Review: Myx Plus In-Home Fitness System

More and more people are looking for ways to work out at home these days. But you can only do so many push-ups and air squats, and running outside becomes a lot less appealing when the weather starts going downhill.

The Connecticut company Myx Fitness is looking to create the feel of a real gym inside people’s homes with its Myx Plus home studio. The fitness system is made up of a professional-grade Star Trac stationary bike with an integrated 21.5-inch touchscreen tablet, plus some extras like a seven-piece weight set, a foam roller, a resistance band, and a Polar heart rate monitor that tracks your level of exertion.

If you pony up a $29 monthly subscription fee, Myx will also stream video workouts to that giant, swiveling tablet. The on-demand workouts guide you through prerecorded training sessions led by a roster of coaches. The service customizes your workouts to your fitness level and tracks your progress over time.

The bike arrives fully set up. When I got my test model, a technician dropped it off, moved it into my spare room, and walked me through the initial setup. As soon as he left, I set up my profile and, as instructed, went through my first workout: the Myx Assessment ride, which takes you through a workout and measures your heart rate as you reach different levels of exertion. The system then calculates your ideal heart rate range for your future workouts.

Photograph: Regina Nicolardi/Myx Fitness

Twenty minutes and 282 calories later, I was dripping sweat and tired, but not quite exhausted. After the workout, I was given my Myx score. Myx uses this to figure out your three heart rate zones (blue for easy work, green for moderate work, and red for high exertion) to make sure that you’re not over- or under-exerting yourself in any given workout. The score is adjusted after each evaluation, and Myx recommends you do a new assessment ride every six weeks.

The bike is only part of the Myx Plus package. The weights that come with it are standard rubber-coated dumbbells and a kettlebell, all well built with a high-end fitness studio look that makes it possible to keep them in your house without giving it that prison-yard weight bench look. The heaviest set of weights consists of 9-, 12-, and 15-pound dumbbells and a 25-pound kettlebell, which is a bit light if you’re used to running the rack at Planet Fitness, but that kettlebell had me breathing hard during some of the floor workouts. It’s a great starter set, and you can buy your own heavier dumbbells later when you need to bump up the intensity.

In the first week of workouts, I had to restart the tablet several times to reboot it after the screen froze while it was searching for my Wi-Fi, but that hasn’t been an issue since the first few days. Otherwise, the tablet is excellent. At 21.5 inches, it’s not so big that you’re overwhelmed while watching it up close wjen riding the bike, but it’s also big enough to use for floor workouts several feet away. The touchscreen swivels 360 degrees for off-the-bike sessions.

But obviously, the star of the show is that stationary bike. It’s a heavy piece of machinery, and it has a solid feel that is a welcome feature when you get on it and start pedaling. There’s no shaking, no wobbling, just a grounded, secure feeling you’d get in that bike at the gym that everyone rushes to get to first—which makes sense, as you’ll often see rows of Star Trac bikes in commercial gyms. The bike is also nearly silent, which is great for people who live with light sleepers or share walls with fussy neighbors.

Using touchscreen controls on the tablet, I connected the Myx system directly to my Bluetooth earbuds and the included Polar heart rate monitor. For me, each connection was quick and reliable. Bluetooth devices can be finicky (I’ve often stood at a trailhead, waiting impatiently for my earbuds to connect), so it’s great to be ready to ride within seconds.

When I went into the database to check out Myx’s workouts, my first impression was, “Wow, this is way more than just a bike.” The hundreds of preprogrammed workouts available span four categories: Bike (which contains the traditional spin/cycle type workouts), Floor (workouts using equipment and/or bodyweight to build strength and endurance), Recovery (yoga, meditation, and recovery movements), and Cross-Train (workouts that contain mixes of all three).

Photograph: Myx Fitness

In each category are dozens of workouts in three different difficulty levels, led by coaches that hit just the right tone—positive without being saccharine. The pretaped training sessions range in time from five minutes to 60 minutes, and they have the feel of a one-on-one experience. That’s a huge perk—Myx focuses on positive reinforcement to motivate you, so you won’t find the merit-based leaderboards like those in Peloton workouts or indoor cycling apps like Zwift. There’s less of a competitive feel; it’s more like a really fit friend is encouraging you through a workout.

As a certified trainer (CrossFit L1, L2, USPA Powerlifting, Precision Nutrition L1) with experience programming workouts and owning a gym, I’m immediately skeptical of any programming that I haven’t done myself. But Myx has done its homework: Every workout I’ve done so far has hit that perfect zone of difficulty, taking you right up to the “I can’t do this” line and easing it back just a bit so you can keep going. I’ve left every workout tired and sweaty, but invigorated, rather than ready for a breakfast burrito and a nap, which is my usual state after a rough gym session. I was pleasantly surprised to find higher level CrossFit movements presented in a way that beginners could understand. I even saw some movements that I haven’t come across in my programming experience.

One of my favorite features is the Myx Media feature, which forgoes programming and lets you ride the bike at your own pace while simulating an outdoor ride in scenic locations. (I was excited to see familiar trails and locations on the San Francisco ride.) You can also choose to watch Myx original content like motivational video diaries from the coaches, or my favorite, watch the Newsy app while you ride. During my testing, it became a habit to wake up and start my day with a 20-minute ride while catching up on current events, then close out the day with a programmed workout after dinner.

The scenic rides come in a lower resolution than the rest of the workouts—a shame, because the views are HD-worthy—while more mundane features like the Newsy app come in crystal clear. Myx is working to add other streaming apps in the near future as well; hopefully we’ll see Netflix and Hulu in the … Myx.

At $1,499, the Myx Plus costs less than the bikes from Peloton ($1,895), Echelon ($1,559), and SoulCycle ($2,500). Additionally, the package at that price includes the weights and other extras, which makes the workouts a more well-rounded (and less mind-numbing) experience than simply sitting on a bike and grinding away.

Photograph: Myx Fitness

You actually have two options when it comes to purchasing Myx gear. There’s a lower-cost Myx package for $1,299, which includes the bike, the tablet, and the Polar heart rate monitor. You can still engage in a wide range of cycling, bodyweight workouts, and yoga or meditation classes with this option, but unless you already have a set of weights at home (or don’t want to get creative with some gallon jugs), you won’t be able to do the workouts that involve the dumbbells and kettlebells.

The Myx Plus option is a better deal at $1,499. The extra 200 bones gets you those three pairs of dumbbells, the kettlebell, mats for the bike and for floor workouts, a resistance band, and a solid foam roller, all of which would cost over $200 if purchased separately.

Access to the personalized workouts requires that aforementioned monthly $29 fee—about the same, if not cheaper, than competing connected fitness programs. Up to five people can build fitness profiles in the app, so one subscription can be shared by a whole family. You get full access to classes with the ability to choose between the four types of workouts, the duration of each, and which of the 17 available coaches you prefer (all of which are amicable, but I’ve singled out some favorites). The app also has a calendar feature that lets you schedule your workouts, and it will send you reminders when it’s time to saddle up.

The membership costs roughly the same as most gym fees, and the combined monthly payments of the gear (if you finance it) and membership is less than a single session of personal training, which ranges between $40 and $70 per hour on average.

The Myx Plus feels like the next level of home gym setups. Instead of banging out five sets of 10 reps with some rusty weights on a cracked leather bench in your garage, you can get the feel of one-on-one personal training with top-tier equipment in your spare bedroom, basement, garage, or wherever you have around 50 square feet to spare. Since I’ve been stuck in the house during the stay-at-home orders, it’s been a great way to stay in shape and get some endorphins going to keep the 2020 blues to a minimum.