Marcy Smith Machine with Bench MD-9010G

I read review after review before finally pulling the trigger on this purchase. My wife wanted this machine and I was concerned about the size, the complexity, and the weight. First...the size. It is tall, wide, and long. You will also need to consider that you need about 2 feet on the three, non bench, sides to move weights. So when deciding where it will go, don't forget that fact. On the bench side...you will need even more. You will be moving the bench in and out and up and down and need some room to maneuver. We have about 6 feet in front of the machine and that seems to work well. We ended up with about a foot on one side and the back and while it works...it is not ideal. The last thing on this point...this is not a knock on the machine...it is just something to consider when purchasing. Next was the complexity of the machine. Using it is a breeze. My only complaint is that the two latches on the bench (for the seat back, and the curl pad) must be unscrewed and screwed back in. I saw this in other reviews and was willing to accept the annoyance. But know... it is not a 2 second operation...more like 30 seconds. Now...the real complexity with this machine is the assembly. I saw lots and lots of negative comments about it. But also lots and lots of helpful hints. I will condense several of those and few of my own here. First...this thing comes in three, big, boxes. They are heavy. You will need to inspect them when they arrive for damage and don't accept them if you notice any or if any of the boxes are heavily damaged or have been ripped open. Once you have ownership of the boxes...carefully unpack them and sort the pieces. In my case, I matched each part with the picture in the construction manual and put a small round sticker with the part number on each. ***If you have one take away from my construction story...this should be it...take the time to organize and label your parts. It will pay off in spades as you work. The hardware was packaged well and labeled on cardboard packages and was very easy to work with. Take your time. Understand what you plan to do...get all the parts ready...ensure you understand your goal and then proceed with each step. You will do much better if you have someone to help you. Sometimes, just someone holding a large bar in place will save you a ton of time. Start by assembling the bench. It is fairly straight forward and you will learn a lot before you get into the bigger pieces. The super structure is straight forward and is just bulky...this is where the second person really comes in handy. Make sure you have everything lined up and bolts in before you tighten the bolts. In some cases you simply need the "wiggle" room to get thing to fit. In any case...the most complex and confusing part is the cables. Three hints here. 1. Take all the time you need to logically work out what they are trying to do. It is complicated and involves multiple fly wheels in one, very complex, mechanism. It was not until I was finished that I understood how it was going to work. The part that can get very confusing is the long cable that goes through the part with two wheels side by side. Really study the picture and understand the direction of the cable as it goes through. This is the part you will get backwards if not very careful. 2. In the Owners guide, they give you the same pictures as the construction guide, but they add words for the cabling. Read this. It helps a little. 3. Do not tighten everything up, for a step, until you are 100% sure you have it right. This will save you a lot of heartache later! In the end, it took my wife and I about 90 minutes to label everything and about 7 hours, spread over 3 days, to finish construction. I used a pair of pliers, a rubber mallet, and a socket set. Those were the only tools I needed to provide...the allen wrenches were included with the hardware. The last area to consider is the weight of this machine. I live in a house that was built in the early 60's with wood construction. This would not fit in our basement so it had to go on the first level. I was concerned. About 400lbs of machine...say...another 200lbs of weights...and then me ~300lbs and possibly my wife...(no weight here...I am not a rookie husband)! But we are easily pushing 1000lbs. Hmmm...should I be worried? Yes. So I called a friend of mine who was a contractor in my neighborhood (so knew our houses). He told me it was not a problem. He said...think about a bedroom set with a water bed. Four contact points and well over 1000lbs. Fair enough. This machine has the footprint of a small bed...and the feet are actually wider than that of a water bed. There is also a fifth foot under the rear weight assembly. So that concern was negated. We installed it...have about 150lbs of weights and not a creak can be heard from the floor. So no problems there. In the end...we love our machine. We use WD40 on back post and on the posts for the bar bearings. We also make sure the cables are not kinked. We adjusted the tension on the cables after the first week (see the owners maual for how), and have added some padding to keep from banging heads and legs on things. The quality is good and machine is sturdy and works as advertised. I highly recommend this machine and look forward to updating my review after we have used it for a year (to give you an idea on wear).

