Spend Your $$$ On a Gym – Not a Bowflex
While out on a stroll this weekend, the hubby and I passed a garage sale in progress. One of the items for sale was a Bowflex, natch. With a grin, I mentioned to John that we should buy it…we needed a bigger clothes rack. 😉
As you might have guessed, I’m not real big on the Bowflex… which is why I got a real chuckle out of this LA Times article on the subject:
The people in the Bowflex commercials sure are pretty.
If you have any doubt that these models did not get their muscularly sculpted hairless physiques using a Bowflex and its patented Power Something Technology, then Google “Bowflex casting” and you’ll find talent agencies looking for ultra-lean gym rats with colored contact lenses to hock this soon-to-be coat rack for three easy payments of way too much money.
…Using Bowflex’s patented “Power Rod® Technology” is like trying to lift weights while having an epileptic seizure and simultaneously shooting meth into your eyeballs. Besides having a history of being unsafe and with its parent corporation (Nautilus Inc.) being fined by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, many bodybuilding discussion boards contain complaints about the machine’s limiting and unnatural feeling.
As a guy with 17 years’ experience with free weights, I decided to give the Bowflex a try myself and instantly hated it. So I kept trying for another 15 minutes to see if it grew on me, and the only thing that grew was a desire to douse the machine in napalm and hurl it into an active volcano.
LOL!
But seriously – there is nada you can do with a Bowflex that you can’t do (and do better!) in a well-equipped gym… and there are tons of things you can do in a well-equipped gym that you cannot do with a Bowflex. While not specifically a gimmick, “all-in-one” pieces of equipment like the Bowflex are inherently limiting, not to mention boring as hell. If you’ve got the money to spend on a Bowflex, then you’ve got the money to spend on some real fitness equipment.
September 20, 2010
Spend Your $$$ On a Gym – Not a Bowflex – http://blog.ultimatefatburner.com/2010/0…
September 20, 2010
Spend Your $$$ On a Gym – Not a Bowflex – http://blog.ultimatefatburner.com/2010/0…
September 21, 2010
Kind of odd timing but here is an interesting and sad story with a Bowflex in it. There is a student who died using one:
http://cbs13.com/local/bear.river.student.2.1923109.html
Not only a waste of money but apparently they kill too.
September 23, 2010
That’s unbelievably sad.
Of course, that’s just one more reason to do your strength workouts in a gym. If nothing else, there are always other people around who – in the event of a mishap – can rescue you (and yes, I have helped pull bars off people who thought they could attempt a max bench without a spotter).
September 25, 2010
I have never seen any good uses for a Bowlex. Free weights and body weight exercise have always been better.
That is a sad story about the young man that died.
October 6, 2010
No doubt, use your mon ey on a well equipped gym. There you will be inspired, and you can have people there to advice and help you with your training and diet.
October 6, 2010
No doubt, use your mon ey on a well equipped gym. There you will be inspired, and you can have people there to advice and help you with your training and diet.