I am so excited! My Tempo Studio was delivered last week and my home gym is now complete! I've been working on building up my home gym since I started working out at home 2 years ago. I started with a Peloton Bike, added on a Peloton Tread last year and now I'm adding a Tempo Studio for strength training.
In this blog post I'll share with you my Tempo delivery experience, initial impressions of the machine, why I chose a Tempo instead of a Tonal, and how I plan to use my Tempo Studio in my training with Peloton!
Tempo provided me with a complimentary Tempo Studio and subscription, however all opinions are my honest experience and review.
Table of Contents
What is a Tempo Studio?
Tempo Studio is like having a personal trainer in your home. It's a piece of workout equipment that has a huge screen with sensors so it can actually pick up your movements and give you feedback, count your reps, track your pace and more. Unlike the Mirror, it comes with dumbbells and weights, as well as has program for kettlebells and barbell. It's not all weight training though - there's also plenty of other cardio workouts like HIIT, Cardio and Boxing, as well as mobility and stretching workouts.
Why I Chose Tempo vs Tonal
I had been in the market to add something to my home gym for strength training. While I love my Peloton bike and tread, I find the strength classes lacking in the sense of providing feedback on my form. This has been the biggest thing I've missed from working out at Orangetheory - while I try to be mindful of my form, ultimately I need a little help and real-time feedback.
In my search, I came across Tonal and Tempo. After doing a little comparison of the two and asking around in Facebook groups, I decided on Tempo. My biggest deciding factors were:
Tempo is Free-Standing
I really like that the Tempo doesn't need to be mounted to a wall. Tonal requires an installation and being mounted to the wall. While I don't plan to move my Tempo Studio (they do make a smaller version, the Tempo Move if I did want to move it around), I like not having it attached to the wall. My home gym is also shared with my office so space is limited.
Free Weights vs. Suspension System
I also like that Tempo has free weights instead of a suspension system. I've used style machines at the gym (albeit not as smart as the Tonal), and while they've done the job, I've always found I prefer dumbells and barbell training. I also think this is a good skill for me to work on so if I do eventually go back to the gym I'll be more comfortable with my form on weights.
Classes
I will admit that I have not been able to try a Tonal in person so this feedback is mostly from my friends that do own Tonal, but I had heard they thought the Tonal programming was a little boring. One of my friends had done a 4-week strength training program and said that in the program, you essentially repeated the same workouts. So on Mondays if it was an upper-body class, you'd repeat the same exact upper-body class (same music, jokes, etc.) each Monday. This made me think back to my Beachbody workout video days from years ago and cringe a little - repeating workouts so close to each other drives me nuts! I need a little variety and feel like I'm doing a live workout (or at least a new workout).
Tempo offers both live classes (I believe there are 3 a day), as well as on demand classes.
Tempo Delivery Experience
It took about a month from when I ordered the Tempo Studio before I got the text to schedule my delivery. I got the text from a third-party company (Ryder) to schedule my delivery and it was so easy. I clicked on a link they sent and was given 4 different days I could schedule a delivery - including 3 that same week! I was really impressed and excited that I'd be able to get my Tempo Studio so quickly!
When I scheduled my delivery they could only give me a 9am-6pm window, but did say a day before delivery they'd give me a better estimate. I decided to do the Friday delivery slot, and on Thursday I was texted again and given a window of 4:30-6:30pm.
On the day of delivery, I was able to keep track of my delivery window live through the same link I had scheduled the delivery. It gave me an even smaller 1-hour window of when they estimated it to arrive and would change throughout the day as the time got closer (I was so excited I couldn't help but keep checking!). At 4:15 I got a call from the driver saying they were 20 minutes out - which was right on track with what the live track had said.
Sure enough, right on time, the big Ryder truck arrived and my Tempo Studio was here! I signed up for White Glove delivery so the delivery crew would also install and set up my Tempo Studio for me.
Ryder sent out 2 techs to do the installation and they were so incredibly nice! You could tell they were very experienced with Tempo Studio set ups and after showing them the room and where I wanted it installed they went right to work. All in I think it took them maybe 20 minutes to get the Tempo Studio setup and ready to go. I was shocked and impressed at how fast it was!
Similar to my Peloton bike and tread delivery, I did tip the techs for delivery and they seemed really appreciative. Once delivery and set up were complete, I was excited to try out my new machine!
What's Included?
I ordered the Tempo Studio Starter package and it came with:
- Tempo Studio
- 1 set of dumbbells (each dumbbell is 7.5lbs without any plates)
- Weight Plates and Locks (75lbs total, or 37.5lbs for each dumbbell)
- ANT heart rate monitor
- Set of Allen wrenches
- Tempo Mat
Tempo Studio Requirements
Before I get too far I do want to go over the space requirements for the Tempo Studio. While the machine doesn't take up a lot of floor space, you do need about 6ft for the sensor to be able to pick you up. I had to reconfigure my gym a little to give myself enough space but it did end up working out.
First Impressions
I've had my Tempo Studio for about a week now and I'm really happy with it. I've tried a few beginner classes and have liked the real-time feedback it gives, as well as my rep pace. I currently go to physical therapy and the number 1 thing my PT tells me is to watch my knees when I do squats - sure enough, my Tempo also has been correcting my form on this. After I do a move, a little alert will pop up and give me feedback on what to correct (like limited knee bends in my squats). Once I correct it a green comment will pop up saying I correctly adjusted.
I've slowly started to learn that in certain workouts the instructors will use rep pace to guide the workout (and the slower the pace the more I've found it burns!). I will admit when I do strength training on my own I try to keep up with the instructors on my own instead of counting pace, so this is a good way to be more mindful of that.
I've been mostly doing on-demand classes but they do also have live classes. While instructors can't see you doing the workouts (on live or on-demand classes), the machine will give you form feedback. The instructors also do a really good job of giving you enough time in between moves to change out your weights (as well as there is a pause button if you need more time)
I also really like that Tempo is more than just a strength training machine. There are so many programs and classes available that focus on balance, mobility and stretching (as well as cardio).
I'm only a week into my journey with Tempo but will be writing up a full review and demo of the machine in the weeks to come!
My Plans with Tempo
My plan with my Tempo Studio is to use it to complement my workouts on my Peloton Tread and Bike. I will be using the Tempo Studio for my strength, mobility, and stretching and keep doing my Power Zone rides on the Peloton Bike and endurance runs on the Peloton Tread.
I'm about a week into using both and have found they really compliment each other nicely. I'll do my Peloton cardio work before (personal preference) and then follow up with a 20-30 minute (which turns into more like 23 or 33 classes when you add in warmups) strength workout.
Final Thoughts
I am so happy with my Tempo Studio delivery experience and am really impressed with the workouts I've done so far on my Tempo. I've also ordered the barbell so I can start to get into barbell classes in the future (I used to love taking barbell classes at Lifetime gym!).
I'll continue to update this post and my blog with my Tempo training as I get more experience with it! Update: I've had my Tempo for a month now and wrote up a review here!
Do you have a Tempo? You can find me on the leaderboard as ali_van!
[…] been about a month since my Tempo Studio was delivered and I've had a chance to try out a few classes. It's safe to say I'm completely obsessed with my […]