Some people have a room exclusively designed and maintained as their home gym.
Not everyone is so lucky.
If your problem lies solely on very little space you have at home, don't fret!
Many home gyms today are trying to solve this dilemma and including would-be buyers who are specifically looking for space-saving equipment.
But before we go straight to the list of best home gyms for small spaces, let's first define what home gym is.
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Home Gym: Who's it for?
A home gym is a space dedicated to working out right in the comforts of your own home. This can be a garage, an attic, your own room, the living room, or elsewhere. So home gyms are basically for anyone who does not have time, money or interest to go to public gyms.
A home gym can copy the look of a public gym, complete with cardio equipment, dumbbells, fitness balls, and so on. However, a home gym can also include just a set of adjustable dumbbells. Usually, the contents of a home gym would boil down to the person's budget and fitness goals.
Here are some examples of fitness goals and the respective gym equipment that can help you reach these goals:
The home gyms we're featuring below is ideal for people interested in toning and building muscles.
BEST OVERALL
Best Home Gym For Small Spaces, For Weight Loss, Bodybuilding, Toning And All Around Fitness
Top 7 Home Gyms for Small Spaces
1. Bowflex PR1000 Home Gym (Best for Rehab)
Bowflex is an award-winning brand in the gym market, so most of its machines are well loved by people in the industry. The PR1000 Home gym is no exception.
It was designed to provide low-impact strength training, so don't expect to use this machine for extreme bodybuilding.
Bowflex's PR1000 home gym does provide enough parts to break your sweat, including a built-in rowing station for cardio, over 30 exercises to perform, and the adjustable bench to match with your dumbbells.
The PR1000 is equipped with Bowflex’s Power Rod technology, which lets users go from weight resistance of 5 pounds up to 210 pounds. This feature allows beginners and those undergoing rehab to customize resistance based on progress.
This machine is a perfect space-saver, too! Once you're done working out, simply fold it up and store somewhere else.
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2. Fitness Reality 810XLT Super Max Power Cage (Best Power Rack)
The Fitness Reality 810XLT Super Max Power Cage won't be chosen as a Men's Health recommended equipment for nothing.
This power rack actually needs little space when assembled, but it is a monster. Unfortunately, the Fitness Reality 810XLT cannot fit in homes with low ceilings, since it is 83.5″ tall. And since we're talking about space, you might need more if you're opting for the model with plate storage, which is attached to the back of this power rack.
The 810XLT is an extremely well built, super-sturdy "cage" that can carry a person weighing up to 800 pounds.
Built from 2″x 2″ steel tubing, the Fitness Reality 810XLT Super Max Power Cage is equipped with 19 adjustable levels for the safety bars, which means you can do multi-position chin ups, and a plethora of other bodyweight exercises.
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3. Marcy Multifunction MWM-988 Steel Home Gym (Best in Design)
Marcy's MWM-988 Home Gym is one of the many multifunction home gyms from this award winning brand. This particular model is made from heavy-duty 14-gauge steel tube frame, which can be adjusted to customize desired lift and weight.
The MWM-988 home gym is featured with dual press arm, which users could set as either chest press or vertical butterfly. There is also a thick foam roller for performing proper leg workouts comfortably and effectively, as well as a fully-adjustable reacher curl bicep pad for hammer curls and other positions.
Marcy designed the MWM-988 home gym to have double pulley stations, so you could do pullovers, pull-ups, pull-downs, pullovers via the two lateral bars.
What makes this home gym special is that all parts are adjustable, which means someone who is 6 feet can use this machine and be followed by a 5-feet-5-inch tall user.
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4. TRX All In One Home Gym (Best Portable Gym)
If you're looking for a home gym that you can bring to your school dorm, at the office, during vacations, or just set-up at different parts of the house, the TRX All-in-one home gym is a contender you should check out.
It's been around for over 15 years, and since it was launched, the U.S. military, professional sports teams and other world-class athletes have used TRX as part of their rigorous training. It has been safety-tested not just in the lab, but by countless of users all over the world. The TRX All-in-one system can safely support bodyweight of up to 350 pounds with over 900 pounds of resistance.
TRX is used for bodyweight suspension training. If you download the TRX app, you'll see over 80 workouts that can help you burn fat, build muscles, improve flexibility, increase endurance, or strengthen core.
Out of the box, this TRX All In One Home Gym bundle comes with four exercise bands, a TRX tumbler, handles, straps, and 2 anchors (door and suspension). It weighs less than 2 pounds and comes with a tote bag, which makes it great for travel as well.
