I have never been a fan of weight training, though I have over the years tried to build some muscles with dumbbells. Nowadays, even though I am quite active with daily brisk walks, the lack of weight training has been something playing on my mind. This is why when an opportunity came to review the Portl Ultra Gym I was intrigued and wanted to see if a product like this would make sense for me.

I was, however, confused if a gym unit would make sense in my small apartment. The company assured me the product was compact and had a small footprint. A few weeks later, I was staring at a couple of large, heavy, cartons outside my door. I was not sure what the second box was for, but soon discovered that it was the bench to workout on. The bench can also be set up easily, but I did not have space for the same unless I wanted to make my living room a gym.

The Ultra Gym unit is a platform with a 2.4-feet footprint and 12 kg weight. You can easily tuck it under the bed if you are not using the bench. At each end, you have carabiners that can be connected to the barbell, ankle straps or hand straps that come in the box, depending on the workout you have planned. Once the unit is powered on, you can use the Portl app to connect the smartphone to it via Bluetooth. In the app, you can select your goal, take up challenges, see your daily progress and create custom workouts. For me, most of these did not make sense as I am not someone who has done strength training before.