Body-Solid G5B Home Gym

Had this shipped to Arizona, so it could make it on the moving truck as I moved to Alaska, and this product didn't ship to Alaska. Finally arrived on moving truck last week, finished set up yesterday. Here's my rundown: * This will take several hours for setup * Make sure you have good tools, multiple socket wrenches / sockets ( make sure you have large sockets as well to help speed it up ) * *Directions were amazing -** must follow each stop one by one - dont look at the picture and jump ahead** If you follow the steps on each page, in the order they are listed, set up is a breeze. The hardware was nicely packaged and labeled for each step - for example, for Step 1 - there is a bag of hardware (bolts, nuts, whatever, etc) and that bag is labeled as Step 1 - 20 bags in all, all labeled as their proper step. **Note - No bag of hardware labeled as Step 9, because the hardware can be found on the pieces themselves, and you just remove the hardware, attach the piece, put the hardware back in. ** I do have a lot of additional small pieces left over, that I couldn't find anywhere in the directions what their for - and they look mostly like cosmetic items - none of them are for the actual use of the machine - There were a handful of endcaps that just didn't fit on the ends, they were loose and just fell off the machine - again, just cosmetic mostly * however, some of the parts in the pictures in the book were very small when trying to follow the steps and figure out what small piece you're looking for - you can go to body solid website thought and view the instructions for each step and zoom in on the pictures for a larger view * only 2 pieces of hardware were missing - easily bought similar items at hardware store as a fix for now until I can order the correct pieces the machine needs. * Be prepared to lay out all the boxes in additional rooms so you can open each box, as for many of the steps you will be grabbing some items for the steps from multiple boxes. I set this up in a 18' long by 12' wide room, and had to use an additional room to lay out open boxes for ease of use *Make sure once you build the main foundation / base for this in the first few steps (all the steps prior to putting the weight plates on), that you then move it to exactly where you want it in the room. Once you get to the steps of putting the weight plates on, that's kind of where your gym is now going to permanently be - make sure you leave enough room to walk all around the machine - was easy for me, as this is a large room in its in - just leaving that tip up front to be mindful of. *The quality overall on this is amazing - I've bought other sturdy home gyms in the past for a lot less - but again you get what you pay for - this surpasses any home gym I've had prior in terms of quality, sturdiness, set up, and so forth - worth it to invest up front for the long term rewards I only found 2 tricky parts on setup - in 1 step, you have to tighten 2 small allen screws on top of machine, you will need a step ladder for this, as you need to see the top @ about 7feet - next tricky part, getting the cables to reach the weight stack after the cables are looped through all the pulleys, they come up just short of reaching their final destination - there are several way to correct this, and are noted in one of the final pages of the book on how to make the cable adjustments - and you can also use metal hooks that come with it that are used to hook on to the accessories, to add additional length or additional chain. Since I used some of the hooks for this, I will buy more hooks and more chains of different lengths to use all the attachments I have, such as different curling bars, row bars, etc. that I have extras of that didn't come w/ the machine. You do get 1 curling bar - that can also be used for rows, tricep pushdowns, etc - and you get 1 lat bar attachment. The rest is all the machines stations themselves. I highly suggest, if you're 6' tall or taller, of going down to the hardware store and buying a couple more chains of different lengths and hooks, for some of the exercises that miscellaneous attachments are used for. As for the main meat and potatoes of the machine - each station works beautifully, and gets me motivated to begin my workout just lookin at this beast - And the variety of what you can do with this versus other home gyms, is beyond comparison - If you have the budget for this do it - dont go for a cheaper machine that has lots of inconveniences, is clunky, feels off-centered or uneven, , and makes you wish you could do more - just get this one, and do the more now!

Overall this is a very nice piece of exercise equipment. The motions are smooth the components are quality. The manual does include examples of exercises that are capable on the machine and there is a video included that does show some various techniques but not on the G6B which is a bit disappointing. Most exercises you can figure out how to reference them to this machine but in my opinion this should be specific to the equipment for the $2K price. The advertisements state "over 50 exercises" though these are not shown anywhere and even calling Body Solid directly they could not identify what these were or how to perform them. Really, not that big of a deal but still not complete in my opinion. The equipment is delivered in 6 boxes in a semi trailer. Some of the boxes are 80 pounds or so and are fairly big so help is required to move them into the final room (no, the driver won't help). Assembly is time consuming but the directions for the most part do a good job of showing views of the before and after for the "step". It took my wife and I around 7 hours total beginning to end. The manual also has a few errors. Check in the back of the manual, there are a couple of pages with no page numbers that identify some updates with a few pictures. Look here first to save yourself some time and irritation looking for parts that no longer are being used. Some other errors: Page 16, step "A", it states to install the "convex end caps..." then to "tighten allen screws...". Once you insert the end caps you can no longer access the screws so tighten the screws, then install the end caps or you'll have to pry the caps out to get to the screws again. Page 21 does not correctly show the nut and washers required in the "reverse side drawing". There is a clarification drawing in the phantom back pages. Page 22, step "D", the "plastic roller end caps" do not exist. They replaced them with a metal cap and large plastic disks, pics on the extra pages in back. Page 34, step "B", the washers are item #78, not #74 as stated. Also, the single stirrup handle is really a requirement but not included. I found this on Amazon for about $15 and got it the next day but if it is shown in advertisements, in the manual and is referenced in exercises it really should be included. Also, the "spring clips" that attach the different bars have razor sharp edges so be careful. I sanded them down a bit after nicking my fingers a few times before figuring out what was causing this. I bought about a half a dozen more clips from the orange box store with another 6" of chain to make our routines a bit easier (don't have to change chains/bars quite as often for different exercises and the extra clips make for easier connect/disconnects). The warranty is lifetime with no exceptions, even on normal wear parts so keep your receipt. Lastly, we purchased from LDA Fitness. They followed up very well on a missing part and were incredibly attentive. If they are ever a possible vendor on a future purchase, I would pay more to use them. Their customer service is unmatched in my opinion. If you do have a missing part you'll need to contact Body Solid directly as apparently the vendor can no longer get missing parts. Overall, we're very pleased. So far (about 1 month) we've created routines of about a dozen exercises and are working out a good flow. Routine takes around 45 minutes. Highly recommended, quality product. ===Update=== Two months later and still liking the G6B. Had one issue start popping up and that was the weight pull from any position started to "chatter" or stick a bit throughout the motion. Very annoying and made it difficult to do a full stroke. After looking throught the manual it mentioned lubricating the weight rods so I used silicone spray and wiped them down. Problem solved, very smooth again... Other than that no problems yet...

The unit is certainly a great solid piece of equipment...but if you're interested on buying it, this is what you should know: The Aluminum Pulley kit that is displayed on these pictures are not included on none of those price tags...according to Body Solid and other resellers that aluminum kit is an upgrade that you have to buy if you want a much smoother workout, which I found incredibly disappointing to find out right after I bought it. This is not Amazon's fault, and it's certainly false advertisement, I spoke with both the reseller and Body Solid, and as of now Im still waiting on a resolution from both of them. I will update this post as soon as I get a resolution on this matter through Body Solid. For those thinking of buying it, I wouldn't recommend using this product with the pulley kit that come from stock, they're not that great, and according to other reviews online they say the aluminum kit is the way to go. UPDATE: They did resolve my case, but it wasn't easy at all. Contact the seller before you buy!