Before purchasing any expensive piece of equipment, you should be clear of what you want and ensure you will actually use it. If you can afford the equipment, have room for it and honestly believe you will use it, the next question is will the machine be worth the price. The Total Gym machines are home gyms that are worth the price as you can commit to using it.
Strength Training
The Total Gym gives you functional strength training options for the upper body, lower body and abdominal muscles. Because of the moving bench and the lack of fixed movements that come with most weight machines, the exercises on a Total Gym work your stabilizer muscles. According to an article on the website for Popular Mechanics, it's effective for sports training. It is also smaller than multi-station home gyms and folds up for storage.
Pilates
You can do Pilates exercises like the Serve, Offering and Hug a Tree on a Total Gym. Instead of spending an additional $500 or more for a Pilates Reformer machine, you can do the same exercises on a Total Gym. Doing both traditional strength training and Pilates on one machine saves money and space. Other Pilates exercises include the Salute, Bicep Curls and the exercises of the rowing series.
Number of Exercises
You can do up to 120 or more exercises on the Total Gym, depending on the model. Even the XLS version, which is the base model, has more than 80 exercises to choose from. Older models such as the 1500 can do more than 60 exercises and costs $295 new, according to Popular Mechanics. When you compare this to another popular home gym, the Bowflex, you see the Total Gym is less expensive. Bowflex machines use cables attached to rubber-like power rods instead of a weight stack, which makes the Bowflex workouts more comparable to a Total Gym than to other strength-training machines. A classic Bowflex, the base model, costs about $650 as of January 2011, and is only capable of 30 exercises. You cannot do a Pilates Reformer workout on the Bowflex either.
Considerations
Although the Total Gym is a better deal than other home gyms, the Weider Total Body Works 5000 is much less expensive. The Total Body Works 5000 is a similar machine. It uses bodyweight, cable and a sliding bench just like a Total Gym. Fifty exercise options are available and it also comes with four adjustable power bands. The Weider machine is less expensive and the quality is less. The machine is not as smooth and workouts are noisier, according to Home Gym Advisor.
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