The Top Cable Crossovers & Functional Trainers

Are you designing a home gym, or are you a representative of a commercial gym facility looking to provide yourself or your members the best possible workout? Without a cable crossover or a functional trainer in your gym, this would be hard to accomplish.

These products allow you to train a full range of body parts to maximize your workout. The unique thing about cable crossovers and functional trainers compared to many other products is that the pulley system permits you to train the same muscle groups from different angles.

Audacia Home boasts a collection of top cable crossovers and functional trainers from industry-leading fitness equipment manufacturers such as Body-Solid and TKO Strength & Performance. Combine these products with industry-leading customer service and sweet deals, and it is clear why Audacia Home should be your distributor of choice. Enjoy our analysis below that will help you select the top cable crossover or functional trainer.

Why Own a Cable Machine or Functional Trainer?

While it may be evident, the answer may not be so apparent to others. Why own a cable machine or a functional trainer, to begin with?

Reason #1: Multi-Purpose and Function-ability

A cable crossover is one of the most multi-purpose pieces of exercise equipment that someone could own for the perfect home gym. Cable Crossovers come in many variations - some with complex pulley systems, cages around the weights, and pre-installed chin-up bars in the middle of the weight stacks, while others come with only the weight stacks and the cables.

Of course, like any large purchase, you very much get what you pay for when you are selecting a cable crossover for your home or commercial gym facility. That said, with a top-level cable crossover, there is almost no muscle that you cannot work out, as it would be entirely possible to perform your entire workout at the cable machine or functional trainer station (hey, everyone knows that person at the gym who hogs it for 75% of your training!).

TKO Functional Trainer 

As an example of how multi-functional cable machines can be: assuming that you have a cable crossover that has a chin-up or lat pulldown contraption on either side of the cable columns - you could quite literally do all of the following exercises without switching stations:

• High Angle Chest Flies
• Low Angle Chest Flies
• Chin-ups
• Lat Pulldowns
• Seated Rows
• Donkey Kick Backs
• Reverse Crunches 
• Tricep Pushdowns
• Bar Burls
• 1 Arm Cable Rows
• Pull-ups
• Chest Press
• Overhead Shoulder Press

And I am still probably missing some! If that doesn't show you how multi-purpose cable crossover machines are, I am unsure what will!

Reason #2: The Ability to Target Difficult to Hit Muscle Groups

While compound lifts - such as squats, bench press, military press, deadlifts, etc.- should always be the foundation of any strength routine and will contribute to the majority of overall strength gains, the one part that these types of lifts miss is the niche muscle groups.

For example - the interior region of your chest, which is almost impossible to hit without doing flies, or donkey-kick backs that target the upper portion of your glutes. As you can see, those more targeted workout exercises - such as flies, kicks, backs, and reverse cable crunches- are performed on functional trainers or cable crossovers. They also allow you to maximize reps through the full range of motion.

While you may be able to see results without these products focusing exclusively on compound lifts, you would almost surely not see the same results as if you holistically focused on both compound lifts and targeted exercises. 

Reason #3: They Allow you to Easily Control Your Breath When Lifting

While it is essential to go all out and test yourself at times - slow, controlled, intentional workout movements are the authentic way to build muscle. Every rep should be ideally in sync with your breath - inhaling on the back half of a rep, and exhaling while you exert muscular force from the start position. On a chest or shoulder/upper chest exercise, you would exhale while pushing, and inhale while on the decline, and on a back or pulling exercise, you would exhale while pulling, and inhale while letting the weight back down.

This can be difficult with free weights as they are much harder to control for beginners. However, with a cable machine or functional trainer which uses a pulley system and has the weight on a track, holding your breath while simultaneously maintaining perfect control of the weight becomes a significantly easier task - especially if you are relatively new to working out. 

Now that we have discussed the top benefits of cable crossovers, we will provide you with an analysis of Audacia Home's top things to consider when choosing a cable crossover and a few of our product recommendations. Enjoy!

Top Considerations when Choosing a Cable Crossover

Because of the wide variety of cable crossover options available on the market, it is essential to consider several factors throughout your decision-making process that will lead you to select the perfect cable crossover or functional trainer for you. 

Consideration Number One: Cable Crossover or Functional Trainer?

Many people get this question confused, and justifiably so. There is not a "right" answer to this question, as the line is not always clear as they both qualify as cable machines. Some high-level differences do adequately distinguish the two product types, which we will briefly delve into below. 

What is the difference between a Cable Crossover Machine and a Functional Trainer?

At a high level, a cable crossover is what you can see in the photo below - with the weight columns spread far apart with plenty of space in the middle, which at times, can include a pull-up bar. On the other hand, functional trainers have columns close together, allowing you to do presses that would otherwise be impossible on a cable crossover with the cues spread much further apart. Below is a brief analysis of each type.

What is a Cable Cross Over?

Cable crossovers are the strength training machines that you often see in commercial gyms. They are wide, with lots of space in-between the two weight stacks. The middle of a cable machine usually has a chin-up contraption. Each side has cables like pictured below, or at times, there will be a lat pulldown machine or a row rack.