XMARK WHITE FUNCTIONAL TRAINER CABLE MACHINE WITH DUAL 200 LB WEIGHT STACKS

I bought this product a few months ago and it is very good! You have to put it together, but it is labeled out perfectly and you can do it in at least 5 hours. The most challenging part is putting the cable together, so I would recommend feeding the cable if you can first, then put it up.

It comes with curbside freight delivery and a shipping weight of around 800 lbs, so I was a little concerned about getting it upstairs to my gym, but once you open it up, the individual pieces are quite manageable, so it’s easy to move upstairs by hand piece by piece. Assembly was not too hard for one person to do, though they only provide diagrams, and the pulley system took a while to figure out.

Theoretically you can assemble it with only the tools provided, though your life will be much easier if you have a socket wrench and maybe a couple of other miscellaneous things. I had to use some wire to help me thread the cable through the bar, because I couldn’t quite reach in with my fingers to pull it out.

Overall, this is a great addition to a home gym. It has a compact footprint, is solidly built, and will take care of the majority of your strength training needs. Throw in some cardio equipment, maybe a weight bench, and a few smaller odds and ends like an exercise ball, and you’re all set.

It’s very flexible and can target most major muscle groups, with a few exceptions. It is great for obliques and back, and lots of little stabilizer muscles you didn’t even know you had. But for the actual abdominals, I find it a little clunky and you may want another alternative (there are plenty of bodyweight exercises to choose from that don’t require weights).

The 2x200lb weight stacks are more limiting than they first appear, because they are geared at a 2:1 ratio. So even though there are 200lbs of weights per side, it’s only 100lbs of resistance per side, 200lbs if you use both sides. As an average size man with a little training, you should be able to deadlift or squat more than that, and eventually may exceed that in other areas.

You may at some point want to supplement with some free weights for a few of the exercises. For many of the smaller muscle groups that are hard to target with free weights the weight limits should be plenty, so this is still a useful addition to your gym. And for an average size woman, you may never need more than the 200lbs.

You may want to find some third party attachments to clip on to the cables. There are plenty to choose from. There are enough provided to get you started, until you figure out what you might prefer. I found the long handles, long bar, and rope handles attachments to be adequate for most upper body and core exercises.

For leg exercises, I found the velcro ankle strap a little too flimsy for higher weights (and the velcro seems likely to deteriorate even more with use), and you’ll want two anyway so you don’t have to keep switching legs. You can find a pair of higher quality ones that will hold more weight.