Search Weight Loss Topics:

Home » Exercise Programs » I tried a $3,000 high-tech home gym, and loved its sleek design and emphasis on strength over weight loss – Business Insider

sourceTonal

Advertised as the worlds most intelligent home gym, Tonal is a digital touchscreen that mounts on your wall and promises a full-body workout and personal training from the comfort of your living room.

Though the tech debuted more than a year ago, in August 2018, its been expanding since and generated more buzz at this years Consumer Electronics Show.

Two arm-like appendages extend from the machine which, combined with a variety of attachable hands, allow you to push, pull, and hoist up to 200 pounds worth of digital weight, which is provided via electromagnetic resistance.

The price tag, at $2,995 and up, isnt cheap, but neither is a traditional home gym, since racks and barbells can easily run hundreds of dollars.

The result is like having a full gyms worth of equipment, in one sleek, efficient package. If it sounds too good to be true, I thought so too. But after trying Tonal out for myself at the companys Manhattan showroom, I came around to believe its one of the coolest fitness tech innovations Ive seen in a while.

Heres what I liked most about Tonals high-tech equipment and programming, and why its exciting even if the cost makes it out of reach for most everyday gym-goers.

For Tonals arms to provide so much digital weight, computer chips generate an electromagnetic field and magnets allow you to push or pull against that field, making it feel like actual weight.

The multi-directional movement of those arms, combined with attachments such as handles and a barbell, allow you to incorporate that resistance into the same strength-training movement you might do at the gym, such as bench presses, curls, squats, cable pulls, and more.

For fitness enthusiasts like me, the benefits of this are obvious, since it condenses bulky traditional gym equipment like a squat rack, cable machines, and heaps of dumbbells or kettlebells into one convenient package that fits on your wall. This is particularly exciting in New York, where tiny apartments and 5th floor walkups make it tricky to haul in heavy metal gym equipment.

Its designed to be sleek, not something thats going to end up collecting dust in your basement, Ashley Hennings, director of PR and influencer marketing at Tonal, told Insider at my live demonstration.

Unlike regular weights, the digital weights can adjust in real-time based on personalized workout goals.

For example, the program has something called burnout mode, which I found especially exciting. In a traditional burnout set (also known as a drop set), you select a challenging weight for a given exercise (like a bicep curl), lift that weight until you physically cant lift any more (known as muscle failure), slightly decrease the weight, and repeat until your muscles are totally tapped out. This helps build strength and mass.

Doing this at the gym requires some space and prior planning, since you have to estimate how much and what increments of weights youll need, and line them up in advance.

With Tonals burnout mode, though, you can program the digital weight to decrease automatically as you hit muscle failure, making for a much more streamlined burnout. This saves you the time of having to collect, and then wipe down and re-rack, multiple sets of weights.

The dynamic weight mode also offers some perks for advanced lifters. For instance, chains mode mimics the variable resistance of a chain attached to your barbell or weight, making it heavier on the way up (as the chains leave the ground) and lighter on the way down (as the chains return to the ground). Again, this is all digital, so you dont need chains carpeting your apartment.

The program also has some nifty safety features built in. The spotter mode feature recognizes when youre struggling (based on your range of motion) and gradually lowers the amount of weight to prevent injury, similar to a gym spotter making sure you dont drop a barbell on your face.

Plus, all the digital weight can be clicked off at the touch of a button, built into each of the handles, barbells, and grips that attach to the machine.

Every new Tonal user starts with a strength assessment, which is then used to create a customized profile from which you can track your workouts and see your progress. The system also uses this data to recommend the amount of weight and number of reps you should do in a given exercise, based on your previous workouts, making it accessible even to beginners.

You can also scroll through Tonals library of strength and aerobic fitness programs, many of which can be personalized. These also include video tutorials of various exercises to help less experienced athletes perfect their form.

Hennings said that Tonal is specifically designed to bring strength training to people who might otherwise be too intimidated to try lifting in a traditional gym.

This is all part of one of my favorite aspects of Tonal the system is designed to help people build strength, instead of focusing on weight-loss goals. Many other high-tech fitness systems (including Mirror and Peloton) are cardio-focused, and theres often an implicit or explicit suggestion that burning fat or shedding pounds is the goal.

Instead, Tonal tracks how much youre able to lift, which is a refreshing change, especially for women like me who go to the gym to get stronger, not smaller.

All in, Tonal costs about $4,000: $2,995 for the base price plus more for smart accessories and installation. So I dont expect it to replace most peoples monthly gym membership, mine included.

However, in a competitive market where everyone seems to be releasing a fitness app or trying to re-invent the wheel, it was exciting to see a tech company with a genuine gym innovation.

In my opinion, Tonal is an awesome home gym for folks who can afford it. Ill be looking forward to what the company comes up with next, especially if its something for the rest of us.

Read more:

We tracked over 1,000 peoples gym habits throughout 2019, and found they didnt ditch their resolutions by February

9 fitness trends that were all the rage in the 2010s, from CrossFit to exergaming

A $1,500 at-home fitness device beloved by Kate Hudson and Reese Witherspoon was the top trending exercise of 2019

Original post:
I tried a $3,000 high-tech home gym, and loved its sleek design and emphasis on strength over weight loss - Business Insider

Your Full Name
Your Email
Your Phone Number
Select your age (30+ only)	30313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120
Select Your US State	Select Your StateAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWashington,DCWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
Program Choice	Select Your ProgramInjectable HGHInjectable TestoteroneInjectable SermorelinInjectable Weight LossInjectable HCG DietInjectable Vitamins
Confirm over 30 years old	Yes
Confirm that you resident in USA	Yes
This is a Serious Inquiry	Yes
Message:

Home » Exercise Programs » I tried a $3,000 high-tech home gym, and loved its sleek design and emphasis on strength over weight loss – Business Insider