Bowflex Questions

I know most of you guys use free weights and probably not bowflex, but maybe someone can help me out with this.

I am looking at possibly buying a bowflex system for my room, instead of free weights or a gym membership.I am primarily trying to add lean muscle mass and gain strength.

Here are the pros and cons I came up with, maybe I’m missing something, but bowflex seems to come out on top. I have a budget of about $2000 for my weight training. With that I could buy the top of the line bowflex or buy some free weights and equipment or just pay a monthly fee for a gym membership and maybe get a personal trainer.

Pros:

  1. You can switch your exersises much faster than with free weights

  2. All in one place, you can do back, leg, chest ,arm, etc all in one place. (with free weights, I had to go to the gym for the leg press, lat tower, etc.)

  3. I could do it in my room with AC and radio. (free weights would be out in the garage)

  4. Seems alot easier to just be able to jump in there and start lifting, instead of having someone teach you proper form for all the exercises. I will be able to spend less time learning and more time lifting.

  5. No spotter required so I can push myself alot harder.

  6. No waiting in line for equipment at the gym

Cons:

  1. Price $2000 (I don’t know how much free weight equipment you could buy for that much money?)

  2. Only isolated movements, meaning that it will be harder to gain mass than if you were doing compound movements (I heard this somewhere on here)

What are your thoughts on comparing bowflex, free weights, or a gym membership?

Thanks for the help

http://www.T-Nation.com/searchSite.jsp

the base model bowflex was 1200 at Sam club the other day… I have a gym membership, but I have a crossbar at home.

i also thought that a cable type machine would be great. so i went to sears and bought one. hahahaha, boy was i confuzed it took all of 3 days before i called them people and told them to come pick the piece oh junk up. took my $500$ added adout 300$ to it and bought some free weights and (dont laugh it also was a bad choice) a smith machine. i then got together another 400$ and got some dumbbells, a lat machine, and a pull up tower with dip station. boy do i wish i would have bought a rack instead. the smith machine is a little restrictive(sp?) so as you can see for less than 1200$ i got almost everything i’ll need. dont waste youre money on a bowflex.
check out www.fitnessfactory.com they have lots of equipment at decent prices.

[quote]pushharder wrote:
With what I suggested above, it’s all in one place and WTF do you REALLY need a leg press and lat tower for anyway?
[/quote]

Yeah… Just Squat and DL.

Worked out on a friends bowflex,for me the motions weren’t smooth at all.Real jerky. a boxflex is better than nothing but do yourself a favor and get to the gym!

Don’t waste your money on a bowflex. If you’re really serious about a home gym spend money on a nice squat rack, some weights, and an adjutable bench.

Bowflex is crap.

does chuck norris advertise for bowflex? because i only use home gym equipment thats endorsed by chuck norris.