Bowflex Great Way To Lose Weight By Tanya Pecora on Mar 01, 2010 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

My husband bought this for me for my birthday about 6 years ago and I love it! I had been asking for a home gym for a while because I wanted to add some weight training to my fitness routine. He did a lot of research on home gyms and decided this would be a good choice for me. He was right. Initial setup wasn't too bad. It took us a few hours, that was with a 2yo "helping" us. It came with an instructional DVD to guide me through each excercise to ensure proper technique. It also came with an instruction manual, with descriptions of each excercise as well as sample programs. Very handy! I followed the bodybuilding routine in the book and lost 9 lbs in a week!

PROS:

easy to use

fairly lightweight, so it's easy to move around

Adjustable, can accomodate adults of all sizes

CONS:

a little cumbersome switching the cables between excercises

VERDICT: A fantastic, easy to use home gym. I love the power rods. They are easy and provide smooth resistance. Adding and removing weight with the rods is a snap. The footprint of this gym is relatively small, although it is quite tall, it almost touches the ceiling in our basement, but our basement ceiling is low. After we bought this gym, bowflex came out with a model that includes a rower, I would love a rower. Switching from one excercise to another is a bit of a pain, so I just make sure to plan my workouts, all upper body, then all lower body so I'm not having to switch the position of the cables all the time.