Functional Trainer Cable Machine with Dual 200 lb Weight Stacks & Accessories

The X-Mark Functional Trainer has been a fantastic addition to my home Gym. It is the corner-piece (literally) and is where I spend about 40% of my workouts. I did a ton of research about what to add to my new at-home gym, and this ranked high on multiple lists. I will break this review down into 4 parts. 1. Things I like. 2. Things I would improve 3. Lessons Learned from Assembly. 4. Some additional things I did to improve my unit Assembly time: 4 hours (But I wasn't rushing, and had a couple beers toward the end) One person assembly, but two people is better with first couple of steps just to get the horizontal bars tied to the main uprights. 1. Things I like: - Description, pictures, elements, all as indicated - all high quality - Packaging was large (spread over two pallets and very heavy), but as described, and well assembled - Instructions were simple (too simple in a couple of cases), but the pictures were accurate - Packaging of parts was well done - Construction is sturdy, and good materials used - particularly for the price - very good value from my perspective - Machine operates as if you were using a very high-end commercial machine at a gym. There isn't much I would change about the machine itself. Sturdy, easy to use. - 200 lbs per side, for a total of 400 lbs. This benefit alone is a part of the true value, as weight plates aren't cheap. - Customer Service. I had one issue with assembly (see below), that was resolved within 24 hours. Very impressed in that there were no questions asked - new cable shipped - no complaint forms, etc., Very responsive. 2. Things I would improve: - Numbering of packages didn't always match that of the drawings. Use the drawings - they match, and are true to form. - Instructions were written by someone who does not speak English as their first language. Very simple written instructions with no tips or ideas to make assembly simpler. - Some signs of rust to non-painted surfaces inside of the tubes on the machine - I am sure my machines was on a container ship, so I sprayed some oil, and it will likely stop the rusting, but they may want to dip the tubing vs. painting outside only - Front Support Legs don't truly keep the machine from rocking with anything pulled from pull-up bars. I tie a TRX strap to the cross-bar, and I could easily tip the machine forward in a very uncomfortable angle (See fix below). 3. Lessons Learned from Assembly: - The pictures are true to form, and show all pieces. Instruction written words were not as simple to follow. I found myself just following the pictures. - They are 100% right - don't tighten everything until done. I only needed someone else's help once - when attaching the rear cross-brace / gear hangers to the large uprights. Once these are assembled to each other, this is a true one-person job. - Cable Routing is not complex, but there are few tips I learned from the first one, that I then used on the other side, and it went much faster. - 1. Feed the cable AS YOU GO with the pulleys. The cable CAN NOT BE FISHED THROUGH MACHINE WITH PULLEYS IN PLACE. - 2. Start with the end that has the threads / lock nut on that you will screw into the handle / pin assembly at the end. The reason for this is simple: By feeding this end through the machine, you will be fishing the line through the up-rite tube of the machine going down, letting gravity work with you. Starting from the other end will cause frustration, as you will have to push it up through the machine against gravity - 3. Fish the cable past each pulley location, and then install the pulley. It holds the cable in place, and if you make a mistake - you haven't gone too far. - 4. Don't forget that there are two holes in the top of the weight-assembly bracket you have to fish the cable through. I missed one by mistake and had to go backwards - 5. Don't tighten pulley lock nuts past hand tight until the whole process is done. WARNING: Don't do what I did!! There are two cable guides / safety angle bars that prevent the cables from jumping out of the pulley grove. These are both installed on the highest-up pulleys - clearly shown in the picture. I tightened these up, and without me noticing, instead of resting straight up and down (which they should), when you tighten the lock-nut, the angle iron has a tendency to push down against the wire (you will see what I mean). When I went to pull the cable at to test it, this angle-iron cable guard was rubbing up against the cable, and stripped the plastic sheathing off of the cable. Make sure your cable guards are vertical, and not resting against the pulley once it is tight. 4. Some things I did to improve my unit. - TRX Straps - can't have a functional trainer without them. - Made a jig for the number setting on the weight so it was easier to apply them. - The legs of the machine to not keep it stable if you use a TRX band. If you look at the picture, I attached the top horizontal back rail of the machine to the wall with wall anchor plates. I put these plates into the studs of the wall, and used a nylon strap to attach the machine to the anchor plates. Machine doesn't move an inch, and I can now use it without fail. All in all, I am thrilled with this machine. It is exactly what I needed, and wanted. Assembly was not overly difficult, and customer service was fantastic. I feel like I got more than I paid for, and I am very happy with the machine. Well done!!

