Posted: 8/26/2007 2:20:45 PM EDT
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My father in-law bought a top of the line Bowflex years ago and barely used it. He decided to clean out his basement and offered to me. Right now I have a multi-purpose free weight bench (sqat rack, dips, shoulder press) & a seperate Lat machine. Is Bowflex all it's advertised to be? Is it worth the trade off cause I can't have both setups in my basement. |
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I've got free weights, but I've used a friends bowflex. It made me feel muscle I didn't know I had. He used free weights prior to getting his bowflex 3yrs ago. When he comes over to my house, he can still bench 325lbs. He was a heavy lifter in the past but is able to maintain with the bowflex only. |
You'll never get the full benefit of any compound movement from a Bowflex that you will from free weights. You're not having to stabilize as much, so you've got parts of you that aren't working hard enough to even lift 3/4 of the same weight in plates (Boxflex squats  )
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I would love to but it's a gift that my FIL would quickly notice missing from my house. |
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I had a Bowflex Xtreme. I used it for a while and you CAN get a decent workout from one. It just depends on what you want to accomplish. If you just want to excercise and maintain some general fitness they are fine. If you want to get serious and pack on some muscle then no way. Issues I had were: The rods did get a bit flimsy. Particularly the smaller ones. The weight increments in my opinion were difficult because the lower weight rods (5 and 10 lbs) just seemed useless. The range of motion was sorta limited. I had to really pay attention to the various pulley settings because if you didn't have enough tension on the rods the first part of your lift would have hardly any resistance and the upper part of your lift would be heavy. If I set up too much initial resistance sometimes I would run out of rod flex at the top of my range. I should mention I'm 6'4". Shorter people probably won't have as much issue. I really never got a feel for how much I was lifting and how much I was really increasing the weight. I'm not that strong but I could almost immediately max out the machine (mine had 310lbs of rods) on certain excercises. I think bench, squat, shoulder press and maybe others. It was a very sturdy built machine and the footprint was fantastic. The Smith Cage system I replaced it with takes up a LOT more room. I bought mine used so if yours is newer the rods might be stiffer. Ultimately though I tried to like it I didn't. I sold it for enough dough to buy my smith cage and plates and floor pad and still had some left over. I'm pretty sure my iron plates aren't ever going to wear out.  |
Thanks. I am going to try and sqeeze the Bowflex into the basement for a trial run before I get rid of anything.
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Not a first hand account, so take it for what it is worth. A couple guys I work with use Bowflexes. Both guys are seriously into fitness and both guys are people who would stand out in a crowd as someone who was really built. One of these guys has a body like the guys on the Bowflex ads. I was amazed to learn that they both completely dropped their gym memberships after getting a Bowflex. Both guys have worked out for many years at conventional gyms with all the "normal" equipment before getting the Bowflex. I have never even seen one in person, but I want one now that I heard that story. Often, when I get one of my rare days off, I really want to stay at home and not go anywhere including the gym (we work out at work on the days I work). I have been thinking for years that it would be cool to have something at home so you could work out on those days when you just want to stay home. |
My biggest problem with my current free weight setup is I always work out alone. So I can never really push it to the point of failure. One time I thought I could get another 2or 3 reps out of a 225 bench and only got 1 rep. I ened up with 225 stuck on my chest. Luckily I never used bar clamps so I just twisted the bar to one side & let the weights fly  -LOL. Plus after years of injurys I need to be really careful.I think I will end up getting rid of my big "do it all" bench & barbells and just keep my dumbbells and get a simple adjustable bench to accompany the Bowflex. |
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My smith cage has upper and lower pegs. The lower ones are longer and you can position them so that when you are benching and you fail you can let the bar down onto those pegs. Here is a pic. www.blackbirdpilot.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/marcycage.jpg Its huge so I made it a link. I always work out alone...though occasionally Dora stops by (see pic). I wouldn't be nearly as confident in working out alone without the lower pegs. I would however recommend a slightly different set up if you like to push to failure every time. I would use something like this: www.johnstonefitness.com/images/rack_front_large.jpg I would move the smith bar out of the way and set the peg for the barbell inside then adjust the bars on either side. Since the bars go all the way across there is zero chance of missing the lower peg. I have missed the lower peg. No fun. IMO free weights are a LOT better than the bowflex. Its just you and gravity. No rods or limited range of motion to have to worry about. Good luck with the BF. You may love the thing. |