Total Gym® Workout with Founder Tom Campanero

ACE recently entered into an educational partnership with Total Gym and we took the opportunity to meet the founder of the company, Tom Campanero, to learn about the benefits of his unique product.

Q: Why was the Total Gym developed and how long have you been in business?

Tom: Back in my youth when I was a bodybuilder, I wanted a way that I could train at home and do many of my favorite exercises without a lot of costly equipment. While the concept of training on an incline plane has been around for years, I developed the early version of the Total Gym and started the company in the early 1970s. The Total Gym allows the user to change the angle of the board against gravity, which can quickly increase or decrease the amount of bodyweight resistance used for a particular exercise.

Q: How many people use the Total Gym?

Tom: Over the course of the past 40 years that we’ve been in business we have sold more than 5 million units to home-based consumers. Our market research indicates that more than 70 percent of our customers use the product on a regular basis, even after 10 years of ownership. But what really gets me excited is how the Total Gym is used in more than 14,000 physical therapy and rehabilitation clinics. The unique features of our slant board allow therapists to use closed-chain exercises with clients in an environment that reduces the effect of gravity and allows users to exercise with a only a percentage of their bodyweight.

Q: What is one of the most unique features of the Total Gym?

Tom: One of the things that we’re most proud of is how easy it is to transition from exercise to exercise. We have worked very hard to design our equipment to make it intuitive to use and easy to transition from one movement to the next.

Q: How are you working with the American Council on Exercise?

Tom: We are offering continuing education programs on the Total Gym, along with an exercise library of Total Gym exercises, both of which are available on the ACE website. Our hope is that we can empower ACE Certified Fitness Professionals to be more comfortable on our equipment so they can incorporate it into the programs they develop for their clients.

Q: What’s next for Total Gym?

Tom: We are in the process of launching a franchise model of training studios based on using our products. We will help a prospective studio owner with all phases of development, from selecting a location and developing an effective marketing strategy, to offering coaching and support