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).

So couple things. First of all, I’m a 5’4” 125lb woman and I put this together BY MYSELF cables included. It may be a little hard, but you do not need two people to assemble despite other reviews, just need some common sense and a ratchet set with the 5/8th bolt size. Second, do NOT rip open all of the cardboard sheets that hold the nuts and bolts. I took my buck knife and only cut out around the exact ones I needed for the next step and only took out the very one I needed. You can easily start mixing them up if you take out different lengths at a time as some of the bolts only vary by an 8th inch. ONLY WORK WITH THE EXACT NUT/BOLT COMBO YOU NEED AT A TIME. I went one page at a time on the directions and one nut/ bolt combo at a time pictured and worked my way through that page until I had completed everything. For some of the cable steps, you don’t attach the cable pulley mount to anything until a few pages later- just let it hang there until it says to attach it to something. Third, and this is VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU’RE SHORT OR WANT EXTRA RANGE OF MOTION. Being 5’4 and wanting to do hip thrust, deadlifts, stuff that requires the bar to be close to the ground, DO NOT PUT ON THE SAFETY HOOKS. As you can see from my one picture holding the safety hook up you lose about 3 inches of range of motion at the bottom if you have these on the pole. Being that it’s a smith machine and you can rack it every few inches I don’t think they’re necessary and it took about an hour to get them off after I had already assembled the whole thing, which can be done by removing the j shaped weight storage racks and sliding them off of the bottom of the pole- not fun. I included a picture at the bottom of my hip thrust range of motion which is the perfect height without the safety hooks being installed. Clamps- upgrade to quick release clamps, I got the amazon recommended black ones pictures they run about $8 a set and are worth not having to deal with the metal ones. Attachments- they’re just okay, I bought a separate ankle strap that is much more padded and a Bar pad from perfect peach athletics- $26 and is so worth it. I also recommend purchasing some quick release carabiner hooks to attach all the accessories with, I found 4 for $7 on here which is better than having to unscrew them each time. Weight types- this machine CAN run off OLYMPIC OR STANDARD WEIGHTS you just don’t put the black sleeves on if you want standard sized plates. Bench- the bench is actually pretty good when it comes to the leg/ bicep attachments and again can work off Olympic or standard weights. Only thing I don’t like is that there’s a lumbar support in the bench it is not completely flat and that you have to unscrew the pin to incline the bench. Otherwise fairly sturdy. Also it doesn’t have wheels which is annoying to move. Take your time putting this monster together, I did it in about 8 hours over a couple days and it went almost completely smoothly since I took my time. This is a great addition to any home gym you can do SO many different exercises with it and is well worth the price. Also, I found an entire set of Olympic plates at goodwill for $112 plus a lot of standard sized and dumbbells. Check out second hand before you spend a fortune on a few plates of iron- I restored mine with a wire brush and some rust oleum spray paint and they look new again. Hope this review helped you make a decision and happy lifting guys!

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.