Home gym with own bodyweight (Total Gym 1000)

Member Name: PATANTHAR

Product:	Total Gym 1000
Date:	25/09/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Portable, fold up toning/exercise machine

Disadvantages: Needs large space to be used, Limited resistance once at top level

The problem with so many fitness products these days are that they try to replicate the benefits of what results you can get with free weights and a bench. The Total Gym 1000 is no exception. Based around a board that moves against pulleys, cables and you as resistance and you can immediately see the flaws of such a machine.

I brought mine to compliment my existing weights/bench set up about a month ago. Very easy to construct. Manual all made sense to me - as was the exercises. Due to what i can lift on my bench there was no messing with the angle of resistance (the higher the slope - the greater the resistance). it was straight to the top. At this level you are using 60 percent of your total body weight for resistance. this was far below what i was using so i worked out what the maximum weight the Total Gym 1000 could take and added weight onto the seated area, or my lap - whichever was needed. This improved the weight but was still not adequate.

Some of the exercise like the inverted shoulder press and pullovers felt good to me. Other exercises like the pressing motion for chest just didn't feel enough for me. The plus has to be the portability of the unit which folds up quite neatly. On the negative side was the area in which you need to work once the Total Gym 1000 was operational.

In my opinion the Total Gym 1000 is a fairly basic home exercise machine. If you are not using the top resistance it may offer a challenge to your muscles - if your at the top notch already - i can't see how this would challenge your muscles for a good enough workout. Comparing it to other machines where variable and added resistance is a must for getting bigger and stronger - then it lacks any benefit. As a portable fitness/ toning machine it works well.

Summary: Fairly basic concept - better if weight could be added