10 Best Functional Trainers For Home Gyms – Garage Gym Pro

1. REP FITNESS FT-3000 - Our Top Pick!

Key Features

Our Review

REP FITNESS is one of the top fitness brands for a reason. They produce excellent quality equipment while giving you fantastic value for money.

REP's FT-3000 is a compact, functional trainer that will fit in the corner of most garage or home gyms. This functional trainer machine is ideal if you have a small apartment home gym with minimal space. 

Its compact design has a small footprint of around 4.5' x 3', giving you plenty of room for other gym equipment (if needed).

The FT-3000 functional trainer only comes with a set of stirrup handles. Others, such as V handle, rope, ankle cuff, etc., can be added but aren’t included.

The stirrup handles are of excellent quality and comfortable to use. And to make up for the lack of attachments, you also get a brilliant chin-up bar included.

The pull-up bar is comfortable to hold and is the perfect thickness (not too thick or thin), and I found performing wide-grip pull-ups a joy…well, until my lats started burning.

As this fitness functional trainer comes with dual weight stacks, you have access to 180 lbs of resistance, which should be more than enough for most gym goers.

If you want more weight, check out the FT-5000 (mentioned in a moment).

I found the cable pulley system to be smooth, and the 2:1 ratio makes it suitable for all ability levels, even beginners. However, I would prefer a 1:1 cable pulley ratio.

I was impressed by how easy the assembly was.

The instructions were straightforward, but I would recommend having a friend or family member available to help you construct the FT-3000 functional trainer.

It took me around 2 hours to fully assemble this functional trainer.

REP FITNESS has used 11-gauge steel for the FT-3000, making it incredibly sturdy. The functional trainer didn’t wobble side to side and felt stable throughout my workout, even during pull-ups.

And this compact, functional trainer comes with a lifetime frame warranty and 1 year on parts, which gives you peace of mind.

Yet, if you want a heavier-duty version of the FT-3000, you can! REP FITNESS has the FT-5000 functional trainer.

Both machines are within similar price ranges:

The heavier-duty FT-5000 functional trainer has more weight totaling 440lbs, a multi-grip pull-up bar, and extra cable positions. However, it does have a larger footprint.

If you’re more advanced and need to lift heavier weights, the FT-5000 might be the machine for you.

Overall, the FT-3000 functional trainer should be suitable for most gym-goers looking to add a functional trainer to their home gym.

The FT-3000 is the best functional trainer I’ve tested on this list and will be an excellent addition to most home gyms.

2. Titan Fitness Functional Trainer - Runner Up!

Key Features

Our Review

Even though the REP FITNESS FT-3000 was our "best functional trainer," the Titan Fitness functional trainer was pretty close.

Titan Fitness has produced an excellent quality functional trainer cable machine that has 200lb dual weight stacks and comes with seven attachments.

The attachments included are a short bar, long bar, ankle cuff, dual stirrup handles, rope handle, and single and double D handles.

The wide selection of attachments makes the Titan Fitness a versatile, functional trainer suitable for most home gyms.

As the Titan Fitness functional trainer utilizes a dual-weight stack system, there is no need for weight plates. This will save you money, as you won’t need to buy any additional weight plates.

As this functional trainer costs around $2500, it’s an excellent mid-range machine for your home gym.

You’ll have everything you need to perform a full-body workout without taking up much space.

When I assembled the machine, I found the instructions easy to follow and shouldn’t be an issue for anyone (even if you’re new to building fitness equipment).

I loved the assembly video included on the Titan Fitness website [1]; it really helped me visualize what I was doing.

Note: Be sure to keep a couple of hours free to assemble this functional trainer and have help from a friend or family member, as the machine is rather heavy. 

This high-quality functional trainer is made using excellent materials and is built to last. You can tell this when you begin using the pulley system, which is reinforced using fiberglass.

The Titan Fitness functional trainer doesn't rattle excessively and doesn't have the jerky movements or sticking points that other compact functional trainers do.

The pulley system uses a 2:1 ratio which I’m not always a fan of, as I like to know if I set 100lbs, I’m lifting 100lbs.

However, it did impress me, and it was a pleasure to use while performing a variety of exercises.

As with other functional trainer machines, you can perform a range of exercises such as squats, deadlifts, tricep pushdowns, lat pulldowns, chest flys, bicep curls, and more.

Titan Fitness claims there are over 1000 variations you can perform on this functional trainer, which should please most home gym owners.

