Bowflex Tips

Reviews on Bowflex Elite Bowflex Is the REAL DEAL I am 30 years old, I have lifted weights for many years. At 170lbs (lean and mean) I could bench press 315lbs. With that being said, now...

Reviews on Bowflex Elite My Second Bowflex I needed to replace my original Bowflex and spied this Elite at a Santa Rosa Ca. CostCo. Compared to my original, this one looked much eas...

First off, I am a 37 year old male. In my younger days, I hit the gym daily and had the physique to show for it. However, as my job took off and I got married, I started to not go anymore. I totally quit going about 6 years ago when my first son was born and needless to say, my body now shows the effects. Overweight, muscle mass is suffering, numerous health problems and I have no energy anymore. Same thing for my wife. So, me and the wife decided we both needed to get back into shape, but with kids, and busy schedule, neither had time for the gym. So after a lot of hours researching the web for home gym equipment, we decided on the Bowflex. We bought the Sport version which is almost identical to the Elite version. The sport is just a newer model.

The first thing you realize when you get your Bowflex is the number of heavy boxes (4 total). Even though it comes in pieces, dont worry, it was easy to put together. It was very well packaged and there was no damage to any of the parts in the boxes, even though Fed Ex had beat them up pretty good. Instructions are well written, but there are a few areas, especially the leg extension and the sliding seat that were a bit confusing. But I got it built in about 1 hour with a screwdriver, hammer and allen wrenches (they are supplied). The next thing you notice is the quality. This is not a cheap machine. Its heavy duty, 1/8″ steel for most parts and does not flex, warp, of sqeek like cheaper home gyms. This is something you would expect to see in a gym, it is that well built.

The unit is quite large when built, and I highly recommend you build it where you want to use it. It comes with roller wheels, but the sheer size and height make it difficult to move. To move it, you fold up the seat against the vertical frame and strap it in place. Then pull back and tilt the vertical frame back onto the wheels (like a furniture dolly). Takes quite an effort. The base of the unit when folded up is about 1/2″ wider than a standard door. To get it through a door, you have to push, pull, tilt, etc… That is my main complaint. They make it movable, but did not design it to fit though standard doors.

As far as the exercises and quality of the workout, it is awesome! Dont be fooled by the 210 weights that come with the unit. I used to bench 350 with standard weights. So, first thing I did was try to bench the full 210 lbs on the Bowflex. To my suprise, I could not budge it. Had to back off quite a bit. So 210 lbs will be sufficient for upper body exercises for most. But if you like to do squats, you may want to get the weight upgrade two 310 lbs.

The next thing you will notice with the bowflex, is that it works many more muscles during an exercise compared to standard bar weights. Because the left and right arms are independant during the bench press workouts, they have to work independantly ,and boy, you sure do feel the burn. It is a much different feeling from free weights. The pulley system the bowflex uses is very smooth. No jerking, or snatching feeling at all, just nice, smooth movements.

Since the unit uses a series of pulleys to connect the weight rods to the handles/legpress, you have to switch pulleys when you go from say a bench press to a lat pull down. But it only takes about 60 seconds or less to switch pulleys, not a big deal. I just perform all the excrcises that one set of pulleys do, then switch and do the same on the next set of pulleys.

The unit comes with an extensive workout manual that shows how to setup for all 60+ exercises which makes it quite easy. It even shows a diagram showing which muscles are worked with each exercise. One of the things I am going to try is the Bowflex diet, which is also detailed in the manual. They go into great detail about it and even give you lists of meals which you can plan throughout the day. They even give you a grocery list to make your food shopping easy. Both me and my wife start it tomorrow, and I will post a followup on how good (or bad) the diet is going.

My wife thought she would not be able to figure out the setup during workouts, but she found it quite easy and loves it. Sure it cost a bit more, but they way I feel, the more it costs, the more my mind is telling me “you better use it!”. All in all, the bowflex way surpasses my expectation. Finally, in summary:

Things I dont like about the Bowflex.

1) Pretty heavy, not easy to move

2) Wont fit though standard doors

3) A little more expensive than a standard home gym.

4) Some vague assembly steps in the instruction manual.

5) Wish it came with a CD instruction/workout manual.

Things I like.

1) Great Quality

2) Easy to assemble

3) Great feel, great workout

4) Can fold up out of the way

5) The built in rowing exercises.

6) Flex bars are fast and easy to use.

7) Takes the place of MANY standard pieces of gym equipment

Indepth Bowflex diet guide they supply.

9) Heavy duty, strong enough for even the largest people.

10)Comes with Lat pull down and Squat bars

11) Comes with leg extension for leg workouts

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