 "My first bowflex and loving it!" | 2008-10-07 |
| - Reviewed By mykangaroo |
| After years of advertisement and "I cannot afford that!", now I have one of my own and I love it.br /br /First of all, praise to Amazon.com for properly shipping it by sending it to a Freight company rather than ... the regulars. It came in one piece and everything was in proper order, no dent.br /br /Second, it took me about 2 hours to built this machine.br /br /Last, I really love this machine, I tried it a little and I have to say it allows me to work lots more muscles than I have before, compared to my Weider's Total Bodyworks 5000.br /br /Not much else to say but to get back to evolve myself into a leaner person. |
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| "Exactly What I Needed and a GREAT Price" | 2008-10-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A19SDJ2TSSL8HI |
| After using the Total Gym for years, Bowflex is a refreshing change. I don't regret buying the Total Gym but it's so nice not to have to work out on an incline ALL THE TIME and I paid LESS for the bowflex than I did for the total gym some 6 or 7 years ago. br /I'm a 44 yo female and this machine is exactly what I wanted. It was easy to put together, I can do lots and lots of different exercises and I found it was relatively easy to go from one to the next. I'm not looking to build great gobs of muscle mass. I just want to tone and keep the muscles I already had from working out before and as you may know, women especially begin to lose their muscle mass (which burns calories) as they age so this has been wonderful for me. The machine seems sturdy and well built so I think it'll last a long time. Best of all Amazon offered it for a great price and free shipping.br /br /The downsides are: This model does not come with a DVD which would have been so much better than the "poster" of exercises you get which are explained more in depth in the book that comes with the machine. To my knowledge, no DVD exists using this particular Bowflex but one of the other DVD's for a different bowflex might work??? Another thing is I guess I'm sort of "spatially challenged" because though I DID read the dimensions of the machine it sure seems to take up more space than I thought it would. One last thing is it borderline doesn't work my legs as much as maybe I would like but you can compensate a bit for that by doing more reps and "holding" them for slightly longer. If I have to, I'll drill holes in the tabs and will upgrade that way but so far, it's okay.br /br /All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase. It was a great deal and I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of it for at least a couple of years and then more than likely I'll buy another bowflex however if you're someone to whom space is at a premium in your house then you might want to look into one of the other, more expensive, more space saving designs that bowflex offers. |
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 "Ok, but disppointed in the upgrade options" | 2008-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: AAJ966FVXR5OC |
This is a nice unit, full of exercises that really do help. I've owned it a few weeks and worked out on it religiously and I can really start to see great changes in my body.
The bad news: The 210 pounds of weight resistance it provides was quickly outgrown, and I didn't know this was the ONLY model Bowflex makes that is NOT upgradable. Oh, I bought two sets of extension rods, only to find out you can't put them anyone without making "modifications" to the machine. I added on two of the rods bringing it to 310 pounds total (which is good because my bench press is already 270 - a month ago I couldn't bench press my keyboard), but I see I will outgrow this system in less than a year.
For light workouts this is probably a great system, but if you're interested in continuing to build muscle mass and strength as far as you can, this is one to steer clear from, simply because you can't upgrade it easily (and not at all, unless you're probably voiding the warranty).
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| "Easy to assemble and use" | 2008-08-09 |
| - Reviewed By wernecke9 |
| My Bowflex was delivered right on time. It was easy to assemble and is easy to use. |
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| "outstanding!!" | 2008-07-29 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1RGQXBC3KB48W |
| The best home workout gym of it's kind. I have owned a bowflex since 1999. I have been without a doubt convinced that with proper diet and exercise with bowflex you can form and shape the body you always wanted. I am a Marine of 16 years, and I have been convincing Marines since then in bowflex. Keep up the good work. |
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 "Great product!" | 2008-07-27 |
| - Reviewed By mikerrt |
| The Bowflex showed up days before the free super saver shipping said it would and was pretty ease to assemble. I did it alone and it took less than 2 hours. |
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 "expensive butterfly machine?" | 2008-07-27 |
| - Reviewed By rrruuunnn |
i noticed that most of the exercises can be done using a dumbbell and chin up bar. only, the bench press and butterfly machine are particular to this machine. the 210 lbs. bench press feels like 120 lbs. i can even do lunges with my dumbbell to simulate the leg extension. basically, this machine is an expensive butterfly machine. because i'm not getting any more bench resistance than doing push ups on the floor.
maybe, this is a trick way for bowflex fans to buy the machine twice to increase resistance. other than that i like the machine. if i could use my free weights i would. but my mother has used the bar bell for a clothe hanger. also the resistance feels progressive, not sure if that's a good thing.
i'm considering using the hack saw to cut of the metal piece preventing the rod upgrades from going in. i don't want to go through the process of selling or returning my machine. i bought the lesser priced one because i thought it would save footprint area. now, i'm kicking myself. but it is a bowflex. maybe, i should just try doing alot of push ups. my air force friend has a built up body from just doing 75 push ups a day. |
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| "Great for women and beginners!" | 2008-07-23 |
| - Reviewed By etacarina |
This bowflex CANNOT be upgraded in weight. 210 pounds is the top weight - period. If you know what you're doing, you can get a pretty good workout with this machine. The included workout is only a beginning. There is much more you can do with this machine.
Men, beware, there may not be enough weight on this for you. Even women will find 210 pounds inadequate for the the leg press (instructions not included...)That is OK for those just wanting to get in shape. You can make up the lack of weight in leg press with leg curls and extensions.
The upper body workout is great. Loads of instructions on how to do that included.
The assembly instructions are very easy to follow. There are a few mistakes. There is one instruction that calls for a 4.5" screw. There is no 4.5" screw available, but there is a 4.25" screw and that fits perfectly. There is another one of those mistakes, but you will be able to figure it out by what is left over to use. Everything in the box fits perfectly in the end. I assembled it all in less than 2 hours, and I was working on the computer and talking on the phone for some of that time, so....
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| "Great product and some irony" | 2008-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By arm8 |
| This home gym is worth its weight in gold. I bought this back in January and since then I have dramatically increased my overall strength. Not to mention my arms and chest have become a lot more defined. I was slightly disappointed with the lack of being able to upgrade, however, in the textbook definition of irony, the only thing thats stopping this unit from being upgradable are 2 flaps of metal that cover the holes for the additional power rods. After using the Bowflex for several months, I became strong enough to actually bend these flaps back, with the helps of some long tools and now it is completely upgradeable. Thanks Bowflex! |
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| "its a great machine but the shipping company sucks" | 2008-07-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: AQMIBBSFEDDXQ |
| The machine itself is great I use it everyday for at least 30 minutes. On the other hand the shipping company CEVA sucks it sat over in Saint Louis for 10 days they tried contacting me once before I found the number on the internet and contacted them. My suggestion is that Amazon needs to be more involved with the company the choose to ship there products. They also need to give customers a number to call just incase the customer doesnt receive there product in a timely manner. I waited 3 days over the specified time for delivery and if I hadnt found the number I could have waited longer. I appreciate the free shipping but still needs to be better executed. Thanks Amazon though for a great product. |
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