Functional Trainers

In the next month we are going to be talking about all of the different kinds of cable machines. We will focus on a different style each week, and then at the end we will do a post comparing all of them and providing guidance on which one to choose. This week we will only talk about the functional trainers (not if you should choose this over a lat pulldown machine, for example)

What is a functional trainer? I’m glad you asked! This is a unit that is designed to cover all “functions” of the body in one. It accomplishes this by having a pulley on each side that can go anywhere on the unit from top to bottom, enabling you to target nearly any muscle.

There are five main considerations (in my opinion) for which one you should go with. They are:

1) What footprint do you have available? This is the foundational question because, if you don’t have enough space available, then you really only have a few options. If you’re going to be tight on space, or like the idea of building an all in one unit, you should look into a rack mounted functional trainer, such as the rep Athena or Ares. These take up a relatively small amount of space. If space is not a constraint, or you don’t like that idea, I would go with a free standing unit.

2) What type of pulleys do you want it to have? All functional trainers have a pulley on each side. Some also have a centrally located high and low pulley. These are less common and generally only available in the plate loaded style, but it can be very nice to have. The low pulley is generally slightly lower than the side pulleys and includes a foot plate. The high pulley is generally is slightly higher than the side pulleys.

3) How do you want to change the resistance? These machines can be either plate loaded or selectorized (meaning there is a weight stack with a pin that you can use to select the amount of resistance). Simply put, selectorized is much more efficient and easier to work with, however, it is MUCH more expensive. My opinion: if this is a machine you plan to use a lot, you have a high budget, and space is not an issue, there is no reason to buy a plate loaded one. That being said, for ~90% of home gyms, the plate loaded is generally a good option as you can use your barbell plates for it, and you can go up in as small of increments as you’d like.

4) The weight ratio. Depending on the way the pulleys are configured, there is a different ratio. E.g., if it has a 2:1 ratio, that means that for each pound you load on the machine you will only feel 0.5 pounds of resistance. There is not really one better than the other, just something to keep in mind

5) How much resistance do you want to be able to have? To point #4 above, weight and resistance are not always the same on these. So, see what the max resistance of the machine is. Will that be enough for you and your strength goals? Something to keep in mind

All that being said, what would JEV do? Personally, if you are not going to go for a rack attached one, I would highly recommend a plate loaded trainer with the separate high and low pulley. These are highly versatile and by being plate loaded you can go up in any increment you choose.