The ability to workout at home is a great luxury, and now it may be a necessity. Even at the best of times, going to a commercial gym can be aggravating; you have to fight the traffic to get there, find parking, find a locker, and then navigate through all the other members.
This can mean having to wait for equipment and fighting the crowds. It also exposes you to more germs and potential illnesses because of the close proximity with the other members. Trying to stay healthy can be a challenge when just one person is able to spread sickness throughout a club.
This makes the appeal of working out from home even more appealing. But where do you start? You might not have that much room and space to have dozens of dumbbells, bars, and pieces of equipment. This is where a multi-gym can come to the rescue. A good home multi gym will offer a variety of exercises but in a compact space. They are convenient, affordable, and can transform your home into your dream workout situation.
Here is a list of the best home multi-gyms:
- Marcy Multifunction Steel Home Gym 150lb Stack MWM-988
- Wido Home Multi Gym
- Marcy Smith Cage Home Multi Gym
- Steelflex MG200B Multi User Gym With Leg Press
Below we will review each one in detail
The Marcy Multi-function Steel Home Gym MWM-988 has obtained massive acclaim for its unique attributes and great longevity. It is easily one of the top home multi-gyms in the market. It comes with all the necessary workstations you would expect from a high-end home gym, including bilateral arm press, pulley stations, bicep pad, and chest press.
Marcy is a reliable name in fitness, and this home multi gym is heavy duty and highly rated.
Features
Feature-wise, it contains quite a lot including:
- Lightweight – even though it’s made from steel, this whole unit only weighs 150 pounds. This makes it easy to manoeuvre and position and won’t take up a lot of room
- You can lift up to 150 pounds on this home gym with its single weight stack.
- There are various upper body movements you can perform as it features a dual function arm press. You can perform a chest press but also have the option for chest flys.
- There are multiple options for back exercises with an overhead pulley bar that allows you to perform pull-ups, pull-downs, rows, and pullovers on the same machine
- You can work your legs on this home gym with leg extensions but it also features low pulley attachments for other leg exercises
- This unit is unique for featuring a preacher curl pad for training biceps
The weight stack is entirely vinyl coated and amounts to 150 lbs. It is great equipment if you are looking forward to toning your upper body. There is a separate lat station that focuses on strengthening your upper and lower back.
Other than that, fitness enthusiasts have even praised the home gym’s leg press and roller pads for accommodating a full range of movements in different directions. The roller pads also come with foam covers for a more comfortable experience.
Furthermore, pivot points have been ideally placed to provide adequate support to knee joints.
The MWM-988 is perfect for small spaces, a spare bedroom, garage or can even fit in the corner of an apartment. This is a true multi gym allowing you to work out all body parts and provides enough resistance to help you gain strength and muscle. Even though it’s light, it has a solid construction and can accommodate people up to 300 pounds.
Pros
- Lightweight
- Gives you a full-body workout
- Affordable
Cons
- Weight stack limit of 150 pounds
- Better for beginners
- Limited exercise choices
- Although it is not meant for use in gyms and health clubs, it has been built entirely from premium quality 14ga steel frame, making it extremely robust.
- On top of offering excellent performance, the MWM-988 home multi gym is well-recognized for its top-notch construction.
- The equipment is capable of supporting a maximum weight of 300lb. Even with its numerous workstations, the home multi gym maintains a small size that can easily fit standard rooms or garages.
- The home gym weighs about 270 lbs., making it a bit heavier than other home multi-gyms in its category.
Personal Trainer Tips & Advice
This is the perfect home multi gym for those looking for a simple workout, or people new to fitness. It will give you a lot of options to train your whole body, and enough resistance to help you get results.
You won’t be able to do serious strength training involving deadlifts, bench presses, or barbell squats, but if you are looking for basic fitness, this will help you get fit.
A more advanced trainer may like this home gym in addition to other equipment such as dumbbells and barbells. You could use the free weights for the serious strength training, and this home gym for accessory work such as leg extensions, flys, and biceps curls.
On the surface, Wido Home Multi Gym looks very plain. Don’t let its appearance fool you! It is one of the most functional and durable Home Multi Gyms in the market. Despite its affordable price tag, the Wido home Multi-Gym is perfect for any home workout set-up.
Features
- Full-body home multi gym to exercise every body part
- Compact for use at home
- Features a flat bench for bench press motion and also hamstring curls
- Cables do not need to be moved around or changed, allowing for smooth motions and fewer interruptions during workouts
- 6 different weight settings that can be changed depending on which exercise/body part you are training
- Exercise options include chest press, lat pull-downs, Chest fly/pec deck, bench press, leg extension, hamstring curls.
The Wido home multi gym is another affordable option but gives you a true workout station in your own home. The addition of the flat bench allows for more exercise options compared to more basic home multi gyms.
It is extremely versatile, allowing you to engage in a vast range of exercises that are a regular part of your routine. With this amazing workout equipment, you no longer have to worry about paying exorbitant monthly fees at your local health club.