Like everyone during these crazy times, I've been neglecting my physical condition. The gyms finally opened, but the last time I had a membership it was just way too easy to talk myself out of going through the hassle of driving to the gym, stressing about how busy it would be, whether or not the machines I needed to use would be available, dealing with people in general, etc etc. This unit seemed to be versatile enough to accommodate most any exercise regime, so I bit the bullet and ordered it. The unit arrived in the three boxes strapped to a pallet. The delivery guys used a pallet jack to wheel it right into the garage. I had carefully measured the chosen area in my basement so I was assured there would be plenty of room. I was able to use a 2-wheel dolly to cart two of the boxes into the house, and then slide them down the stairs. The third/bottom box was too heavy for that, so I had to open the box and transport the larger pieces individually down the stairs. Installation was pretty easy. Did it all myself, just paid very close attention to the instructions. Keep everything in their original boxes until you're ready to install, otherwise you might had difficulty finding parts. The nuts/bolts/washers are shrink-wrapped to 3 or 4 cardboard sheets and numbered. Cut a small hole in the shrink wrap to keep these items in order, otherwise you'll regret it. The instructions recommend using WD-40 for lubricating moving parts, but after doing some research, I determined this isn't the best option (WD-40 tends to dry out quickly). For the posts on the chest fly mechanism and the posts on the rotating/swiveling parts on the top/front of the unit that hold the pulleys, I used a generous application of white lithium grease. For the sliding weight at the back of the unit and the two posts for the sliding smith bar, I used a spray-on silicone lubricant. The posts are easy to maintain; if I need to re-apply grease to the aforementioned posts, minor disassembly would be required but should be quick and easy. One thing the instructions don't specify (at least clearly - maybe I overlooked it) - is to remove all the slack from the cable mechanism by adjusting the chain links at one spot near the back of the unit before use. I neglected to do this before testing all the motions, and the cable slipped out of the pulleys in a couple spots and rubbed on bare metal, causing the casing to come off. (I emailed the people at Marcy and they were kind enough to send a replacement cable right away) So far, I'm super satisfied with what this can do. Feels super safe to do squats or bench press alone, two exercises that I was always nervous about using heavy weights with if I didn't have a spotter nearby. This covers pretty much all of the necessary movements to make an exercise routine complete. I did purchase a bunch of carabiners to make changing accessories quicker and easier (the unit comes with open chain link connectors with a screw closure; sturdy and reliable but not a quick way to change out parts). Now comes the hard part: I have to actually USE the damn thing.

The instructions for assembly would have been great if they would have bothered to number all the pieces, so you could follow the instructions. The only thing numbered were the packs of hardware (nuts and bolts). This system is delivered in three large boxes on a pallet. The delivery driver would not take the pallet with him when he left. It is very overwhelming to see all the pieces when you first open the box so if you don't pay for the assembly fee be prepared to be doing this assembly for quite some time. The pulley instructions were difficult to understand as written. I did the assembly over several days and I work with my hands for a living. If you don't turn wrenches for a living you won't want to attempt assembling this yourself. As for the machine, it requires more space than I anticipated. The bench is very long with the leg attachment, so if you are limited on space you may want to look for a more compact solution. Now for the operation, the pulley system is very nice. Using the guide system for bench press (regular, incline and decline) once you find where the bench needs to be so you don't put unnecessary stress on your shoulders is very smooth. The bench sits high and I am 5'11" which is a little awkward when doing a bench press because I'm used to having my feet firmly on the floor. I figured out a comfortable position so its not a big deal for me. When using the outside pegs for my olympic bar for normal bench press is where I found it to be a little awkward due to the angle of the pegs. The leg extension is a little low for me but workable, the leg curl is fine and the preacher curl is a nice to have on the end of the bench. The curve in the upper bench pad is completely unnecessary. If you are like me and don't like to go to the gym after a long day at work then I would recommend this system. A lot of great exercises. I noted the few things I don't care for in this review to help you decide if you can live with them before purchasing this item, but I am very happy with the purchase.

