Bowflex- First Impressions and Initial Review

In case you are one of the 2 or three people who read this site who isn't a close friend or family member, I should say first off I've become quite a fitness freak in the past 2 years. (You can find further details on My Transformation page) I've trained the past 2 years doing something everyday to improve my health and conditioning. I've worked out in fully equipped gyms, crap ass gyms, at my home and even in a back yard shed for a while. So at this point I pretty much know what I like and what I don't for equipment, exercises etc.

When the friend of a friend (no details to protect the guilty and innocent) was looking to get rid of a Bowflex the entire family pointed her towards me and my wife... The family health nuts. I won't say what we got it for... but really next to nothing at all.

So here's where the review starts--

First, it's a Bowflex Power Pro with Lat Tower, Leg Attachment and upgraded to 310 pounds of resistance. They don't really look that big on TV, but let me tell you, 7' tall, roughly 8' long with the leg attachment installed and needing about 3' clearance on either side it's fuckin HUGE! Much, much, MUCH bigger than I ever thought they would be! (but it's no 18' robot!) So with our treadmill, my old bench and Dumbbells down in the basement the room is now filled, will never be a family room and has now "officially" become our "gym". (Without the lat tower and leg thingy I can see folding it after each workout and it would talk up very little space and it would be OK for an apartment etc)

I've done 3 real workouts on it and messed around with it for about a week before that, so here's some first impressions-

Very easy to change weights and exercises. I mean just stupidly simple. Resting 1 minute between sets is more than enough time to change between ANY 2 exercises. This is great because I can get back to a strict 1 minute rest between my sets, whereas with DB's it took a lot more time to change between the weights and move my bench to incline etc.

The weight you set it to IS NOT REAL WEIGHT. I usually do 90 lbs dumbbells in each arm for my DB chest press (it's not great, but it's not that bad either) on my first day trying the Bowflex, not even warmed up I was able to move 130 lbs per arm... big difference! (There's no way I could do 130lbs DB in each arm for 6 reps)

Chest exercises- Chest press is kind of different in that the cables are pulling your arms every which way. I think it will take some time to stabilize this. I'm used to some stabilizing having used DB's for so long, but for someone used to a straight bar I think this would be a very difficult change. Incline, decline etc are all just a matter of where you push your arms, kind of hard to get that in your head when you are exerting all your energy. Flies are fucking awesome. I've had DOMS for about 3 days after my first Bowflex chest workout!

Back exercises- Lat tower is pretty useless for me. I'm used to strapping 25-30lbs around my waist and doing pull ups and chin ups, the Bowflex doesn't even come close to this with the Lat Tower. There are some neat isolation exercises though, I think it's called the "Lying Lat Pull down" you do lying on the bench, not using the tower. Works good, really targets the lats. And the reverse flies, and lying lat flies are pretty cool.

Shoulder exercises- Really good. Front raises, lying front raises, side raises and the great rear delt exercises. Some really good stuff in here for that.

Arm exercises- Triceps push downs is the only exercises I've found the Lat tower good for, and it's pretty good at them, but they can be done in about 5 different ways without the tower. For biceps all the exercises are pretty good but don't really seem to be hitting the muscle with maximum effort till about 1/2 way. Definitely feel part of the muscle is not getting worked here.

Leg exercises- OK, without the leg attachment I'd have to say doing legs on the Bowflex is a joke, but the leg attachment really does help. Without the attachment I maxed everything out first set, first try, the leg attachment does help but it's not squats.

All in all............ hard to say at this point. I'm thinking the best route is going to be free weights mixed with it, or maybe alternating workouts (free weights one week then Bowflex the next)... For the beginner or even for someone like my wife who is very fit, but just hates free weights I think it's probably a pretty good machine.... Give me a few more weeks and I'll tell you how it's going....

And yes, this is the model that has been recalled... They are supposed to be sending me a kit to fix any problems.... We'll see how long that takes.

Gratuitous hot chick