The Best Functional Trainers Will Take Your Home Gym to the Next Level

When piecing together a home gym, a set of adjustable dumbbells, a barbell, and a sturdy bench are probably some of the first pieces of equipment you’re adding to your cart. But to Vincent Angeli, ACSM-CPT, the Vice President of Fitness at UFC GYM, there’s one machine you should be putting at the top of your wishlist: a functional trainer. “If someone is looking to build out a home gym, this is probably one of, if not the singular, first piece that you should be picking,” Angeli says.

Thanks to their free-moving cables, different levels of resistance, variety of attachments, and add-ons, functional trainers are incredibly versatile—and that’s what makes them so valuable. “Whether you’re a complete beginner or extremely advanced and trying to do some sort of technically difficult and complex movement, functional trainers really have the capability of going in all different ranges of motions, [at] all different heights, [with] all different weights,” Angeli says. “They truly are beneficial for everybody.”

That’s why we put some of the most well-known models through the wringer to determine which ones are actually worth the space in your home. Here are the best functional trainers for creating an at-home gym.

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Best Functional Trainer Alternative: X3 Force Smart Gym (X3 Bar)

X3 Force Smart Gym (X3 Bar) - $949

Product Features

• Comes with four latex bands that provide up to 300 pounds of resistance (correction: over 600 pounds of resistance available)
• Accompanying smart barbell measures real-time performance
• Partner app tracks reps, resistance, and “Total Force” (a unique metric calculated with force sensor data and time and rep count)
• Includes complimentary squat belt

While it’s not what you’d traditionally call a functional trainer, the X3 Force Smart Gym can still help you build strength and muscle in functional movement patterns—push, pull, squat, lunge, you name it. A resistance band-based training system, the equipment package is no bigger than a yoga mat—and that includes a high-tech, Olympic-style bar that connects to the bands for better grip and a ground plate that serves as an anchor point.

Our Tester’s Take

This isn’t the flimsy resistance band you’d find at a PT session. Despite its portable, on-the-go design, our tester says this is a “heavy-duty piece of equipment,” especially for the price tag. We found the multi-layered bands to feel strong, and the steel bar that connects to the band had great knurling (a necessity for a no-slip grip as you sweat) with bearings that allowed for smooth movement.

The footplate is a nice perk; whether you want to deadlift or curl, you won’t need to plant your feet on the band for stability, an act that always comes with the painful risk of latex suddenly snapping into your groin. Essentially, it allows you to do just about any movement you would perform with a traditional barbell, just with variable tension, our tester says. (FTR, current research suggests variable resistance training may improve an experienced lifter’s maximum strength when using loads greater than 80% of their one rep max, but there’s no difference in improvements between variable and constant resistance training when lighter loads are used.)