Make Exercise Easy With Your Own Gym

One thing that is certain is that there is not a shortage of exercise equipment in the world. Because of this, we were skeptical when we heard that there was yet another home gym out on the market called the Total Gym XLS. Is this just going to be another one of those home gyms that sits there and collects dust? We wanted to find out so we went ahead and bought an XLS and we decided to give it a try.

Toning of Your Body

The Total Gym XLS comes with the promise that it will be able to tone your body without needing to take up all of the room you have. In fact, you might be pleased to learn that the XLS is very small when compared to other home gyms. It is only 90 x 19 x 43 inches and it barely weighs a thing at 83 pounds. Now, with its small weight and size, will this machine be able to really strengthen your major muscle groups?

How it Works

First, you are going to find that you are actually using your own bodyweight as resistance for the XLS. You will lay on a single glide board and then with the use of a few attachments you are going to lift a certain percentage of your body weight against gravity. This will create fluid and smooth resistance. This is very much unlike a lot of the fitness machines out there.

When we actually got on the XLS, we found that many of the exercises were surprisingly hard to do. Even exercises that we were sure were going to be easy turned out to be quite challenging. We found that the XLS doesn't just work the upper body, but it works the lower body also. We even felt our abs working, and when we were done we had definitely worked up a sweat.

Apparently, the XLS has upgrades that the models before it did not have. This includes a new pulley and cable system, more comfortable padding and a new squat stand. Also, the glide board is now able to support up to four hundred pounds so it can be used by almost anyone.

What we Found

When we first jumped on the XLS, we were hesitant to believe that this device could produce better results than free weights or other machines of its kind. However, we found that even exercises we were used to doing easily with free weights were very hard to do with this machine. So does it work? We'd have to use it for an extended period of time to truly find out if it does increase your strength and conditioning, but we were definitely impressed by our first use of the device.

There are a ton of home gyms on the market and a lot of them aren't worth your time or money. However, it does appear that Total Gym XLS is different than the others.

By: sadouf1

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