A good home gym machine can be a significant investment, both healthwise and financially. So before spending your hard-earned cash, it’s important to know that you’re choosing reliable, high quality strength-training equipment that you can use consistently at home. The right machine should let you train your whole body, offer enough resistance to keep challenging you as you become stronger, be straightforward to use and be built well enough to last for years. With so many multigyms to choose from, it can feel overwhelming. I’ve written this article to simplify your buying experience and show you the best home gym machine for women.
Resistance training is particularly important during perimenopause, menopause and the years that follow. And lifting weights isn’t simply about changing how your body looks. Maintaining muscle strength becomes increasingly important for everyday function, mobility and independence as we get older. Resistance and weight-bearing exercise also play an important role in maintaining bone health. The decline in estrogen around menopause can accelerate bone loss, which is one reason osteoporosis becomes a much greater concern for women as they age.
In fact, the Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that approximately one in two women over age 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis during her lifetime. Strength training can significantly help prevent and manage osteoporosis. And maintaining strong muscles and bones is certainly something that women shouldn’t wait until later life to think about.
As a Personal Trainer and Health Coach who has worked with women for more than 20 years, I believe strength training is one of the most valuable things we can invest in for our future health. But if you’re going to invest in a home gym machine, it needs to be the right one. So what should you actually look for when choosing the best home gym machine for women? Here are the features I consider most important before you buy.
Why Strength Training Becomes Even More Important as Women Get Older
We naturally tend to lose muscle mass, strength, bone density, and physical capacity with age if we don’t actively work to maintain them.
Strength helps with everyday things: getting out of a chair, climbing stairs, carrying shopping bags, lifting things around the house, maintaining balance and continuing to do the activities you enjoy. The National Institute on Aging specifically recommends muscle-strengthening activity as part of healthy aging because it can help maintain strength, physical function and independence.
For women, bone health deserves particular attention too. Estrogen helps protect bone, and estrogen levels decline around menopause. Women can lose bone more rapidly during the menopausal transition and for several years afterward. Resistance training and other weight-bearing activities can form part of a broader bone-health strategy alongside adequate nutrition and appropriate medical care where needed. Research in postmenopausal women has found beneficial effects of resistance training on bone mineral density.
That is why I see strength training as an investment in what your body will be able to do 10, 20 and 30 years from now, rather than simply something you do to get toned.
What Should Women Look for in a Home Gym Machine?
There are plenty of home gyms on the market, ranging from basic inexpensive – and often lower quality – cable systems, to enormous unnecessary resistance machines that are best suited to a commercial gym rather than a woman’s home setting.
For most women training at home, I have listed the features I consider most important.
Exercises for the Whole Body
If you’re investing in an all-in-one home gym, it should allow you to train your entire body at various angles with a large range of exercise options.
Ideally, you want exercise options for:
- Legs and glutes
- Back
- Chest
- Shoulders
- Arms
- Core
You don’t necessarily need dozens of complicated exercises every workout. But having plenty of exercise options means the machine can continue to challenge your body, while keeping you mentally engaged with its extensive workout variety.
Easy Exercise Changes
This is an important feature that often gets overlooked. A machine might technically offer 40 or 50 exercises, but if changing from one exercise to another means repeatedly rerouting cables and stacking weight plates, this type of machine becomes much less practical in real life – and makes it more challenging to adhere to a consistent workout routine.
I prefer equipment that makes changing exercises and resistance straightforward. The easier your equipment is to use, the fewer excuses there are to avoid using it.
Multiple Attachments
It is important to buy a resistance training machine that includes a range of accessories so that you can effectively perform the best exercises for each muscle group. The most significant attachments include a lat bar – useful for back movements, a straight bar – excellent for arms and back training, an ankle strap – for multiple leg exercises, an abs strap – for focused core engagement, and good quality built-in features, such as a chest press station.
Enough Resistance to Let You Progress
One of the basic principles of strength training is progression. If you perform exactly the same exercises with exactly the same resistance indefinitely, your body has less reason to continue adapting. A good home gym therefore needs to offer enough resistance for you to start at an appropriate level and gradually increase the challenge.
