Marcy Smith Cage Workout Machine Full Body StrengthTraining Home Gym Equipment System with Leg Developer, Press Bar, PEC Deck, and Squat Rack

I read review after review before finally pulling the trigger on this purchase. My wife wanted this machine and I was concerned about the size, the complexity, and the weight. First...the size. It is tall, wide, and long. You will also need to consider that you need about 2 feet on the three, non bench, sides to move weights. So when deciding where it will go, don't forget that fact. On the bench side...you will need even more. You will be moving the bench in and out and up and down and need some room to maneuver. We have about 6 feet in front of the machine and that seems to work well. We ended up with about a foot on one side and the back and while it works...it is not ideal. The last thing on this point...this is not a knock on the machine...it is just something to consider when purchasing. Next was the complexity of the machine. Using it is a breeze. My only complaint is that the two latches on the bench (for the seat back, and the curl pad) must be unscrewed and screwed back in. I saw this in other reviews and was willing to accept the annoyance. But know... it is not a 2 second operation...more like 30 seconds. Now...the real complexity with this machine is the assembly. I saw lots and lots of negative comments about it. But also lots and lots of helpful hints. I will condense several of those and few of my own here. First...this thing comes in three, big, boxes. They are heavy. You will need to inspect them when they arrive for damage and don't accept them if you notice any or if any of the boxes are heavily damaged or have been ripped open. Once you have ownership of the boxes...carefully unpack them and sort the pieces. In my case, I matched each part with the picture in the construction manual and put a small round sticker with the part number on each. ***If you have one take away from my construction story...this should be it...take the time to organize and label your parts. It will pay off in spades as you work. The hardware was packaged well and labeled on cardboard packages and was very easy to work with. Take your time. Understand what you plan to do...get all the parts ready...ensure you understand your goal and then proceed with each step. You will do much better if you have someone to help you. Sometimes, just someone holding a large bar in place will save you a ton of time. Start by assembling the bench. It is fairly straight forward and you will learn a lot before you get into the bigger pieces. The super structure is straight forward and is just bulky...this is where the second person really comes in handy. Make sure you have everything lined up and bolts in before you tighten the bolts. In some cases you simply need the "wiggle" room to get thing to fit. In any case...the most complex and confusing part is the cables. Three hints here. 1. Take all the time you need to logically work out what they are trying to do. It is complicated and involves multiple fly wheels in one, very complex, mechanism. It was not until I was finished that I understood how it was going to work. The part that can get very confusing is the long cable that goes through the part with two wheels side by side. Really study the picture and understand the direction of the cable as it goes through. This is the part you will get backwards if not very careful. 2. In the Owners guide, they give you the same pictures as the construction guide, but they add words for the cabling. Read this. It helps a little. 3. Do not tighten everything up, for a step, until you are 100% sure you have it right. This will save you a lot of heartache later! In the end, it took my wife and I about 90 minutes to label everything and about 7 hours, spread over 3 days, to finish construction. I used a pair of pliers, a rubber mallet, and a socket set. Those were the only tools I needed to provide...the allen wrenches were included with the hardware. The last area to consider is the weight of this machine. I live in a house that was built in the early 60's with wood construction. This would not fit in our basement so it had to go on the first level. I was concerned. About 400lbs of machine...say...another 200lbs of weights...and then me ~300lbs and possibly my wife...(no weight here...I am not a rookie husband)! But we are easily pushing 1000lbs. Hmmm...should I be worried? Yes. So I called a friend of mine who was a contractor in my neighborhood (so knew our houses). He told me it was not a problem. He said...think about a bedroom set with a water bed. Four contact points and well over 1000lbs. Fair enough. This machine has the footprint of a small bed...and the feet are actually wider than that of a water bed. There is also a fifth foot under the rear weight assembly. So that concern was negated. We installed it...have about 150lbs of weights and not a creak can be heard from the floor. So no problems there. In the end...we love our machine. We use WD40 on back post and on the posts for the bar bearings. We also make sure the cables are not kinked. We adjusted the tension on the cables after the first week (see the owners maual for how), and have added some padding to keep from banging heads and legs on things. The quality is good and machine is sturdy and works as advertised. I highly recommend this machine and look forward to updating my review after we have used it for a year (to give you an idea on wear).