Some quick facts up top: The package weighs over 700 pounds and arrives in a wooden crate on a pallet via freight delivery. The folks at the last mile freight company were professional and friendly, both on the phone when they called to set up delivery and at my home when they delivered it. The machine was for use in my basement home gym. Do not expect to have the package delivered indoors or up or down a flight of stairs. It's just too big and weighs too much. I unboxed it in my garage and carried all the individual parts downstairs. Not any single piece of this was too heavy to carry by myself, although the frame pieces were large and somewhat unwieldy. No big deal. Assembly took a few hours, but it was not terribly complicated. The printed instructions are clear, written in good English (sometimes you get bad translations out of other languages with these products, but this one was very good). The user's manual has a very large exploded view of the machine, which was very helpful for seeing how certain parts of the equipment came together. There's also a 10-minute video on Youtube that shows how to do these things, and that was helpful as a better visual aid than some of the images in the book. It's very helpful to have a second person during certain parts of the assembly (especially the initial frame construction), but not impossible (just frustrating at a couple key points in the process). The only part of this assembly that didn't quite go as described in the documents was the rubber fitting that slides over the cable ends. The video shows the fitting sliding very easily into place. On mine, this was very difficult to do since it was just slightly too tight to slide on. It took me several minutes just to get this one piece in place. I tried using tools, but it threatened to tear the rubber, so I quit that right away. I had my wife try to make sure I wasn't crazy, and she had trouble with it as well. Nevertheless, it was possible, just very, very difficult, and I was able to complete assembly. In general, you probably want a short stepladder to help with reaching some of the higher-up points. It's also very useful to have a socket wrench and ratcheting screwdriver to make this easier to assemble. The package comes with one or two small spanners, which were useful for tightening some bolts in small spaces, but generally they would have impeded the assembly. A proper set of tools is invaluable in building this. Once assembled, the thing works great. Before, I had some hand weights and other flexible-use equipment, but found myself spending too much time swapping out weight plates between exercises or shifting equipment out in my basement space. With the cable machine, I have a lot more exercises at my fingertips, and switching modes of exercise takes almost no time at all. I can go up or down in weight with the shifting of a pin instead of unscrewing a nut to add or remove weight plates. Most of the workouts that I do can be done without any equipment other than the cable machine, so I do a lot less mode-shifting in the gym now. Couldn't be happier. If I had to quibble on something, I'd say two things. First, the system comes with two foot attachments for doing leg exercises. One is a simple loop meant to wrap around an ankle. The other is a few straps designed to stay cinched up on your shoe. These are sturdy enough, but can be kind of difficult to get into the right place on your body. The second thing is that it comes with a poster demonstrating various exercises you can do on the machine. It's nice if you're not familiar with what you might use this equipment for, but it came rolled and folded in a way that makes it so I can't unroll/unfold it. There is a crease in the bottom of the poster causing it to roll backwards at the bottom. Still, I don't anticipate hanging this thing, so it's not that big of a deal. If you're in the market for a high-end, professional cable machine, this is a great option. Don't buy if you have a very tiny space to work out in (it's quite large, but the dimensions on the product page are accurate). Don't buy unless you're committed enough to swallow the cost (it's almost 3 grand after taxes and shipping). Otherwise, it's a really great product that works exactly as you'd expect. I've seen this exact model in actual gyms before, and it's great in your home gym if you have this kind of space to work with.

