Bowflex

Originally Posted by aok

I don't know if I'd recommend the bowflex, but in its defence:

- it will work a lot more stabilizer muscles than with universals, which only have one fixed motion per exercise. When I first started working out, I used universals, then I moved to freeweights and had to drop down in lifting weight so that my stabilizers could catch up. The same thing when I moved onto using the bowflex.
- you can do ballistic/plyometric movements without fear of injury and do it all without a spotter.
- the bowflex rods start out preflexed so you have resistance all the way through, and in fact it gets harder the more the rods get bent.

Couple of points I have to make:

Bowflex is not very good for working out the stabilizer muscles. Yes you shake like crazy when pressing, but there is no inertial resistance to the handles, so your stabilizer muscles are not doing any work. If you have dumbells, it takes an appreciable force to accelerate and decelerate the mass if it goes slightly out of position. The bowflex is good for developing control, though, so for gymnists it could be beneficial.

I don't like it for strength training for a couple of reasons. First, the lack of inertial stability often makes it hard to use a high weight. I use dumbells a lot more than I use a bar, so I have better stability than most people, but even then I couldn't feel anything in my chest doing presses, and I was wobbling a lot.
The second problem is that it is spring based. By it's very nature, the force increases throughout the range of motion, as you mentioned. Subjectively, I'd say it's a factor of 2 at least. I don't know about you, but even 15% more weight for me is enough to cross from an easy 10 reps to 5 tough reps. So this feature is a very bad thing. I'd only be pushing the limit of my strength for a small part of the motion, and the rest will be easy. DeeCee is absolutely right.

Finally, the cost is way too high. These plastic "power rods" cost much less than steel does, so it should be less than other home gyms. Add to this the fact that a recall was issued, and you know that all the money is going to marketing.


This is not to say it's useless. I totally agree with you regarding ballistic motion. This will be very useful for sports. For circuit training and a full body cardio workout the bowflex should be good as well. However, don't buy it for strength training. I was expecting a lot more when I tried one out.

I used to use dumbbells exclusively after moving from the straight-bar. I agree that it takes more to get it back into position if you are misaligned (relative to direction of gravity I guess) and I always purposefully made myself do this while lifting to get a better workout (I had read an article discussing the benefits of intentionally inducing controlled wobble).

But if I used to uncontrollably wobble A LOT when I first started using the bowflex, and after a week or two I stopped, wouldn't that mean my stabilizer muscles that used to not be worked had now caught up? This was the same when I first started lifting with the straight-bar, as I bench-pressed, I would shake. Same for all my friends. After a few sessions (I can't remember how many because it was years ago) I started being able to lift smoothly. There is the shaking that happens when someone first starts working out because their muscles don't know how to contract in coordination, but I had already been lifting for many years prior. So I attributed my shaking to lack of stabilizer development that I didn't get even with my dumbbell routine. I also had to drop down about 20 pounds off my bench press (if the bowflex rods are rated accurately). I swear I felt muscle aches all around my normal chest muscles until the wobble was also gone. I'd say that was working something I had not before and that's why I concluded I'm getting a more "complete" workout.

You make a great point about the non-uniform resistance throughout the range of motion. Right now, I've maxed out the default resistance of 210-lbs for incline and flat bench press exercises. So I guess I am stronger at the peak of my extension. I don't think I mind because I can't think of a practical reason that would be bad with this. If I wasn't already maxed out, I suppose I could break my sets in half and use two different resistances for lower part and higher part of the extension. It would be informative to see real data on the amount of resistance relative to the amount of bend in the rods.

Still, cost is super high. But it still works out cheaper for me than joining a gym after about 3 years.