So couple things. First of all, I’m a 5’4” 125lb woman and I put this together BY MYSELF cables included. It may be a little hard, but you do not need two people to assemble despite other reviews, just need some common sense and a ratchet set with the 5/8th bolt size. Second, do NOT rip open all of the cardboard sheets that hold the nuts and bolts. I took my buck knife and only cut out around the exact ones I needed for the next step and only took out the very one I needed. You can easily start mixing them up if you take out different lengths at a time as some of the bolts only vary by an 8th inch. ONLY WORK WITH THE EXACT NUT/BOLT COMBO YOU NEED AT A TIME. I went one page at a time on the directions and one nut/ bolt combo at a time pictured and worked my way through that page until I had completed everything. For some of the cable steps, you don’t attach the cable pulley mount to anything until a few pages later- just let it hang there until it says to attach it to something. Third, and this is VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU’RE SHORT OR WANT EXTRA RANGE OF MOTION. Being 5’4 and wanting to do hip thrust, deadlifts, stuff that requires the bar to be close to the ground, DO NOT PUT ON THE SAFETY HOOKS. As you can see from my one picture holding the safety hook up you lose about 3 inches of range of motion at the bottom if you have these on the pole. Being that it’s a smith machine and you can rack it every few inches I don’t think they’re necessary and it took about an hour to get them off after I had already assembled the whole thing, which can be done by removing the j shaped weight storage racks and sliding them off of the bottom of the pole- not fun. I included a picture at the bottom of my hip thrust range of motion which is the perfect height without the safety hooks being installed. Clamps- upgrade to quick release clamps, I got the amazon recommended black ones pictures they run about $8 a set and are worth not having to deal with the metal ones. Attachments- they’re just okay, I bought a separate ankle strap that is much more padded and a Bar pad from perfect peach athletics- $26 and is so worth it. I also recommend purchasing some quick release carabiner hooks to attach all the accessories with, I found 4 for $7 on here which is better than having to unscrew them each time. Weight types- this machine CAN run off OLYMPIC OR STANDARD WEIGHTS you just don’t put the black sleeves on if you want standard sized plates. Bench- the bench is actually pretty good when it comes to the leg/ bicep attachments and again can work off Olympic or standard weights. Only thing I don’t like is that there’s a lumbar support in the bench it is not completely flat and that you have to unscrew the pin to incline the bench. Otherwise fairly sturdy. Also it doesn’t have wheels which is annoying to move. Take your time putting this monster together, I did it in about 8 hours over a couple days and it went almost completely smoothly since I took my time. This is a great addition to any home gym you can do SO many different exercises with it and is well worth the price. Also, I found an entire set of Olympic plates at goodwill for $112 plus a lot of standard sized and dumbbells. Check out second hand before you spend a fortune on a few plates of iron- I restored mine with a wire brush and some rust oleum spray paint and they look new again. Hope this review helped you make a decision and happy lifting guys!

I purchased this model for my home gym because I needed a single piece of equipment that allowed for the broadest range of possible exercises with the smallest footprint. I couldn’t really find any alternatives to this machine that would allow me to do free weight bench/squats along with providing options for cable exercises, leg extensions/curls, etc. The versatility of this machine is really unmatched. It arrives in 3 large boxes, and it took 2 of us roughly 8 total hours to put it together. All parts were included, nothing was damaged, and I was impressed with the look and quality of the final product. I had 1 bad bolt in the box, and I called Marcy and they were very helpful, shipping a replacement the very next day. The smith rack works well - I use it mainly for incline and decline bench, and I bought a standard Olympic bar for regular bench and squats. The cable exercises are somewhat hit-and-miss - for triceps push downs it’s great, pec cable fly and seated lat pull are fine, the built-in seated pec fly with the pads is just okay, and the last pulldown is the least successful since there’s no good position for the bench to be able to do it easily. Now for the bad news. My biggest frustration with this machine is the bench - it’s not flat. You can tell from the pictures that there is a curve to the bench where you lay your back, and I find this SUPER uncomfortable when doing flat bench press. I have to slide up or down to try and find a comfortable spot - it’s really annoying. I’m considering buying a second flat bench or calling Marcy to see if there’s a replacement part I could order that would be flatter, because it’s really uncomfortable. My other complaint is around the pully mechanism - the part that slides up and down and holds the weights is just plastic sliding against metal, and it does not work well. They really should have put some ball bearings or small wheels into the design. You’ll need to spray a bunch of wd-40 or something similar all over that metal column, which makes a mess, and will need to be repeated regularly to keep it sliding freely. Overall, I’m very happy with my purchase. Like I said, there’s really nothing that compares to this machine that I could find, and it’s very reasonably priced and looks great in my gym. If I can’t make it to the actual gym, it’s a great alternative and I can get a really good workout in. If Marcy made just a few minor adjustments to the design, they would really have a winner on their hands, but I still think for the money it’s a great buy.

