Exercise has become a global necessity for leading healthy lives, but not everyone can afford the costs and time demanded by a gym. Owning a gym machine at home is the best way to keep your body in shape while staying within budget. With a smartly chosen device, you can acquire a comprehensive workout to suit your body’s needs right inside your house.
A home gym machine can be anything from a modest stepper to a monstrous gym cage, and the right tool for you depends on your fitness goals. Research has shown that most people only need to engage in basic cardio routines at home to maintain a healthy profile. If you are concerned about budget, however, rest assured that there are plenty of exceptional home gym equipment in the market with prices as low as $80. From manual treadmills to under-desk step machines, each gym equipment excels at supercharging your exercise at home. Before you purchase one, it is best to evaluate the machine’s build, capacity, and add-on features to ensure you get the best value for your money.
To help you make a safe investment, we have coursed through an extensive catalog of fitness equipment, assessing each in its relevant performance dimensions, to identify the best home gym equipment under $200. Our top 3 picks represent the most capable low-budget home exercise equipment that you can find today!
Best Home Gym Equipment Under $200 (Comparison)
| Product | Type | Price |
|---|---|---|
| XTERRA Fitness FB350 Folding – ( Editor’s Choice) | Recumbent exercise bike | Check Price |
| Sunny Health & Fitness SF-RW1205 | Hydraulic rowing machine | Check Price |
| MaxiClimber Classic Climber | Vertical climbing machine | Check Price |
(Editor’s Choice): XTERRA Fitness FB350 Folding Exercise Bike
XTERRA Fitness enjoys an uncontested place among the best home gym manufacturers. Their products deliver the same performance as advanced workout equipment while carrying delightfully affordable price tags, as seen in the XTERRA Fitness FB350 bike. This gym beast simply outpaced the competition in terms of functionality and compatibility.
XTERRA FB350 is assembled from high-grade industrial steel with a powerful mechanical frame. Being an exercise bike, it lends you access to a range of leg workouts at home. The machine layout follows the style of a recumbent bike, but with less horizontal distance between the pedals and seat. This combination design lets you lean back on the seat’s integrated back support as you charge up your lower body muscles, enjoying extensive cardio at home. Most home gym equipment takes you through rough, strenuous exercises right from the start, but with XTERRA Fitness’s 8-level resistance settings and comfortable seat, you can experience low-impact, safe workouts and tune up the intensity as you go. This makes it ideal for beginners as well as advanced athletes.
There are various convenience features on the bike that distinguish it from typical home gym equipment. XTERRA Fitness has installed an outstanding digital console on the bike to track your activity. It displays your speed, time, calories, and even pulse rate (by use of handle-based sensors). This lets you craft and manage effective workout plans at home similar to expensive home gym equipment. The bike pedals are designed to stabilize your strides with a 3-part crank setup. There is also an attached pocket below the console to place your phone or remote.
The XTERRA Fitness FB350 bike weighs barely 42lbs, yet can support people with a weight up to 225 lbs. The bike frame is entirely foldable, enabling you to pack up the machine and store it easily when not in use. Its size compresses significantly in the folded position, so you don’t need to worry about space management like with most other home workout equipment. There are convenient wheels attached to the base that further ease the bike’s transport. Such compactness is what defines the best home workout equipment, and it is not something you can often attain in sub-$200 home gym equipment like XTERRA FB350.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Foldable body | Resistance must be changed manually |
| 8 levels of adjustable resistance | |
| Stable, 3-part pedals | |
| Digital console for fitness tracking | |
| Padded, recumbent bike seat |
Conclusion
An exercise bike like XTERRA FB350 is rare even among higher-priced home gym equipment. Its fitness tracking facilities, compact body, and 8-level resistance render it an especially versatile machine for conducting thorough exercise routines. It also carries some of the best stationary bike qualities, like a padded, recumbent seat, and stabilized crank pedal, placing it among worthy gym equipment for any home.
Sunny Health & Fitness SF-RW1205 Rowing Machine
Sunny’s SF-RW1205 rowing machine is one of the brand’s best-performing home gym equipment. Sunny has dominated the budget gym machine industry since its inception and the SF-RW1205 machine proves why.
The SF-RW1205 rowing machine utilizes a hydraulic resistance system to simulate the physical movements involved in outdoor rowing. This allows for extensive, full-body workouts that target your legs, arms, shoulders, and back, granting unparalleled fitness training at home. Rowing machines are not only popular among weight loss enthusiasts but also serious athletes seeking rigorous exercise routines. The Sunny SF-RW1205 machine gears up 12 levels of resistance that you can adjust according to your preferred workout intensity. Even high-priced home gym equipment often fails to deliver such grueling workouts, which is what makes the Sunny SF-RW1205 rowing machine one of our top picks.
