Body-Solid Functional Trainer Review: Commercial Steel for a Home Garage

The Body-Solid GFT100 is a dual stack functional trainer built to the same standard as the kit Body-Solid sells to gyms, sold to people putting a serious setup in a garage. At around £1,658 on Amazon UK it costs roughly three times what a decent budget cable crossover costs, and about a third of what a commercial machine costs new. The question is whether the extra steel earns the difference.

Mostly, yes. The frame is 11 gauge 2in by 3in steel, the pulleys are fully adjustable and swivel, and the whole thing weighs 287kg assembled, which is why it doesn't move when you throw a heavy single-arm row into it. What you're really buying is the warranty and the fact that nobody in this house will ever need to replace it.

Who it is for

Someone building a permanent home gym in a garage or outbuilding, with a barbell setup already sorted, who wants cable work that doesn't feel like a compromise. Physios, PTs running small studios, and anyone rehabbing a shoulder will get more out of it than a general lifter would.

If you have a spare bedroom and a folding bench, this is the wrong machine. The footprint alone rules it out, and a wall-mounted cable crossover does 70 percent of the job in a fraction of the space.

The 2:1 ratio, explained honestly

This is the specification most buyers misread, so it's worth being blunt. Two 160lb stacks does not mean 160lb of resistance. The pulley system is geared 2:1, so lifting the full stack feels like roughly 80lb, or 36kg, at the handle. In exchange you get twice the cable travel and 5lb increments instead of 10lb, which is genuinely useful for shoulder work, rotation and anything you're building back up after an injury.

For flyes, face pulls, curls, pushdowns, wood chops, single-arm presses and lateral raises, 36kg per side is more than most people will ever need. For heavy seated rows or lat pulldowns, it runs out. If you're strong and you want the cable station to replace a lat tower, buy the 210lb or 310lb stack upgrade at the point of purchase rather than discovering the ceiling three months in.

Build quality and feel

Body-Solid has been making this class of equipment for over thirty years and it shows in the parts you don't photograph: the pulley bearings, the cable ends, the way the stack pins seat without rattle. The 11 gauge steel is the same thickness used on light commercial gear, which is why the frame stays dead still during aggressive single-arm work that makes lighter crossovers rock.

The pulleys adjust through the full height of the uprights and swivel, so you can set up anything from a low cable curl to a high woodchop without fighting the machine. Cable travel is long thanks to that 2:1 gearing, which means exercises like the overhead triceps extension get a full range without the stack bottoming out. That matters more than it sounds: research on cable elbow extensions found roughly 1.5 times greater long head growth training with the arm overhead than with it by the side, and a functional trainer is the easiest way to load that position at home.

The integrated chinning bar is a proper addition rather than a token one, sitting high enough for a full hang on most ceilings.

Living with it

Two people, a socket set and an afternoon. That's the assembly, and there's no way around it; 287kg of steel arrives on a pallet and you'll want it positioned before the first bolt goes in. Kerbside delivery is standard for items this size, so plan how it gets from your drive to the garage.

Once built, the running costs are nil and the maintenance is a cable check and a wipe of the guide rods every few months. The optional shrouds are worth adding if children will be anywhere near it, since exposed weight stacks are the one genuine hazard on a machine like this.

The 83in height is the specification to check twice. A standard UK garage ceiling clears it, but a low garage door track, a boarded loft hatch or a sloped roof will not.

Value

Cheaper functional trainers exist and some are decent. What they don't have is a lifetime warranty, an 11 gauge frame or the option to upgrade the stacks rather than replace the machine. Over ten years the Body-Solid works out cheaper than buying two mid-range crossovers, and it holds its resale value in a way that budget kit simply doesn't.

Set against a power cage at a quarter of the price, the value case is harder. A rack plus a barbell builds more strength per pound spent. Buy the GFT100 as the second or third machine in a home gym, not the first. If you want the same idea for less money, the Marcy MFT-942 and the Gym Master cable crossover are the sensible steps down, and our multi gym guide covers the all-in-one alternatives. Two days of strengthening work a week is what the NHS asks for; this machine makes it easy to hit that at least twice a week target without leaving the house.