In case you are not aware, muscles react 30% better to free weights then they do to machine weights. The problem for many people, is getting that free weight motion safely if you have to workout alone. This Smith Machine concept tackles that nicely. I researched for weeks what would be the best free weight (or similar) home gym, at the lowest price possible, and as safely as possible without a spotter, but without sacrificing quality. This Marcy smith system won the toss. There were a few other possible runner-ups (like the Body Solid Series 7 Smith Machine at $2800, or the PowerTec Multisystem Leverage Gym at $1500). Both had their pros (quality) and cons (size/price), but in the end when I compared everything this Marcy gym won hands down. The Linear Bearings used in it dramatically increase the quality factor, and while some reviews said they were not "Thompson" bearings, I find them to be of very good quality and extremely smooth (besides, how "brand name" do you really need little steel ball bearings to be anyways). Anyhow, there are a few things to note about this gym: PROS: GREAT price at only $982 on Amazon w/ free shipping (and it arrived in a week) EVERY major exercise you can think of. I pulled out my exercise routine I followed when I was a member of Bally's Gym, and I was able to do every single exercise on my list. I am still amazed at everything this gym has! THE SIZE of it is even more compact than I thought. The frame is only about 5 feet wide by 5 feet long (but keep in mind that the smith bar extends about 7 feet across, and the bench sticks out about 2 feet longer than the frame itself). LOOKS - it is probably the most stylish smith gym I have seen in blue and white (coincidentally, our walls are the same color blue, so that was a bonus) CONS: You need to buy separate olympic weights. This is not actually a CON, since most of these free weight gyms require the same, but you can tack on a few hundred more for those (I found the best deal at Sears for 300 lbs + the bar at only $275) The instructions - although they are fairly easy to read, they are aboslutely horrible for matching parts. NOTHING, not a single solitary part (and there are about 100) have labels. You have to actually hunt through the boxes to match the right piece with the right step and diagram you are on to make sure you have the right match. What were they thinking here? The good news is that ech part is pretty much one of a kind, so you shouldn't have too much trouble matching the piece, it's just finding it amongst 100 pieces that is the trouble. They could have made this much easier. The build time as stated in several reviews online said 5-8 hours, and yes it took me all 8 hours simply because of the hide and seek of matching parts. Proper labeling could have easily cut this down to 6 hours at a maximum. Lastly, two of the frame pieces were bent when they got here (although no visible damage to the boxes). I had to hammer one piece back to it's correct shape, and the other had an elongated hole in it for a bolt to fit through, but because it was bent so much I had to drill about a 1/4" more space to accomomidate the bolt. All in all, I would absolutely buy this again, as long as you don't mind an 8 hour build time and the "possiblity" of a little extra handy work. My logic with this product was to buy it for $982, buy the Bowflex SelectTech dumbells (see my 2009 model review of those on Amazon) as well, buy the free weights, and buy an extra EZ curl bar but still stay under $2000. I did exactly that, while at the same time maintaing the ability to keep free weight quality and encompass all necessary exercises. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, AND WE ARE 100% SATISFIED!

