Question

I have no gyms near my residence. I need a system that is durable and can handle a ton of weight for strength training. I am concerned about safety as my wife can only do so much to spot me. Both the Body Solid Series 7 and the Body Solid Leverage Gym use free weights, which is important to me and both seem relatively safe.

Which is the best buy for a total gym quality, strength training workout and why is the Smith Machine much more expensive than the leverage machine? Thanks.

Answer

I've wrestled with this same question myself - in my old gym I was trying to choose between leverage equipment for safety (in my case the Powertec line as Body Solid wasn't making any at the time) and a smith machine.

It cost me a lot of wasted money to get this problem solved to my satisfaction (yes, even I make mistakes from time to time but don't tell my wife) and you're the lucky beneficiary of my school of hard knocks education.

My Story goes a little something like this…

In my old house I had a huge unfinished basement that my wife gave me free reign to equip with whatever kind of home gym equipment that I saw fit. Sounds like a good problem to have, I know,  but be careful what you wish for because you may get it.

I started off the gym by investing in a squat cage, adjustable weight bench and a 300 pound Olympic set - a good foundation of equipment to be sure that would satisfy most every weightlifting need but I wanted more - I wanted my own mini health club.

The next investment was a 5-50 pound set of hex dumbbells, an Olympic curl bar and a weight tree to help keep my growing gym organized. That would surely be enough equipment right? Wrong…

Before you could say "out of control home gym" I added a lat pulldown machine so I could do back exercises, tricep pushdowns, low rows and some limited cable exercises. Any sane man would have stopped with this setup, but the more I got, the more I wanted…

I finished off my equipment buying spree with a Powertec Leverage Squat Machine and later added the Powertec Leverage Bench Press which gave me a total of (8) pieces of home gym equipment with no end in site.

Then one day, as I was walking through my gym to workout, it became apparent to me that my perfect home gym was starting to take over my entire basement, and to a lesser degree my entire life.

So what does all this have to do with your question about the Series 7 Smith Machine and the Leverage Equipment? Let me sum it up by putting it this way…

If you want a "do it all" serious home gym to workout and train with free weights get the Body Solid Series 7 with all the options and be done with it.

With a single machine and some Olympic weights you'll get these important advantages over leverage gyms and separate machines:

• compact size that will fit in almost any room
• train to failure with complete safety
• option to perform free weight exercises on front rack
• built-in weight stack for lat machine and rowing
• built-in weight tree storage for Olympic weights
• high resale value if, God forbid you have to sell it

The reason the Body Solid Series 7 Smith Machine costs more than the leverage gym is because it has a built-in 200 pound selectorized weight stack, linear ball bearings on the smith carriage and a club level build quality that will last you a lifetime of training.

You can read my full review of the Body Solid Series 7 Smith Machine here for more details on what I'm talking about.