There are a total of 6 weight settings for you to choose from, and it peaks at 64 KG of resistance. The diverse weight adjustment makes it suitable for a wider range of people.
The Wido Home Multi Gym has gained recognition for its compact design, which makes it ideal for small apartments. It’s compact but decently sized so you could make it the centre point of your home gym. But if this is all you are using, you would be sufficiently covered.
They cater this more to general fitness and does not include a lot of weight but is an ideal choice for those looking for general strength and muscle toning such as beginners or seniors.
Pros
- Affordable
- Compact
- Flat bench
- Great exercise options
Cons
- Not a lot of resistance
- Has to be assembled
- You can easily place it in the corner of a small bedroom. Even with its small structure, the home multi gym did not skimp on essential work stations.
- You will be able to engage in a complete body workout by using its chest press, pull down bar, leg press, and hamstring extensions. This is a great instrument for toning your physique or power coaching.
- It even comes with an innovative pulley system that automatically adjusts to the user’s preferred settings. You do not need to adjust the cable while alternating between different workouts.
- This is a highly recommended home multi gym for beginners as it is perfect for muscle toning.
- The multi gym is suitable for beginners but might be a good choice for extreme workouts. It has a weight support limit of 150 lbs. Also, the machine does not offer many exercise choices.
Personal Trainer Tips & Advice
The Mido is similar to the first entry on this list but serves a bit better as a multi-station gym. As mentioned, this multi gym does not have a lot of weight, so it would not appeal to those looking for heavy strength training.
Since it is very affordable, additional equipment could be purchased to create a true home gym set up.
The addition of the flat bench makes this a worthwhile choice, as most basic units at this price point do not include them.
The addition of some dumbbells could be used with the flat bench to create more resistance and to offer extra exercise options.
Marcy is one of the most reputed brands in the fitness community, and the Marcy Smith Cage Home Multi Gym is one of their best offerings. Not only is this multi-gym used at home, but it is also suitable for use in gyms and health clubs. It has a total weight capacity of 300 lbs., making it suitable for a wide range of body sizes. With this home multi gym, you will receive all the necessary workstations including press bar, roll bars, and so on.
Features
- Super strong with all-steel construction and aircraft cable for heavy, and long-lasting use
- Multi-function arm press giving you a wide variety of upper body movements to work your chest, shoulders, arms among other body parts
- Contains an Olympic free-weight rack to incorporate free-weight strength training into your workouts
- Built-in pegs for storage of weight plates
- Includes adjustable seat for use in upper and lower body exercises
- High pulley system with lat pulldown bar
Marcy Smith Cage home multi gym is a prime choice for anyone looking for full-body fitness equipment. Some even claim this equipment is ideal for engaging in 600 separate exercises.
The build quality of the home multi gym is fantastic. It comes with robust ball bearings that can tightly secure the press bar and can easily hold large amounts of weight.
This home multi gym is the perfect combination of cable and free weight exercises combined into one. It will appeal more to a serious lifter who wants to include heavy strength free weight training into their workout.
The racks can support up to 300 pounds and the bench can support 600 pounds of total weight (person and weight total). What also makes this stand out is the accessories that come with it, including multiple bars, tricep rope, ankle straps, single handles, and footplates.
Pros
- Very strong and sturdy
- Incorporates an Olympic bar and free weights
- Wide variety of exercise options
Cons
- Takes up more space than smaller units
- Assembly may not be easy
- Requires you to buy free weights and Olympic bar
- The entire machinery weighs 180 kg, and it isn’t very big for a commercial-grade multi gym. The press bar offers 9 individual lockout positions, and there is even room for an additional detachable weight bench.
- The individual parts are very flexible and move smoothly without interruption. This home gym is perfect for anyone serious about fitness.
- One downside to this home gym is its lack of weights. You will have to purchase the weights separately.
Personal Trainer Tips & Advice
This is the ideal choice for a more serious lifter. This home multi gym is one of the best combinations of cable exercises and incorporating free weights you can get at this price point.
To turn this into a perfect home gym, you would just need to add in some dumbbells along with the olympic bar and weight plates and it would cover you for most any form of training you need.
You can use the free weights for strength and muscle building, while the cable exercises are perfect for isolation and specific muscle shaping work.
The weight stack on the machine is also heavier so you will be able to train to failure and get enough muscle stimulus to lead to hypertrophy and strength gains.
This is the Rolls Royce of home gyms to the point you could cancel your gym membership and just use this. The most unique aspect is the leg press which you don’t often find on a home multi gym.
The amazing thing with this multi gym is the amount of features and exercise options built into a unit that does not take up a lot of space. It is only 100 inches long, 95 inches wide, and 95 inches tall and can fit into most spaces.
It’s on the higher end price-wise but only because it is such a high-end piece of equipment. It has so many exercise options that you won’t find on most home multi gyms.