One area where this exercise equipment lets itself down is the warranty. The warranty lasts 1 year, which is low for a good functional trainer.

Overall, the Titan Fitness functional trainer will provide you with an excellent piece of home gym equipment that you can perform a full-body workout.

It's one of the best functional trainers on this list and is only let down by a short warranty.

3. X-Mark XM-7626

Key Features

Our Review

XMark is well known for its excellent quality strength training equipment.

And the XM-7626 is no exception; it's a premium functional trainer that'll enable you to perform a full-body fitness routine in your home gym without needing a ton of equipment.

The XMark functional trainer has a brilliant 200lb dual weight stack that places 100 lbs into each hand (once you take the 2:1 pulley ratio into consideration); this is more than enough for most gym goers.

One aspect I love about the Xmark functional trainer is how far the cables can extend from the machine (up to 7ft), which is plenty of room for even the tallest of users to work out.

Exercises like overhead tricep extension can be performed without worrying about maxing out the cables' length.

I was impressed by the number of attachments included with the Xmark functional trainer, which included:

As you can see, the number of attachments makes this a versatile functional trainer capable of working different muscle groups effectively.

A great addition to this traditional functional trainer is the wall poster that comes with the machine.

It shows you 36 exercises you can perform, so if you're new to working out, you've got a place to begin.

When it comes to the machine’s assembly, it’s tough to do by yourself, and I recommend that you have 1-2 people help you.

This is mainly because the machine is extremely heavy, and moving the pieces into the correct position and fiddling with the nuts and bolts can be challenging.

While I found this functional trainer easy to assemble, other users have complained that the instructions are rather basic and could use a revision.

The hardest part of the assembly is positioning the cables correctly; this is usually the part that most people stumble on.

However, XMark has excellent customer service; they're usually quick to respond if you get stuck.

The typical functional trainer takes between a few hours to a day to assemble. But for the XMark, I’d set aside a day.

The warranty is brilliant; you get a lifetime frame warranty and 1 year on all moving parts and hardware.

The only thing I’d change would be to extend the moving parts warranty to 2 years, but that’s me being pedantic.

Overall, for the $3000 price tag, it’s an excellent functional trainer cable machine that’ll be perfect for almost any home gym, especially if you don’t have a lot of room for free weight equipment.

Still can't decide? Check out my full review of the XMark Functional Trainer here!

4. Inspire Fitness FT1

Key Features

Our Review

If you’re looking for the best compact, functional trainer, the Inspire Fitness FT1 could be what you need.

This is the perfect functional trainer for anyone whose home gym lacks space. It has a small footprint of 54” x 46”, making it one of the smallest strength training machines around.

As with most functional trainers on this list, it comes with a dual weight stack system which totals 330lbs. While this should be enough for most gym-goers, but can be a little light.

If you require additional weight, you'll be pleased to know you can purchase add-ons totaling 50lb per side (for an additional cost).

While using the pulley system, I found the 30 different heights perfect for hitting my muscles from multiple angles, particularly when I was performing chest fly variations.

The weight stack moves relatively quietly and doesn’t rattle too much; this is always nice to see.

I was impressed with the multi-grip pull-up handles, they allowed me to perform a variety of pull-up and chin-up variations with ease, and the handles are comfortable to hold.

One of the most impressive features is the number of accessories included with this functional trainer.

You get 1x tricep rope, 2x rubber D handles, a straight bar, an EZ curl bar, an ankle strap, a multi-function belt, an exercise booklet, and 2 x 5lb add-on weights… talk about adding versatility to your exercise routine.

When it comes to the assembly of the FT1 functional trainer, I found it to be one of the easiest functional trainers to assemble.

This is mainly because the towers come pre-assembled, so you only need to attach them to the framework.

During the assembly, I recommend having a partner help you. The assembly should take around 2-3 hours in total.

Inspire Fitness offers one of the best compact functional trainer warranties around, with a lifetime warranty on residential use of the machine.

However, if you intend on placing the functional trainer in a commercial gym, you’ll get a 10-year warranty which is still impressive.

Compared to other functional trainers by Inspire Fitness, the FT1 costs around $3000, which is slightly more expensive than the FTX, but $2000 cheaper than the FT2.

Overall, the FT1 is the best functional trainer if your workout area has limited floor space. You won’t need much else with this functional trainer in your arsenal.

See Related - Complete Inspire Fitness FT1 Review