Lose the Jerky Free Weights
Written: Oct 30 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of exercises, fun and easy to use
Cons: Assembly stinks, expensive
The Bottom Line: A lot more fun and safe than free weights.
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| daddym's Full Review: Bowflex Power Pro XTL |
Ok, I did it. I buckled to consumer pressure. After watching the Bowflex commercials for years I decided that I needed to start doing something about my body. I have been weight lifting on and off for years, and it was in one of the off times that I decided to purchase this. I needed to work out but the thought of going back to the same old thing just didn’t really sound great to me. So I caved and I spent the money to order Bowflex Pro XLT. And when I say I spent the money I mean I spent a lot of money. This home gym is not cheap. In fact it will run you about $1400. But you can pay that off in installments. And that is with the full amount of attachments.
I must say that I was very impressed the service of the company. I thought I would have to wait a week or maybe longer to receive my new Bowflex, but believe it or not I received it in less than 48 hours. I was impressed to say the least.
Any happiness I had over the quick arrival soon disappeared after I opened the box.. There was so much assembly required I almost taped the box back up and sent it back where it came. But I needed to start doing something about my body, so I started to assemble it. After about an hour I became very frustrated and almost angry. My wife told me I was swearing a little too much and a little to loudly and suggested I take a break. Well I did and then I didn’t get back to finishing putting it together for another week. And probably another 2 hours and lots of swearing later.
There are over 60 different exercises that you can do with the BowFlex, which means that you will never have to purchase another piece of resistance type workout equipment ever again. Even though there are 60 different exercises you may find that you are uncomfortable doing a good many of them but some people have said they have found up to 70 exercises that they can do. I would say that I do about 25 different moves in a week.
BowFlex works differently then traditional weights. It feels a bit like nautilus machine but is actually feels more smooth. Your body actually kind of seems to flow back and forth. There is none of the jerky motion that you have with free weights. You will also find the exercises you are comfortable doing will keep you in the proper alignment. And this is good because this can help you to avoid injury. Another great feature of this is that you can work alone, you don’t need a spotter so you don’t have to worry about going to heavy and not being able to control the weight on the release. The Bowflex gently helps you to return the cables to the proper place. If you don’t have a lot of space you should not get this machine and add all of the attachments. With all of the attachments the machine is over 6 feet tall and approx. 7 feet long. The rods also make the machine wide as well.
The commercials make it sound fairly simple to just fold this up and put it in the closet if you need to, it is actually not as small as it looks on tv and doesn’t fold up that small either. While I can fold it with no problem my wife finds it very difficult to fold up.
This machine would be good from a beginning exerciser to the seasoned body builder. You can start at 10 lbs and work your way up to 410 pounds. Although I knew a couple of guys who bragged that they could work with 500, they were pretty huge but I don’t know. I don’t think the average person will ever get near that 410 pound mark..
You may be wondering what types of exercises you can do on this machine. And normally I would list them all, but I can save you a lot of reading and me a lot of typing just by saying, pretty much any exercise you can think of for every body part can be found on this machine. I kid you not. Of course like I said before there may be some that are not comfortable for you, but you should be able to find enough to keep your muscles busy.
I like my Bowflex, I have seen great results in my upper body. Progress in my lower body has been less satisfactory because some of the leg exercises are uncomfortable. I also don’t see a lot of change in my gut which is what I was most concerned with in the first place. I can button my pants with out sucking it in now though. So I guess there is some slow progress going on in that area.
NOTE Unrelated: I am concerned about the new pay system because I earn almost no income share whatsoever, just about all of my small earnings here have been earned by member reads. If anyone can give me some advice on how to earn more income share I would greatly appreciate your leaving a comment. Thanks
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
daddym
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Member: Robert M
Location: IL
Reviews written: 123
Trusted by: 31 members
About Me:
Husband, Father, Pet Owner, Computer Geek and Motorcycle Enthusiast, poker player.
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