Body-Solid (GCAB-STK) Pro-Select Ab/Back Machine

Had this shipped to Arizona, so it could make it on the moving truck as I moved to Alaska, and this product didn't ship to Alaska. Finally arrived on moving truck last week, finished set up yesterday. Here's my rundown: * This will take several hours for setup * Make sure you have good tools, multiple socket wrenches / sockets ( make sure you have large sockets as well to help speed it up ) * *Directions were amazing -** must follow each stop one by one - dont look at the picture and jump ahead** If you follow the steps on each page, in the order they are listed, set up is a breeze. The hardware was nicely packaged and labeled for each step - for example, for Step 1 - there is a bag of hardware (bolts, nuts, whatever, etc) and that bag is labeled as Step 1 - 20 bags in all, all labeled as their proper step. **Note - No bag of hardware labeled as Step 9, because the hardware can be found on the pieces themselves, and you just remove the hardware, attach the piece, put the hardware back in. ** I do have a lot of additional small pieces left over, that I couldn't find anywhere in the directions what their for - and they look mostly like cosmetic items - none of them are for the actual use of the machine - There were a handful of endcaps that just didn't fit on the ends, they were loose and just fell off the machine - again, just cosmetic mostly * however, some of the parts in the pictures in the book were very small when trying to follow the steps and figure out what small piece you're looking for - you can go to body solid website thought and view the instructions for each step and zoom in on the pictures for a larger view * only 2 pieces of hardware were missing - easily bought similar items at hardware store as a fix for now until I can order the correct pieces the machine needs. * Be prepared to lay out all the boxes in additional rooms so you can open each box, as for many of the steps you will be grabbing some items for the steps from multiple boxes. I set this up in a 18' long by 12' wide room, and had to use an additional room to lay out open boxes for ease of use *Make sure once you build the main foundation / base for this in the first few steps (all the steps prior to putting the weight plates on), that you then move it to exactly where you want it in the room. Once you get to the steps of putting the weight plates on, that's kind of where your gym is now going to permanently be - make sure you leave enough room to walk all around the machine - was easy for me, as this is a large room in its in - just leaving that tip up front to be mindful of. *The quality overall on this is amazing - I've bought other sturdy home gyms in the past for a lot less - but again you get what you pay for - this surpasses any home gym I've had prior in terms of quality, sturdiness, set up, and so forth - worth it to invest up front for the long term rewards I only found 2 tricky parts on setup - in 1 step, you have to tighten 2 small allen screws on top of machine, you will need a step ladder for this, as you need to see the top @ about 7feet - next tricky part, getting the cables to reach the weight stack after the cables are looped through all the pulleys, they come up just short of reaching their final destination - there are several way to correct this, and are noted in one of the final pages of the book on how to make the cable adjustments - and you can also use metal hooks that come with it that are used to hook on to the accessories, to add additional length or additional chain. Since I used some of the hooks for this, I will buy more hooks and more chains of different lengths to use all the attachments I have, such as different curling bars, row bars, etc. that I have extras of that didn't come w/ the machine. You do get 1 curling bar - that can also be used for rows, tricep pushdowns, etc - and you get 1 lat bar attachment. The rest is all the machines stations themselves. I highly suggest, if you're 6' tall or taller, of going down to the hardware store and buying a couple more chains of different lengths and hooks, for some of the exercises that miscellaneous attachments are used for. As for the main meat and potatoes of the machine - each station works beautifully, and gets me motivated to begin my workout just lookin at this beast - And the variety of what you can do with this versus other home gyms, is beyond comparison - If you have the budget for this do it - dont go for a cheaper machine that has lots of inconveniences, is clunky, feels off-centered or uneven, , and makes you wish you could do more - just get this one, and do the more now!

This gym is fantastic. The assembly is not easy, particularly the cable system. There is a section about how to adjust cable tension in the manual that will come in handy. It took my husband and son about 15 hours to assemble. It was totally worth it. It’s high quality and heavy duty. Nearly commercial grade. The ability to use it at the same time as another person is great. Stations work well for people of multiple heights and sizes. Body Solid customer service is outstanding. My chest press bar was damaged in transit and they replaced it for me in less than a week. The customer service of the seller was also very fast and responsive…on a Sunday! I highly recommend this unit and this retailer. This machine will be getting a lot of use for many years.

The unit is certainly a great solid piece of equipment...but if you're interested on buying it, this is what you should know: The Aluminum Pulley kit that is displayed on these pictures are not included on none of those price tags...according to Body Solid and other resellers that aluminum kit is an upgrade that you have to buy if you want a much smoother workout, which I found incredibly disappointing to find out right after I bought it. This is not Amazon's fault, and it's certainly false advertisement, I spoke with both the reseller and Body Solid, and as of now Im still waiting on a resolution from both of them. I will update this post as soon as I get a resolution on this matter through Body Solid. For those thinking of buying it, I wouldn't recommend using this product with the pulley kit that come from stock, they're not that great, and according to other reviews online they say the aluminum kit is the way to go. UPDATE: They did resolve my case, but it wasn't easy at all. Contact the seller before you buy!

