1. WHAT ARE FLYWHEEL TRAINERS
A flywheel trainer is a piece of exercise equipment that uses a rotating flywheel to generate resistance through inertia. Unlike traditional weight training, where gravity provides resistance (as with dumbbells or barbells), the resistance in a flywheel trainer comes from the momentum created by the user’s effort. The harder or faster the user pulls or pushes against the flywheel, the more resistance is generated as the flywheel spins. This resistance increases on both the concentric (lifting/pulling) and eccentric (lowering/returning) phases of the movement.
So basically you pull on an attachment that causes a disk to spin on a shaft during the concentric phase. That is followed by you slowing the inertia down during the eccentric phase when the strap connecting the attachment to the shaft reaches it's end and winds back up!
2. DO FLYWHEEL TRAINERS REPLACE OTHER PIECES OF GYM EQUIPMENT?
The versatility of gym equipment is commonly what justifies the cost in both money paid and space required. A good example of this is a lat pulldown machine in a home gym. For a lot of people, lat pulldown machines are replaced with a rack attached setup or a pulley system at the least. This increases the versatility of the rack, allowing for even more lifts to be accomplished on it, thereby increasing it's value in money and space.
With that being said, flywheel trainers are a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to this versatility. There are some units that are only able to replace something like a belt squat, an already expensive piece of equipment both in money and space. Some examples of this are the Exxentric kBox, the Strexbox, and the Exerfly Platform series. These units can be used for other movements such as curls, arm raises, lunges as well as other units that have the person pulling the load vertically. There are however, other flywheel units that can replace other valuable pieces of equipment.
Another great example is a single stack or a single cable column machine. Single stacks are already expensive and take up space that is valuable, but a unit such as the Kynett Fit offer resistance in the horizontal plane and can replicate or replace a lot of what a single column brings to the table. These flywheel training units are often rack attached or attach to some sort of wall mounted tube and can be adjust up and down and just like a cable column, can be pulled at different angles relative to their anchor point to achieve the desired stimulus.
There are other examples as well such as the Kratos Quest Station flywheel trainer or the Kynett Ultimate Flywheel, that replace multiple pieces of equipment. Both of these units can replace a single stack as well as a belt squat unit and to push things even further along, the Kynett Ultimate Flywheel also replaces a lat pulldown tower with a suspended anchor point overhead. In these examples I posit that the expense in money and space of these machines combined is what makes flywheel trainers worth the cost.
3. HOW MUCH ARE FLYWHEEL TRAINERS?
Prices vary A LOT and when it comes to shopping for flywheel trainers a few things should be considered before we can get to price. First and foremost in my opinion is the ecosystem of the unit you choose as well as it's compatibility with other pieces of equipment you already own. Threading the proverbial needle on this is a lot easier than most people would think.
All the brands that I am presenting here are established brands that have quality pieces of equipment to offer. However, I will be sticking to what I KNOW based off of use. This means that I will be talking primarily about the Kratos and Kynett brands. If other brands are interested in being a part of this comparison, please reach out and I would be happy to include your products in these articles and videos going forward.
To break this down in an easy to digest way, I will be taking these brands through a series starting at the most accessible unit and working to the most high-end units offered. First up I will be presenting portable units as they are the most accessible due to price as well as space requirement in your gym.
For Kynett, I am going to narrow in on the Fit Flywheel. The Fit flywheel is a portable flywheel that uses two ratchet straps to attach to whatever you intend to use as an anchor point. In terms of ecosystem, it has expansions both in attachment points as well as squat box and can even be upgraded to the Ultimate Flywheel station. In terms of compatibility with existing gym equipment, the Fit can also be dropped into a bracket that allows it to be attached to 3” racks with either 1”, 5/8”, or ½” holes. The Kynett Fit price starts at $895 and comes with the 4mm disc set. At that base level, you can actually attach it to you rack without the rack attachment piece. One upgrade I would recommend is the purchase of the 10mm disc set so that you have more options which adds $189 to the price. This brings the price up to $1,084 and shipping was included when I built this cart online.
Now for the Kratos brand of flywheel trainers the best comparison to the Kynett Fit is the Quest
Portable Flywheel. This comes with a medium flywheel disc, an extension strap and 2 hand grips. The Medium disc should be good for most people so no need to add a disc right away and the unit attaches using a similar approach to the Kynett Fit and has a ratchet strap that can attach the unit to whatever anchor point you choose. There is the opportunity to add a rack attachment mount with the unit for an additional $250 which is a plus for compatibility and there is also the ability to use the Quest Portable on the standard tube that Kratos sells with their larger systems which shows a good and healthy ecosystem that you are buying in to. The Quest Portable Flywheel comes in at $999 and when added to the cart, also has free shipping but code KL7 saves you a bit of money.
