The 10 Best Home Gyms

For a first home gym that works the whole body, the Marcy MWM-988 is a sensible start. One weight stack drives press arms for chest work and flys, a high pulley for pulldowns, a low pulley for rows and a leg pad for curls. You change the load by moving a single pin, and Marcy backs the frame with a two-year warranty. The stack can't be expanded, the seat doesn't adjust, and assembly takes most of an afternoon.

If floor space is the problem, the Total Gym APEX G3 folds upright and rolls into a corner when the workout ends. You sit or lie on a padded glide board that rides up a sloped track, and raising the slope makes each pull, press or squat harder. It comes with dip bars, a squat stand and a leg attachment. Your own body is the only load, so strong lifters will outgrow it, and the warranty runs just one year.

Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE trades iron plates for bundles of flexible rods that bend as you pull, so there's no stack to drop. It has a lat tower, a squat bar, a leg station and an ab strap, and heavier rods can be added later. Bowflex, now part of Johnson Health Tech, still sells it. The pull grows harder toward the end of each rep, which feels odd after free weights, and the frame needs a lot of floor.

The TRX All-In-One is a pair of adjustable straps with handles that turns a door, a beam or a sturdy tree branch into a full-body workout. Leaning farther back or moving your feet makes each move harder, so a beginner and a fit athlete can share it. The kit includes a door anchor, an outdoor anchor and a mesh bag for travel. Your body weight sets the ceiling, and the door anchor needs a solid door that locks.

Lifters who want barbell work with no one around to spot them should look at the Marcy SM-4903. Its guided bar slides on rails and hooks onto the frame at many heights with a turn of the wrists, so a failed rep has somewhere to go. The cage adds a pull-up bar, high and low cables and an adjustable bench. Plates aren't included, so budget for them, and putting it together is a long job for two people.

For leg work without a squat rack, the Mikolo HGS Pro adds a removable leg press to a single-stack machine that also covers pulldowns, rows, chest presses, curls and an ab crunch. Every station runs off the same stack, so two people can't train at once. Mikolo is a young brand with a short track record, and we found no independent test of this machine. It stands tall, so measure your ceiling before ordering.

The Ultra Fuego UF-896 is a low-cost power cage for people who own a barbell and plates or plan to buy them. Safety bars catch a missed squat or bench press, and a cable column on the back handles pulldowns and rows. It also has dip handles, a pull-up bar and a landmine holder, and the maker covers it for two years. The bench, bar and plates are extra, and together they can cost more than the cage.

Motors replace the weight stack on the Speediance Gym Monster 2, so a touchscreen sets the load, adds resistance on the way down if you want it, and counts every rep. It comes with a folding bench, and the frame folds upright against a wall when you're done. PCWorld found it well built and quick to set up but noted that some features sit behind a paid plan. It also needs a nearby outlet.

Three people can train at once on the Body-Solid EXM3000LPS, which spreads its stations across twin weight stacks, including a leg press, a pec fly and a press arm. It's built like club equipment, and Body-Solid covers the frame and welds for life. It suits a household that trains together and has a garage or basement to give up. It is very heavy and takes a full day, or a hired installer, to put together.

The Body-Solid G6B is a single-stack gym whose press arms move inward and upward together, closer to the path of a dumbbell press. It also handles pulldowns, crunches on a mid pulley, pec flys, leg extensions and low rows, and Body-Solid rates it for commercial use. It costs a great deal for one person's workouts, it comes without a leg press, and few owners have written about it, so long-term reliability is hard to judge.