Question

Hi! I bought the Bodylastics TO Edition after reading the home gym reviews on your site a couple of months ago and enjoyed using it. But I wasn't that satisfied with the chest and back exercises offered so I added a P90x door chin-up bar and a pair of Perfect Pushup.

Now, I enjoy training at home more than going to a gym, but I still feel that I'm not doing enough for my chest (I used to do heavy flat and incline bench presses and it leaves my chest sore for a couple of days, I don't feel any soreness nowadays) so I constantly check the internet and sports shops for equipment other than a bench and dumbbells.

I recently saw a Total Trainer (similar to Total Gym) on sale and it's not expensive, so I'm wondering if I'll benefit from buying it? Can you make a review of the Total Trainer it and tell me the pros and cons of buying it considering the equipment that I already have?

And I've seen in numerous sites that power benders and chest expanders are useful for upper body training…do you think that they're really that useful that I should have both at home? And how are they used aside from the most obvious positions?

Thanks a lot and more power to your site!

Answer

The Bodylastics TO Super Strongman Edition Exercise Bands will give you a great workout for sure, but as good as they are they will never replace doing super heavy bench presses with barbells, nothing will. If it's a matter of "ego" lifting heavy weights (I know it was when I used to do it in my 20's) and getting so sore you can hardly move then you need to push heavy iron.

Before we go any further, here's a quick tip on using the Bodylastics for training your chest to make the movement more like free weight training with a barbell…

For chest training with the exercise bands, try and use them doing pushups by placing the bands across your back and under your hands to give extra resistance throughout the entire movement (see video of TO doing this move here).

Now on to the Total Trainer portion of your question…

If you're not getting good results for chest using the TO Bands how I described above, a Total Trainer isn't going to cut it for you either.

Don't get me wrong, the Total Trainer is a great gym with tons of exercises but it's not meant for heavy duty powerlifting or bodybuilding - it's more of a functional strength, flexibility and conditioning machine than a huge muscle builder.

As far as using a power bender or chest expander for upper body training (for hitting the chest and back with tons of weight as you're concerned) with, I wouldn't bother with that either. The benders and expanders are made for recruiting multiple muscle groups to develop functional strength and power which they work great for.

Should you get a chest expander for home use? It's not a bad idea because they're inexpensive (like the LifelineUSA Chest Expander) and you can use a chest expander for for training your chest, back, legs, triceps biceps and more. To find out all the different kinds of exercises you can do, go to your favorites search engine and type in "chest expander exercises".

There are even entire books by some of the old-time strongmen that are reprinted on websites like this one by Joe Bonomo called, "Strongman's Cable Course" that is totally addicting to read and packed with great information on the chest expander and strength training in general.