We’ve had ours installed this past December and it’s been fantastic. My wife and I both use it, so it sees daily use and our kids have joined as well for some of the non-weight based workouts as well. The first program I did on it was the Strength Training for Triathletes with Mark Allen as the guest instructor, but unfortunately that is no longer available (unsure why, but would speculate contract usage expiration or something similar).
The dynamic weight is definitely different feel than free weights, but it’s quick to adapt to and I find it preferable. Here’s a few of my thoughts on it:
- more difficult to “cheat” the reps using momentum- the digital weight creates consistent resistance through ROM
- digital weight is adjustable in smaller increments- say for example 15lbs dumbbell is too easy for a set, but 20lbs is too heavy and risk injury- Tonal allows for these incremental adjustments which is a giant benefit particularly for my wife who has in the past done the various P90X programs with the “$50 worth of dumbbells”.
- I actually like that the weight isn’t exactly analogous to the gym; it allows me to care less about the number itself and focus on each rep and how it feels on a given day. Maybe that’s just my own insecurities about the gym
- excellent instruction from the coaches and break up the strength movements with recovery moves in between- I find this motivating and would otherwise be guilty of skipping or half-assing the recovery or warm-up portions of strength work
- it keeps track of the work, weight, improvement, “time under tension”, etc which I find very useful and motivating- and can export to Strava, however, it does not have TrainingPeaks integration, which I wish it did.