Marcy Smith Cage Review – Will This Explode Your Progress or Hem You In?

If you’re looking for total body training from a single piece of workout equipment – one thing that will do it all – the Marcy Smith Cage Workout Machine may be the answer. It’s definitely worth a closer look, if nothing else. And if it meets your requirements, you can rest assured you’ll be joining many happy customers who’ve already purchased.

Workout in Style

First impressions reveal a home gym that’s been designed for versatility and effectiveness. It also looks quite stylish. So if you opt for a Marcy Smith Cage MD-9010g, it’s going to look good in any room that can accommodate its size.

Speaking of size – this machine measures in at 79 inches wide by 86 inches deep by 95 inches high. At almost eight feet high, this probably won’t fit in a lot of basements – particularly on older homes. But you could set it up in any room that has adequate height clearance. The overall frame build is mostly square, with the added depth due to the bench – which is adjustable.

The 3 S’s – Strong Stylish & Stable

It features a heavy duty, all steel construction, with the strong and stable steel frame made from 2 x 2 3/4 inch and 2 x 2 inch heavy-duty tubular steel. This is one solid and sturdy workout machine. It’s the kind of thing that’s built for home use but actually looks like something you’d find down at the gym. The entire frame is finished with a durable powder coated paint that can withstand years of use without showing obvious signs of wear and tear.

Variety Is The Name Of This Exercise Game

And it’s a joy to use, with it’s smooth-gliding motion, due to the innovative design feature of linear bearings.

You can work on your arms and chest and fully develop your biceps, triceps, and pecs. Build your leg strength to a whole new level with the dual-action leg developer that comes complete with oversized rocker pads, a row/curl bar, plus a pivot point that helps you to achieve proper body form during all your workouts.

Being able to do proper weight training (to whatever level you desire) right from the comfort of  home is a huge plus. And you can grow as you go with this workstation. It comes with an Olympic free weight rack and cable pulley system that operates smoothly and precisely. It also includes six weight plate pegs that are built right into the frame – so you can organize your weights and barbells right on the machine.

The Marcy Cage is a multifunctional unit and a versatile weightlifting system. It combines different leg and arm stations to exercise the various muscle groups of the body – without the need for additional pieces of equipment. In fact, you can do well over 100 different exercises  here – so mixing up your workouts is easy.

It’s An All-In-One Home Gym

The Marcy Smith cage workout machine is a creative all-in-one workout station with an innovative design that translates into a safe, full body workout whenever you want. You can focus on exercising isolated muscle groups and gain as comprehensive a workout as you could get inside any large and expensive gym – without needing to switch from one piece of equipment to another. It’s all there for you in one machine.

What really stands out on this is the smooth and consistent, snag-free motion. Snags are something you might expect on home equipment. But not in this case. While it’s designed for home use it, this system actually looks and functions like something you’d find at a good quality club.

There’s a total leg developer, bicep preacher curl, cable routed pectoral fly station for targeting your chest muscles, safety Olympic bar catches, adjustable Smith bar catches, and a 600 pound total weight capacity – which should be more than enough for most people. Attachments include an ankle strap, tricep rope, shiver bar and lat bar.

This Thing Lasts

One earlier buyer reports having owned the Smith Cage for five years and the only thing that needed to be replaced were the small dust caps on the bearings and the plastic plate adapters on the weights. These were minor inconveniences. But this buyer reported that the Marcy Smith Cage machine continued to function as well as it did on day one.

Heavy Duty Components

The cables on this beast are so heavy-duty they are used in the aircraft industry, having a maximum tensile load bearing capacity of 2000 pounds. Pulley wheels used are a large 3 3/4 inch diameter size with sealed, steel ball bearings that should give you years of uninterrupted use. And the off the floor base frame design provides increased stability on the overall structure.

Time and Patience Required In Assembly

With such a complex piece of equipment, you can’t expect to assemble it in a few hours. It’s probably going to take you the better part of the day. And for most, it means having a buddy there to help.

Take your time putting it together and don’t put yourself under a deadline. It’s important that you get everything right and solidly secured, rather than rushing the process just to get it done. Take you time and enjoy the process as much as you can. It’s a one-time thing. Once your Marcy is assembled – you can begin to build the body you want.

Organization Matters

Alternatively, you can outsource the setup and installation. If you’ve got the budget, that’s not a bad way to go as there are people who do this for a living. They set up these kinds of machines in gyms of all sizes, so setting up yours at home would be a no-brainer for an experienced equipment installer.

You need to be organized and not in a rush if you want to assemble your machine correctly and safely. It’s important that you keep all the various parts and pieces organized and so that you can reference the page in the owners manual, where it shows each part and it’s identifying number. This helps guarantee that you’ve got the right parts in the right places.

