Learn what makes Tonal so smart, and how it can seriously level up your home workout.
There was a time when the phrase “home gym” called to mind a pile of dumbbells in the corner of your living room, or a bulky treadmill or stationary bike gathering dust in your basement. But the evolution of smart home gym equipment has completely changed the way we think about working out at home—in ways that make training more efficient, more convenient, and more exciting than it ever could be in a traditional gym. Thinking about investing in smart home gym equipment? Here’s what you should know—and how it can help you make gains that stick.
What is smart home gym equipment?
Smart home gym equipment uses advanced technology—such as artificial intelligence, adaptive resistance, motion sensor capture, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth—to create a connected experience that provides all the standard benefits of a gym or fitness studio in one sleek device.
The latest high-tech indoor cycling bikes, rowers, mirrors, and wall-mounted or standalone systems allow you to stream live and on-demand classes where instructors or algorithms can make resistance adjustments for you, correct your form, and provide real-time technique tips. Some also make pro-level progress insights and research-driven training methods accessible to the everyday athlete.
While you may find some of these machines in a gym, many are specifically designed for your home—and most take up significantly less space than an assortment of dumbbells, a traditional weight rack, and cumbersome cardio or weight-lifting machines.
The benefits of smart home gym equipment
The key to any successful fitness regimen is consistency—and a smart home gym eliminates so many of the excuses that get in the way of prioritizing exercise.
- Efficiency: Have limited time between Zoom calls? Take a few 10- or 15-minute classes throughout the day instead of blocking off a full hour.
- Convenience: Can’t spare the time to commute to the gym before or after work? These devices are already in the same room as you.
- Expert guidance: Not sure what to do with strength training equipment? Live and on-demand classes provide expert coaching any time of day.
- Accountability: Struggle to hold yourself to it? Smart technology that learns from your behavior determines when you can push yourself harder and when you need to pull back.
- Cost-effective: Don’t have the budget for a gym membership, the commute, and childcare while you’re there? The investment may net out to be more economical for your household, even more so if multiple people use the smart home gym equipment
- Space-Saving: Want to be able to work out at home but don’t have a ton of room to do so? Some designs eliminate multiple pieces of equipment.
Working out at home still requires motivation and discipline, but smart home gym equipment makes it easy to track your personal data and see where you’re crushing and what areas need improvement without having to think too hard about what you did or didn’t do at the gym. The best smart home gyms take the guesswork out of at-home training, customizing workouts for you based on your goals and providing real-time feedback and adjustments that make it possible to achieve them.
What makes Tonal the smartest home gym equipment option?
Tonal basically acts as a personal trainer, selecting your weights, suggesting workouts and programs you need to do, adjusting the weights as you get stronger, and guiding you with world-class coaches who are credentialed experts. And its dynamic weight modes, which automatically adjust thousands of times per second, customize your workouts in a way that’s not possible using old-school dumbbells and gym equipment.
Because Tonal tracks speed, resistance, and form, it knows when you’re strongest—and when you’re struggling. This means it can add weight during each rep (Smart Flex) to maximize strength gains, reduce the weight to offer an assist when you’re tapped (Spotter Mode); or step in to help you cross the finish line on fire (Burnout Mode). It can even isolate the phase of movement and add weight during the lowering portion (Eccentric Mode) or the concentric phase of exercises (Chains Mode).
And it measures your progress, generating in-depth strength analytics and personalized reports. Watch how your Strength Score improves over time, see your gains broken down by muscle and body region, explore your most common moves, and stay on top of the volume you’ve lifted in an individual workout and throughout your Tonal journey, as well as how much time under tension you are spending (and how it compares to your last workout). Use all this data to train smarter, not harder.
Stay connected while working out at home
It might seem like you’re sacrificing the social experience of a studio workout when you’re sweating at home, but that sense of community has transitioned online. In Tonal’s live workouts, you train in real time with the coaches and other community members; PRs are automatically celebrated and you can tap on other class-goers’ avatars to share encouragement. And you still get the equivalent of hands-on feedback via the Form Feedback feature, which uses sensor technology to detect your movements and offer immediate, actionable, and personalized feedback throughout live classes.
Plus—in the same way that the more you use Tonal, the stronger and better you get—every person who works out on Tonal contributes to the smart home gym getting smarter and better in the long run. Every rep, set, workout, and program you complete is added to the largest existing data set on strength training (currently at nearly a billion repetitions and more than 100 million sets)—info that helps inform the technology so Tonal evolves as you do. It’s a reminder that—even virtually—we all get better together.
Read what members have to say about how Tonal’s AI gym has changed their lives.
Thanks to Tonal, Ted Friedl never misses a leg day and tackles his weekend to-do list on his farm without feeling wrecked. Read Ted’s transformation story.
Jessica Calixto struggled with her weight and her confidence. Now, she’s stronger than ever and living life to the fullest. Read Jessica’s transformation story.
At 65 years old, Tonal member Tracy Dingman has the strength to hike around the world. Read Tracy’s transformation story.
Think you’re already too strong for Tonal? Check out what advanced lifters have to say.
