I've only had it together for a week but have hit every body part and it seems like it will hold up. I have been training pretty heavy since 2002 and consider myself pretty tough on fitness equipment and this set up seems to be up to the task. I have always trained at a gym in the past but in order to save money on memberships and gas, not have to deal with people and shorten the total time I started researching possible quality home gyms...so far i think my search was successful...very smooth on the cable work and smith machine. Seems like the more weight you add the smoother it gets.
I have a degree in fitness and wellness so one of my main concers is correct physiological movement for safety and optimum effectiveness and I feel both were taken into consideration when designing this. .
I would say that i have 4 complaints...1. there are no wheels on the bench so taking it out of the way to do squats and such is more difficult than it would be with wheels and a handle(will be getting a seperate bench and leaving the bench that came with this machine out to the side); 2. the pads for the leg extensions and leg curls are very short so your feet have to be too close together(need to be at least 2 inches longer on each side so will be getting a longer bar that fits for the wider pads); 3. the handles on the bicep curls do not rotate so the grip rotates on the bar and twists off the ends of the bar...have to push them back on after each set(super glue); 4. not enough room for a spotter to get in behind you when doing things like bench press and similar movements on the smith machine which is important.
With all this said, as a whole i would reccomend to others...just take your time putting the thing together and have a friend to help in order to do it right. They say up to 8 hrs for assembly...it's no lie, should say "at least" 8 hrs.
My reccomendation to the manufacturer is have experienced trainers or long time gym rats use it for a couple weeks in order to find the small issues that make a big difference.
Hope this helps someone make an informed decision. Train hard, train smart and God Bless!"..." Read more
- none in Caribou, ME