I have been using the machine for about one month, so this is not a review of its long-term quality. I have been using it every other day at the minimum, I try to do short full body superset workouts every day of the week (I am a construction contractor so some days i just dont have the energy). When I built it I personally thought that the instructions were good. All of the bolts, washers, and small hardware came clearly separated and numbered for reference. Most of the parts were numbered but some small things took figuring out by eye. I added grease to any bearings and the sliding parts on the smith machine and the weight rail for the pulley system. With a set of vice grips, a socket wrench, and a few tequilas it took me about 5 hours to setup completely at a casual pace. Using the machine almost daily for a month i haven't noticed any grinding or flexing of the smith machine parts or the pulley system, but i havent been pushing heavy weights yet. I quit lifting a few years back and so I am easing into it weight wise. I have had about 240 lbs on the smith machine max, normally pushing weights around 160 lbs. Pulley system has anywhere from 20 to 100 lbs on it constantly. I have seen no signs of wear and tear. I rechecked bolts and they were all good to go. I am pretty impressed by this machine for the price. I looked around a while before I bought it, value for the price is the best i could find for what i wanted. The design of the machine and all of the possible configurations make this almost a full gym at home. I can run supersets with 8-12 workouts involved and only have to swap weights every 3 or 4 sets, which gives me about 30 seconds rest anyway. The only negatives I have are the plastic weight rack pieces and the fact that I had to run to the store to buy extra pieces of chain and more carabiners with springs for all of the attachments. On that note, the selection of attachments is great: multiple rowing grips, pulldown bar, individual hand grips for flys, leg strap, triceps pulldown rope, preacher curl attachment, etc. Overall great machine, my girlfriend likes it and can use it for low weight high rep exercises too :)

I've had this Smith Machine for about 2 weeks now and one thing I can say for sure is that I am royally impressed with the quality-to-price ratio of this system. It does almost every exercise you could ever want or need. It also looks great sitting there in my family room. I have included a couple of pictures to give a closer and more detailed view of some of the attachment on the system because the picture that Amazon gives kinda sucks. Well here is my rundown on this gym: Pros are as follows: 1. Great quality/price ratio with it only costing me $969.94 and Free Super Saver shipping. It shipped with CEVA Logistics to get to me. (Just a side note here, be sure to call CEVA and have them lookup your tracking number because Amazon did not supply the correct tracking number and CEVA must contact you to schedule a delivery appointment or else they will not come out to deliver to you.) 2. This machine looks great in your living room, den, patio, or where ever you put so long as you have room for it. 3. Almost every major exercise known to man can be done on this system. I'm guessing there are at least over 100 different ones you can do on it. 4. Depending on your current weight collection, it will hold either regular 1" weight plates or 2" Olympic weight plates. It comes with these hard plastic adapters which slide over everything to make it Olympic size. It also comes with enough clips to go over every single weight peg; however, the set only comes with Olympic sized clips so if you want to use regular sized plates you have to get regular sized clips separately. Unfortunately this system has some Cons (but that's ok, nothings perfect): 1. The chrome bars that the Smith bar and the rear cable weight slide up and down do not come with any type of lubrication so the smith bar makes an annoying grinding noise going up and down while the rear cable weight holder tend to kinda stick going either up or down. I highly recommend getting some lubricant for both of these areas. After I lubed'em up they slide up and down smoothly. Hey now, get your mind out of the gutter. :) 2. Build time for this system is staggering. Even though the instructions were not that bad and all of the nuts, bolts, washers, and bushings were labeled it still took 7 hours to put it together and that was with a buddy helping me the whole time. Be prepared to spend a lot of time building this if you get one. 3. It doesn't come with an Olympic weight set or regular Olympic bar but that didn't bother me any. I bought the 300lb O-Ring Olympic set from Sears for $250 and it works just fine. I have another few tid bits of information, an "fyi" if you will, that I think everyone who is considering this gym should know. It has a spot on the bottom back support to hold an Olympic bar for storage. The smith bar has multiple locations to lock for varying heights and has adjustable emergency stops just in-case you can't stand back up. The big white Olympic bar holders in the very front can be moved to any location on the silver part of the front so you can stand and rack a bar if you are doing shoulders or put it low for declined bench presses. Last but not the least, its rated to support 600 pounds on the unit. That doesn't include the weight of the gym so it would come out to about 1100 pounds all together if you include the maximum plate weight and weight of the gym. All in all I am 100% impressed and would buy it again if I ever needed to. *UPDATE DEC 2014* I sold the gym recently due to space issues with a new house I moved into but in the past 5 years I've owned it the only things that have broken or needed repairing was some of the pulleys having the bearing dust caps falling off and 2 of the plastic Olympic sized plate adapters breaking off but they were my own doing in both cases. I really wish I wouldn't have needed to sell it and miss it already but maybe I'll buy it again in the future space permitting. My original rating stands unwavering.

