BodyTrain Advanced Single Station Multi Gym Review: 72kg for Under £300

The BodyTrain Advanced Single Station is a pin-select home multi gym with a 72kg shrouded stack, a chest press that doubles as a pec fly, a lat pulldown, an arm curl pad and a leg extension and leg curl station, all on 38mm square steel tubing. It costs £283.99 on Amazon UK and was in stock when we checked on 3 November 2026, which makes it the cheapest stack machine we've covered by about £50.

We rate it 3.9 out of 5. You get a full beginner's station list and a lifetime frame warranty for less than most rivals charge, and the stack is fully shrouded, which matters if you've got kids or pets around. It loses marks for coarse 12.5lb jumps, a 72kg ceiling that strong lifters will hit quickly and a 213cm height that's taller than most of the competition.

Who it's for

This suits someone starting out, or coming back after years off, who wants to train their whole body at home without loading plates or needing a spotter. Spare room, garage or conservatory with a high enough ceiling, a budget under £300 and a plan to train two or three times a week: that's the buyer.

It isn't for you if you can already pull your bodyweight on a gym pulldown or press heavy on a chest machine. You'll be at the top pin within months, and there's no way to extend the stack. Our best multi gym UK guide covers machines with 100kg stacks and up.

Check the BodyTrain multi gym price on Amazon£283.99

The stack: 72kg in big steps

The numbers add up neatly. Twelve 12.5lb plates make 150lb, the 9lb top plate brings it to 159lb, and that's 72kg. A pull pin selects the load, which is quick and about as foolproof as gym equipment gets.

The step size is the real issue, and it's one buyers rarely think about until they're stuck. Moving the pin one hole adds about 5.7kg. On a lat pulldown at 40kg that's a 14% jump, which you can grind through. On a cable curl or a pec fly at 15kg, it's closer to a 38% jump, and most people simply won't be able to make that leap with good form. The ACSM position stand on progression in resistance training suggests load increases of around 2 to 10% once you can beat your target reps, which this stack can't deliver on light exercises.

You can work around it. Add reps before you add weight (go from 8 to 15 at one pin, then move up and drop back to 8), slow the lowering phase, or buy a set of magnetic add-on weights, which typically come in 1.25kg to 2.5kg sizes and clip onto the top plate. Budget for those from day one if you care about steady progress on arms and flyes.

BodyTrain doesn't state the pulley ratio for any station. If the top pulley runs at 2:1, the top pin on a pulldown will feel like about half its number, so treat the 72kg figure as the plate weight rather than what you'll feel in your hands.

Stations and what you can actually train

The chest station gives you a seated press and switches to a butterfly fly, so you get a compound and an isolation chest movement without changing anything over. That's the same arrangement the pricier Strongway and Marcy machines use. The fly is where those coarse jumps bite hardest, though; expect to live on one or two pins for a while.

From the top pulley you get a lat pulldown, and with the included rope a tricep pushdown. The low pulley handles upright rows and curls, and the arm curl pad gives you a preacher-style curl that keeps tension on the biceps at the bottom. The ankle strap opens up cable kickbacks and hip abduction from the low pulley, which is a small but useful extra for glute work.

Legs are better served than on most cheap machines. The roller pad does a seated leg extension for the quads, and a leg curl for the hamstrings. The listing's muscle descriptions are a bit loose (it says the pulldown targets triceps and the leg curl works calves, neither of which is how you'd describe them), so judge it on the stations rather than the marketing copy.

What's missing is anything for squats, hinges or rows with a proper foot plate. NHS guidance asks adults to do strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups on at least 2 days a week, and that includes hips and legs under load. A single kettlebell or dumbbell for goblet squats and Romanian deadlifts fills the gap for very little money. Our multi gym workout plan shows how to pair the two.

Machines versus free weights

Training on a machine doesn't cost you much muscle. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis found no meaningful difference in hypertrophy between free weight and machine-based training, with strength gains tending to show up best in whichever mode people trained and were tested in. You give up the balance and stabiliser work of a barbell. If you're training alone at home with no spotter, a fixed path and a pin is often the safer trade.

Build, size and setup

38mm square tubing is on the slimmer side for a stack machine, but it's normal at this price, and BodyTrain backs the frame for life. That warranty is the standout here, because the York, Strongway and HOMCOM listings we've reviewed don't state one at all. The catch is that frames rarely fail. Cables fray, pulleys wear and seat vinyl splits, and the listing is silent on how long those parts are covered.

The roughly 213cm height is the measurement to take seriously. Many UK homes have ceilings around 240cm, which leaves room, but loft conversions and some garages with exposed joists won't. The 148cm by 116cm footprint is reasonable; add space either side for getting on and off the leg pad and for the pulldown bar's swing.

At about 107kg, it's lighter than the 144kg Strongway or 162kg York. That makes it easier to get upstairs in boxes, though a lighter frame can rock a little more when you pull hard on the top pulley. Bolting it down isn't usually needed, but a rubber gym mat underneath helps grip and protects the floor. Expect a long assembly; cable routing on single-station gyms is the fiddly part, and it's worth a second person.

How it compares

	BodyTrain	York 100kg	Strongway 72kg	Marcy MWM4965	HOMCOM 65kg
Price	£283.99	£399	£469.95	£499	£335.99
Stack	72kg	100kg	72kg	68kg	65kg
Height	213cm	196cm	210cm	198cm	210cm
Leg curl	Yes	Leg station, unclear	Yes	Leg developer	Yes
Warranty listed	Lifetime frame	Not stated	Not stated	2 years	Not stated

Prices are from when we reviewed each machine, so they'll have moved. The York Fitness 100kg multi gym is the one to weigh up most carefully: about £115 more gets you 28kg of extra stack and a shorter frame, though its listing only mentions a generic leg station, so don't count on a leg curl. If you're already reasonably strong, the York is the better buy. The Strongway 72kg dual pulley has the same stack and a similar station list for £186 more, and we can't see what that extra money buys you over the BodyTrain on paper. The Marcy MWM4965 adds an ab station and comes from an established brand, at a price that's hard to justify against this. The HOMCOM 65kg was the previous cheapest stack machine we'd found, and the BodyTrain beats it on price and stack.

See today's BodyTrain multi gym price

Recommended reads

• The best multi gyms in the UK
• A full-body multi gym workout
• York Fitness 100kg multi gym review
• Strongway 72kg dual pulley multi gym review
• How to build a home gym