Short of hauling the entire weights room home, a multi-gym is the most comprehensive home gym set-up you can have. It’s a one-stop-shop, all-in-one workout station. Typically, multi-gyms comprise a weight bench, a weight stack and series of levers and pulleys designed to give its user a comprehensive workout from head to toe.
Unlike free weights, they are typically made from a combination of fixed-path resistance machines, which means they’re a good option for relative beginners. Yet even the most basic models should provide a large enough range of resistance exercises to satisfy experienced gym-goers.
Take note, they require a considerable outlay: our picks begin at £599 and increase to the cost of a decent second-hand car. A multi-gym can also take up a lot of space, be tricky to assemble and occasionally require maintenance, but if your ultimate goal is to save money on a gym membership and keep fit at home, one of these could prove to be a shrewd investment.
We have picked our favourite multi-gym options and highlighted their key attributes. Pay special attention to the dimensions, where applicable, and the maximum resistance they offer to ensure they tick all the boxes for your home workout needs.
At more than £6K, the Unica, from Italian fitness giant Technogym, is the dearest in our selection, but with its sturdy build and premium materials we feel confident saying the luxury merits the price – what other multi-gym gives you a choice of upholstery? The weight stack provides a more-than-adequate 90kg of resistance for up to 25 moves, from pec flyes and lat pull-downs to quad extensions and hamstring curls. It is a compact 1.5㎡ and can be wheeled around if you want to take your workout al fresco.
Technogym also provides guided online workouts and training plans via the Technogym app to ensure you make the most of this elegant machine. In recognition of the steep price, Technogym has also signed up with Klarna to let you spread the cost of the Unica over 36 monthly instalments.
The 7400’s greatest selling point is its price-to-weight stack ratio – a mighty 80kg is unrivalled for a multi-gym under £1K. The dual high and low pulleys provide versatile options for upper- and lower-body exercises, and at 1.65m x 1.05m it’s compact too. At just 144kg it might feel a tad lightweight, but that may be welcome if your home gym isn’t on the ground floor.
The Fusion CST looks like a multi-gym from the future. NordicTrack has swapped out the clunky weight stack for an “inertia-enhanced flywheel” that provides silent magnetic resistance. Better still, with real-time performance tracking and live interactive controls, NordicTrack’s virtual PTs will automatically adjust your exercise resistance while you’re using the machine. Instead of the single planes of movement that most traditional multi-gyms use, the Fusion CST’s pulleys can be used in any direction to create strength and mobility that will be more applicable to the real world. It’s a seriously technical bit of kit.
Two things catch the eye with the G7. First, its versatile pull-up handles provide an extra dimension you won’t find on most multi-gyms. Second, the dual weight stacks combine for a whopping 146kg of resistance. Whether you’ll ever use all that heavy metal is debatable, but having independent stacks means two people can use this machine simultaneously. The G7 also includes a workout bench – a valuable addition if you also own a barbell or pair of dumbbells – and the pulleys can be adjusted from top to bottom for dozens of multi-directional exercises, and to suit users of any height.
While the G7 stands out for its pull-up bar, the TT-Pro takes the prize for best lower-body feature. A leg press station, connected to the main body like a sidecar on a motorbike, is a wonderful tool for safely strengthening all the lower-body muscles. The weight stack tops out at 100kg, which will provide more than enough resistance for most upper-body moves but might feel slightly limiting on the legs for experienced gym-goers. Nevertheless, the TT-Pro will provide a comprehensive workout for any level and at just over £2K it delivers an elite multi-gym experience at a mid-range price.
Bowflex has devised a unique alternative to the stack-and-cable combo, which is intended to feel as good as using free weights but without the risk of joint pain. The Xtreme 2 SE uses metal rods to create resistance equivalent to 95kg, an approach that means you can switch seamlessly between exercises without adjusting the weight stack: the harder you push, the greater the resistance. You can perform more than 70 moves using this lightweight and compact multi-gym, and you can even use it to perform squats, which will be music to the ears of anyone who’s attached to their gym’s power rack.
The folks at Force USA are a generous bunch. Not only does the F50 boast all you could wish for from a commercial gym set-up – including a Smith machine, power rack, multi-grip pull-up bar and 2-in-1 cable station – but there’s even an Olympic barbell, too. The only drawback? It doesn’t appear to include weight plates. If you can cover the outlay for these, plus one of our best weight benches, having the F50 in your home means you’ll never need bother with the gym again.