I owned an old Body Solid EXM-1100 for over a decade and it finally broke, so I decided it was time to build a new exercise room and get a new gym to go in it. I looked at other brands but I had great faith in Body Solid because of how well-made my old one was and that one was a low-cost one for tight space areas. The deal is great to buy online and I saved a TON over buying it locally where the store would deliver it and assemble it for you. Beware however that the instructions are crude given how much work is involved in the assembly. I got a palate shipped to me with 12-15 boxes weighing a total of about 1,200 pounds. Once I opened them all there were easily 1,000 parts including all of the nuts, bolts and screws, and the instructions are wordless pictures on about 20 pages of paper. It took me about a week with periodic work in the evenings and on weekends. I had to guess on a few assembly areas because there were no pictures for a few items. I have been using it for about 2 months now and I LOVE it! The gym works extremely well and I am very finnicky about the movement of a gym and this one is very good. A few things to consider: * Wipe down and oil your weight plates and the bars they slide on immediately. There is a lot of friction as you assemble it and it doesn't feel right but as soon as you oil the bar and inside of the weight plate holes they slide into they begin to slide without any friction. * The one exercise I do not care for is the shoulder press. It is not natural and a seat that forces you to lean forward is not a good way to isolate your deltoids. * Don't try to peel the plastic protector sheet off the Body Solid logo plate. I thought it came of and it does not so now it looks real crappy half peeled. :-(

Excellent piece of equipment. I love it. It’s a big build but follow the instructions step by step and it will work out. I would suggest that when you get to the cable stage take all them out and measure them then put the baggie of parts labeled for that step aside with the cables. Also, I dropped a bushing into the frame, my fault and contacted the seller and offered to pay for the part and they sent them to me with extras for free. Very good customer service. Thank you!

So the machine seems very nice. My problem was in some of the instructions. Overall it was decent. However, there are parts in there that show on parts break out and it is so small it is hard to tell what it should look like. Those parts you tend to have to go by the picture (almost to small to see mostly) and the descriptions (generally somewhat vague) The other issue I have is there is a hardware bag for Step 1 to step 22 except for a few steps and there isn't anything saying the hardware required is pre-installed etc. So I spent time I shouldn't have had to trying do decide if I were shorted parts etc. Then there were extra parts in one bag, and stuff missing labels ( or rather stuff that should have been labeled that wasn't). Also several pictures depict something other than the final product. I know it is hard to get the instructions perfect when your designing these but this manual needs revisited. All and all it isn't terrible to build. If your not mechanically inclined or can't read the instructions and sort things out that may be confusing, then I would have someone build it for you.

Excellent customer service!!! I was taking care of my elderly mom, and didn't set up the gym until a year after I ordered it. I found out it was missing some weights, and the vendor sent the missing weights immediately even though so much time had passed. Very grateful for the customer care. Gym is as stated in the product information. Works well.

Very very high quality item- we are quite pleased with it. A few small parts were missing. You can call Body Solid directly and they will ship them free via UPS ground or you can pay for faster delivery. I recommend checking the inventory when it arrives. It's worth the time investment up front, despite there being hundreds of parts. First, make sure you have 4 shaft collars to go atop the weight stack, as this will delay setup, and you will want to get them asap. We only had 2. Everything was VERY well packed. A few hints: plan on spending a few hours unpacking it from the pallett. You will need a very big empty space in your garage for delivery and a boxcutter and wirecutter. The delivery service was great- polite delivery guys and the item arrived a day early. To assist set up, when checking inventory, put the small parts in piles and label the piles, as you will be accessing some of the smaller ones (bolts, etc) over and over & some look alike. The directions are not hard to follow & are very detailed drawings- not verbal directions. Beware: they combine metric and standard sizing. We found out after we ordered that you can order directly from Body Solid's partner company (forget the name but BS owns both-call them). Otherwise, BS only deals with retailers, but they match any online price. We would recommend this, as their customer service staff has been great, or using Amazon, LLC like we did. We had no problems at all with Amazon. We did have problems with the secondary marketplace seller we ordered an add on from, but that's another story. Use Amazon or Body Solid's partner company- trust me. Overall, we are very happy with this gym. It really is commercial quality. If it helps to know, since it's hard to find them to try out, it will work for a very tall person. My hubby is 6 foot 3, and it will give him a good range of motion. I hope this helps!