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5. Total Gym 1400 Deluxe Home Fitness Exercise Machine (Most Affordable)
If you're looking for a solid, all-in-one total body workout machine, the Total Gym 1400 home fitness machine is the cheapest, most durable and highly effective machine you can find in the market today.
Out of the box, the fully-assembled Total Gym 1400 comes with a DVD, nutrition guide and exercise guide, which you can do as quickly as 10 minutes (and actually break a sweat and benefit from a full body workout without unnecessary strain).
Users can mix and match over 60 different exercises to target specific muscle groups, tone the body, or simply increase endurance. These include bicep curls, chest presses, squats, and lat pull-downs, among others.
While the Total Gym 1400 isn't perfect (you'd find a lot of better, more feature-packed machines out there), this machine provides value for money. It still works in hitting every muscle group in your body without bringing you into debt row.
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6. Marcy MD-9010G Diamond Elite Smith System(Best for Bodybuilding)
If money is no object and you're looking for the best of the best, you have to consider Marcy Smith's MD-9010G Diamond Elite Smith System. One look at it and you'll fall in love - it's designed exclusively for home gym use, but the quality, design and number of exercise machines embedded into this monster of a workout system is numerous and highly impressive.
Built with 2 inch x 2 inch heavy duty tubular steel construction, the Marcy Diamond Elite Smith Cage actually combines three smaller machines:
- A smith machine (with "Ultra-Glide" linear bearings for the smoothest movement)
- Olympic free-weight rack
- Cable-routed pulley system
This three-in-one machine lets users perform over a hundred professional workouts.
Other smaller machines embedded into this system include: Bicep Preacher Curl, Pectoral Fly Station, Adjustable Sliding Track and a Dual Pulley Station System. It also comes with a luxurious, leather-covered multifunction bench with Olympic sleeve on leg developer.
The Marcy Smith's MD-9010G Diamond Elite Smith System has a ton of attachments included in the package, such as triceps rope, ankle strap, V Bar, Shiver Bar, lat bar, Chrome row handle, two single handles, Plate Posts, and foot plates.
The most important step to using this Marcy Smith machine is to install it properly. The parts don't come with labels, which may make the set-up 10x harder, but once you've set it up properly, you'll feel you have your own gym club at the comfort of your home.
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7. Bowflex Blaze Home Gym (Best Overall Home Gym)
Bowflex Blaze home gym is one of the most popular systems from the company. It promotes total body workout, designing the Blaze with enough features that would allow you to perform 8 chest exercises, 14 shoulder exercises, 16 arm-focused exercises, 9 back exercises, 13 leg exercises and five exercises focusing on the abdominal muscles.
This home gym is equipped with an aerobic rowing machine, which takes care of your low-impact, cardio while having fun. It also has a holder (for your phone, mp3 player or whatnot) while you're busy rowing or working out.
The Blaze home gym uses Bowflex’s one-of-a-kind resistance rod technology, totally removing free weights out of the picture and producing some of the most intense and effective workouts you could ever experience. To customize and adjust difficulty, Blaze lets users control the angle of resistance by manipulating one or more of the multiple cable pulleys featured there.
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3 Things to Consider When Shopping for the Best Home Gyms for Small Spaces
Getting in shape is a commitment that should be taken seriously. However, buying a home gym is in a whole new level, so it's best you decide with these 3 things considered:
Wrap Up: Which are the Best Home Gyms for Small Spaces?
Compact home gyms are great because they let you get your sweat on without going to commercial gyms and paying membership every year. However, home gyms do sacrifice some features to make them portable, smaller, or storage-friendly for home use. Unless of course, you pick high-end ones like Marcy MD-9010G Diamond Elite Smith System then you get the best of both worlds: space-saving and top-tier home gyms.
If you want the most value-for-money home gym, go with Total Gym's 1400 Deluxe Home Fitness Exercise Machine, which isn't actually that bad since it's well-designed, heavy duty and lets you do as many as 60 exercises within that tiny machine. You may get more ideas about tiny machines, gear and essentials on the TinyLivity.com.
You can also buy TRX All In One Home Gym, if you're open to bodyweight suspension training. It's highly effective, very intense, and is cheaper than most home gyms on this list. It's also portable - you can your workout anywhere and share your "home gym" to your family and friends.
For a complete, total body workout without sacrificing on quality or efficiency, you won't go wrong with Bowflex PR1000 Home Gym. Not only does it feature a low-impact way to workout, this beginner-friendly home gym ideal for overall fitness whether you're trying to lose weight, build muscles, or just tone your body.
