Body solid Multi-Station Home Gym Machine for Strength Training

Hello all, ordered my Fusion F500-FLP gym a few weeks ago; it arrived on time. I payed a local small business to assemble it. I replaced my bowflex ultimate 2 of seven years. Wow, it’s like night and day. Power rods vs medal plates; there is no comparison. Fusion F500 is the real deal. It’s not one those flimsy / wobbly cheap home gyms. This gym is firm, solid and sturdy. With the articulating arms, you can sideline your dumbbells forever. Such an awesome machine with a very small foot print. Basically, I just brought a high-end fitness center quality gym home. It’s only been a couple of weeks…. However, I love this machine, and highly recommend it.

I have owned this for a few months now and have found it to be a very solid piece of equipment that can provide a great workout, but then I would expect that in this price range! I did / do have a few issues unfortunately. First, one of the significant metal parts was welded wrong and needed to be replaced. To their credit, Body Solid customer service is everything it is supposed to be and they shipped a new part with no hassles. Stuff happens, so I can’t really complain. It also seems that at least one of the cables is not exactly the correct length. It’s difficult to explain, but due to the design, it is critical that all the cables are exactly the length they are supposed to be because they all work together. I have yet to address that issue. One other minor annoyance is the labels on the various adjusters. The adjuster pins tend to catch on the labels as they are adjusted and tear them. Not a big deal, but it seems like they could have designed that better. Also, some of the adjustments wouldn’t move easily until I lubricated them with a Teflon spray lubricant. Again not a big deal, but it would have been nice if they provided the proper lubricant or at least mentioned it in the instructions. Lastly, the included exercise chart is next to useless. Pictures are too small to see clearly and it doesn’t cover the full range of what the machine can do. The included DVD is good, but not specific to the equipment. In some cases what they show is not really compatible with the equipment at all. So would I recommend it? Well I can’t say I’m dissatisfied overall, because it will do what I need it to do, but if I were to do it again I would probably look at some of the other Body Solid products that have been around longer like the G4I. Based on reviews of other Body Solid home gyms, this one doesn’t seem to meet quite the same standards.

This is quite the versatile machine with practically no re-configuration necessary (unless swapping out accessories like the pulldown bar with a tricep rope, which is VERY easy since they’re connected using a carabiner/clasp). The adjustable arms will allow a number of different workouts — standing up, sitting down, or on the floor. The adjustable chest/shoulder press is nice too (fold it back so it’s out of the way, fold it up for shoulder workout).

Solidly built — both in welding and once all the bolts are tightened down. All bolt holes were perfectly cut (straight) in the metal, no ‘slightly off’ about them. The unit is actually surprisingly easy to move too if the weight stack weren’t there; with the weight stack, though, it isn’t quite so forgiving. On a smooth surface it can slide/pivot a little given enough force on the left side; and of course with sufficient deliberate force you could slide the entire machine, but you won’t do that just working out.

The pulley action is smooth (to me anyway) even if the F500 doesn’t offer the aluminum pulley option like a few other BodySolid machines do–I’ve never used aluminum pulleys to know if there’s any difference anyway.

For those getting the F500-FLP, note that the image above (as of 03/2015) for the unit shows cylindrical leg/foot pads for the floor-level unit sticking out at a 45-degree angle. The unit I got did not have that; instead it came with a fixed-in-place foot-rest plate tilted back back 30-45 degrees. Just letting you know what to expect.

There were one or two minor chips in the paint, and a fair bit of scuffing to the Foot Press unit (its box was broken open on the side, but it was facing the inside of the palette) but it didn’t take away from the aesthetics of the uniT — they weren’t glaring flaws. Two touch-up paint vials (one silver, one black) come with it; haven’t tried using them yet.

Let me put some helpful tips about putting it together though:
* The labels on the hardware (bolts/washers/nuts) bags mean nothing. Ignore the labels. You’d be better off figuring out which bolt is which Part No. before you even begin piecing things together so you don’t need to figure it out every step of the way.
* Some pieces will already be pre-assembled and already have bolts in place. Don’t be surprised if you come across two or three steps where part of it is already done for you — keep this in mind if you pre-sort the hardware.
* The steps are pretty straight forward. They don’t say a lot, but what they do say and the images should help you get everything where it needs to go. The only time I got something slightly off was on Step 9, one of the pulleys got turned 45 degrees because I didn’t properly understand what the image was showing (3D object on a 2D page), but it was easy to fix once I figured it out — had the cable to the weight stack through the wrong hole.
* Two people would definitely help put this thing together. Not because the individual pieces are heavy, but so you don’t need to juggle holding something in place while routing a cable or getting a bolt set properly.
* If your shafts are already in place (e.g. SteP 4, Part 80) look for two holes that lead to two tiny screws (Part 15) that are holding it in place! Do not try to hammer the shaft out before loosening/removing these tiny hex-screws! This would be one of those pre-assembled pieces; fortunately I figured that out before the person helping me got something to start pounding.
* Steps 6 & 7 use chrome tubes to support the cylindrical leg pads — they are *not* the same length. The shorter one goes on top, the longer one goes on bottom. The differences is the result of the width of the metal tube they slid through; if you reverse them you won’t be able to pound the end caps on to one, and the pads will shift side-to-side on the other.
* If you got the Leg Press too (hence the F500-FLP model) the seat tops and bottoms are interchangeable between the main and leg press units — same parts, which is why the top piece has three holes but only two are used.
* Two or three bolts that were called for were half-threads, but I only had full threaded versions of the bolt (right lengths); they worked just the same.
* Also it appears my unit was missing 4 M12 Washers and 2 spacers for the Leg Press unit. Fortunately you can request missing parts via the BodySolid website. It does take about 10 business days to get them, but if you want the black finish look they’re definitely the easiest way to get the right part. Otherwise you can get a comparable washer from a hardware store, but it’ll most likely be zinc/stainless steel and not black.

Definitely seems a versatile and solid machine for a home workout! Looking forward to doing more strengthening exercises. Since I couldn’t manage to get myself to the gym, I brought some of the gym to me.

A great buy. Beats paying and going to the gym.