Inspire Fitness FT2 Functional Trainer (New)

account_circleDan White

Great first impression

First Impression of the FT2 Trainer by Inspire Fitness. I purchased the FT2 Trainer with additional weight stack, bench, and leg extension back in early Aug. and just received it two days ago, Dec. 24th. I also paid for them to assemble. Due to weight stack shortages from this wonderful virus, everything is back ordered. Before I go into a full review of owning this machine for 48 hours, I’ll tell you something about myself. I am a 50 y/o male that has been in gym life for about 30 years. I am not an expert, however I am far from a novice. I’ve been looking for a good home gym for a few years and finally had to jump when all this crap broke, and gyms closed, so I had a fair amount of research into this. I picked the FT2 due to its unique features of a trainer with 8 pully positions and a smith bar. To be honest, I am not a fan of smith bars, as I feel they take away from stabilizer muscles that a regular bench has, however there are some benefits that can be gained, and I have a bench anyway. I also chose this machine due to all the reviews that talked about how well built it is, thought out, and how well it functions. When crew arrived, it took them 2 hours to put together and I was left with what is an impressive fitness machine. Construction is solid, parts appear to be well made and nothing feels cheap, except the water bottles which I will talk about later. In general, it is a good-looking machine. I would definitely say this rates above any trainer I have used in gyms that I have been in. It is smooth to use, easy to set up for the exercise you want to do and feels solid. Keep in mind, this is a heavy machine at over 900 lbs due to increased weight stack of 100lbs total. As for the additional weight stack, if you are strong or serious about lifting, you are going to want the additional weight, trust me. 160 is the weight on both sides without it. Adding the stack increases to 210lbs on each side. One of the unique features on this machine is the smith bar. It has a great safety feature that allows you to set a safety catch when benching. If you lift a lot, this will take a little getting used to, but it is nice when you do not have a spotter. The operation of the smith bar is smooth, however setting the safety points, which is easy, does take a little getting used too. So some pros vs cons of the machine: Pros: Well-built and good-looking machine. 8 pully station allow you to do just about any exercise you can imagine Solid performance Good materials Cons: There is a few…. Price - this is a very expensive machine, over 5 thousand. To be determined if worth it. Exercise books: The exercise book is woefully incomplete and does the machine a disservice. there is so much more this machine can do than 45 exercises. Now Inspire has an app, however it appears to be poor and in early stages. Still invest in updating the book. Instruction book: Now this to me is rather weird. There is no instruction on how to operate the machine. Now this would seem straight forward, however the smith bar requires quick setup and moving of cables, the weight stacks are not straight forward in their weight and I’m not sure how they’re calculated. Nothing at all…… You’re kind of left to figure things out….. Water bottles: Now this is trivial in the scheme of things, however really? These water bottles are the same bottles I got when I bought my eight year old his bike at Target. I think they hold less than 12oz. This to me is a missed opportunity for marketing. Real gym goers are not going to ever use these bottles, however, replace them with real water bottles and your name will be everywhere. I’ll take them to all events. Especially for the money we are paying. OK, bottom line: I intend to follow up with my review after I have owned the machine for a few months, however I can say I am slightly in love with it. My wife will tell you I am spending just a little too much time with it. My first impression is I bought the right trainer and have no regrets. From the build of this beast, I’m expecting no issues in the future, but only time will tell. One thing I did want to mention. If you’re going to get this, you’re going to want to put it on a mat. If you have foam mats, I don’t recommend you put it on them, if they tear you’ll never be able to get them out. Heavy rubber gym mats are what you want, but are very expensive, however stall mats, used for animals, are not and they’re the exact same thing. Tractor supply has them for around 46 dollars at 6x4’. They’re crazy heavy, however will last forever and really make a difference.