I have some differences of opinion with some of the prior reviews so I'll just point out what appears to me to be the most important things. First let me say that there were a few things that might have caused me to rate this a 3 or 4, but I'm so impressed with the construction, I went ahead and gave it a 5 based on the final assembled product. Pros : 1) Very well constructed. The plastic olympic weight holders seem fine to me. This thing to me is built nearly as well as the commercial ones. I can't image ever having a problem with the stability or strength of the machine itself. 2) Comes with the bells and whistles. Attachments. I really just needed a smith machine for bench press, so I'm getting a lot more for a reasonable price. 3) Unlike what others have said, all three rails flow smoothly after applying some Heavy duty Silicone lubricant (in WD40 section of home improvement store). I first sprayed them down. Used a paper towel soaked with the spray to clean the circular and square rails. Then I spray the rails again without wiping it off. Moved the parts up and down the rails. There is no discernable catching/sticking on the cable system or the smith bar. 4) Bench comes with one of those screw in place holders, but it is spring based. Don't tighten it all the way, just tight enough to hold the bench. Then when you want to adjust, just pull the knob, and it will compress the spring, you can adjust the seat and then just let the knob go. No turning required. 5)I'm going to say construction again. It uses lots of plates/brackets to ensure no stress on the frame. Built like a tank. Cons: 1) Shipping. I'm going to break this down into several parts a) Amazon does not give the shipper your phone number which the shipper requires for delivery. b) CEVA (the shipper) sucks. They lost track of one of the boxes and delayed delivery because they had to find it and send it through. c) Delivery box not sturdy enough to hold 230 lbs in one of the three boxes. Box ripped apart before being delivered on one side. CEVA taped it up and brought it to my house. Kinda scary to think I might have to pay to send 400 lbs of stuff back, but from the other reviews, sounds like Impex is good about spare parts. One of my packages of bolts & screws fell out of the ripped box and delivery guy came back and gave it to me right before they left. Praise God! I ended up having all the parts. d) Two pieces of the bench had insignificant bends on the plates, 5 seconds with the hammer ironed that out. Funny thing is it wasn't from the ripped package e) Leg cushions have some indentations that probably won't come out, but I don't really care. It's small indentations. 2) Directions - While the directions seem to be much improved over the version the first reviewer had when he bought, there were one or two items that weren't exactly right/clear. Overall, it didn't really cause me to waste any time, pretty easy to figure it out from the pictures. The thing I really didn't like about the instructions, although it doesn't cause me much headache was that there was not a diagrammed parts list. There was a screws & bolts list. You could check the screws & bolts before getting started, but not the other parts. Just had to verify with the diagram for the step, which wasn't horrible. Just kinda scary not having a full pictoral parts list. FYI there is a text/word based parts index. 3) Build Time - Know how long it takes to build a tank? Very well constructed and you put in the time it takes to build a beautiful machine like this. Took me 9.5 hours for the machine and 2.5 hours for the bench...OK yes I was moving slowly by the time I got to the bench, but that's because my body was aching so much from the marathon effort the day before on the machine. BTW if you're even moderately coordinated this should not REQUIRE two people to put together. Summary: Overall I am very pleased. Everything functions as it should. If the delivery guy had not come back with my nuts & bolts before leaving, I probably would have rated this a 3 star. Final product meets all my expectations. I'm a happy customer.

First I'd suggest buying this equipment from Costco online. I orginally bought it from a "distributer" on Amazon, and when it arrived at my house it had a Costco Shipping label on it. I discovered the "distributor" had just purchased it from costco online and just had it shipped directly to me, all while charging me a couple hundred dollars profit. Costco.com offers it for $675 (without a costco membership there was a $30 service fee) with free shipping! At about 700 dollars this equipment is an awesome value. Assembly of the machine is a pain and time consuming (took me about 10 hours), but it is worth it at the end. I put it together completely by myself so if you are alone it can be done. The instructions were not bad, although they were vague at a few steps. I've been working out with this equipment for about two weeks now and I love it. It has exceeded even my high expectations. I recently moved to a more rural area with less gyms in the area. Plus, I work nights and like to workout later than most. Having the equipment in my basement has made it so convienent to workout I have zero excuses not to get to the gym. The versitility of this equipment makes it so much better than similarly prices home gyms that target only specific exercises like leg press, lat pull down, peck deck, and seated chess press. The equipment really stacks up against gym quality equipment. I don't know how it will hold up (as I've only had it two weeks), but the equipment feels very solid at this point. The bearings on the smith rack roll easily and freely. The cable exercises feel similar to exercises on equipment at a gym designed specifically for that one exercise. The pully system also offers enough resistance so that you don't have to try to completely overload it with weight. Between the uppper pullies and lower pully you can do so many different exercises (seated rows, standing cable curls, seated cable curls, skull crushers, tricep extensions, tricep kickbacks, overhead tricept extensions, peck-deck flies, cable cross overs, and the list goes on...). I have found I can change some minor things to make exercises work that I wouldn't have expected to be done on this equipment. For example I used to do standing lateral cable raises at the gym, but found the range of motion wasn't far enough on this equipment from the low pully. So instead I must do them seated. You can really come up with a ton of different excercises to do on this equipment. Someone in a different review commented that the lat pull down doesn't hold down your legs so it is useless. I have found that if you put the smith bar down on your legs and lock it into place using the pins for racking a free bar to the front of machine, it will hold your legs down. So again sometimes it takes just a small change to make an exercise work. When you add an olymic bar, a set of adjustable dumbells, and a pull-up bar to the mix, the list of things you can do includes nearly everything I would do at a gym. I guess the one shortfall of the equipment would be exercises for legs. The bench has the leg extension equipment on it, but the length of my legs make it diffcult to use. All in all if you are thinking about buying a home gym get this one!