Your unit is shipped in a total of three boxes. Boxes should be numbered one to three. Box number three is for the bench only. So it’s best to leave it sealed until the end. Open boxes one and two as they contain all the parts for the basic frame and accessories.

The more space you have in the room you’re setting up the machine in – the better. If you’ve got plenty of extra room, use it to layout the various parts and pieces before assembly. Believe me – this will be of tremendous help as you open more parts. If you’re crammed in a room, it’s going to be that much more difficult.

As you begin assembly, do not tighten up the bolts to their final level of tightness too soon. This way, if you need to make adjustments, you can do so easily. Once everything is in place and functioning as it should, you can go ahead tighten everything to make sure it’s safe and secure.

What The Total Workout Marcy Cage Machine Gives You

  • Quality exercise machine at a great price
  • Best of both worlds- utilizes cables and free weights
  • You can do every major exercise you can think of on this one machine (it’s like having it membership to a gym, without having to leave home)
  • Somewhat compact – While this is a large unit, it may be a little more compact than you think. (The frame itself is only about 5 feet square, although the Smith bar extends to about 7 feet across and the weight bench sticks out about 2 feet longer than the frame)
  • Stylish in its appearance (you’ll want to show it off)
  • Complete whole gym system in one that is better than what most hotel fitness centers offer
  • Solid value – you’ll be hard-pressed to find a competing home gym with this many features
  • Considered as an investment – it’s well worth the price
  • Solid and strong and the pulleys work smoothly and consistently
  • You can go to your home gym – whether it’s in the spare room or in your garage – without getting dressed up and driving through all kinds of weather to get there, so the time savings alone could be significant
  • Excellent free weight system with a diverse range of exercises that do not require a spotter
  • Linear bearings keep everything moving freely and consistently and dramatically increase the quality and value
  • Sound machine for giving your whole body a workout including chest, biceps, back, triceps, and legs
  • Perhaps the largest range of exercises you can find on a multipurpose machine
  • Angle of weight storage racks is well-thought-out and super convenient
  • Plenty of padding in the right places makes certain exercises like preacher curls comfortable
  • It’s adaptable and capable of holding either regular 1 inch weight plates or 2 inch Olympic weight plates
  • Durable and rugged build – nearly as strong as the units in commercial clubs
  • Plenty of bells and whistles and attachments
  • Reliable long-term use as it’s suitable for users from beginners to intermediate
  • Relatively compact – relatively small footprint required
  • Full range of exercises is extensive
  • Maximum bench press capacity is 600 pounds – which is huge for most people – even suitable for massive hardcore bodybuilders
  • Safety latch on the Smith bar provides peace of mind
  • Lots of built-in storage space so you don’t have to buy a separate plate tree for your weights
  • Industrial strength cables with a tensile rating of 2000 pounds- built for the aircraft industry- you will have some trouble snapping this – great for safety especially during a heavy set

What It Could Also Give You

  • Occasional weld can come loose
  • Bearings in the sealed pulley can seize
  • You need to buy a separate set of Olympic weights (most free weight systems require additional weights but it does add to the cost)
  • Trying to figure out the various parts and match them up with the instructions is a horrendous exercise (directions are clear but matching parts is a challenge – if you enjoy jigsaw puzzles, it’s not that big of a deal
  • Time-consuming assembly – takes at least a full day that’s even with getting some extra help – Not a single part has a label and with probably more than 100 parts and pieces assembly time can mount up (assembly would be quicker and easier had the parts been labelled and sequenced)
  • Poorly designed bench – the backrest is too far forward to reach the smith machine bar
  • Chrome bars that the rear cable weight slide up and down on seems to be supplied without any lubrication and can therefore can make an annoying grinding sound as you move the weight up and down (It’s recommended that you get additional lubricant to use on any area that is stuck or noisy – it’s an extra step, but well worth it)
  • Weight limits are mostly adequate but a little low on leg extensions (at 100 pounds)
  • Weight bench seems to lean a little bit when you’re doing heavy weights
  • Bench lacks wheels – while working out, you’ll need to move the bench around quite a bit and having wheels on one side of the bench would make that task much easier
  • Video instruction lacking – What’s difficult about the assembly is putting the pulleys together so the whole machine works as one, so providing a DVD with each shipment,  or at least an online video of exactly how this process should be best handled, would ease frustration

Sure it has a few flaws, just as any type of workout equipment does. But these flaws are far outweighed by the advantages the Marcy Smith Cage offers. It’s a smart design with a rock-solid frame that’s safe and secure for anyone from novice to experienced athlete. There’s plenty of room to grow as your strength and muscle size increases.

This all in one machine will take some time to set up correctly. But it’s time well invested. And once it’s done – it’s done. You should be able to get many years use out of this machine with a minimum amount of maintenance.