Compact

A compact home gym aims to offer multiple workout modalities in one unit. Most compact home gyms involve a single piece of workout equipment or a single station that has attachments or options that enable it to function in a variety of ways.

Some compact home gyms replace several separate strength training stations, such as leg press or bench press stations. Others simply revolutionize the equipment storage so you get more out of the space you have.

Some of the most innovative compact home gyms provide options for in-home training that span several styles of exercise, such as strength work, yoga, and cardio, all within the same small footprint of your home.

How they’ve changed

Traditionally, compact home gyms focused on strength training equipment and were designed to replace many of the separate machines you might find at a gym.

A compact gym machine might have included a squat rack, a seated bench with a leg extension and leg curl attachment, a lat pulldown bar, and a dip station, all using the same weight stack, to minimize the space required.

This type of compact home gym is still widely available, but technology has overhauled the home gym market, leading to more systems focused on replacing the modern fitness studio. This means a greater focus on cardio and functional training workouts, rather than just heavy strength training.

Best compact gym on a budget

Tempo Move

• Price: $
• Pros: This compact system integrates with your TV and iPhone, comes with an attractive and sleek interchangeable dumbbell set, and provides access to many types of workouts streamed to your television. It’s budget-friendly and good for general fitness.
• Cons: The range of dumbbell weights provided may not work for serious lifters; dumbbells are the only equipment included; the system doesn’t integrate with Android devices.

The Tempo Move system is designed for those who don’t have much room to spare but still want access to tech-focused interactive workouts.

The system comes with an iPhone dock station that streams selected fitness classes to your TV and “watches you” as you exercise to count sets and reps and integrate with a leaderboard of other users. This allows you to see how you measure up to other users.

The Tempo app includes thousands of workouts. There’s a focus on strength training programs, but there are also options for high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts, yoga, cardio boxing, and mobility work.

The system comes with a high quality set of interchangeable dumbbells and a sleek and unobtrusive storage cabinet to keep them in.

Tempo Move currently offers only on-demand classes — there are no live workouts. The system is also compatible with only more recent iPhones and is not compatible with Android devices.

The range of weights provided — up to 35 pounds per dumbbell — is sufficient for most general fitness needs but may not be enough for individuals who want to focus on building greater strength.

To access the Tempo Move classes and integration, you have to