A selectorized easy-pin weight stack is particularly convenient for home training because changing resistance simply involves moving a pin rather than loading and unloading plates. That can make workouts smoother and much more convenient.
Good Support and Comfortable Padding
If you’re going to sit against a backrest or use padded rollers repeatedly, comfort matters. A well-supported seat and back pad can make exercises feel much better and help you concentrate on the movement rather than constantly repositioning yourself. Good support also helps execute exercises using the correct form, which increases effectiveness and helps prevent injury.
A Realistic Footprint for Your Home
Before buying any home gym machine, look at the assembled dimensions, not just photographs. Measure the area where you’re planning to put it and remember that you need room to actually use the machine – not merely enough floor space to squeeze the frame into the room.
Pay particular attention to height if you’re using a garage, spare bedroom or room with a lower ceiling. Look for a compact home gym that also offers durability and exercise variety.
Build Quality
Price matters and a home gym is not something I’d skimp on. The cheaper machines are often poor quality and are more likely to break and wear faster. When it comes to selecting a home gym, you really do get what you pay for, so it’s best to choose a higher quality multigym. A well-built machine may cost more initially, but if you’re planning to strength train for years, I would rather buy something designed to last.
Cables, pulleys, frames and moving parts are going to be loaded repeatedly over years of use. Look at the gauge of the steel, warranty, cables, construction and reputation of the manufacturer.
My Pick: Body-Solid G1B Multi-Station Home Gym
Of the home gym machines I’ve looked at for the Tenacity Fitness Women’s Wellness Store, the Body-Solid G1B Multi-Station Home Gym is the one I chose as my premium all-in-one strength-training option.
And there’s a reason I chose this particular machine as the best home gym machine for women.
The G1B combines a 160 lb selectorized weight stack with more than 40 exercise possibilities in one system. It also uses a no-cable-change design, which means you can move between many exercises without constantly having to disconnect and reroute cables. It features multiple attachments, as well as an exercise chart so you can use it with confidence.
That combination is exactly what I want from a home strength machine: enough variety and resistance to make it genuinely useful, without making every workout unnecessarily complicated. It also has an affordable price point. This is not a cheap home multigym, but it is not expensive either and is priced based on its durable build, ease of use, and lifetime design.
SHOP THE BODY-SOLID G1B HOME GYM
What Can You Train With the Body-Solid G1B Home Gym?
The Body-Solid G1B is designed for full-body strength training. Its multi-station design and pulley system allow you to perform exercises for the upper body, lower body and core. It features dedicated stations including chest press, lat pulldown and leg extension, together with a large range of additional cable-based exercises.
For me, this is one of the main advantages of choosing an all-in-one home gym machine.
You don’t necessarily need to buy a separate weight equipment or accessories. This machine features everything you need to perform a thorough and effective resistance-training routine – in one versatile piece of equipment. And the included attachments give you even more ways to vary your exercises.
Why I Like a Selectorized Weight Stack for Home Training
A selectorized weight stack has some signifcant advantages at home. You choose your resistance by moving the selector pin. There’s no need to carry plates around, load and unload bars or have loose weights covering the floor. That can be particularly appealing if you want a dedicated strength setup that’s straightforward to use.
The 160 lb stack on the Body-Solid Multi Station Home Gym also gives plenty of room for progression across different exercises. You might use considerably less resistance for a smaller isolation movement and substantially more for a stronger compound exercise.
Strength Training and Menopause
Strength training can be an important part of maintaining bone health, but it’s worth being precise about what that means.
Bone responds to mechanical loading, and major health organizations recommend resistance and weight-bearing exercise as part of maintaining healthy bones. Research also suggests resistance training can have beneficial effects on bone mineral density in postmenopausal women.
Bone health is influenced by many factors including genetics, hormone levels, nutrition, calcium and vitamin D intake, medications, smoking, alcohol, body weight and overall physical activity. If you’ve already been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia, have had a fracture, or have another medical condition affecting exercise, speak with your healthcare provider about the type and intensity of training that’s appropriate for you.
