Home Gym Machines

Get fit and strong with a home gym machine

We all know how important it is to stay healthy, maintain a good level of fitness and keep in shape. For many people, exercise is something we'd love to be getting more of, the problem is simply fitting it into our increasingly hectic daily lives...

Home gym machines, or multi gyms as they are often called, can provide the perfect solution to the modern, time-strapped individual. Set up one of these versatile machines in your garage, shed, spare room, basement, and you have your very own gym available at all times - no excuses!

The benefits of using a home gym machine are significant: regular work outs will help you to burn fat, reduce cholesterol levels, tone your body, relax your mind and leave you looking and feeling great. More long term benefits include an increased life expectancy and potential reductions in the risk of chronic disease.

As an alternative to the gym, home gym machines offer many additional benefits: no travelling time, no expensive membership fees, no need to pack a bag, no intimidating bodybuilders lifting ten times their own body weight... just you, maybe a friend or your partner, perhaps a selection of your favourite tunes, and a relaxing workout in the comfort of your own home.

Home multi gyms are perfect for novices, but there are a vast range of models out there to suit everyone from beginners to more advanced fitness fanatics looking for a safe, reliable work out. This site explains the features to look for in a home gym machine, as well as providing tips on how to use them and exploring the benefits in more detail. There is also a useful Where To Buy section for anyone looking to make a purchase!

Features of Home Gym Machines

What to look for

Home gym machines are a cost effective and convenient way to get in shape, but what do you need to look for when you're buying one? Some of the main features you will find on home multi gyms are the weights stack, lat bar, tricep bar, leg developers, high and low pulleys, bench press, press arms and ankle straps. If you are wondering to yourself what all this means, then read on as we look at the separate components in more detail below.

The weights stack is the main supply of weights that feeds all the different components in your gym machine. A weights stack is generally somewhere between 40 and 60 kilograms, but they can go up to as much as 500 kilograms for the more expensive home gym machines. Remember, it's not about how much you can physically lift in one go; it's about the effect of repetition. On this basis, 50kg is normally a sufficient weight supply for your average home multi gym user.

The bench press component of a home gym machine allows you to lie flat on your back and lift the weights stack by pushing your arms straight up in front of you. This exercise is particularly useful for enhancing your pectorals, as well as improving your triceps and deltoids.

The lat bar is the long bar that hangs from the top of your multi gym, enabling you to do a range of exercises that involve you pulling the bar down. The two most common exercises are repetitions of pulling the bar down either in front of you or behind your head whilst sitting down. Exercises of this nature help to develop the latissimus dorsi muscle (hence the name) - the broadest muscle on the back. The lat bar is sometimes referred to as the high pulley.

Many home gym machines feature press arms (often referred to as dual action press arms), which can be used to work many of the upper body muscle groups that are important in weight training. Press arms generally allow you to do some variations of bench, incline and shoulder exercises, giving your upper body a nice work out. Don't neglect your legs though, these can be worked whist sitting on your bench and raising the weight stack using the leg developer. Most home gym machines will enable you to work a whole range of muscle groups and give your body a well balanced work out. The more expensive gyms do offer a number of different exercises, but the main difference is in the quality of the build.

Who Makes Home Gym Machines?

The Manufacturers

There are a considerable range of companies manufacturing home gym machines but a few of the most well known are Weider, Marcy and Life Fitness. These three companies are well known for their gym equipment - between them they provide a large number of the home gyms that are purchased in the UK each year. We will look at these companies in more detail below.

The Weider company have been educating the world on all aspects of fitness, bodybuilding and health for over 70 years. Weider are well known for their nutrition products and the advice they give in terms of healthy eating and creating the perfect diet. In addition to this, the company manufactures a number of affordable and reliable home gym machines. Weider home gyms are ideal for beginners - most of their products range in price between £200 and £400, and they are made by true experts with a long history in the weightlifting field.

Life Fitness is a company that specialises in the production of fitness equipment such as treadmills, exercise bikes and gym machines. Their home gym machines are of the best quality and tend to range in price between £1000 and £5000 pounds. If you are experienced in weight training then a Life Fitness machine may be the way to go. A medium to high quality home multi gym (i.e. £400 plus) will be comfortable, durable and will work with a smooth action. As with all things, it is up to you to decide how seriously you intend to take your training and how much you want to spend.

One of the biggest manufacturers of home multi gyms is Marcy. If you search for these machines online you will find many shops are dominated by Marcy products. This is mainly because of the huge range of gyms they produce. Marcy gyms start at £200 and go up to as much as £5000, with every available option in between. You know you are in safe hands with a home gym from Marcy - they really are the experts. You also can't write about fitness machines without mentioning York. This American company has been going for 75 years and produce a whole range of fitness machines. Although some online shops rely on the huge range of products that Marcy offer, York home gym machines are still incredibly popular.

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