Sure, you can join a gym and flail around on the machines or march to infinity without a mission on a treadmill. "It’s like buying a membership to a hospital and operating on yourself," says Darin St. George, aka Trainer X, a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and personal trainer in the Boston area. But if you’re serious about your own well-being and like the notion of a home workout, and—most important—you have a prescriptive program from a doctor or professional trainer, consider these cutting-edge products for strength and cardiovascular training equipment from a coterie of fitness experts.

There’s no reason workouts can’t be fun, but no one is claiming they’re going to be easy. As St. George likes to say, "You’ve got to run like someone’s chasing you, lift like something fell on you, and eat like somebody else."

Are you game?

Run for It
Woodway treadmills feature a rubber, wire-reinforced slatted belt surface that won’t stretch and is nearly frictionless. The Desmo H home treadmill ($10,330) comes with such features as an elaborate, menu-driven LCD display with animated readouts, 10 preprogrammed workouts and as many as 99 different user-customizable workouts, and a life expectancy of 150,000 to 200,000 miles.

Rack ’Em Up
Start with the basics. “Few additions to rounding out a home gym would be more desirable than the inclusion of a power rack,” says Bryan Green, president and CEO of Advantage Fitness Products, which designs and supplies home and commercial gyms. The cream of the crop, according to Green, is Star Trac’s MaxRack ($3,449). “This system allows the user many of the benefits of a free-weight system with a variety of self-spotting mechanisms,” says Green. Accessorize with a bench such as the Precor 119 Super Bench ($845) and additions of your choice, such as weights, of course, a chin-up bar, ab slings, or your favorite instruments of torture. 

Make It Quick
You don’t have time for a workout, not even 10 minutes, or four minutes? Total body vibration systems such as the Power Plate (right; starting at $2,499) and TurboSonic ($7,500 for the Ovation home version) machines promise to provide a complete workout in 10 or 15 minutes. “Personally, I like the feeling of total body vibration, and I think they can be a fun and effective add-on to a high-end home fitness environment,” says SciFit sales VP Corey Disler, who says that SciFit uses such a machine as a 30-second warm-up for his company’s bioDensity isometric training system. And what about the four-minute ROM ($14,615) workout? “If you are looking to make a statement with your home fitness room,” says Disler, “the ROM is a beautifully crafted total-body workout machine.”

Range of Motion
For a 30-minute, high-intensity, range-of-motion performance that will draw sweat from those pores, our trainers like Schwinn’s Airdyne bike (starting at $625). On this, “You’re the bell, you’re the whistle,” says St. George. The bike works both the upper and lower body and is a useful piece for fitness or rehab. The harder you pedal, the higher the resistance you encounter. The display reports time, distance, calories, rpm, workload, and heart rate.

Another low-impact cardio machine that tackles a range of muscle groups is SciFit’s Pro2Sport ($4,040). Appropriate for both overall wellness and rehabilitation, this compact piece (61 inches long by 30 inches wide) works the upper and lower body, together or separately, and has 200 levels of resistance.

Against the Current
A water regimen is an unimpeachable fitness workout, not only for its benefits as a total-body, nonimpact form of exercise, but also as a cross-training option for runners, or to promote muscle recovery on your off-days. “Swimming is a wonderful form of exercise,” says Robert Scales, an exercise physiologist at the Mayo Clinic’s Heart Health and Performance Program in Scottsdale, Ariz. “It’s joint friendly,” says Scales, “and there are lots of different things you can do in water also, like deep-water running.”

For home use, SwimEx makes a series of pools, including the 600-S home swimming pool spa ($44,900), which has an adjustable current for in-place swimming and also has a running platform and a step exercise feature. At a compact 7 feet 8 inches wide by 17 feet 7 inches long by 5 feet 10 inches deep, the pool provides the benefits of lap swimming and can be used for deep-water running and other water exercises.

GYM-DANDY
Scores of professional athletes, celebrities, and regular folks have trained at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning (MBSC) in Massachusetts, which Men’s Health magazine recently picked as one of America’s top 10 gyms. MBSC trainer and marketing director Adrienne Norris shares a wish list for the well-equipped home gym. “Choosing the right equipment to outfit your home gym depends on your training goals and the amount of space available,” says Norris. And sessions with a trainer are essential. “From a safety standpoint,” Norris says, “you need to know how to use the equipment in your home gym—this is a must.” Norris recommends working with a trainer two or three times a week at first, and to be sure the trainer is experienced, holds a national certification (NASM, ACSM, NSCA), and has an exercise-related degree. “The good [trainers] will hold you accountable, motivate you, correct form, teach proper technique, and design workout programs to help you reach your training goals,” says Norris. Here is her shopping list for the complete gym at home.

¦ Power rack (with chin-up bar, squat rack, bench)
¦ Exercise wheel for ab rollouts
¦ Functional trainer machine such as Keiser’s, with cable pulley system
¦ TRX Suspension Trainer (portable strap system)
¦ Dumbbells in 2.5 lb increments
¦ Barbells (15/30/45 lb)
¦ Ropes
¦ Foam roller
¦ Mini bands
¦ Kettlebells
¦ Trap bar
¦ Jump rope
¦ Slideboard
¦ Stability ball
¦ Medicine balls
¦ Balance pad, yoga mat
¦ Bike (such as Airdyne)
¦ Treadmill (Woodway is a top choice)
¦ Mirrors
¦ Concrete block wall for medicine balls
¦ Rubber flooring