated time period followed by a short break for recovery and then repeat. ProForm Elliptical Trainer does this job the best by combining stepper and elliptical motions and thus provides a total body workout without exerting excessive stress on joints while burning significant amount of calories and keeping users’ heart rate up and building strength during the entire course of workout.
Adjustable Height Portable Fitness Desk by RAD Cycle Products enables the fitness enthusiasts to workout at home or at office using whatever fitness equipment they have available and to place their laptops, tablets, smaller TVs and other required items on the required height for optimal workout sessions.
Adjustable Height Portable Fitness Desk by RAD Cycle Products support up to 44 pounds (~20 kg) and its height can be adjusted from 33.5 to 47 inches (~85 - 120 cm) allowing the trainees to use various exercise machines like rowers, bikes, under-desk treadmills or steppers and similar.
XTERRA Fitness TR300 Folding Treadmill is simple to use, yet versatile, mid-range home walking/running treadmill.
It doesn't feature Bluetooth connectivity and various fitness apps, but it come with relatively spacious running deck, strong construction, motorized incline, a number of different workouts for various goals and in the end, it has very good warranty.
Schwinn 230 and Schwinn 270 recumbent bikes are excellent and very popular mid-range home recumbent exercise bikes. They are sturdy and stable units, offering easy on and off access even to elderly people, they are easy to use, with very smooth ride.
Schwinn 230 and Schwinn 270 recumbent bikes feature very good maximum user weight and share many other similarities, not just externally. However, there are also few important differences between these cardio machines, dictating difference in the price, too.
Merax Vertical Climber is high-capacity and rather affordable climbing exercise machine, designed to provide not only quick cardio sessions, but also full body workouts. Merax Vertical Climber features simple but effective folding mechanism, saving precious spaces, regardless if it is 'just' one more exercise machine in the home gym, or single exercise machine at your home.
Vertical climbers are often underestimated exercise machines, but at the same time, they tone full body, burn plenty of fats and increase strength and stamina.
Exerpeutic Gold 575 XLS is compact and sturdy exercise bike, requiring not much storage area and supporting users up to 400 pounds (~181 kg). Console is simple to use, providing all required information during exercise.
Onboard computer support two user profiles - also, the Exerpeutic Gold 575 XLS exercise bike features Bluetooth Smart Technology, allowing its users to connect the bike with the free MyFitness4 App, available on the iOS, and store their individual data on their own smartphones.
Bowflex Blaze Home Gym is resistance rods home gym designed to provide full body workout at the privacy of your home. Large number of exercise, variable resistance upgradable up to 410 pounds, sliding seat rail, compact design and other features make this home gym one of the most popular home gyms on the market.
Bowflex Blaze Home Gym is excellent home gym for beginners and medium advanced trainees and for all people who wants to train at home regularly.
ProSource Multi-Grip Doorway Chin-Up/Pull-Up Bar is a heavy duty chin-up/pull-up bar, easily mounted on any doorway or most of the similar surfaces, like some squat cages, racks and similar locations.
ProSource Multi-Grip Doorway Chin-Up/Pull-Up Bar is a solid and very durable doorway pull-up bar which supports users up to 300 pounds (~136 kg).
Exerpeutic GOLD 975XBT Recumbent Exercise Bike is medium range, very quiet, home exercise bike. It comes with 21 pre-set workout programs, 3 goal settings, excellent maximum user weight and many other features very interesting to people needing a good recumbent bike for a home gym or just a good recumbent bike for training at home.
The Sunny Health & Fitness SF-RW5606 Elastic Cord Rowing Machine is very affordable, entry level home rowing machine. Its resistance system is based on an elastic cord, providing very specific rowing experience. Although it doesn't 'feel' as rowing on the water, 'bungee cord' resistance system acts both ways, helping the user to burn even more calories than other resistance systems.
Weight stack based home gyms take up very little floor space, offer a wide range of workout exercises (most often entire body - chest, shoulders, back, arms, abs and legs) and usually last for a long time.
These home gyms utilize usually only one central weight stack that is used for each different exercise.
Weight stack home gyms use a pulley system to hook the weight stack with desired exercise bar.
They are very safe and durable - only problem is that with having central weight stack, only one exercise can be perform at one time.
On the other hand, multistation weight stack home gym exercise machines have multiple weight stacks, enabling several people to train simultaneously or making possible circular workouts without changing the pin settings all the time.
Of course, multistation exercise machines are much bigger, heavier and costlier. They should be positioned on the strong floors with plenty of space around the machine.
Free weights home gym normally has no pulleys or cables. Instead of having multiple benches and units, there are several stations incorporated into one large frame system around one or two adjustable benches, that requires manually loading weight plates (free weights) at each station.
Although these systems are designed to simulate a free weight workout, there are big differences between lifting free weights using barbells or/and dumbbells (harder and less safe) and lifting weights using free weight home gyms (easier and safer).
Free weight home gyms require more space than single weight stack home gyms, are heavier due to additional plate weight, but they can last a long time and are very safe to use if used properly.
Free weights home gyms enables lifter to isolate muscles more than that would be possible using free weights. This is great advantage if you have certain issues like shoulder problems and you want to bench press. On the other hand, free weights stress more muscles (main muscles and stabilizers) and if you want to bench press, you have to do it with a free, loaded bar.
Also, some home gyms use Smith cages for safer workouts (this is always open to a nice debate) and such machines can use both free weights or weight stacks, or even something else.
If you want to lift weights, go to the gym, otherwise, consider weight stack or resistance rods home gyms. Although free weights home gyms have their advantages, personally I don't like them - but that is just me.
