Bodytone Cardio and Strength Machines: A Complete Guide for Operators

Fitting out a commercial gym means answering the same question twice: what goes in the cardio zone, and what goes in the strength zone. Bodytone is one of the few manufacturers that lets an operator answer both from a single catalogue, with consistent build quality, a consistent service channel and a consistent visual identity across the floor. This guide explains how the two halves of the range work together and how to specify them for a professional site.

The reasoning below is written for operators: club managers, hotel and campsite directors, municipal facilities, corporate gyms, clubs, schools and rehabilitation centres. It assumes shared, largely unsupervised access, which is what makes commercial specification different from anything else.

Why a professional floor needs both

Cardio and strength are not competing budget lines. They serve different members and, more importantly, they serve the same member on different days.

Cardio equipment carries the entry point. It is what a new or returning member uses in the first weeks, it absorbs peak-hour traffic, and it is the zone people judge a facility by when they walk in. Strength equipment carries retention. It is where members build a routine they come back for, and it is where the longest dwell times happen.

An unbalanced floor shows up quickly in the numbers. Too much cardio and the room empties as members plateau; too much strength and beginners never get comfortable. The mix depends on your membership, not on a formula, which is why it is worth sizing against your own attendance rather than a rule of thumb.

The Bodytone cardio range on a commercial floor

The cardio side covers the four movements a commercial room needs: running and walking, cycling, elliptical stride and rowing. On a professional floor each of them is chosen for different reasons.

Treadmills take the heaviest structural load of anything in the room. Deck construction, motor duty rating and belt quality decide how long they last, and they are the machines most sensitive to floor preparation underneath. The Bodytone treadmill range is built for continuous commercial duty rather than intermittent use.

Upright and recumbent bikes are the workhorses of mixed-ability rooms: low intimidation, easy to supervise, forgiving of poor technique. They are also the machines that most often stay in service the longest, which makes serviceability the deciding criterion. The Bodytone exercise bike range covers both seating positions.

Cross trainers and rowers round out the zone. Both reward a heavier flywheel and a rigid frame, and both are worth specifying with the tallest and heaviest users you expect in mind rather than the average one.

The Bodytone strength range

Strength equipment splits into three families, and a professional room usually needs all three in some proportion.

Selectorised machines are the backbone of shared access. The movement is guided, the load is changed with a pin, and a member with no coaching can use them safely. They take the most traffic and justify the most attention to cable, pulley and upholstery quality. The Bodytone Forza FH range is designed for exactly this duty.

Plate-loaded machines sit a step further along. They suit stronger members and sites where the training culture is more advanced, and they cost less to maintain because there is no cable and pulley assembly to service.

Free weights and racks complete the zone. They demand the most floor preparation and the most careful layout, because dropped load is what destroys a slab and what generates complaints from neighbouring rooms.

Specifying for professional use

Indoor equipment installed in a supervised commercial or public facility falls under EN ISO 20957-1 class S, the class written for professional use with unrestricted access. Class I is a professional class intended for inclusive access, not an intensity step above class S: they answer different questions. Ask for the declaration of conformity in writing before the order is placed. In shared access this is not a formality, it is what your insurer and your inspecting authority will ask for.

Two practical points follow from that. First, standardise. A floor built from one manufacturer keeps spare parts, service procedures and staff training simple, and it is the single cheapest decision an operator can make over ten years. Second, plan the floor before the machines. Dense rubber flooring under the strength zone and under the treadmills protects the slab, cuts structure-borne noise into rooms below, and keeps frames from walking under load.

Balancing the two zones

There is no universal ratio, and any supplier who offers one is guessing. What can be done is to size the mix against your own data: peak-hour attendance, the age profile of your members, the classes you run, and whether your site is a destination gym or an amenity attached to a hotel, a campsite or a residential development.

An amenity room in a hotel or a residence usually leans cardio, because guests train briefly and want no instruction. A club or a box leans strength, because that is what members stay for. A municipal facility or a school needs the widest ability range covered with the fewest machines. A rehabilitation centre needs fine load increments and easy access far more than it needs peak resistance.

Cost over the life of the floor

The purchase price is the smallest part of what a gym floor costs. What decides the real figure is downtime, spare-part availability and how many different service relationships you have to manage. A single-manufacturer floor with one service channel is materially cheaper to run than a floor assembled from bargains, even when the bargains looked better on the quotation.

Weigh the frame warranty separately from the warranty on wear parts and electronics, and ask what the wear parts actually are on each machine. On cardio it is belts, decks, bearings and consoles. On strength it is cables, pulleys and upholstery. A supplier who can answer that off the top of their head is a supplier who services what they sell.

Frequently asked questions

Can one manufacturer cover a whole commercial floor?

Yes, and there are good reasons to want that. A single range keeps spare parts, service procedures and staff training simple, and it gives the room a consistent look that photographs well.

What ratio of cardio to strength should I plan?

There is no universal ratio. It depends on your membership profile, your peak-hour attendance and whether the room is a destination or an amenity, so it should be sized against your own figures.

Which standard applies to indoor commercial equipment?

EN ISO 20957-1 class S, the class written for professional use with unrestricted access. Ask for the declaration of conformity in writing before ordering.

Does the flooring really matter?

Yes. Dense rubber flooring protects the slab, cuts structure-borne noise into adjacent rooms and stops frames moving under load. It belongs in the budget from the start, not as an afterthought.

Planning your floor

The fastest route to a workable specification is to start from the room, the traffic and the users rather than from a model list. Tell us the surface area, the ceiling height, the expected attendance and the profile of your members, and we will put a zone plan and a costed proposal in front of you: request a quote.

Light In Fitness has equipped professional sites since 2013, and works with operators from the first sketch through to installation.