Home Resistance Gym vs. Dumbbells
A home multigym and dumbbells do different things well. For many women, their home setup could include both.
While dumbbells offer free-weight training, a multi-station home gym gives you something different: a dedicated resistance-training station with cables, pulleys, a weight stack, supported exercise positions, and more exercise options.
If you want one piece of equipment that gives you a wide variety of exercises without having to continually buy more weights as you progress, an all-in-one machine can make a lot of sense.
Who Is the Body-Solid G1B At-Home Gym Station Best For?
I think the G1B residential gym machine makes the most sense for a woman who:
- Wants to strength train consistently at home
- Wants one machine that can train multiple areas of the body
- Prefers a selectorized weight stack rather than loading plates
- Wants plenty of room to increase resistance over time
- Values straightforward transitions between exercises
- Wants value for money and long-lasting equipment
- Women who are focused on building and maintaining muscle and bone/joint health
If you’re serious about making strength training part of your long-term fitness routine, this machine will deliver a lifetime of resistance workouts with considerable room to progress.
Body-Solid G1B: Key Features at a Glance
- More than 40 exercises
- 160 lb selectorized weight stack
- No-cable-change design
- Heavy-duty 12-gauge steel construction
- DuraFirm™ padding with lumbar support
- Full-body strength-training capability
- Approximately 56″ L × 47″ W × 84″ H
- Approximately 324 lb assembled weight
- Body-Solid In-Home Lifetime Warranty on specified components
The Bottom Line: The Best Home Gym Machine Is One You’ll Keep Using
When I’m evaluating a home gym for women’s fitness needs, I want to see enough resistance for progression, exercises for the entire body, straightforward adjustments, solid construction and a design that makes sense in a real home.
The Body-Solid wins the title of best home gym for women as it ticks all of those boxes, and it is relatively affordable. More importantly, it gives women a way to make progressive strength training a regular part of life without having to build a complicated gym set-up at home.
For women approaching menopause, currently going through it, or simply thinking more seriously about staying strong as they get older, I believe the Body-Solid Home Gym is a worthwhile investment to make.
Ready to Build Your Strength at Home?
The Body-Solid G1B Multi-Station Home Gym is available from Tenacity Fitness for $1,699 with free U.S. shipping (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).
SHOP THE BODY-SOLID G1B HOME GYM
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best home gym machine for women?
The best machine depends on your space, budget, current fitness level and goals. For women looking for a substantial all-in-one strength system, I look for a selectorized weight stack, full-body exercise options, straightforward adjustments, good construction and enough resistance to allow progression. The Body-Solid G1B is my current premium home-gym pick because it combines more than 40 exercises with a 160 lb selectorized easy-pin stack.
Is strength training good for women over 50?
Yes. Resistance exercise is recommended as part of healthy aging and can help maintain muscle strength, bone health, physical function, confidence, and independence.
Should women strength train during perimenopause and menopause?
For most healthy women, resistance training can be an extremely useful part of a well-rounded fitness routine during perimenopause and menopause. It can help maintain and build muscular strength at a stage of life when maintaining muscle and bone becomes increasingly important.
Is a 160 lb weight stack enough?
For most women, a 160 lb selectorized weight stack offers a substantial range of resistance. The amount you use will vary considerably depending on the exercise, which is why having an easily adjustable stack is useful.
How often should women strength train?
General physical-activity guidance recommends resistance training at least 30 minutes, two days per week. Your ideal frequency will depend on your experience, training intensity, recovery and overall program.
Does the Body-Solid G1B multi-gym require much space?
No. This resistance machine measures approximately 56″ long × 47″ wide × 84″ high and weighs approximately 324 lbs assembled. This machine fits an impressive number of exercise options into a relatively compact footprint for a multi-station gym.
I would measure your intended space carefully and leave additional room around the machine so that you can comfortably use the different exercise positions.
Can beginners or older women use the Body-Solid home gym?
Yes. Because resistance is selected using the weight-stack pin, you can begin with a light resistance that’s comfortable for your fitness level, and then adjust it as your strength increases.