Mini multi gym

I've been umming and ahhing about buying this for ages and my hubby making me get rid of my exercise bike decided it for me. I bought an "compact" exercise bike from Argos a couple of years ago but despite its title it was anything put compact, it was bulky, heavy and totally not fun to use. If I'm honest I think I've only used it three times for about 5 minutes each, as it was so laborious. I had it in the bedroom and planned to watch the tv in there whilst riding it but the way it was I had to store it facing the window, then struggle to turn it around to watch telly. It ended up as a very expensive clothes horse. Hubby regularly moaned about it taking up too much space and saying how he'd never seen me using it, I used to lie and tell him that I did use it, but in the end I had to admit that I'd rather have more floor space in the bedroom, so we donated it to the local recycling cooperative who came and collected it from us.

Anyway my mini multi gym arrived today and I have to say it is absoloutely fab, you can do so many different exercises with it, the cycling option is a pleasure, you sit in a chair and "pedal" whilst you watch tv, you hardly notice you're doing it, I've tried the other exercises too, and they feel like they're actually working but feel enjoyable rather than laborious. It's so easy to store and requires little or no dismantling or putting together. I think that at almost £80 it was a bit pricey for what it is, but I got it on easy pay and I think it's going to be used regularly, so money well spent!

nice to hear someone happy with IW hope it works for you.

I'm happy with IW, it's their branch of BidTv I'm not.

I can actually do push ups now thanks to this little beauty, though I've not done very many today as it's so muggy. But been peddling and stepping from the comfort of a chair and now it's tucked away neatly under the bed. I also have an ab twister under the bed, I hadn't forgotten about it, and again it's a good little bit of kit, but you've really gotta be in the exercise frame of mind to use it..plus the fact it's a bit of a faff to put together. My mini multi gym on the other hand is a totally "no excuse for not using me" product. As well as the nice and easy exercises it offers, you can do some serious work out stuff on it as well. God, I wish I'd discovered this before I went and spent over £100 on a clunking great clothes horse. Sorry to harp on about this, but I've tried so many different machines (all mostly expensive) that have been useless. Vibration plate....It was pergatory - it wasn't hard work, I reckon the only exercise I got from it was setting it up and dismantling it. It was as boring as hell and I couldn't wait to finish my session...bad days- Donated that. Gravity walker...heavy as hell took up a ridiculous amount of space, although I quite enjoyed using it at the time I saw NO results. Resistance bands.....no fun, stepper, not too bad...but this....Whey hey! What are you waiting for folks...BUY IT!!!!!

They've currently got a record breakers sale on - this mini multi gym is £49.99

They have them on ebay at various prices on their internet outlet store

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Multi-Gym-/251979514379?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3aab26420b

maymorganlondon said:

They've currently got a record breakers sale on - this mini multi gym is £49.99

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I know Grrrrr!!!! However, I bagged myself a steam cleaner/vacuum for £10 and I was going to pay £50 for it before as I've been wanting to buy one for a while...so I'm consoling myself with that. As I say, I use it every day, so it's money well spent!

Well I'm gutted. I read all the reviews and thought I could make a gentle "in" to exercise as I'm not only overweight but disabled. I saw the price before the show so ordered it. I watched the hour and it had in big letters 17st max weight. No where on the description did it have the weight on it, so I had originally thought I could sit and cycle and once I lost weight I could use the other features. I contacted the show @studio and I got a reply from the gallery that "yes the max weight is 17st thanks for pointing this out and I'll forward this to customer services to see what we can do for you on this instance." I don't expect them to call and by the time they do I will have to refuse delivery wait for it to get back and them fight for the refund.

Nutsville said:

Well I'm gutted. I read all the reviews and thought I could make a gentle "in" to exercise as I'm not only overweight but disabled. I saw the price before the show so ordered it. I watched the hour and it had in big letters 17st max weight. No where on the description did it have the weight on it, so I had originally thought I could sit and cycle and once I lost weight I could use the other features. I contacted the show @studio and I got a reply from the gallery that "yes the max weight is 17st thanks for pointing this out and I'll forward this to customer services to see what we can do for you on this instance." I don't expect them to call and by the time they do I will have to refuse delivery wait for it to get back and them fight for the refund.