Both the Kynett Fit and the Kratos Quest Portable are pieces of equipment that I argue can replace a single column unit by themselves. If one is creative it can also be used to replace a lat pulldown machine by simply mounting the unit overhead. Performing vertically resisted movements like the squat require additional hardware to be purchased which we will tackle next.
The Kynett Fit is relatively easy to adapt to vertical movements. There are two options and I need to be up front with this one, I have used neither of them.
The Kynett Squatplate is the first and most affordable. At $397 it comes with a plate you stand on and a pulley that redirects the horizontal load of the Fit to a vertical load using a pulley. There is also a Kynett Squatdeck which is larger but offers some additional benefit in terms of platform size as well as potential range of motion benefits. The Squatdeck has a larger surface area for the lifter to stand and consequently be able to accommodate more types of lifts ranging from squats with wide stances to narrow stances as well as lunges. The pulley is also mounted below the surface allowing for a greater potential range of motion. The Squatdeck, based on my research is a much better option and costs $599. This brings out Kynett cart to $1,683 and still has free shipping. A note on the squat platforms does need to be put out as far as safety. One downside to using an external platform or something like the kBox is that you have to wait for the disk to stop moving before you dismount the platform or you risk causing the platform moving as you go to step off. Just a small critique of this cost saving option. Kynett does have a unit that addresses this, but it is the Kynett Ultimate and costs $3,542.00
Kratos Quest has a slightly differrent approach here and they prioritize the user experience and safety when designing their ecosystem. The Quest Portable does not currently have an ecosystem that allows you to progress from the Quest Portable to anything that is vertically loaded. Because of this, a little more forethought is required when making this purchase decision. What I recommend when looking for something that performs horizontally loaded and vertically loaded movements is the Quest Station with platform. This unit is what I would call a “forever unit". It can accommodate a lot of movement variation and comes with the high quality low profile platform, a medium and XL flywheel, two hand grips and an extension strap for them. Priced at $2,799, it does have a larger pricetag than the Kynett model, but from my use it is much more of a refined unit in terms of user experience. In essence, I currently prefer the use of the Kratos Quest Station to the Kynett Fit and the Strexbox, and I would say you get what you pay for.
4. ARE FLYWHEEL TRAINERS OVERPRICED?
That brings us to the crux of this discussion. I have shown you a couple options for each brand with my recommendations and shown you the price. There are a couple ways we can think of whether these units are overpriced. The first is looking at the materials in front of you and asking “should this cost $2,799?” For a lot of folks, this is often more of a decision based on what they have seen in the past. They see the materials. They see wood, steel, nylon webbing, a carabiner or two and they make a determination of what they see each material being worth. Thinking like this only gives you a part of the cost and doesn’t consider the significant cost of starting a company, developing a prototype, taking that prototype to be commercially produced, and then marketing the product. There is also the conversation to the precision necessary for a flywheel unit to operate effectively and safely, which costs money to produce. Although I can't necessarily see into the books for these organizations, ultimately they need to make money to exist. So to say that flywheels are overpriced based purely on what material is in front of you is not fair to the business.
The other way to look at value is to think about what the flywheel unit can replace in the home
gym. I see the portable units as a direct replacement for a single column unit. Some prices for cable column include the Cable Tower from Bells of Steel. This import unit is a 2:1 system with a 210 lb stack. The price is $1,229.98 which seems appropriate for it being an import piece with a relatively light weight stack. An American made example on the more expensive end is from Straydog Strength. Their rack (or wall) mounted cable column is priced at $2,225 but has a 300 lb weight stack and custom color options as a standard. There are some other cheap units as well but generally I don't recommend plate loaded machines.
Looking at these prices and comparing them to the flywheel units what we see is that the flywheel units are actually less expensive. So in regards to being overpriced, I would posit that the flywheel units are less expensive and increasing their value even more, they take up no space.
When we step that up to the larger flywheel systems that can provide resistance in the horizontal and vertical plane, we see an even bigger value. A belt squat comparable to the flywheel setup would be something like the Rogue Rhino which costs $2,295.00. If we add that cost to the cheaper end of the spectrum on plate stack single column trainers we end up with a cost of $3,525. Again, both flywheel systems from Kynett and Kratos are well below this cost and again, they are more valuable in terms of space.
To summarize, I hear people say that flywheels are expensive and I can understand how they might think that. I argue that they are not looking at the entire picture with this criticism, but I can understand the initial reaction to the price. In my opinion, a flywheel unit can do almost everything that the belt squat and single cable column can do, and as a result should be referenced as a point to consider when determining the value of the gym equipment. Additionally, the movements that are capable when using a flywheel are vast and can range from isolation exercise to very athletic training which only increases their value.
So are Flywheel trainers overpriced? I say no, I see a lot of value in what these pieces of equipment bring to my gym and have watched my cable column collect dust since getting them in.
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