What the document fixes
EN 957 was the European standard for stationary training equipment, published in parts: a general part carrying safety requirements and test methods, and machine-specific parts for strength equipment, treadmills, rowing machines, exercise bikes, steppers and others.
Its subject was the same as its successor’s: stability under test, load-bearing parts, trapping and shearing points, the security of adjustment mechanisms, endurance across a defined number of cycles, and the marking and documentation a product must carry. It also carried the class letters — H for home use, S for supervised settings, I for the added accuracy requirement on displayed values.
What it does not promise
Everything the successor does not promise, it did not promise either: it is a test of a sample against a method, not a statement about a particular machine on a particular floor under a particular load. It ranks nothing and it certifies no session.
One thing specific to this number is worth adding. Because it has been superseded, a citation of it dates the claim rather than describing the product in front of you. A machine revised since the test may carry the old marking on packaging that was never reprinted, and the marking says nothing about the revision.
What it works with
It works with the maker’s own published figures in exactly the way its successor does — the maximum user weight, the maximum total load, the motor rating and the frame dimensions are the manufacturer’s statements, and a test citation tells you what those figures were checked against.
Where both designations appear on one listing, they are usually not two tests. They are more often one test and one legacy marking, and only the maker can say which is which.
How we read it on this site
The designation is reported as printed. A listing that says EN 957 gets a page that says EN 957, with the part number and the class if the maker publishes them, and nothing is quietly upgraded to the current number. Where a maker publishes both, the page says so and leaves the two side by side.
Questions readers send in about this
Is a product marked EN 957 out of date?
Not necessarily, and the marking alone does not tell you. Stock turns over slowly on this shelf, packaging is reprinted less often than products change, and a maker may cite the designation it tested against years ago. What the marking does tell you is which document the claim refers to, which is the useful part.
Is EN 957 the same thing as EN ISO 20957?
They are not interchangeable. The European standard was brought into line with the international one, and the current designation carries the ISO number. Parts were renumbered and requirements revised in the process, so a page here reports the designation a maker actually publishes rather than converting one into the other.
Does either number appear on small gear?
Rarely, and usually wrongly. The scope is stationary training equipment. A belt, a band, a mat or a roller is outside it, and a listing that prints the number over one of those is citing a document that does not describe the product.
Last reviewed 20 September 2026