Today we're going to take a look at the TuffStuff CSM725WS. Or, you can just call it the TuffStuff 725. The TuffStuff 725 is a combination unit that’s great for a lot of home or garage gym setups. It features a half cage on the front, a smith machine in the middle, and a functional trainer in the rear. Today we’ll break it down a little and highlight some of our favorite functions, as well as discuss why you might want to look at another model.
First, the half cage on the front gives you all of the flexibility of training free-bar exercises without taking up hardly any space in your gym. The safeties adjust smoothly up and down, and the J-cups have a unique “swing-lock” design that allows them to slide up and down quickly with only one hand. There’s also a chin up bar off the front that is just above the pulleys for the lat-pulldown station, which connects to the weight stack in the back, more on that in a second.
Moving further in, there is a 7 degree smith machine with its own safeties. It’s a good, thick bar with a good knurl that’s not too intense, with coated weight horns again to protect against scratches.
Then towards the back, you’ve got two adjustable pulleys that connect to the 200lb weight stack with a 1:2 cable ratio. That ratio allows you to step outside of the cage and still do a cable fly without topping out the weight stack, so there is plenty of cable travel.
Finally on the sides you have plate storage horns that are spaced for olympic plates that are not bumper plates, in addition to an olympic bar holder for vertical storage.
As for the bench, the CMB-375 is the included bench which can range from decline to a full incline bench. The bench also includes a leg hold attachment, and there are also available a preacher curl attachment and a leg developer attachment for doing extensions and curls, but those are not included in the standard CSM-725WS package, only the leg hold is included, but they are very nice options.
All in all, this machine is fantastic for garage or home setups where the primary users want a wide range of bar-focused workouts, while not giving up the convenience of a built-in high, low, and adjustable cable system. It’s one of our favorite pieces here at Bandit.
