Home Gyms For Less

Home gyms for less than $600

If you want to get your feet wet in the home-gym market because you are just starting a fitness routine or if you are not sure you want to work out at home, experts say the highly rated Weider Total Body Works 5000 (*Est. $150) can be a good choice. This home gym uses resistance bands attached to a cable-and-pulley system to provide "natural resistance" (up to 50 pounds) that works with your body weight and gravity. The bands are attached to a workout bench and the incline can be adjusted to make exercises more challenging.

Even though the Total Body Works 5000 is an inexpensive home gym, it earns very positive user reviews. More than 300 owners at Walmart.com give it high ratings, while the gym also does well in reviews posted to Amazon.com. Many users confess that they were skeptical about the Total Body Works 5000, but changed their minds once they started working out. "This thing does not have bells and whistles, but it is still fun, user friendly, convenient, inexpensive, sturdy, and a great alternative to a much more expensive brand," one owner writes at Amazon.com. Assembly is relatively straightforward, according to reviews, and most users say they get an effective workout from the machine. 

Needless to say, serious exercisers will likely be disappointed with the Weider Total Body Works 5000, since the 50 pounds of resistance will be too light for some. Another consideration is the gym's 250-pound weight limit. "Without a way to add actual weight, strength training on this machine has a short lifespan," says one owner. Even those who are happy with this Weider home gym wish that it came with a workout DVD. Others say it is too heavy and bulky, and some report that components break easily.

Costing a little more than the Weider home gym, the best-reviewed Bowflex PR1000 (*Est. $450) earns numerous recommendations for those who want a compact home gym. The PR1000 uses rods to provide up to 210 pounds of weight resistance for exercises including leg extension and curl, horizontal bench press and lat pull-down. It also folds for storage. It earns a 4.5-star rating from nearly 90 reviewers at Amazon.com and gets similarly high marks at Walmart.com and Sears.com. Users say the gym is sturdy (especially considering its compact size) and relatively easy to assemble. "I was surprised by the quality of the machine," says one owner. "It is sturdy and very well made." However, some users are disappointed with the lower-body workout, and a few critics say the rods feel lighter than their advertised weight.

The Gold's Gym XR45 (*Est. $250 for 160 GB) is another budget home gym that gets high marks in user reviews. Sold at Walmart, the XR45 includes six workout stations, and the cable-and-pulley system provides up to 210 pounds of resistance. The home gym receives more than 200 reviews on Walmart.com, where 88 percent say they would recommend the gym to a friend. Most reviewers say the XR45 is a good value, especially for beginners who want to work on overall toning. "I was quite surprised at the quality of this home gym considering the price I paid," says one owner. However, assembly can be a real pain, requiring between five and seven hours for most users. Some say the Gold's Gym XR45 is noisy, and we also saw a number of complaints that the gym was missing parts out of the box.