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Funnily enough they did actually say when they were demonstrating it that if you did weigh more than the recommended 17st that it would be ok to do the cycling exercises to start with, then of course if you do manage to get under that weight then do the other ones. You're not putting you're whole weight onto the machine as you're sitting on a chair. I'd be tempted to give it a try. Good luck with the machine, or getting a refund if that's what you decide to do. Don't know if yesterday's demo is still online but if so, have a look and you'll definitely hear them say that!

It also may be worth your while "capturing" the webpage so you can prove that nowhere does it mention the weight restriction, you might find that it gets "hurredly" added so harder to get all of your money back - I know it's only the postage you could lose but £6 is £6 but then there's all the phonecalls at your expense that could go with the rest of the inconvenience. Obvs I don't know how much over the 17st you are and I'm not asking, however, I can't see that using it as a cycle would be problematic for you or the machine!

Hi Nutsville - I heard the guest presenter Tim say that, too. If you are sitting and cycling, or doing the other leg exercise where you are lying down and your legs are resting on the stepper, you are clearly not going to be putting your entire bodyweight on the gym. The stepper exercise would be out, and I expect the situp and pressup exercises would be out for now.

The video on IW website is just the voiceover blurb by Denniece, but if you can find one (or recorded one of the programmes) with Tim demonstrating, that's much better as he's actually explaining the exercises. The last show yesterday was a hoot.

Not only that you can still use the stepper from a sitting position, so again you won't be putting your entire body weight onto it. I didn't actually realise that you could actually use it as a standing stepper until I actually watched yesterday's demo, which as the above poster said was an absolute hoot!

merryone said:

Not only that you can still use the stepper from a sitting position, so again you won't be putting your entire body weight onto it. I didn't actually realise that you could actually use it as a standing stepper until I actually watched yesterday's demo, which as the above poster said was an absolute hoot!

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I'm wondering how the stepper movement would differ from the cycling movement?

maymorganlondon said:

I'm wondering how the stepper movement would differ from the cycling movement?

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It's not easy for me to explain, but I'm sure someone else can. Although it looks similar ie you sit in a chair and move your feet up and down on the "pedals". Because you have the machine turned a different way round to do the stepping, the resistance is greater even though the action looks the same - it isn't - It actually feels like you're climbing up stairs, whereas the cycling is a lot easier it's a much freer action and you could honestly sit there and do it whilst watching and entire tv show.

merryone said:

It's not easy for me to explain, but I'm sure someone else can. Although it looks similar ie you sit in a chair and move your feet up and down on the "pedals". Because you have the machine turned a different way round to do the stepping, the resistance is greater even though the action looks the same - it isn't - It actually feels like you're climbing up stairs, whereas the cycling is a lot easier it's a much freer action and you could honestly sit there and do it whilst watching and entire tv show.

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You've explained it perfectly - thank you! Thank you for taking the trouble to give so much detail.

I've taken the plunge, at that price it would have been rude not to... I've been looking at steppers and treadmills, but I don't really have the space for a treadmill, and this is way more versatile than a stepper... result!

Do let us know what you think of it...hope you love it as much as I love mine!

Keep us posted. I might buy one in the future but not now as I am moving house and it would me yet one more thing to move

Will do! Really looking forward to this arriving so I can play... it was watching Tim's demonstration which convinced me it really was versatile - he did side leg raises, quite a lot of different arm exercises. Now, at my age, my arms need all the help they can get. The fact that this is fairly simple resistance training - it really does make sense to me why it would work.

I've ordered one too :mysmilie_59: I saw the latter part of the demo yesterday afternoon and put one in my basket, then forgot to check out. I got an email from IW reminding me it was in the basket so ordered it this morning on flexipay. I didn't get to see all the exercises so will have to look out for another presentation and record it. Thanks merryone for posting about it :mysmilie_59:

Anyone else tried out their new toy yet?