The package came by freight truck and was unloaded at my sidewalk (delivered earlier than promised). The packaging is very well done, including double outside boxing. Everything is packed very organized and easy to unpack. You will have to unpack both main boxes to get the pieces to start the assembly. The 10lb. weight plates come separately in 6 small boxes (4 boxes of 6 and 2 boxes of 7), all individually wrapped in plastic. All assembly hardware (nuts, bolts & washers) is secured to two pieces of cardboard and labeled. Instructions for the assembly of the main parts are straight forward, but the instructions for the cables are pretty much backwards. It also doesn’t tell you that you should install each pulley as you thread the cable as well. I attached pictures and diagrams that may help your assembly and save you some time, I made them as a result of assembling this functional trainer. You can make the mistakes I did following the manufacturer instructions, or try it this way. It will save you some time, as you’ll read in other reviews. Overall, it is very well made, almost commercial quality. It is very sturdy and doesn’t budge when I do pull-ups (I’m 6’3, 235lbs.). It is relatively short for my height, but I just fold my legs at the knees and knock them out. It moves very smoothly, but since the plates are not rubber it will make a sound when they are released, no more than you’ll hear at the gym. The accessories are well made. The short and long handles are very thick, strong straps, and the handles are covered in rubber and not plastic, like the handles I already had in my home gym. The pull up bar is also rubber covered. The shrouds are also well made and not flimsy metal as I have seen on some functional trainers. Originally, my wife said I ordered a “no name” brand, but she is now sold on XMark and encouraged me to write this review. I have a number of items I put together in my home gym, including a smith machine, hack squat, seated back row, and this is the sturdiest piece of machinery in the gym.

I have been a gym rat for 25 years using similar equipment to the XMark for the past 5. I am a big fan of similar cable machines as I can do just about any exercise I can imagine at a variety of angles. I bought the XMark to replace my barbell based workbench at home. I no longer have a suitable gym nearby and I was becoming more worried about the safety of the barbell set-up with my grandchildren visiting more frequently. I also wanted a machine that my wife and kids would use. None of them touched my old workbench. I chose the XMark primarily for the value compared to similar machines with similar features and perceived quality. Once my wife and I had assembled it, I was quite pleased with the smooth operation and solid feel of the XMark. My only minor complaint in use is that I have to bend my knees a bit to do pull-ups (I'm over 6' tall), but I can understand the design benefit of fitting in rooms with lower ceilings. The assembly had a few annoying gotchas. On the plus side, the parts were well organized and laid out in an easy to use format. The packaging was first rate and I saw no damage to any of the equipment despite the fact that all of the external shrink wrap had been destroyed in transit. On the minus side, many of the parts were mislabeled. I also had to make two trips to the hardware store to replace one bolt with bad threads and to buy an Allen wrench that fit the smaller bolts. There was also one missing washer. I expect that the company would have sent me the missing parts but my wife and I assembled it on a Saturday and the help line did not have office hours until Monday. The assembly instructions were the worst part. There were a number of errors throughout and the diagram (with no text) on how to thread the cabling was of little help. Better documentation could have saved us an hour or so of unneeded aggravation. However, the superb quality and feel of the XMark after assembly far outweighed the negatives in putting it together. I look forward to my whole family using it in the future.

Value - 5 stars Assembly - 4 stars (plastics) Customer Support - 4 or 5 stars, they were great to deal with but I disagree with part of the design. Pros: - excellent manufacturing quality - great assembly experience - shipping create construction and packing - Pulleys are robust and smooth - operations very smooth - chin-up grips have the right balance of comfort and confidence - technical support Cons: - Cables - technical support - decorative plastics The Story: I have had the unit two days now. it arrived quickly via OD shipping. The truck used its hydraulic lift gate to unload the crate. The driver used his pallet jack (electric in my case) to roll it into my garage. The crate was screwed and latched down and very easy to open. everything was very well packed. After removing the parts from the crate my wife, two teen age children and my self took three house to fully assemble. To assemble I used three sizes of hex wrenches, two sizes of open end wrenches, a dead blow hammer, and a spud wrench. The spud wrench and hammer were not required but nice to have. The hardest thing to install was the plastic guards as they were very fiddly. The plates each weighting 20 lbs. (Pulley ratio...). They get very heavy after stacking all 44 plates, 22 on each side plus the "Pin" and Pulley Assembly making 230 usable weight on each side. After assembly we started to play around with the system and almost immediately one of the cables flopped off one of the pulleys and wedged to the side. I feel like the this was due to the cable being slack, XMARK doesn't believe that to be the reason. Regardless of the cable going off track all of the cable tension adjustment is fully used and bottomed out. I can feed 4 inches of cable slack out of the tension block. XMARK and I discussed on the phone, email, video, and pictures. They assured me this is how it is suppose to be and send me a video from the factory showing a unit they had with the same slack.