We found the machine’s mechanics to be notably smoother than other forms of exercise equipment. The hydraulic resistance is surprisingly stable for a product so low-priced, and Sunny Health & Fitness has further enhanced this quality through built-in stabilizers. They let you ramp up the machine frame swiftly to make it level with the ground. For those living on carpeted or uneven floors, this is the winning feature often sought in a gym equipment store. The machine also boasts a specialized digital monitor with accurate tracking functions, like time, speed, distance, calories, etc. Its “scan” function actively tracks your body’s movement profile to give you live statistics. Combine this with the machine’s resistance settings and you can launch an eccentric HIIT workout at home. Not many home gym equipment can claim such high-profile training potential at sub-$200 price tags.
Using the SF-RW1205 rowing machine is fun and convenient. Its textured handlebar ensures that you get a decent, unflinching grip for your workout. The pedals, being non-slip and displaying high traction, further enhance your stability. To prevent sudden foot twists or ankle strain, the pedals are engineered to pivot as you row. They accommodate your feet’s natural motion with finesse. The SF-RW1205 rowing machine does take up more space than a foldable machine, but its attached wheels will let you transport it easily for quick storage.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 12-level resistance | Non-folding design takes up more space |
| Smooth, hydraulic rowing system | Not very beginner-friendly |
| Fitness tracking monitor with “scan” feature | |
| Integrated floor stabilizer units | |
| Pivot-enabled pedals |
Conclusion
The Sunny Health & Fitness SF-RW1205 rowing machine dishes out gym-level performance at a remarkably affordable price. Its 12-level resistance, smooth hydraulic tension, and specialized tracking functions are the dream accessories for athletic training at home. If you seek convenient yet advanced home gym equipment under a $200 margin, the Sunny SF-RW1205 should be your first pick.
MaxiClimber Classic Vertical Climber
MaxiClimber Classic is one of the most unique and versatile home gym equipment in the market. Its complex handrail construction allows you to perform vertical climbing exercises, making each workout intense and demanding.
The MaxiClimber Classic is a set of contrasting rails founded upon a sturdy steel base for support. It can accommodate folks weighing up to 240lbs. The handrails slide up and down in smooth synchronization, summoning the spirit of vertical rock/stair climbing. Such a workout riles up your entire body, especially the core, upper, and lower body muscles. The machine burns twice the number of calories per hour as compared to a typical treadmill. Our testers remarked that each session on the MaxiClimber Classic toned their muscles in a way parallel to weight lifting equipment. If you are a fan of intense cardio routines or bodybuilding workouts, invest in the MaxiClimber Classic instead of chasing flashy gym equipment for sale.
Apart from exercise rigor, the MaxiClimber Classic brings numerous benefits to the table that you won’t find in conventional home gym equipment. Being a vertical climber, it occupies a very small horizontal footprint with its 28”x35” inch base. Even a folding machine generally invades more space than the MaxiClimber Classic. Most people who seek high-level weight loss workouts are discouraged by the intimidating bulk of calorie-burning machines, like a treadmill or rower. This is why MaxiClimber Classic, with its rigorous climbing mechanics and superior compactness, ranks among the best home gym equipment for space-conscious environments.
The climber is laden with support features that further enrich its portfolio. The foam-padded handlebars make for low-impact climbing motions. There is a digital monitor implanted on the central frame for standard tracking functionalities. The most exciting add-on, however, is the free Fitness App that accompanies the MaxiClimber Classic. It is coded with countless training schedules and workout tips that will ease your way into home-based vertical climbing. The app links with any Android/iOS phone with an easily navigable menu.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Provides rigorous vertical climbing workouts | Mechanics can get noisy over time |
| Targets full-body muscle groups | |
| Low physical footprint | |
| 240lbs weight capacity | |
| Free Fitness App for workout guidance |
Conclusion
The MaxiClimber Classic brings an innovative perspective to any home gym with its vertical climbing mechanism. This demanding machine is backed by a strong, durable frame and free digital app for fitness tracking, making it the best home gym equipment for those who desire heavy, bodybuilding exercise under $200.
FINAL VERDICT – EDITOR’S CHOICE
You will find an endless ocean of products when searching for home gym equipment, but few can deliver a balanced, affordable workout. We have carefully isolated the 3 best machines among such home gym equipment, and as you discovered above, each of them is geared towards different types of exercise enthusiasts. The most capable and worthwhile model, however, is the XTERRA Fitness FB350 exercise bike.
Xterra Fitness’s exercise bike outshines the competing home gym equipment by offering the most home-compatible frame. Unlike the Sunny rowing machine, it is foldable and can be swiftly transported to wherever you need to store it. Budget gym machines are most popular among beginners and first-time weight loss enthusiasts, and the XTERRA Fitness FB350 was the most beginner-friendly machine we discovered. Its recumbent seat and simplistic console let you perform optimized, low-impact workouts. Furthermore, by combining an 8-level resistance with stabilized pedals, the bike achieves an ideal balance between comfort, compactness, and intensity that any home gym equipment needs to have. This is why the XTERRA Fitness FB350 exercise bike is our number 1 pick among all home gym equipment under $200.