Let's clear up some of the confusion.
Written: Aug 03 '07 (Updated Aug 03 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small footprint, safety, number of exercises, easy to change between exercises, looks great.
Cons: Expensive, some exercises have an unacceptably strange feel to them.
The Bottom Line: Great machine that performs a huge amount of exercises, is totally safe, looks great and most importantly delivers results.
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| adman75's Full Review: Soloflex |
I hate writing reviews but I felt compelled to write one on the Soloflex because there is so little accurate information available anywhere on the internet for those looking to do some research on this particular machine.
Myself, I have trained on and off for years with free weights, machines and power calisthenics so I believe I can give a somewhat balanced comparison as opposed to someone who has only used one or the other.
I purchased my Soloflex around a year ago. I have a gym at work but because it is free for staff to use, it is abused and the equipment is badly mistreated. I got so sick of going in there planning to do a certain type of workout only to find that the particular dumbbell size I needed had been stolen or the machine I wanted to use had been broken by some moron that I decided to purchase my own home gym.
I began researching to decide what machine would best suit my needs. I needed a machine that would allow me to train to failure on heavy compound barbell exercises like squats and bench presses in complete safety, that would not take up too much space, that allowed for both weight training movements and bodyweight exercises, that was well built and sturdy and I also thought that perhaps, since I live in a townhouse and the machine would be kept in an upstairs bedroom, a machine that used a different type of resistance as opposed to iron plates or weight stacks would be a somewhat safer proposition. (I had visions of deadlifting 450 lbs only to drop the barbell through the bedroom floor and into the room below!) My wife also wanted to use the machine which again made me lean towards alternate means of resistance since she is small and would have trouble hoisting 45lb iron plates on and off machinery.
I eventually settled on the Soloflex after weighing up all the alternatives and let me tell you, I am very happy with my purchase and I believe I definitely made the right decision.
I will be completely honest before I discuss the good points- the Soloflex doesn't do everything well and it is very expensive. Exercises like barbell curls are awkward and don't feel right no matter how many times you do the movement. Some of the pressing down or pulling down movements also don't feel ideal. Exercises like tricep press downs or lat pull downs don't work as well as "pressing" type exercises but some of those exercises can be worked around by substituting other ones in their place. As an example I do chin ups instead of lat pull downs and overhead tricep presses as opposed to press downs and these exercises work very well. The negative or eccentric portion of the movement on the Soloflex using weight straps isn't quite as "hard" as with free weights although it is there and is superior to most other home gym equipment including some machines that have no negative at all.
As far as the good points, well there are many; You can train as hard as you like without a spotter and push to total failure in complete safety even on the "big" exercises like squats. I regularly squat with very heavy weight to total failure- something I would be quite afraid to do with free weights without very competent and very strong spotters. The machine is very well built and I can never see it packing up, the floating barbell arm works great and I love the unlimited hand spacing as opposed to a bicycle type grip on the bar. The amount of exercises you can perform on the Soloflex is quite staggering and most of them work very well indeed. The machine takes up very little space considering the amount of equipment it replaces, it looks great and last but definitely not least- IT GIVES RESULTS.
I have definitely made gains both in strength and muscularity since I began training seriously on the Sololfex. At the end of the day, and what some people just don't seem capable of understanding, is that when your muscles are made to work to failure against heavy resistance and are then given adequate time to recover and compensate, they will grow. They don't know or care whether that resistance comes from a barbell, a dumbbell, a weight stack and pulley system or a Soloflex weight strap. They are just being forced to adapt to a degree of stress that is being imposed upon them.
This is a great machine and it will deliver results provided it is used correctly- the same could be said for conventional free weight training- If you do it wrong you won't get the results you are after. I recommend the machine with no reservations.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
adman75
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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