BowflexHome Gym Workout Systems

This is a convenient workout option for the home gym. It is a good quality item for the price. We were able to assemble in about 3 1/2 hours. You get about 105 pounds of resistance per side. This is a rod resistance training system that will allow you to complete repetitive movements to build strength in a small area. It is foldable when not in use. Good value for the money.

The Bowflex Xceed is a wonderful workout machine thus far. I am reasonable And got this as a public gym replacement. 2020 had those closed a few months and this was less than the monthly membership.Build: First let me say a friend is essential to put this monster together in a reasonable amount of time. The issue is there are tight tolerances so loose fitting all the screws then tightening them at counter points is a must. Also the parts are labeled in tiny print at each bolt is named by size, thread depth and not an easy alphabetical system. Seriously you will be squinting and thinking you are crazy. It will work out. The item is sturdy and fits me at 6'3". It will eventually rust as it is steel which is normal for home gym equipment (only perfectionists will care but they will). It is well made and built like good home gym equipment. Buy Rogue if you want nicer and hate your wallet. Nothing out of the norm. The bench can also be improved with more resistance rods. Ohhhh yea the box it came in was a total mess on delivery and I was shocked the machine inside was unscathed. I was shocked it lacked blemishes given how tenuous the box's existence was. Moving this box was the first workout this machine provided then assembly was the second.Workouts: It does what cable pull machines, free weights and barbells can do. Basically replacing a bench press station, leg presses and putdown machines. It giving about 3 feet of travel on the wire. So you can do most actions excluding dead lifts. Again think bench press station. This is good for what it is. The Xceed allows most of what the higher end machines bow-flexes provide. However you will be using caravanserai to change from task to task. This is easy enough but quicker carbeaners can really speed things up. I also like to leave spare or additional grips on at the same time to speed up transitions. The X2SE does not require wire manipulation and thus is nicer but sorks humbrid vs shwift teen humbrid on the official bow-flex web page is a lot. Resellers are making a killing in 2020. Some reviews are fixated on comparing this to gravity workouts, they are not the exact same. Gravity can offer more resistance but is much more expensive and space consuming. Most people will never get to the point of outgrowing this machine. Those that have outgrown this machine flood the reviews with dumb but honest stuff. But this is a nice machine if you know it is easier than gravity. But a nice gravity bench and lat pull down, leg machine is some coin. Buying the wight plates puts you up at the X2SE price and not the Eceed. Basically if the price is good you get so much more for your money. People who bring up the discrepancy over resistance are not wrong, it is true. But they miss the point, this machine is inexpensive for what it provides the resistance is astonishing. two 50 lb barbells are currently half the price of the machine. Also the resistance rises the cooler the nylon rods are. Like a memory foam mattress.Who should get this: Reasonable goals and working people with limited space/time/budget. My big advice on getting a bow flex is they are a great start point for working out. It is self contained, looks nice and holds up well. Also you can start with super low resistance and work up. Also the way it sits makes watching TV and working out easy. The gentle resistance is good for rehabbing injuries and allows you to move up in resistance as well as keep both sides of your body honest and balanced. The machine is also good if you are older as you can set it to what you need. The machine will get you pretty big if that is a goal. But reasonably so. 400+lbs resistance is more than most will ever get to. If you are a lifter/bodybuilder you will need a gym. As a former swimmer and martial artist, it will make you look good by those standards. Line backer..... probably not. Cross-fit.....Buy a box and an old truck tire then play on the local jungle gym.Close: Again, for the real price this machine is hard to beat for a workout from beginner to advanced workouts. Expert and professional level is something else but this can get you to needing that next level. Which, again for the price is amazing.

I used a Bowflex Ultimate Xtreme (circa 2000) and I loved that machine. I put it together at the time and I can say the Blaze was much easier to assemble. They've improved in that sense.And I do like the Blaze, but there are some ways it differs from the Ultimate (at least the model back then) that I was disappointed in.First, there is only one incline position on the Blaze, while the Ultimate had holes up and down the seat rail so you could pick the position that best fit your height and arm length, particularly for reaching back to grab the handles, but also just for the general position of incline exercises. Luckily this was a fairly painless fix, as I just drilled two additional holes in the seat rail for the positions that suited me. (The position it comes with leaves me too far away from the mast to reach back and grab the handles with any ease.) WARNING: For anyone who might want to do this, assume it will void your warranty.I also wish it had a leg press, which I used regularly on the Ultimate. But it does have rows which is nice, and it has the lat bar, and really most of the other exercises the Ultimate had.Another subjective con is also one of its pros - which is that it can be folded up. The fact it can be folded up is nice, and also makes it easier to move if you need to wiggle it into a better position in the space it's in (I also tie a belt around the mast /seat rail if I am going to move it just for extra insurance). But this feature comes with a big fat knob that screws down through the brace at the foot of the mast, into the seat rail, when the machine is in its usual configuration. What this means is that the flat seat position does not allow the head of the seat to be at the usual spot at the foot of the mast... you are laying further down the seat rail, again making it difficult to reach back and grab the rear handles, should you want to use those. So this was the second drill hole I made, to allow the head of the seat to lay at the foot of the mast. And I either remove the knob (temporarily) or put a piece of foam over it when I use that position.And while the Ultimate had pulleys in the same approximate position as the Blaze (by your feet while sitting), for some reason I find it awkward stepping around the Blaze while using it, because of the position of those pullies which seem to be exactly in the way of where I want to step when maneuvering around the machine, sitting back down on it after racking up, etc. An awkwardness I didn't have on the Ultimate.To be fair, the Blaze was thousands cheaper than the Ultimate though they have all dropped dramatically in price since those early days.A final small thing is that the exercise placard attaches to the mast in the space where the head of the seat rests with my newly drilled positions, so the placard can't go on the machine. Which doesn't matter except that while the Ultimate came with a video or CD (forget which) to show you how to workout and various exercises, the Blaze only has the placard, and I can't remember the exercises I used to do. So I set up a TV in my gym room and watch YT videos that Bowflex users have put together to take you through workouts... something I will do until I build a new routine of my own. And the placard is sitting nearby, though it's not much use anyway.It would have been nice if Bowflex made workouts available for each of their machines on their site as a download. Could have placed that on a memory stick to put in a TV and watch. Cheaper than supplying CDs with every machine, and probably cheaper than making the placards.Overall though, I'm happy to have a Bowflex again and I like working out on these to get toned and generally fit, and stay there... and the Blaze does do most of the exercises. But I wasn't as happy as I expected to be, having had that past experience with a different model, and having to modify this still-expensive machine to suit my needs.