I read a number of reviews before buying this product, and the price is hard to pass on. This is a great home gym and a great price. Remember you still need weight plates. Construction: this arrives in3 boxes. Box 1 is the main frame and weighs about 250lbs, box 2 is more parts to the main unit and weighs about 100 lbs, the third box is the bench and weighs about 80 lbs I think. Some folks said they took 8hrs to build this. My son and I worked together building the unit, recommend having help for sure. We took about 5hrs total to assemble the entire unit. The directions are like Ikea instructions, mostly just pictures of what to assemble. Keep the parts in their shrinkwrap tray while assembling, this will help keep things organized. The cables were probably the most challenging just to be sure about the routing but not really a problem. Do route the cables under the pulley before securing the pulley with the bolt and nut. Likes: Has barbell storage cup, can hold Olympic or standard weights (won't stack bumper plates well), integrated fly machine, solid build, adjustable in a number of ways. Lots of exercises, can easily use with curl bar or strait bar. Dislikes: the adapters for Olympic weights are not as sturdy as I would like, the Smith machine does not have a counter weight though at this price point I would not expect it, the bench is really not comfortable I don't know who the lumbar support was built for. I am about 6'1" and use an Olympic bar for squats rather than the Smith machine here, I found that the bar wasn't out of the way enough for me, so I rigged up an option to hold it up and out of the way. I don't think this will be much of an issue for most folks though. Final thoughts: my whole family loves this and we use it daily. we added smaller snap-links to the ends of the cables for easier swapping out of accessories. While we wish that there were some higher end features like an integrated plate stack for the cables, I really can't complain. The features packed into this unit for $1,000 are great. Everyone can get something out of this unit. Do not plan on using the weight storage pegs with bumper plates because they won't stack as the pegs are too close together. Standard metal and rubbercoated (standard and Olympic) fit just fine. Highly recommend this product, a great home gym!

My machine was delivered last Wednesday. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to build it. I had taken off the following day from work to do so. Everything was going awesome- until I got the pulley system and realized I’m missing part 100 (bushings). I couldn’t proceed further until I had those. I called the company the minute they opened on Thursday to request the missing bushings as well as a new lat bar as mine came all gouged (the grips). The initial lady I spoke too was pleasant enough and informed me she ordered the parts and should take 5-7 business days. I called back about 30 minutes later upon finding a plastic housing also cracked in one of the parts- the second lady I spoke to- makes me want to return this half built machine currently in my basement. While on the phone with her and her huge attitude, she was looking at the order the other representative had placed- and stated I didn’t need a new lat bar, just new grips and maybe I should be more specific next time. While she was placing the order for the plastic housing- I asked if she could please expedite the bushings because I really want to built this thing and finally be able to use it. I told her I was originally told 5-7 business days but hoping it could be sooner. She laughed at me and said “ha more like 10 business days”. So again I ask if there’s anything she can do and she said “people make mistakes, not every package will have all the parts. These are packed overseas” The customer service I received was so terrible. May 6 I ordered this product. May 22 it was delivered. Last Thursday morning (May 23) I had requested the parts. It’s now Tuesday (May 28)- they still haven’t shipped them out. As wonderful as it’s been having a half built useless piece of machinery in my basement, I decided to return it. I’d rather pay more elsewhere for a better product with less broken parts and way better customer service. Amazon needs to get on them. There are way too many reviews with the same issue of missing or damaged parts. For the amount of money we are handing over- this isn’t ok. I wouldn’t recommend this company. Ever.

OK, so delivery was earlier than stated, it comes on a pallet in 3 boxes. There are a lot of parts, some big some small. Don't expect this to be a quick job, took me all day and I am a Mechanical Engineer, but the end result was worth all the effort. The picture shows some chains for the cross fly's these are not included, but i went on to the suppliers web site and ordered for next to nothing. Am I happy with the package? yes very. Been using it every day and have cancelled my gym membership, will have a simple payback period of 2 years, so for me it will also save me money.

Verry happy with it Takes some time to put it together but when done ausume machine Its a big and strong machine

The loading pins at the back of the machine does not glide and gets caught all the time so you can't use the cables properly. It just stops moving and can cause a serious injury. I have tried wd40 to make it glide but it keeps getting caught so does not help. The only bit I can use is the Smith bar. Really angry considering how much this cost. It took 10 hours to put together and can't be used. Would give zero stars if I could.