In case you are not aware, muscles react 30% better to free weights then they do to machine weights. The problem for many people, is getting that free weight motion safely if you have to workout alone. This Smith Machine concept tackles that nicely. I researched for weeks what would be the best free weight (or similar) home gym, at the lowest price possible, and as safely as possible without a spotter, but without sacrificing quality. This Marcy smith system won the toss. There were a few other possible runner-ups (like the Body Solid Series 7 Smith Machine at $2800, or the PowerTec Multisystem Leverage Gym at $1500). Both had their pros (quality) and cons (size/price), but in the end when I compared everything this Marcy gym won hands down. The Linear Bearings used in it dramatically increase the quality factor, and while some reviews said they were not "Thompson" bearings, I find them to be of very good quality and extremely smooth (besides, how "brand name" do you really need little steel ball bearings to be anyways). Anyhow, there are a few things to note about this gym: PROS: GREAT price at only $982 on Amazon w/ free shipping (and it arrived in a week) EVERY major exercise you can think of. I pulled out my exercise routine I followed when I was a member of Bally's Gym, and I was able to do every single exercise on my list. I am still amazed at everything this gym has! THE SIZE of it is even more compact than I thought. The frame is only about 5 feet wide by 5 feet long (but keep in mind that the smith bar extends about 7 feet across, and the bench sticks out about 2 feet longer than the frame itself). LOOKS - it is probably the most stylish smith gym I have seen in blue and white (coincidentally, our walls are the same color blue, so that was a bonus) CONS: You need to buy separate olympic weights. This is not actually a CON, since most of these free weight gyms require the same, but you can tack on a few hundred more for those (I found the best deal at Sears for 300 lbs + the bar at only $275) The instructions - although they are fairly easy to read, they are aboslutely horrible for matching parts. NOTHING, not a single solitary part (and there are about 100) have labels. You have to actually hunt through the boxes to match the right piece with the right step and diagram you are on to make sure you have the right match. What were they thinking here? The good news is that ech part is pretty much one of a kind, so you shouldn't have too much trouble matching the piece, it's just finding it amongst 100 pieces that is the trouble. They could have made this much easier. The build time as stated in several reviews online said 5-8 hours, and yes it took me all 8 hours simply because of the hide and seek of matching parts. Proper labeling could have easily cut this down to 6 hours at a maximum. Lastly, two of the frame pieces were bent when they got here (although no visible damage to the boxes). I had to hammer one piece back to it's correct shape, and the other had an elongated hole in it for a bolt to fit through, but because it was bent so much I had to drill about a 1/4" more space to accomomidate the bolt. All in all, I would absolutely buy this again, as long as you don't mind an 8 hour build time and the "possiblity" of a little extra handy work. My logic with this product was to buy it for $982, buy the Bowflex SelectTech dumbells (see my 2009 model review of those on Amazon) as well, buy the free weights, and buy an extra EZ curl bar but still stay under $2000. I did exactly that, while at the same time maintaing the ability to keep free weight quality and encompass all necessary exercises. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, AND WE ARE 100% SATISFIED!