Features
- Fully functional leg press
- Cast iron weight stack with 420 lb weight capacity
- Multiple adjustable seating positions for exercise variation
- Instructional placards illustrating exercises for each muscle group
- Pull up/dip station
- Leg extension and vertical knee raise
- Ergonomic design and heavy-duty construction
- Low abdominal crunch station
- Compact design
Fitness enthusiasts have applauded the intuitive design of MG200B, and its defining feature is its spectacular leg press. The movements are precise and effective, and you are unlikely to experience any hiccups as you go about your regular workout routine.
The Steelflex MG200B comes with a wide range of useful components that can enhance your workout experience in multiple ways.
To boot, the home multi gym ships with highly customizable bilateral pec training arms known for supporting different types of movements.
Pros
- A true home gym experience
- Leg press feature
- Gym quality feel and function
Cons
- Expensive
- Heavy
- The combination of leg press and calf press allows users to try out unique leg exercises. Other than that, the chest press and Dip Station on this device are also quite remarkable.
- Furthermore, the equipment also has a Vertical Knee Raise complementing the leg press. The whole package weighs 191 kg, which is less than several other competing home multi gyms.
- The entire home multi gym has been made from durable cast iron, and it only takes up a small amount of space compared to other multi gyms in its class. Moreover, this equipment has a special powder coating that prevents corrosion and raises overall longevity.
Personal Trainer Tips & Advice
As mentioned, this multi-gym is one that can replace your current gym. It doesn’t feature a squat rack or free weight bench press but that could be something you may want to add to your home setup.
For those not worried about heavy strength training, or Olympic lifting, this is the ultimate home workout with many exercise variations to keep your body guessing. Variation is the key to increases in strength and muscle as the body needs a changing stimulus in order to respond.
A good addition could be some simple mats and exercise balls to have a core/ab circuit to go along with this. This area could also function as a stretching station to make this a true home gym experience.
Fit4Home TF-7005A
The F4H TF-7002 Multi Gym is by far one of the best mid-range home multi gym equipment you’ll find. It does not have a fancy design but it looks smart and will fit great in your home. What’s impressive about this is that it comes with an 81.64 kg weight stack. So you’ll be able to perform workouts with high intensity. Performing with heavy weights will lead to massive gains in strength training.
Features
- Capable to try 50 different exercises
- A wide lat pull-down bar is available with which you can target your wings and achieve the v-taper look
- You can do the bench press seated to build muscle in your pecs while also losing fat and this way your shoulders will feel safer
- Your quads can easily be developed by performing leg extensions using this multi gym equipment
- Changing your movement, you can also curl your legs to develop muscle in your hamstrings so that your legs are proportional.
One of the comforts of using the Fit4Home is during the usage of pulleys. All of the pulleys contain sealed plastic sheathing giving it a smooth motion. You can do the bench press seated to build muscle in your pecs while also losing fat and this way your shoulders will feel safer. The weight stack of 81.64kg is very impressive. This will allow fitness enthusiasts of all levels to perform to failure. Trainers can use heavy weights and low reps; and light weights and high reps.
The weight stack shroud is translucent for safety. So you won’t have to worry about breaking a finger. The Fit4Home has a preacher curl pad which is detachable. You’ll be able to perform various workouts including the short head of your biceps. The weighted plates are vinyl-coated instead of bare metal plates. When they collide with one another, they are relatively quiet. More sound of music and less sound of clashes!
Due to its heavy weight stack, it can be used for heavy strength training. So you’ll be able to do a progressive overload.
However it does not come with a barbell and so you’ll not be able to do compound lifts such as a conventional barbell deadlift, barbell squats, and military press.
Pros
- Hits almost every body part
- Easy to clean cushion and backrest
- Quite affordable
Cons
- Can take half a day to assemble
- Does not incorporate a lot of workouts for your shoulders
What To Consider When Buying The Best Multi Gym
There are a few things that you need to consider before buying a home multi gym.
Budget
This will probably be your first consideration
How much are you willing to spend? If you will no longer be using a commercial gym, you will be saving your membership money which you can put towards your new home gym. If you are involved in basic fitness, you may be able to get by with a basic model which doesn’t have to be too expensive.
If your training is more in-depth, you will need a multi gym with more options. Decide on your budget and then start looking around at what works best for you. You can use this guide as a good starting point.
Your Fitness Needs
What is your current fitness level and goals
If you are looking for general fitness, and plan to workout 2-3 times per week, then you can get by with a basic unit. If you are into heavy strength training, or Olympic lifting, you will want a machine that incorporates that in as a small multi gym with minimal weight may not cut it for you.
Look at the type of training you do right now and make note of the exercises and options that you will need when considering buying the best multi gym for your needs.
Space
How much space do you have available
Since you are working out at home you have to consider the amount of space you have available for a multi gym. If you are limited to a small apartment or bedroom you’ll have to find the best option that takes up the smallest space. If you have large empty rooms, or a garage, you will have some more freedom to get any size you want along with incorporating other equipment or weights.
Why not have a look at our review of the best folding exercise bike to include to your home gym.