Product Review: The Total Gym

The infomercial sounds convincing. Buy a Total Gym, exercise for only 20 minutes a day and you, too, will have a body like Chuck Norris or his wife or Christy Brinkley - or so they insinuate. According to the commercial, It's easy to use, store, move around, and it's even fun. If you want to know more about the Total Gym before buying one, read on.

The Total Gym: Benefits
Yes, if you use it daily you should see the results of getting that extra exercise. The same thing would happen if you went to the local gym and worked out there every day, swam a few miles ever day, or began running every day.

The Total Gym: Drawbacks
According to the commercial, this is a great product if you don't have much space and will store it when you're not using it. If you don't have much space and need to store it, you can put the Total Gym in a closet or under most beds.

What they haven't said is that you need quite a bit of room to set up and use the Total Gym. You have to have room to set the Total Gym up, room to navigate around it (to change settings), and room to move many of your body parts to get that all-around workout they talk about. You really need about 8 feet by 8 feet to get the most use out of the Total Gym exercise equipment.

If you're cramped for space to begin with, you'll be cramped for space to use it, unless you don't mind moving furniture around twice a day.

Is it easy to store? Yes - and no. If you ask me, it's really a pain to store the Total Gym. OK, so you fold the Total Gym in half and roll it to your closet. Yes, that's the easy part. But then you have to go back and pick up all of the assorted pieces that go with the Total Gym, find something to put them in so you don't lose them, and store those, too.

If you lose any of those pieces, your ability to use this piece of exercise equipment will be hampered, potentially even lost. For instance, if you lose a hand pulley, you're basically screwed. No more pulley type of exercises for you.

The Total Gym is also heavy, so it's not nearly as easy to "pick up" and move around as the commercial shows. Think about it. It supports your body. It's got to be heavy to support you lying, sitting, and moving on it.

The Total Gym: Cost
Starting at $300, the price is nothing to sneeze at. For $300, you'll get the base model plus a DVD and an exercise book that shows you how to use it.

The Total Gym: Who it's good for
The Total Gym exercise equipment will benefit many people. But they have to have an area of their home that's dedicated to exercise, have the extra money to buy it, and use it on a regular basis for it to be worth it's cost.

If you live in an apartment or are cramped for space, I don't think you'll be happy with the Total Gym when you'll be setting it up and taking it down all the time. It's really more work than it sounds.

The Total Gym: Overall Rating
Ads for the Total Gym make it sound like the best thing since low-calorie sugar substitutes for those who want to get in shape, tone up, and lose weight. I think it's much harder to use than they make out, and unless you have the space to leave it set up all the time? You'll find yourself moving furniture every time you want to use it.

Want to lose weight and get in shape? Walk more. Do calisthenics. They're even free!

I give the Total Gym 2 out of 5 stars.