BOWFLEX, Anyone ever try it??

[Uthinkso]

I saw in info-mercial (I know don't say it) on this thing, and it looks like a great workout device. Not so much for the reasons or results that people showed on the program, but more for the convenience.

I work 50-60 hrs a week, and also do freelance photography on the side so my time is very valuable to me. to have one machien in my house that I could work out with and then leave would be great.

I am just slightly skeptical about the machines abilities, and weather or not it allows a full range of motion.

Anybody have any experience with this?? TIA

 

[diego230]

There are positives and negitives to using the bow flex. I have used the bow flex a few times when I was strugling on my synergistic muscles (ie the small muscles that help you lift heavy weight when you do compouned lifts like bench and squats). In that sence the bow flex helps since it causes all your synergistic muscles to work harder stabalize your movements. My bench did see an increase.
Now here is where bow flex isnt convenient. While I used bow flex I was only using it as an addition to my normal workouts. I was still doing all my free weight workout. The mucles need stress on them to grow so heavy weighted barbell and dumbell workouts are still needed.
Also the Bow flex strengthens your shoulders while you bench, I still needed to do behind the neck press and front raises to help my delts get strong enough for the weight I wanted to press.
All and all bow flex isnt a bad design it has its plusses, but nothing will beat your membership to your local gym.

 

[diego230]

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[easyb]

I have been using mine for about 7 months and have noticed great improvements. 1 its very user friendly meaning there isn't a bunch of wieght and plate shifting after a set. you do your set move a rod and your done getting rest. It is very easy to reach fatigue w/o dropping wieghts on your noggin eliminating the need for spotters. plus if you get the xlt model you have such a variety of movements for diff muscle groups. I feel the resistance is very good you can't relax or the rods will tear your arms out. I agree with diego in the fact that the bench seems to work shoulders also but if you get the squat rack assembly you can do flat bench. I still to add dumbbell and bar freewieghts into my routines but there is lifts on a bowflex that is very effective that you cannot duplicate with freewieghts. one downfall i noticed is that the wieght of the rods are exaggerated. i.e. if you do 300 lbs of resistance on the flat bench you might only be able to do 260lbs on freewieghts. Just one last thing and i will be quiet. I had 2 guys try mine both lifters. 1 bought one the next week cause he loved it. the other thought it was a piece of junk. so bottom line you need to try one to see if it is right for you.

 

[P-funk]

what happens when you adapt to that training stimulus (principle of speceficity)??? I guess what happens is you just wasted a shit ton of money??

 

[easyb]

no more money than if you go buy a bunch of free wights but can only do lighter reps because of the fear of laying with 310 lbs on you chest. the big thing is to constantly altar your w/o's. I don't just use a bowflex for everything sometimes I don't even use it. It may not be right or wrong but it has been working for myself.

 

[Uthinkso]

good input guys, keep it coming.

 

[gr81]

the bowflex is a complete waste of money, only effective possibly for a short amount of time on someone who has never done a real cycle of weight training. go to a gym, much more productive and valuable of an investment.

 

[NickB]

I'd like to get a bowflex, if only for the bench. I do not have access to a spotter and going heavy alone scares the crap out of me.

 

[derekisdman]

Originally posted by easyb
no more money than if you go buy a bunch of free wights but can only do lighter reps because of the fear of laying with 310 lbs on you chest. the big thing is to constantly altar your w/o's. I don't just use a bowflex for everything sometimes I don't even use it. It may not be right or wrong but it has been working for myself.

My arse...The VERY cheapest you can get the bowflex is like $700 PLUS shipping and that is the crappiest/cheapest model which no one seems to get. Most spend atleast a $1000.

I've got my own home gym w/ various free weights. I bought a 300 lb. weight set which comes with a 7 ft. bar for $99, then I bought a few more weights which probably totalled around $100. I bought a squat rack for only $130. Get a bench for around $200. I got a pair of dumbell handles for $50 and another small barbell for $30. That totals around $600. Yeah, it's not the best quality equiptment but that right there is all you need. By the time someone buys a bowflex I can almost promise you they'll be fooled into spending around $1500.

 

[vanity]

Never buy exercise equipment off the TV.
Go to a place that specializes in home gyms and try out the different benches and machines.

You can make great gains with simply a good bench, some dumbells a barbell and some plates. Many of the newer benches come with spotters.

Try before you buy.

 

[diego230]

One more piece of advice. Since your comming back from being out for 3 years its best to ease back into your workouts. Starting out with higher reps, working on form and getting confidence back in yourself before you start heavy weight. After at least 3 to 6 months of keeping your reps no lower than 8 you can start to pyrimid up your sets doing heavier weight as you go. I also find that negitives are a great way to gain strengh because they strenghen both your muscles and also your tendons. I encorporate negitives into my workout at least twice a month.
The way I find works best it to do a set of negitves right after your last work set then to do a set of strictly negitves after that. Make sure you have a spoter and do not do negitives untill you have been in the gym consistently for at least 6 months. And you will see better results than anything you do on a bow flex.

 

[Uthinkso]

Thanks diego that is good advice.

I am only in the gym about 3 days a week now, still feel kind of awkward being back in the gym. I want to lose weight and tone up mostly so I have been doing cardio mostly with just a sprinkle of weights.

Would working cardio into a weight training program aid in losing the weight faster? I presently weigh 236 and want to hit 200 by the new year. I think this is an attainabe goal but i've got to get a plan and get to work.

 

[diego230]

Arobic excersize will definitly help your weight loss. But there are trade offs. While you will lose body fat quicly running and lifting you will not gain as much muscle as fast because running will lengthin your muscle fibers and give you longer looking muscles. THey will be as strong but they will not look as big. However, a way to prevent this is to keep to sprinting excersizes like 200s 300s and 400s on the track(sprinting in a field works fine too if you do not have a track.
What I like to do when I cut for competition is start with 4 400's with about a 2 minute rest in between each, this will allow you to keep your speed at a maximum, don't hold anything back.
Then I like to do 6 200's with 1 mintue rests then 8 100's with my rest being a jogg back to the 100 mark line.
I mix this in with lifting. A good workout for begining would be to get in your core lift for each muscle group for 3 sets of 10, try to challenge yourself on these. Then do at least two other lifts per muscle group. for example chest would go like this:
Barbell bench press 3*10
dumbell incline presses 3*12
fly's 3 or 4* 12-15

variations are also good to include like supsituting incline dumbell press first then flat dumbell press second because you always want to keep your body guessing.

since you said your in 3 times a week the run down would be best to do

Chest, tri's and traps on monday
Back, bi's and delts on wednsday
hamstings and quads and calfs on friday

if you have any more questions let me know

 

[killer4life]

all i have to say the bowflex worked for me before i gained muscle and cut up with the same machine u just have to go heavy just like free weights