Real Home Gym Reviews

Real Home Gym Reviews archives for January, 2011.

BodyCraft Xpress Pro Home Gym Review

By irontony

With the BodyCraft Xpress Pro, you can work out right at home and do everything from lose weight to build muscle to improve your golf swing! While that last fact isn’t scientifically proven, that’s what users say. The Xpress Pro is a home gym that lets you get a great burn from a wide array of exercises. This gym features stations for shoulder presses, chest presses, leg lift and lat pulls to name a few. If you add the BodyCraft Leg Press Station, you get even more exercises to tone and tighten your lower body.

The Xpress Pro features a row/press arm that offers adequate support for safe exercises including machine-style bench presses, incline presses shoulder presses and seated rows. Without the added Leg Press Station, you still get a leg workout with the Leg Extension/Leg Curl station. Adjustable parts allow for any user to get a great workout for both upper and lower body.

No matter where you are in your fitness walk, the Xpress Pro home gym can give you a stellar workout consisting of over 100 exercises. If you are looking for rehabilitation exercises, they are here; sports-specific workouts, they are here; functional core training, also here. When you invest in a home gym, this is exactly the types of features and benefits you want to see.

The Xpress Pro Home Gym features include:

  • Cable Station with adjustable arms
  • 200-pound weight stack that can be doubled to 400 pounds when combined with the leg press, which is cabled at a 1:2 ratio.
  • Bench Press Station with adjustable starting point
  • Adjustable seat and back to accommodate several users
  • cable arms utilize pulleys and cables for unrestricted, completely natural, and biomechanically correct movements
  • Accessories include a lat pull bar, curl bar, ankle strap, and two single handles
  • Lifetime warranty

Through a pulley sytem and a 200 lb weight stack, you can get into tricep extensions, lat pull downs, tricep pushdowns, arm curls, upright rows and more.  The pulleys deliver completely natural movements that are biomechanically correct and safe.  With all that comes with the Xpress Pro, all you need is the home gym mat to go under it!

The Perfect Beginner’s Home Gym: The Cap Barbell Multi-Station FM H1005

By irontony

Just starting out on your home fitness regiment? Want to know the first piece of equipment to buy for your new home gym?

The list of choices can be confusing. But one thing is for sure. If you are not able to spend $1,000 on home gym equipment yet your options are limited. Fortunately, their is one piece of home gym equipment that will handle all your basic beginner’s needs– and is amazingly underpriced!

The Cap Barbell Multi-Station FM H1005 home gym is an entry level home gym perfect for users with limited space who want to stay on a budget and not break the bank when starting a home gym.

With a compact size of only 58″ long and 41″ inches wide the beginning user can enjoy basic toning and muscle building exercises like chest presses and lat pull downs for the upper body and leg extensions and curls to firm and tighten their lower body.

The Cap Barbell Multi-Station FM- H1005 gym comes standard with a durable powdercoat paint finish, vinyl encased 150 pound cement weight stack, lat bar and straight exercise bar.

It gives you all the necessary perks of a starter home gym including:

* Durable Black Powdercoat Paint
* Vinyl Encased 150 Lb. Cement Weight Stack
* Chest Press Station
* Lat Pulldown / High Pulley
* Seated Row / Low Pulley
* Leg Extension / Leg Curl
* Pectoral Fly Station

The Cap Barbell Multi-Station FM H1005 is perfect for targeting your arms, chest, shoulders, back, abdominals, and legs.

If you can’t yet spend the money necessary to populate your home gym with the best equipment out there, don’t settle for mismatched cheap pieces. Go with this multi-station and you can start all the basic exercises you need right now, no waiting!

You really should check out the Cap Barbell Multi-Station FM H1005 if you are ready to get your own home gym underway.

Iron Tony

Yukon Condor Gym: Home Trainer at a Great Price

By irontony

If you are on a budget and looking for a cheap home gym that will train your entire body then you may want to consider the Condor Gym by Yukon.  The inexpensive Condor Home Gym System allows you to workout both your upper and lower body for a cost under $500.  The Condor Home Gym System is known as one of the best exercise machines for the price.

Yukon’s incredible new Condor Gym incorporates all the best features of a health club gym into one complete, convenient and space-saving package. This innovative new machine allows the user to perform an entire body workout without having to sacrifice a lot of space. Made of tough, 12 gauge steel with the finest components throughout, the Condor Home Gym is set to revolutionize the complete ”home” gym market.

The smooth free weight action is unmatched as the weight slider glides effortlessly through each routine  providing a fantastic workout  at an unbelievable price.

Yukon is known for making high quality bodybuilding, strength, and fitness equipment at a great price. The Condor Home Gym System is constructed of mostly 12 gauge 2″ iron tubing, and higher quality components for smooth action and a better feel. The Condor gym offers full body workouts while utilizing a small amount of space.

Yukon’s Condor gyms unique design allows you to place it close to a wall or in a corner of the room. Since all exercises are executed from the front of the workout equipment you can efficiently workout both the upper and lower body and a very little amount of space.

Types of home gym set ups

By irontony

You have many options in setting up a home gym, but the choices for weight training mostly fall into the categories below. Aerobic exercise equipment such as treadmills, rowers and stationary bikes are always options; but for now I’ll concentrate on strength training equipment.

  1. Combinations of portable equipment. Dumbbells, bench, balls, steps, bands, mats, ab workers etc. Nothing too complex here, just basic but extensible equipment. The Troy VTX 5-50 lb. 12 Sided Dumbbell Set is a popular starter.
  2. ‘Free weight’ stations. Adjustable benches, power racks for holding barbells, dumbbells, barbells and plates (round weights). Mostly movable equipment for more heavy duty use. The Bayou Dumbbell Utility Bench is an example.
  3. Multi-gyms based on steel or composite bands and cords. The flexing band creates the resistance.
  4. Total Gym concept. This idea uses an adjustable height, inclined bench and sliding seat platform that uses your own body weight to increase resistance. Example: Body Solid exm1500s Home Gym.
  5. Multi-gyms based on stacked weights. This most popular configuration uses a cable and pulley mechanism with stacked weights. You move the peg to select the weight. Example:
  6. Multi-gyms with provision for free weight plates. The round weights are manually fitted to the barbell extensions. Example: Body Solid BF Olympic Weight Bench.
  7. Smith machine multi combinations. The standard Smith machine uses a mechanism that constrains the bar in one vertical plane, unlike free-weight benches and racks. These home gym multis add additional attachments to achieve a versatile workstation. Example: Body Solid Smith Machine.