A decent routine like starting strength or strong lifts or similar will probably take less time than most peoples multigym work out because it uses compound lifts but less exercises. You will notice my work outs are only 3 exercises a day.
Changing the weight can't be that inconvenient i mean it is a work out you are not supposed to be able to do your knitting at the same time.
Even with a machine people often have horrible form but the machine can often mask it. A bench press machine for a lot of people here are some issues.
1. After the push up/out they lock out with there arms to hold the machine up losing all the tension in there chest
2. Because it has a fixed range of motion they don't tense the core and have the legs locked in they are generally pushing from the shoulders.
3. On the lowest point of the exercise (where the bar would be on your chest) they often rest again losing all the strength and tension they should have for the lift.
4. combine that with the fact that no 2 people are the same but the machines often have very limited adjustments (esp cheaper ones) and a fixed static range of motion.
A choice between nothing and a multistation work out i would suggest someone on the multistation is doing better than nothing but if you are strating from scratch and spending some cash you will see much much better results with free weights and taking the time to learn a few exercises. My work outs are under an hour including getting changed and streching (i am big on stretching it takes me 15 minutes at the end to do them) and i only go about 3 times a week. 3 hours a week to more or less work out and improve my entire body/health/strength i think its a good ROI.
