Smarter Fitness: The Best Home Workout Machines Come With Real Trainers

Five years ago, the only reason to have exercise machines like treadmills and rowers at home was to avoid having to go to the gym, pure convenience. Now there may be no reason ever go to the gym again, because in many cases, the gear for your house is actually better, and gives you a superior workout.

The big change occurred when the first Peloton bikes went on sale in 2014. The company revolutionized the entire concept of home workouts and changed the fitness paradigm by leveraging technology to bring real instructors and fitness classes to you in your home. Not only was it more convenient, but by employing top tier instructors they offered a product that was superior to most stationary cycling classes (I know because I have done a lot of these classes over the years and without a doubt get a better workout on my Peloton). But they also really upped the ante in terms of choice, with thousands of archived classes you can enjoy anytime, on your own schedule. In just about every way, the workout was better and more efficient. I’ve written a lot about Peloton here at Forbes and still use and love mine and would not give it up.

But not everyone wants their workout to be on a stationary bike, and after Peloton’s massive success, many new entrants jumped into the field with at home classes of their own, usually focused on a particular niche like yoga. One company I wrote about here at Forbes, Livekick, offers one-on-one personal training classes online. Peloton themselves expanded into treadmills, as well as non-machine-based classes like yoga and weight training. But no company has embraced the concept as broadly as Nordic Track, a venerable maker of high quality home fitness equipment. Nordic Track has one of the longest track records in the business, and I can remember using their original flagship product, the indoor cross-country ski machine, to workout in college, and that was a long time ago. Nordic Track began with its iconic Nordic ski trainer in 1975, also invented the incline trainer, a sort of treadmill on uphill steroids, and has not stopped innovating since.

Most recently, Nordic Track has redefined its entire lineup with the addition of the iFit technology platform and its Global Workouts. Basically, there are three elements to this, a slew of live classes you can do anytime on demand, and “traveling” workouts that take you on a virtual - but very realistic - journey to exotic locales, like hiking through Patagonia or trail running in Iceland. What makes these so impressive is the high production values. Instead of computer-generated landscapes, these are more like TV travel shows, filmed with the same real instructors actually going to these destinations and leading the hikes or other activities live.

But it is the third branch of the technology that is the most innovative and breaks new fitness ground. For several of its machines, including stationary bikes, treadmills and ellipticals, the iFit classes offer the option of letting the class and the instructor remotely control your setting, adjusting incline, decline and speed or resistance automatically, something no other company offers, for a more realistic representation of the actual sport.

The result of this is something to entertain and motivate every kind of person at home, whether you want to do your own settings manually and watch a TV show or listen to music, take a real class with a top instructor, or take an exotic vacation at home and feel like you are running through the Alps or rowing on the Thames. There are weight loss workouts, boot camps, HIT, beginner, intermediate and expert classes, every kind of option you could imagine. The iFit platform also offers a unique use of Google Maps to allow you to do your own remote workouts through other real landscape without a trainer, an especially good option if you are going someplace on vacation and want to explore it first.

The array of workout choices is staggering, but so is the array of machines. No competitor has a product line this broad, and unlike other companies offering online classes that specialize in one or two types of workouts, Nordic Track makes everything, and one iFit subscription covers them all: treadmills, rowing machines, elliptical trainers, stationary bikes, incline trainers and even the groundbreaking Fusion CST, a new multi-station home gym that offers a huge slate of strength training options but uses Silent Magnetic Resistance and flywheels to eliminate clanging weights. Like the other devices on the company’s interactive platform, it has a built-in tablet screen for iFit workouts and is designed to offer a wide range of HIT or cross-fit style workouts, and replicates everything from kettlebells to squats to basic weight training.

Many of these devices break new ground. For example, in addition to the remote-control setting features, found on no other treadmills or bikes, the RW900 Rower was the first by any company to offer streaming of live classes, via a massive 22-inch screen.

For several months I have personally been testing an elliptical trainer, the Commercial 14.9, because I used to go the gym to use one. The workout class options and Global Workouts are definitely a superior benefit to the expensive commercial machines I used at the gym, but in a few ways the hardware itself is better, even though it is appreciably less expensive. For one thing, the Nordic Track has a fan built into the console just below the screen, with adjustable speed, something my gym’s machine slacks that is really nice for keeping cool, especially in the warmer months. It also has a built-in adjustable tablet holder with Bluetooth speaker links, and occasionally I watch a TV show on my tablet instead of doing a class, and unlike at the gym, I don’t have to wear earbuds or headphones to enjoy it. I also don’t have to precariously balance my tablet, usually blocking the view of the stats and controls in the process.

None of this is surprising, because Nordic Track has a long reputation for offering a lot of bang for the buck and in recent years, several of its models have been singled out by Consumer Reports Magazine as Best Buys or Recommended Buys in their categories. Interactive treadmills start at just $900, and the Commercial series at $1,800. Incline trainers that combine the features of a treadmill with more of a stair climbing or uphill workout and go up to an amazing 40° of incline start at $2,000. Ellipticals start at $900 and the top tier Commercial 14.9 model I’ve been testing is a bargain at $1,500. I’ve used a lot of different fitness equipment over the years, and it is hard to imagine more features and better quality per dollar than this offers. Thanks to the iFit platform, I think the same is true of the entire Nordic Track lineup.