In order to provide the resistance, these gym systems use different strength rods. These systems are very compact, use very little space, provide numerous exercises, but they also have some major problems - rods lose resistance over time and they have to be changed from time to time. This can be great problem if there are several people working out with the same rods.
Rods and pulley system are not maintenance free - rods can be purchased and replaced as required, just like pulleys and cables.
Single workout station machines require little space, but anything more leads to increase in size and weight, but still, they are lighter than multistation weight stack or free weights home gyms.
On the other hand, these home gyms can be great choice for occasional trainee just wanting a moderately intensive workout with moderate volume.
This is very broad category of possible home gym exercise machines.
'Other home gyms' include home gyms that don't use classic free weights, weight stack or resistant rods. They use other means for creating resistance, for example - gravity.
Some home gyms look like Medieval torturing devices, but keep your mind open and think out of the box - best solutions are usually the most simplest one, but if you do need something specific, why not try something different.
Choosing best home gym machine can be sometimes a challenging task. Among many things to consider, two are the most important - money and trainee.
Money - price of home gyms vary significantly regardless of home gym type and so does their quality of construction, features, exercise options, maintenance etc. Price can vary from few hundred dollars/euros to thousands of dollars/euros. Of course, if certain home gym costs more, that doesn't mean that that home gym is better than some cheaper model.
Trainee - home gym machine should be bought for a trainee, not for showing off - OK, some showing off is always a good thing, but don't buy it just for that :) Elderly people and people with certain health issues don't lift heavy weights and their primary concerns are safety and simplicity - especially if they have to carry heart monitors and similar gadgets around. Compact, all-in-one resistance rods and center weight stack home gyms are recommended types for them.
Also, before buying any of these, consider few more things like quality of construction, features and exercise options, workout goals, safety features, weight and size, home gym machines maintenance etc.
Construction quality determines how strong, robust and durable home gym machines are. This highly influence the price and warranty, but good home gym can last for a long long time. When in use, good exercise machine should not move, wiggle and produce any squeaking sounds or anything similar - if they do, check if the machine is assembled properly.
Also, before buying, check if there is option to have the home gym machine assembled on the spot by a technician - these machines are not complicated as a space rockets, but why bother ...
When buying check for details, for example, if exercise machine uses bushings instead of ball bearing - some of them even go step further and instead of ball bearings use roll bearings! Plastic pulleys are durable, if made out of good and strong plastic, but steel pulleys last much longer. Cables made out of artificial fibers are strong, but they get easily damaged and stretched beyond returning to original state - steel cables are often more expensive, but much better option in the long run!
Again, if you are senior citizen or occasional trainee who don't want or don't have time to go to commercial gyms, maybe the weight stack or resistance rods home gym is all that you need. Don't be impressed with countless exercise options (although having a longer list of possible exercises is good thing), since just a 7-9 various exercises are more than enough for full body workout.
If you plan on working out individually and/or in pairs, single station exercise machine is more than enough. On the other hand, working out in small group have advantages, but waiting for your turn can sometimes be counterproductive - in that case, consider multistation exercise machine. Also, changing weight with a pin or resistance rod is easier and faster than loading and deloading weight using free weights.
It is important to define goals before purchasing any fitness equipment, not only home gym. If you aim high, maybe you should just join local gym. Not that people using home gyms have moderate goals, but sometimes it is very hard and unsafe to train, for example, squats with 200kg at home, even if you have the best squat rack.
On the other hand, most of the goals set even by moderately advanced trainees, mostly depend on their nutrition and not so much on training methods - OK, many people will not agree with me on this one, but everything is relative. For example, if your aim is to slam dunk, but you have 30% bf, what is more important to focus on, losing weight or squatting 250+ kg? Also, if your goal is to bench press 2x your body weight, it is easier to achieve this if you have 10-12 bf% and much harder if you have 30 bf%!
Home gyms are usually very safe, when used properly. If you are using free weights, be careful about using and positioning of safety pins. These pins limit range that bar can travel, so position them carefully, especially if you are working out alone exercises like bench press, squat and similar exercises where you are between loaded bar and floor/bench.
Again, quality of design, used materials and exercise machine itself is very important for safe workouts - nobody likes snapped cables, pulled out pulleys, broken resistance rods etc. Not to mention that all those parts, when broken, usually have velocities high enough to hurt somebody.
Home gyms can be very heavy, so pay attention where you plan to place them. Also, due to physical dimensions, be sure to have plenty of room around your home gyms, especially if you have multistation machines.
Weight stack home gym that has 4 stacks weighing 100kg, can easily reach half a ton - that is around 1100 pounds. Also, that is weight of 5 little bit bigger guys and in modern homes, such weight should not be a problem.
On the other hand, compact, all-in-one resistance rods or single weight stack style home gym can fit into a larger room, requiring very little space and practically no special flooring, although some padding under equipment is recommended.
But, if you plan on having free weights gym and you squat 150-200kg, deadlift 200+kg etc., throwing that weight off your shoulders (no safety pins, or safety pins not dimensioned properly) can have significant consequences on the exercise machine and on the floor, even if you have rubber coated plates and heavy rubber mats on the floor!
Maintenance depends on the type of home gym machine, its quality, usage etc. Before you do anything, read manual, at least twice.
This can help you in the long run and save you some money and time.
Lubrication should be done using recommended lubricants on a regular basis. Lubricants can be smelly and some people don't tolerate them very well - good ventilation is highly recommended in such cases.
Pulley, cables, resistance rods and similar parts should be replaced after some period of usage (read manual!) or when they show problem signs, preferably before they actually malfunction.
Of course, there are even more things to consider when buying such expensive exercise machines, but in the end it is all about personal preferences!
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