SusieQ Say: total gym pictures
The Total Gym has made an outstanding positive difference...., 2010-05-11
This review is for: total gym pictures
We purchased the Total Gym 1800 Club and were very pleasantly surprised at how complete the machine is..it has many accessories to allow a person to build or rebuild muscles...my husband is using it to help restore full function to his legs, and in the process it is helping his shoulder, which has had limited range of motion for 12 years...something he thought impossible. The human body is amazing, and function can be restored to muscles; the Total Gym is a terrific aid for many muscular functions.

StormJH1 Say: total gym pictures
Best Multi-Gym Option for Home, 2011-03-14
This review is for: total gym pictures
I am a 29-year old male. My wife and I have a treadmill and a flat bench with some free weights, but were looking for a versatile machine that could cover arm and shoulder exercises. We initially were looking at the Gold's Gym weight stack combos, as well as some Smith machines, and the Bowflex. I was vaguely familiar with Total Gym, but it hadn't even crossed my mind.

Well, after trying it out in the store and getting it home, the value of this machine is immediately obvious. This is a great machine for men AND women because of how versatile it is. It basically works like a glorified situp/pilates board with pulleys. Instead of adding weights, your own weight and angle on the slideboard create the resistance. You can do everything from chest presses to pec flys, to triceps extensions and dips, and that doesn't even cover all of the core and abdominal exercises (which is what a lot of the gals are after).

A lot of the guys looking at this machine (like me) may have no interest in pilates and think that this machine can't offer them a real workout. I have to tell you that if you've ever used a cable cross machine in a gym, the same principles are at work here. The exercise you'll do on this thing are not necessarily "hard" to the degree that you'll fail after a few reps, but you will notice the results IMMEDIATELY. The key to this is that unlike a fixed weight setup, the use of cables forces all of the connective muscles to go to work. While this is not necessarily a machine you would use to add bulk, you can get additional muscle mass and certainly work on tone. Again, every muscle group imaginable has a workout (or three) on this machine.

If I could give a 4.5, as opposed to a 5, I probably would, because there are a few drawbacks. It's not the easiest machine in the world to set up, and there is a bit of a learning curve to actually picking the right settings and properly getting into a workout. Most of the exercises use the pulley handles, but it isn't entirely obvious how to get on the machine, or what to do with them when you get off. Also, the commenter above who mentioned long hair possibly getting caught in the slider board pulley is right! I have that concern when my wife uses it, though it isn't really a pulley that actually rotates while you're using it with both arms. But I'm still going with 5 stars because the thing ships in the box fully assembled (a big plus) and really offers a great workout. At $350 or $400, good luck trying to find a home gym setup that will give you this many workout options and actually remain functional!