Building a budget home gym but not sure what to buy? In this video, I review a home gym cable system based on cost, effectiveness, versatility and practicality and tell you whether you should buy it, whether you sould consider it, or whether you should avoid it.
Contents
Cost
Effectiveness
Versatility
Practicality
The Verdict
Cost
This cable pulley system for home gyms is my proudest home gym purchase. It comes with two different length cables, allowing you to choose the right length for your home gym, and a bar attachment and a rope attachment. It does also come with this strap attachment, but I’ve never found a good use for it. While you can’t do fine height adjustments with this product like a normal cable machine, you can change between a high angle setting and a low angle setting.
For a product that allows you to do cable exercises, it is extremely cheap. It cost me 6,299 yen, which compared to any of the other home gym cable machine alternatives, is a bargain.
For cost, I rate this cable pulley system 4.5 stars.
Effectiveness
A cable system, even one you’d find in a commercial gym, is not a replacement for freeweights. The most effective exercises you can do will are barbell and dumbbell exercises, but machines are really good for isolation exercises. Isolation exercises target specific muscles, making them great for further enhancing muscle development while avoiding overtraining and injury. And a cable machine is easily the best machine for isolation exercises.
By allowing you to change the angle and the attachment, cable machines can be used to apply many different stimuli to your muscles. And unlike actual machines which move on a fixed axis, cable systems allow free movement, not dissimilar to freeweights. This is much more effective for muscle development.
For effectiveness, I rate this cable pulley system 3.5 stars.
Versatility
What makes cable systems so great is unlike normal machines, you can adjust the height and angle and move about freely. This allows you to perform a wide range of different exercises. Cable systems can be used effectively for many different back, shoulders, biceps, triceps and chest exercises. However, with this product, there’s just something about the angle and how the cable moves that doesn’t seem to hit the pecs right, so I do all my chest exercises using other equipment.
Leg exercises also have a similar problem when using this product, but in my opinion, cable machines are not very good for training legs to begin with, so that’s more of a shortcoming of cable systems in general than this particular product.
For versatility, I rate this cable pulley system 3 stars.
Practicality
This cable pulley system is very quick to assemble, and when you are finished with it, you can pack it up again and store it. For a device that allows you to perform cable exercises, it is extremely compact. All the components of this cable pulley system fit on this shelf here with room left over. You can also store the attachments on hooks.
The fact that this cable pulley system uses barbell plates is also a huge advantage. Not only does this save on cost, but by reusing existing equipment, it avoids creating more clutter in your home gym.
The only downside to this cable pulley system is that you need something to hang it from. If you have a full or half rack in your home gym, then you’ll have no problems. But for someone like me who can’t fit even a half rack in their home gym, you will need a pullup-bar, or perhaps even a hook hanging from the ceiling.
For practicality, I rate this cable pulley system 4.5 stars.
The Verdict
These are the results for this cable pulley system, but now it’s time for the big question: Should you buy it, should you consider it, or should you avoid it?
This cable pulley system is a product you should consider.
This product is a very cheap and very practical solution that bridges the gap between home gyms and commercial gyms. But it isn’t a replacement for freeweights; It’s more like a supplement for them. Freeweights will cause the greatest amount of muscle development, and cable machine exercises can be used to further enhance that growth. This product is also reliant on already having barbell plates and something to hang the pulley system from, like a power rack or pullup bar.
If you are looking to further enhance your home gym and add more variety to your workouts, then absolutely buy this product. But it isn’t a critical item for effective home gym workouts, so if it just isn’t practical for your home gym, you can give it a miss.
For effective training wherever you are, contact Tokyo Titan!
I am Tokyo Titan, an internationally-certified bodybuilding specialist personal trainer and nutritionist. Using bodybuilding techniques, together we will create the body that you want in a short amount of time. Lessons are provided in two formats: online and in-person at my private gym in Ota-ku, Tokyo, a few minutes walk from Omori-machi Station on the Keikyu Line. Customers can choose either lesson style or a combination of both to suit their preferences and schedule. As a bilingual Japanese native English speaker, I can provide lessons in either Japanese or English, allowing customers to train both their bodies and their language skills at the same time. For more information, inquire today!
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