Home Fitness Gear: Exercising Control

Precor Inc.

The economy’s been in the toilet. People are out of work. Credit’s tight. It’s no wonder that sales of home fitness equipment are down industry-wide. With the exception of exercise bikes, quality home fitness equipment starts at $1,000—$1,500 on treadmills. Given all of that, who can afford to buy now?

Believe it or not, now is a particularly good time to buy if you can, not only because the quality is up but precisely because sales are down. People bought less home fitness equipment in 2008—the last year for which data are available—than they did the year before, according to Mike May, who is a spokesperson for Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. This marked the first year-to-year decline in two decades, and May expects another decline for 2009. Consequently, deals are available.

“It’s very good for the consumers to dicker right now—particularly at the high-end,” says Greg Keefer of Chicago-based online and warehouse seller Fitness Factory. He adds that savings of even as much as 30 percent aren’t out of the realm of possibility in today’s battered market.

And manufacturers are cutting prices before the dickering process begins. For example, in November, Vision Fitness announced a price rollback of $200 to $400 on all of its elliptical machines—upfront price-cutting the likes of which the industry hasn’t ever experienced.

A few manufacturers are chipping in by making more mix-and-match elliptical machines, exercise bikes and treadmills. Landice, Life Fitness, Octane and Vision Fitness let you select from among numerous consoles to put on the equipment type of your choice, and the price differences between consoles can range from $600 on Vision Fitness units to $3,000+ on Landice.

So, if you want a quality piece of equipment that has only basic electronic features, you can get that and potentially save a bundle when you address your New Year’s resolution.

WHAT'S YOUR FUNCTION? The wave of functional fitness in home gyms that we noted 3 years ago when we last reviewed these products has turned into a tsunami.

Every major brand now has at least one completely functional home gym. Functional home gyms use cables, swiveling pulleys and handles for moving weights rather than push-and-pull bars that operate only on a fixed path. Because functional exercises require balance, they work more muscles at once than do traditional home gyms.

The shift in the market came faster than many expected. Three years ago, a spokesperson for one manufacturer told us that only about 30 percent of the public would seek functional home gyms because of the higher skill level that is required to master the free-form exercises.

Pete McCall, who is an exercise physiologist at American Council on Exercise, explains that the growth of functional activities, such as yoga and pilates, has exposed more people to the benefits of functional training. Consequently, more people are buying home gyms that deliver similar benefits.

A majority of home gyms now include at least some functionality, but the best news is that functional home gyms can be found for as little as $1,200. Three years ago, the least expensive of these machines would’ve run you about $2,000. And last year Hoist took functionality to a whole new level with the introduction of its V-Core home gym. The V-Core’s seat, which includes a platform on which you can perform sitting and standing exercises, can be unlocked, so you must balance when you exercise. This forces you to work even harder—and work even more muscles—to move the weights.

We don’t expect traditional home gyms to go away entirely—even among premium-price products—but we believe that the trend to include at least some functional capability will roll on.