Exercise Equipment For Tall People

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Finding exercise equipment for tall people can be a difficult task if you don’t know the key features to pay attention too. Far too many times have I heard stories about spending thousands on a piece of equipment only to discover that the size in inadequate.

Whether its being cramped and uncomfortable to banging knees on the machines console, tall people all over the world could benefit to this tall persons guide to choosing size appropriate exercise equipment.

In this guide you can find out what specs you need to understand and look for in regards to each piece of equipment. Along with some hand picked product recommendations so you can make a buying decision that much easier.

The Gym Equipment Listed For Tall People

1. Treadmills
2. Rowing Machines
3. Recumbent Bikes
4. Exercise Bikes
5. Home Gyms
6. Elliptical Machines
7. Weight Benches

Treadmills

An inadequate sized treadmill for a taller person can cause an uncomfortable walking and running pattern. As many of the running decks are only between 40-50 inches long, a person with long legs and a big stride will struggle to stay on the actual belt. Which can not only be uncomfortable but downright dangerous.

Like most exercise equipment for taller people, you will need to take into consideration how high the equipment is. In the case of treadmills, this will be your body height and the top of the treadmill height. Combine the two and if it’s greater than your ceiling height, then you are going to have serious troubles.

Because us taller folks have longer walking strides, it’s important to aim for  60 inch running deck. This will be sufficient for most people up to 7 foot tall. In my guide to treadmills for tall people, you can find 6 of the best suited treadmills.

Rowing Exercise Machines For Tall Persons

A rowing machine is a little different to a treadmill. Height of the machine is irrelevant as they are low profile exercise machines. However, a rowing machine that sits higher does make getting in and out of the equipment much easier. Especially as us taller people tent to get lower back pain more often.

When looking to buy this type of exercise equipment, you need to take into consideration your height and leg measurements. More so your inseam measurement of your legs. As this is the area where you can get cramped up and possibly not fit.

The inseam measurement is the distance between the top of the seat and the feet slots. So to work it out you just measure your inner thigh (groin area) to the heel of your foot. Use this measurement as a basis as to whether or not you will fit comfortably in the rowing machine.

In my tall persons guide to rowing machines, you can find the best 4 that meet a tall persons height and inseam measurements. Use this as a guide so you can make a better informed buying decision. Nothing worse then feeling cramped in a rowing machine.

Extra Long Recumbent Exercise Bikes

A lot can go wrong if you buy a recumbent bike which is too small for your height. Like a rowing machine, you can feel very cramped and not perform to your full potential. The exercise routine is greatly affected and it can be bad for your body to not fully extent the legs.

With a recumbent bike, you need to consider these few points:

• Inseam measurement. Similar to the rowing machines, these exercise equipment demand you fit between the seat and the foot pedals. So having a seat that sits far back on top of your minimum inseam is recommended.
• Adjustable handle bar height. This is important as you don’t want to fall short of reaching the handles, or be slouching too far down.
• Weight capacity and tension levels. No point buying a bike if your big longer legs don’t feel any tension.

For our recommendations, view this guide to buying a tall persons recumbent.

Exercise Bikes

Exercise bikes come in all sorts of styles and boast various features. From the above recumbent  bikes to upright and spin exercise bikes. Exercise bikes are a little easier to buy for being a tall person.

When looking at exercise bikes, you need to consider stability among other aspects. Being taller, you have lower centre of gravity and as exercise bikes sit quite high up they can topple if not well built. So a heavy duty frame is highly recommended here.

The maximum height of the bikes seat is equally important. If the seat is too short it can be impossible to use the equipment at all. Look for specifications that label the maximum height from floor to the top of the seat. Then measure this to the inner measurement of your leg. So again your inseam measurement is important.

For quick access, go to my top 3 exercise bikes for taller users. Here you can find a budget model, mid to high end bike and also the best spin cycle for taller guys.

Home Gyms For Tall People

Manufacturers don’t mention recommended user heights in regards to home gyms. This can be down to it being particularly hard to estimate as the varying workouts available. For the most part, home gyms are quite adjustable to cater to many shapes and sizes.

But it certainly is possible to be too tall for a home gym. So what do you do if you want to buy a home gym as a taller person?. If you don’t have access to them in stores to physically try out, it can be quite difficult. So when it comes to buying one online, your safest bet is to base your measurements against other users.

This can involve sorting through 1000’s of customer reviews and questions about the product. Which can be quite time consuming. To save you a little bit of time, I have listed a couple of home gyms based on other tall peoples reviews. So be sure to check them out, read the reviews and see if your height is applicable.

Bowflex-340000-Blaze-Home-Gym

The tallest user that stated comfort use that I found for the Bowflex-340000-Blaze-Home-Gym was 6’4″ tall. Another reviewer stated that 6’8″ and he was too tall. So based on this, I would not use this home gym if you are taller than 6’5″. The user weight limit for this home gym is 300 lbs. For more specifications and the types of exercises you can do, view the user manual here.

When fully assembled, the BowFlex Blaze is 83 inches in height. Which leaves you with a 13 inch gap if you have standard 8 foot high ceilings. The gym utilizes a horizontal bench which can fold up for extra space. The total number of exercises possible on this home gym is 60+, which you can see in the pdf manual above. With the majority of them being upper half of the body (16 arm, 14 shoulder and 8 chest workouts).

PowerLine Home Gym For Tall Persons

As you can see from these customer answers on amazon, the tallest user for the Powerline BSG10X has a maximum user height of 6’5″. This is a good indicator that most tall users should be able to use this gym.

The PowerLine is a little shorter in height than the Bowflex, measuring in at 80 inches. So again, will easy fit under a 8 foot ceiling. Whats also handy about this Gym is that it gets delivered 90% assembled. According to Powerline, you should be all set up in just 30 minutes. Which is good news if your not very mechanically minded like myself.

With a 160kg weight stack and over 40 exercises to choose from, the Powerline is a good fit for most enthusiastic home gym owners. Its a very reasonable price which stands its ground against much more expensive home gyms. So if you dislike going to the gym and your a tall person, this home gym could be the solution for you.

Elliptical Machines

Like a treadmill, your walking and running stride is the most important aspect to consider when buying an elliptical trainer. As your feet never leave the pedals and you resemble a natural walking and running stride, it’s more important than ever to make sure the elliptical has an adjustable foot stride to match your actual stride.

Don’t just guess and hope for the best here. Go out and measure your running stride and walking stride. Compare this to the elliptical’s maximum foot stride capabilities.

What I have found is that a 22″ stride enabled elliptical is the minimum for a taller person. Anything shorter to this and it’s going to get very uncomfortable very quickly.

To get you heading in the right direction, you can read more about what to look for and view my top 4 choices for tall persons Elliptical Trainer.

Bench Press For Tall People

A weight bench is a great way to work out from home and build some serious muscle. However the problem for a tall person is inadequate bench space. Typically they are too short and don’t sit high enough from the floor.

However there are extra long weight benches to be found which are size appropriate for people over 6 foot. These are certainly worth taking a look even if you’re just 6 foot tall. The lack of head support on regular size weight benches can be dangerous.

Compare Exercise Equipment For Tall People

I hope this guide has been useful for you. Now you can quickly compare the exercise equipment that has considered the heights of taller people. If there are any other pieces of equipment not mentioned in this guide, please do feel free to comment below and let me know. For the most part, all other equipment is pretty universal.