new equipment on the way - not quite a functional trainer, but nice and small!

itsbasschick

i'm so excited! i always wanted a functional trainer, but i just don't have room for one. the other day, while wandering around fitness equipment sites, i ran across this at valor fitness

http://valorfitness-com.3dcartstores.com/BD-62-Wall-Mount-Cable-Station_p_459.html

it's like a hybrid of a functional trainer and a lat machine. it's got a footprint of 24x25" on the floor, and does it by having a wall attachment for stability. no seat like with a lat machine means you can use your own bench or no bench for some exercises, you can move the handle attachment up and down like a functional trainer and the handles work independently.

mine's on the way - it's due next thursday. i can't wait!

rileyes

I wanted to get rid of my space hogging gym unit and replace it with a wall functional trainer. Let us know how you like it.

itsbasschick

will do - but it won't be set up till the 15th.

itsbasschick

okay, it's all set up and i did a workout. here's what i found -

first off, it's small, it fits in my room with no problem, and it's got angles galore, like a functional trainer as long as you don't need the handles separated much. i was able to do all sorts of stuff you can't do with free weights. my 6' 7" husband used it, and it worked for him, as well as for my 5' 3" self.

something cool is that, unlike every piece of cable fitness equipment i've seen, this unit delivers a 1:1 ratio, which means the weight on the machine is the weight you're working with. i had 12.5 pounds on each side, and with that drag i mentioned, it added up to 33 lbs of resistance (again, i used a spring scale to check). since it's rated up to 250 pounds according the the person i talked to at valor fitness, that means you GET 250 pounds rather than the 150 pounds the smoother machines give you.

it's got bushings rather than bearings on the carriage, so not as smooth as a gym machine, which i didn't expect. the carriage bearings add 3 1/2 to 4 pounds of drag per side, but it's consistent (i checked with a spring scale). if you're looking for linear bearings that deliver the smooth experience you get on gym equipment, you'll need to spend more. you might look into the inspire fitness FT1, which fits in a corner and isn't that wide, or the smallest functional trainer, the HCI fitness PTX gym, which folds up. but i like the valor i just got, actually.

we're probably going to look into changing the bushings out to linear bearings, as my husband is a manufacturing engineer who hacks a lot of our fitness equipment. but for now i'm a really happy camper