Bowflex

[t-tocs]

I'm thinking about buying a Bowflex. It is rather expensive (cheapest model is $600) and was wondering if it is worth the $$$.

[minbo]

The bowflex is nice that it folds up, since it uses the elastic bands, it doesn't weigh as much as a regular weight set and that you can do all sorts of exercises easily.

Many people find that even though it folds up and rolls away, that feature is not often used. If you use it every day, unless you have a very convenient place to put it away from where you use it, you tend to leave it out. If you use it infrequently, once it is put away, it is out of sight out of mind and you tend to use it far less frequently than you first imagined when you bought the bowflex.

As for the hundreds of different exercises, when it comes down to it, you really only need to do a dozen or two, all of which can be done without machines if you aren't going crazy with how much weight/resistance you need.

Personally, if my fitness goal was to have have a good build, but nothing crazy and I was not a competitive athlete, I'd rather get a nice dumbbell set and a good bench. Cheaper and not that much more space (depending on what bench you get and how well that tucks away) than the bowflex.

[Logain]

I have one and would honestly recommend going to a gym or getting a home gym that deals with free weights. The bowflex is nice but not worth the price. I kind of regret buying mine and think a freeweight system or gym membership would have been a better investment. But at the same time I hate going to the gym and having my bowflex SE 2 ft from my bed has basically given me very few excuses to not use it.

[doppelganger]

a gym membership or a home gym of free weights is always going to be better. depends on your space situation of course. I bought 300 lbs of free weights with a squat and bench rack, adjustable bench, and high/low pulley station for $300 from Sportmart. but I had a downstairs room for all that.

if you're really cramped for space, then high quality resistance bands would provide a form of resistance similar to bowflex at a much cheaper price.