Vitruvian Trainer+ Review: 440 lb of Resistance, Uncertain Future
By The Ironnook Test Desk ·
6.9
vitruvianform.com
The verdict
As a machine, the Trainer+ is the heaviest-hitting smart gym you can slide under a bed: 220 lb per cable, seven resistance modes, and a platform you can wheel away. It is also paired to a phone app with a steep learning curve, cable motion that testers call jerky at times, and a maker that took its storefront offline during a year of silence. Buy it only if you want that much resistance and accept the company risk.
Best for: Strong lifters who want heavy, portable cable resistance
What we liked
Up to 440 lb total, 220 lb per cable, far above Tonal's 200 lb
Slim 44 by 20 by 5 inch platform wheels away and slides under furniture
Seven modes including eccentric, Pump and Old School, add variety
Heavy cable lifts fit in a footprint a bed or sofa can hide
Floor-based design needs no wall mounting and suits renters
The Gym Monster 2 is the smart gym for people who rent, cannot drill into studs or want barbell, cable and rowing work from one machine. It offers more range of motion and exercises than any wall-mounted rival we looked at, for hundreds of dollars less than Tonal 2. Software polish, loud heavy sets and the 220 lb ceiling stop it short of a top score. Serious lifters should still buy a rack and plates.
amp is the value pick among wall-mounted smart gyms: $1,795 with installation, a 6 ft by 2 ft panel and a plan that costs well under half of Tonal's. The price buys a 100 lb ceiling, an iPhone-only app and a recall on early units. Buy it for general fitness and hypertrophy at moderate loads, not for heavy strength work.
7.2$1,795 (plus $23/mo app plan)
Smart Strength Systems
About $2,990 before the $590 Pro Kit, bench and bar accessories
No built-in screen, so you depend on a phone or tablet and its app
Cable motion can feel jerky at times, and custom workouts are fiddly
Maker went quiet for a year; the storefront now lists only the Pro Kit
Warranty is two years on electronics, and you pay return shipping
The Trainer+ is a 65 lb floor platform with up to 440 lb of digital cable resistance, built for lifters who find Tonal too light. Its hardware impresses. Its maker's shaky history and phone-only screen hold it back.
The smart strength category has a weight problem. Tonal tops out at 200 lb of digital resistance, and plenty of lifters hit that wall on rows and presses. Vitruvian's answer is a flat black platform that claims 440 lb. We were more interested in whether anyone is still selling it than in the number.
First, the awkward part
Open Vitruvian's own site and you do not find a product page. You find a teaser.
Vitruvian's home page on the day we captured it: a Stronger is Coming banner and an email signup, with no product listed.
The story behind it is documented by Connect the Watts. After raising a $15 million Series A, the company went quiet through late 2023 and 2024, took its product off the store, and let a domain lapse. Staff left. In August 2025 an engineer said the company was restructuring, that a next-generation platform had not worked out, and that the existing Trainer+ would be supported for years. The current storefront lists only the Pro Kit, at $590, and a reseller in Hong Kong showed the Trainer+ itself as sold out.
Vitruvian's store when we looked: the Pro Kit at $590 is the only product listed.
That does not make the machine bad. It does mean you may be buying leftover stock or a used unit, you cannot count on a warranty claim going smoothly, and you should price in the risk.
What 440 lb really means
The figure is the total of two cables, so it is 220 lb per hand. Garage Gym Reviews scored the Trainer+ 4.05 out of 5 and noted that digital resistance feels "significantly heavier" than a barbell at the same weight, because of how a motor holds the load through the whole rep. In practice a 100 lb cable row is a serious set.
It offers seven modes: Eccentric, Time Under Tension, Pump, Old School, Progression, Regression and Beast. Eccentric mode, which loads the lowering half of each rep, is the one that suits lifters chasing strength, and the modes give you a way to change a stale routine without buying any new kit.
Garage Gym Reviews' test of the Trainer+, which scored it 4.05 out of 5.
Does a heavy lifter need 440 lb?
Probably not all of it. On a single-arm row or a split-stance press, 220 lb per cable is far more than most people can move, so the ceiling matters only for two-handed pulls such as deadlifts. Garage Gym Reviews headlined its test around a 400 lb deadlift, which shows the headroom is real. The more useful point is the cushion: a strong lifter can outgrow a 200 lb ceiling like Tonal's, while the Trainer+ leaves far more room to progress.
That headroom has limits. There is no barbell to rack, so squats and bench presses feel different, and the 330 lb user limit applies when you stand on the platform.
Living with a platform and a phone
The Trainer+ is 44 inches long, 20 wide and about 5 high, and weighs 65 to 70 lb. It rolls on recessed wheels and slides under a bed or sofa, which is the best trick in this category. You stand on it to deadlift, row and press, so a mat and a bit of floor are all you need. It has a 330 lb user limit, per Garage Gym Reviews.
There is no screen. Everything runs through an app on your phone or tablet, which is where the friction starts. The tester called the learning curve steep, found it more confusing than Tonal at first, and described building custom workouts as a "cumbersome process". Cable motion was jerky at times, though updates have helped. The All Access membership of about $39 a month adds classes and tracking.
Price and the rival
Pricing sits around $2,990 for the base unit, before accessories. Tonal 2 is wall-mounted and, as we found, costs more than its sticker once its membership is counted, and our Tonal 2 review covers it. The Speediance Gym Monster 2 is the screen-equipped, freestanding alternative that undercuts Tonal.
Who should buy it
If you lift heavy, need to store your gym out of sight, and are happy to buy from a retailer or second-hand with your eyes open, the Trainer+ is the best machine of its kind for raw resistance.
If you are buying a first smart gym and want classes on a big screen, this is not it. Everyone else should wait. The phone-only interface, the uncertain future and the lack of a screen make Speediance or Tonal the safer buy.
Tonal 2 is the best digital-resistance trainer you can buy, and it does fold a rack and dumbbells into one wall panel. But the real cost is closer to $5,800 in year one, the membership is mandatory, and the machine is a smart screen first. Buy it for space and coaching, not to save money.