I've had this Smith Machine for about 2 weeks now and one thing I can say for sure is that I am royally impressed with the quality-to-price ratio of this system. It does almost every exercise you could ever want or need. It also looks great sitting there in my family room. I have included a couple of pictures to give a closer and more detailed view of some of the attachment on the system because the picture that Amazon gives kinda sucks. Well here is my rundown on this gym: Pros are as follows: 1. Great quality/price ratio with it only costing me $969.94 and Free Super Saver shipping. It shipped with CEVA Logistics to get to me. (Just a side note here, be sure to call CEVA and have them lookup your tracking number because Amazon did not supply the correct tracking number and CEVA must contact you to schedule a delivery appointment or else they will not come out to deliver to you.) 2. This machine looks great in your living room, den, patio, or where ever you put so long as you have room for it. 3. Almost every major exercise known to man can be done on this system. I'm guessing there are at least over 100 different ones you can do on it. 4. Depending on your current weight collection, it will hold either regular 1" weight plates or 2" Olympic weight plates. It comes with these hard plastic adapters which slide over everything to make it Olympic size. It also comes with enough clips to go over every single weight peg; however, the set only comes with Olympic sized clips so if you want to use regular sized plates you have to get regular sized clips separately. Unfortunately this system has some Cons (but that's ok, nothings perfect): 1. The chrome bars that the Smith bar and the rear cable weight slide up and down do not come with any type of lubrication so the smith bar makes an annoying grinding noise going up and down while the rear cable weight holder tend to kinda stick going either up or down. I highly recommend getting some lubricant for both of these areas. After I lubed'em up they slide up and down smoothly. Hey now, get your mind out of the gutter. :) 2. Build time for this system is staggering. Even though the instructions were not that bad and all of the nuts, bolts, washers, and bushings were labeled it still took 7 hours to put it together and that was with a buddy helping me the whole time. Be prepared to spend a lot of time building this if you get one. 3. It doesn't come with an Olympic weight set or regular Olympic bar but that didn't bother me any. I bought the 300lb O-Ring Olympic set from Sears for $250 and it works just fine. I have another few tid bits of information, an "fyi" if you will, that I think everyone who is considering this gym should know. It has a spot on the bottom back support to hold an Olympic bar for storage. The smith bar has multiple locations to lock for varying heights and has adjustable emergency stops just in-case you can't stand back up. The big white Olympic bar holders in the very front can be moved to any location on the silver part of the front so you can stand and rack a bar if you are doing shoulders or put it low for declined bench presses. Last but not the least, its rated to support 600 pounds on the unit. That doesn't include the weight of the gym so it would come out to about 1100 pounds all together if you include the maximum plate weight and weight of the gym. All in all I am 100% impressed and would buy it again if I ever needed to. *UPDATE DEC 2014* I sold the gym recently due to space issues with a new house I moved into but in the past 5 years I've owned it the only things that have broken or needed repairing was some of the pulleys having the bearing dust caps falling off and 2 of the plastic Olympic sized plate adapters breaking off but they were my own doing in both cases. I really wish I wouldn't have needed to sell it and miss it already but maybe I'll buy it again in the future space permitting. My original rating stands unwavering.

So I wanted to wait a little over a year before posting a review to ensure I had really experienced this. I'll have to say, for the price, I'm very impressed. I workout anywhere between 4-6 times per week. Typically heavy lifting and this system has met my needs with few exceptions. I have had to improvise a few lifts- seated calf raises have to be done with the smith machine and a pad. There's no lower cable cross- it only comes from the top. But other than those small inconveniences, this thing has held up great. The action on the pulley system obviously isn't going to be as smooth as a system 3x this price, but it works perfectly fine. I do recommend some sort of spray on grease just to keep the rails and pulley wheels moving smoothly. What else you'll need: Somewhere to do pull-ups and dips if you're into those. Good barbell and Olympic weight set (not included with this). Dick's had a good set for about $150. Spray on grease for pulleys/rails. New clips! The ones that it comes with are threaded and take way too long to change. Carabiner clips work MUCH better- just make sure they're rated for the correct weight. Thread lock compound- the seat on the bench tends to wiggle loose pretty often. A little thread lock will fix that problem easily. As others have mentioned, set up is a BEAST. I did do it alone with a helping hand just a few times from my wife to hold up a bar here and there while I secured it. Its going to take a long time. Turn on some music and settle in for the long haul. Best advice I saw on here was to separate out the various nuts and bolts and label them. I used plastic cups for this. LIFE SAVER. Do not skip this step. You'll regret it later. Overall, great workout system. I would definitely buy it again. Holding up great and not seeing any signs of it breaking down soon.

OK, so delivery was earlier than stated, it comes on a pallet in 3 boxes. There are a lot of parts, some big some small. Don't expect this to be a quick job, took me all day and I am a Mechanical Engineer, but the end result was worth all the effort. The picture shows some chains for the cross fly's these are not included, but i went on to the suppliers web site and ordered for next to nothing. Am I happy with the package? yes very. Been using it every day and have cancelled my gym membership, will have a simple payback period of 2 years, so for me it will also save me money.

Verry happy with it Takes some time to put it together but when done ausume machine Its a big and strong machine

The loading pins at the back of the machine does not glide and gets caught all the time so you can't use the cables properly. It just stops moving and can cause a serious injury. I have tried wd40 to make it glide but it keeps getting caught so does not help. The only bit I can use is the Smith bar. Really angry considering how much this cost. It took 10 hours to put together and can't be used. Would give zero stars if I could.