Top 9 Best Home Gym Equipment For 2019

Calling this a home gym may be a stretch (pardon the pun) but we like it because it is extremely portable and it's pretty inexpensive by home gym standards.

When you get down to it this is a resistance band set but resistance bands are an effective way to work out (see our article on this). Unlike resistance band sets, this kit comes with a bar accessory and a platform you can stand on and hook in the bands.

This kit simulates things you can do on a home gym, but when you are done working out you can just put it in the closet or under your bed. Unlike most home gyms you can throw this in the back of your car and take it with you when you travel.

Another thing we like is that the BodyBoss comes with a workout guide to help you get started, plus guided program videos you can follow while you work out. So it is more like a guided training course than just a product.

We recommend you add on additional resistance bands since this only comes with one set of bands. You'll need to be able to adjust the resistance as you build strength.
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Overall the BodyBoss Home Gym 2.0 is a great way to get yourself in shape.

This is one of our favorite home gyms and it's more in line what you would think of as a home gym. This is more like what you may find in a hotel fitness center as well.

This is the only gym in our top 5 comparison that comes with a weight stack. Of course that make shipping more challenging since it will come to you via a truck and not your standard UPS or FedEx. All the other gyms in the top 5 use bar bell weight plates or some other form of resistance so it's more work to change the weight you want to use.

What we really like is that there are two seats on this gym. One is for pec-flys and a few other workouts. None of the others have this feature. There is a great leg station too, but like most of these gyms there is no leg press.

Of course having a lifetime warranty is a great feature as well to protect you in the future.

If space is limited the Valor gym mounts to your wall and only takes up about 25" square of floor space. Of course it is more limited in the exercises you can do since there are no seated movements, although you could add a chair in front of it. But for the most part users are very pleased with the quality and the amount of exercises you can do with it.

There are complaints about the way the top mount works to only attach to one stud in the wall so some users have rigged up their own mounting brackets for it. You may also need to do the same for the lower mount.

There are no weights included with this gym but if you already have some barbells you could use the weights from it. If not you will  need to purchase those too so factor that into the price.

This is another heavy-duty, quality machine.  It does not come with a weight stack so you will have to use your own. But the benefit of that is you are not limited by the weight stack so if you get into serious body building then your gym can grow as you do by just adding more weights. The gym has storage bars to keep your weights organized.

One of the nice features of this machine is it has a bench that allows you to lay down and use the Smith press with locking catches. That means you can do chest presses without requiring a spotter. 

It also has a pec-fly station that you don't find on all machines. You can get a good chest workout with this feature.

Like all of these units, assembly will require patience. 

Bowflex doesn't require a weight stack or even adding your own weights since it uses "Power Rods".  These rods take force to bend so that is what provides the resistance. The rods provide 210 lbs. of resistance and there are upgrades 310 lbs. or 410 lbs.

The workout provided by the Bowflex is more like a set of resistance bands than weights. That means there will be less force in the beginning of a move and more as you progress towards the end of it. 

Something you can't do with the more expensive large units that you can with this one is leg presses. A sliding seat rail lets you to perform aerobic rowing and leg presses.

To save room the bench on this gym folds up and rolls away so when you're not using it, it doesn't extend out into your room so far.

Unlike the previous Marcy gym this one includes a 150 pound weight stack. While that may not be enough for serious body building, for someone who is trying to get in shape and stay that way, it should be just fine.

We like the fact that this one has a full workout chart printed on the back frame with 30 different exercises. So you don't have to thumb through a book to see what to do next. Just look at the chart.

The Bowflex Extreme supposedly has 10 more exercises than the Blaze model above. However the one big benefit to the Extreme is the Quick Change System that eliminates the cable change so you can move through your workouts quicker.

The pulley system on the Extreme lets you move from squats to lats to leg workouts without ever changing cables. However you may need to change the resistance between these workouts.

The Extreme does not have the rowing feature of the Blaze and it doesn't have the horizontal bench so chest presses are done sitting up.

This is a lower cost version of the Body-Solid product rated above. It still has a weight stack but it is more limited in capability than the previous one. You aren't going to win any body building championships using this machine but it's good for overall fitness.

The biggest complaint about home gyms is the assembly but this one ships 90 percent assembled and requires fastening just 9 bolts. Most people can handle that.

This is a medium-level gym in the Marcy Smith Cage line and it has some nice features. We like the Bottom Pulley and Foot Plate for working out the lower body and for rowing. The gym comes with some nice accessories to help target different muscle groups.

The weight plate storage bars can hold up to 600 pounds so that should be enough for the most serious workout.