The last 2 years have been crazy and it made us wonder what lay ahead. Our gym also recently closed most likely due to Covid and effects from Hurricane Ida. My husband and I are pretty active and have been working out for years. We currently have some equipment at home that is very good, but we wanted to have something to add, in case another pandemic shut everything down again! Knowing how important exercise is for improving and maintaining mental and physical health was all the more reason we wanted to expand our workout area. After much research, YouTube views and evaluating what space we could accommodate for, we decided on the XMARK. My husband is a mechanic and it took him about 7 hours to put together (need a ratchet with a socket and a wrench to make it easier). He mainly followed the directions, but did refer to Youtube for some additional assistance. This machine is AWESOME!!!! I can't tell you how pleased we are to have this as part of our home gym. I find it is just as good, if not better than most of the gym equipment we have used in the past (and I have been a member of several gyms over the years). It has smooth motion and the stackable weights take the effort out of removing and replacing those plate weights. There are exercises included on a poster, which is great, but we have discovered even more not listed, especially for legs. So don't be discouraged if you don't think it can give you a good leg workout, because it can. SO HAPPY WE GOT THIS!!! My husband even quit his current gym because he can work out in the mornings and not worry about having to rush through his workout on his lunch break. Sometimes I work long hours and have a small window of time to exercise before getting the kids from school. Now I can have an effective workout at home and I feel great. So if you want a good investment in your health and are looking to workout at home, this is your machine!!!!

I've been going to military gyms and the Y for over 25 years...more than a little experience with gym machines. With C19 curtailing gym activities, I began looking for an FTS for my home. I was ready to purchase a competitor's at $1500 more when I ran across the XMark...and bought it instead. I had used the competing machine at the gym for several months and the only difference is the color of paint and the XMark has 10lb plate increments between 10 and 50 while the competitor had 5lb increments---NOT a showstopper. Works great. Delivery---this FTS weighs over 800lbs. The shipment comes loaded on a 3x7ft pallet. There are two really large boxes (the size of the left and right frames) holding the frames and all the other pieces except the weight plates. The weight plates are in an additional 6 boxes--4 60lb and 2 70lb (the top plate assemblies weigh 10lb each yielding the 200lb stacks). My delivery came in a 40ft trailer truck with a lift on the rear. My house is >100ft from the road up a hill. I took my pickup to the road and backed up to the lift gate...the driver and I broke the pallet and loaded the weight plate boxes in the pickup, then manhandled the two larger boxes into the pickup (they are unwieldy and weigh >200lbs each). Then I drove up to the house and broke down the boxes while still in the back of my truck, unloading them a piece at a time into the house. All this to say, plan your delivery and the movement of the pieces ahead of time...allow an hour or two to do it. Assembly---running the cable requires some thought AND you'll need to run it in the opposite direction of the arrows in the directions due to the cable ends...no problem. Additionally, check the nylon bushings in the weight stack plates and the top plate to ensure they are all concentric and run on the guide rods without interference...I had one weight plate and a top plate with gooned bushings which were replaced by XMark. There are lots of time estimates for assembly on the internet...I stopped and started a couple of times while waiting on the replacement pieces, but figure it can be done start to finish in three hours. It is easier to do if someone is available to help while assembling the frame and putting in the weight stacks (but is not impossible alone). It comes with the correct size Allen wrench and an open end wrench...I used my own 5/8" and 19mm wrenches just because they were more comfortable. Support---XMark was quick to respond and ship me replacement pieces when I ran across issues. They were great to work with. I highly recommend this machine.

My husband and I have a fully equipped home gym and added this dual pulley machine to complete our needs. As a certified PT, I have high expectations for any equipment used for my clients, as well as myself. We use our gym heavily and on a daily basis. We just set this up recently and it took two of us about 3 hours from start to finish: opening the boxes to clearing them away! A few parts were mislabeled but we figured those out easily. The slightly difficult part was the pulley system: but I saw a formerly posted Q&A that was all that we needed to complete the set up: "Make sure to remove the portion of the cable the handle attached too prior to routing. The plastic fixture on the end of the cable can be removed for easier installation. For the threaded end, you can drop this portion of the cable down the main frame from the top before you install the pulley. Once this is done, you can use your finger to locate the threaded end at the bottom of the frame. I find that if i push up on the threaded end of the cable, Ii can get a grip on the bare end of the cable and pull it through relatively easily". We love using the machine as it is top grade quality and well worth the price. It is very solid and very well built. We highly recommend this model as you can do a total body workout on it in various ways. We have added some attachments to fit our needs. This XMark dual pulley machine is an EXCEPTIONAL product.