Half Human Air Ski Machine Review: A SkiErg Rival With the Stand Included

The Half Human Air Ski Machine is a £699 ski erg that comes with its floor stand in the box, and for most people training at home that makes it the better-value route into ski erg training than a Concept2 SkiErg. You get 10 air resistance levels, a 5in backlit console that shows watts and pace per 500m, Bluetooth for D-fit and Kinomap, and a 150kg user limit. What you don't get is the Concept2 name: the PM5's accepted accuracy, years of proven durability and the kind of resale value that lets you sell a used SkiErg for most of what you paid.

This machine is built for heavy use rather than squeezed down for a flat. At 40kg and 214cm tall on its platform it's a serious piece of kit. My take, in short: it's a sensible buy if you want a freestanding ski erg and train on your own numbers, and a poor fit if you race online or need the longest possible warranty.

Who it's for

If you've been eyeing a ski erg but balked at the price of a Concept2 plus its separate floor stand, this machine was built with you in mind. It suits home gym owners with a garage or a room with high ceilings, CrossFit-style trainees who want to add ski intervals to their conditioning, and runners or cyclists looking for cardio that works the upper body hard. The standing double-pole pull loads your lats, triceps and trunk on every stroke, with your hips and legs adding drive as you hinge.

It's less convincing if you want to compare scores with friends on Concept2's online logbook, or if a ski erg is a gamble and you might sell it in a year. A used Concept2 holds its value; an unfamiliar brand usually doesn't. And if your ceiling sits below about 2.3m, no ski erg on a platform will work comfortably, this one included.

Build, stand and footprint

Half Human ships this machine as a complete freestanding unit, and that's the single biggest difference from the SkiErg. Concept2 sells its SkiErg designed for wall-mounting, with the floor stand as an extra purchase, which pushes the real cost well past the headline figure. Here the platform is part of the package, and transport wheels help when you need to push it against a wall after a session.

The footprint is 120cm long and 59cm wide. That's longer than a wall-mounted SkiErg, because the platform needs to extend forward to stop the tower tipping as you pull down hard. The machine weighs 40kg, which is heavy enough to feel planted, and Half Human rates it for users up to 150kg.

Height is where you need to be careful. The tower stands 210cm and the platform lifts the total to 214cm, and you then stand on that platform, so the effective height you need is your own reach plus a few centimetres. Tall users in a garage with a low beam or a loft with a sloped ceiling should measure twice.

Resistance and the workout

Like the Concept2, this is an air machine. A fan flywheel spins as you pull, and the harder and faster you drive the handles, the more air it pushes and the more it resists. The 10 levels change how much air the flywheel catches, so a low setting feels light and fast while a high one feels heavy and slow. They don't make the workout harder by themselves; your effort still does that. Most people end up somewhere in the middle for steady work and only crank it up for short, powerful sprints.

The ski motion works well for interval training because you can go from easy to flat-out in two or three strokes, and the air resistance rises to meet you instantly. That matters, since intervals are probably the best use of a ski erg at home. A 2015 meta-analysis of 28 controlled trials in healthy adults found that both endurance training and high-intensity interval training produced large improvements in VO2max, with slightly bigger gains after interval work (Milanović et al., Sports Medicine). Those trials weren't on ski ergs, but the principle carries over to any machine you can push hard in short bursts.

There is ski erg-specific evidence too. In a six-week study at Dalarna University, 33 elite junior cross-country skiers added two 40-minute sessions a week of either strength training or ski-ergometer training; both groups improved maximal double-poling speed and absolute peak oxygen uptake, with no difference between them (Carlsson et al., European Journal of Applied Physiology). Those were trained athletes, so don't expect the same numbers as a beginner, but it shows the machine does real aerobic work for the upper body.

If you want structure, the console's two interval programmes and the custom slot cover it. Our rowing machine HIIT workout and air bike workout both translate to the ski erg with little tweaking: swap the rower or bike for 20 to 40 second ski efforts and keep the rest periods.

Console, apps and data

The 5in backlit LCD shows everything a ski erg needs: time, pulse, calories, stroke rate, time per 500m, distance and watts. Watts and pace per 500m are the two that make an erg useful, because they let you repeat a session next month and see whether you're actually fitter. The eight programmes cover a manual mode, three countdown modes, two interval modes, a custom programme and a game mode.

Bluetooth links the machine to D-fit and Kinomap, and the tablet holder keeps a screen at eye level. Kinomap's route videos make long steady sessions less of a grind than staring at a wall. There's a built-in Bluetooth heart rate receiver, though you'll need to buy a compatible chest strap separately.

Here's the honest limit. Concept2's PM5 is the reference standard for erg data; when someone posts a 1,000m ski time online, it's almost always a PM5 number. The Half Human console will give you consistent figures to track against yourself, but there's no reason to assume its watts or 500m splits match a PM5, so don't compare your times with gym leaderboards or Concept2 rankings.

Half Human vs Concept2 SkiErg

This is the comparison most buyers are really making, so here's where each one wins. We rated the Concept2 SkiErg 4.6 out of 5 at around £815, and that price is for the machine designed to bolt to a wall; the floor stand is extra. The Half Human costs £699 with its stand included, which means the gap between the two freestanding setups is bigger than the headline prices suggest.

The Concept2 wins on three fronts that matter to some buyers a great deal. Its PM5 is the accepted standard for data and online racing, its reputation for running for a decade or more is well earned, and it holds resale value unusually well. If you're sure ski erg training is for you and you want one machine for life, the Concept2 is still my pick.

The Half Human wins on the total price of a freestanding setup, a built-in programme menu with a game mode, direct app support for D-fit and Kinomap, and a quoted 150kg user limit. For someone who trains alone in a garage and only cares about beating last week's numbers, that's a lot of machine for the money.

Check price on Amazon

Warranty and long-term value

The Amazon listing gives a 1 year warranty with a commercial-use warranty type, and that's my biggest reservation. A £699 machine that you hammer with intervals several times a week should come with longer cover, and Concept2 offers more on the SkiErg. Some UK retailers list a longer warranty for this same machine, so ask the seller before you buy and keep the confirmation in writing.

Durability is the other unknown. The listing gives it a commercial-use warranty type and the spec sheet reads like gym kit, but with only limited owner feedback so far there's no long-term record of how the pull cords, bearings or console hold up after a couple of years. Air machines have relatively few parts to fail, which helps; the cords are the usual wear item on any ski erg, so check that replacements are available from the seller.

Verdict

If you've measured your ceiling and the warranty terms suit you, the current Amazon price is the place to start.

Check price on Amazon

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