Sunday - Bowflex and still resting.

Still resting, I probably won't get in another workout until Tuesday. You need a rest every once in a while. Although I don't think I'd call the last few days a rest. My little girl is a bundle of energy.

Ok, a couple people have asked me about the Bowflex. My wife got me a Ultimate 2 Bowflex with all of the extras for Christmas. The reason for that instead of a squat rack and a set of weights is two fold. First, I belong to Gold's gym and it's right next to work. Second, the only place I have for equipment at home is on the second floor of a 110 year old house. I don't want to test how well the place is built. The wife also wanted something to work out on. A couple of the guys I throw with gave it a pretty good review and I do like it, but I don't think you could drop the gym for one. It's nice to have something to workout on whenever you feel like it, and you can get a good workout. It is a different kind of workout however.

Pluses:

• Built like a tank (The Ultimate line is actually built like a piece of commercial gym equipment)
• Fast to move between exercises
• Smooth as silk
• Very adjustable

Minuses:

• The power bars are temp sensitive. As they warm up the resistance seems to go down.
• The weight settings are a little optimistic. Some things seem a lot easier, bench, squats, etc.. some harder preacher curl, leg extensions, etc... I did a lowtech test. I hung a 50lb dumbell off of the lat tower and hooked up 50 pounds worth of rods. It didn't bottom them out but it did take them almost all the way flexed. So to me it would seem you don't see the full rated weight until almost lockout. This isn't altogether bad, just different.
• It's no IRON!

I would recommend one to a friend, I think it's a good machine to have even if just to shake up your lifts. Being a cable based machine it really works all of your stabilizer muscles. If you focus on technique you can really get a lot out of it. It also nullifies the inertia effect you get with free weights. In some ways it will compliment your iron workouts. The progressive resistance is something you can't get with a straight cable stack. I'll give you an example:

1. Standing dumbell curl - weight is only at full resistance at 90 degrees. It's lighter at both the top and bottom positions. Lightest at full contraction where you are at your strongest.
   
2. Standing cable curl with weight stack - Constant resistance through whole range. You can only curl the amount you can get moving at your starting position.
   
3. Standing cable curl with Bowflex - It's lightest at start and gets progressively heavier as your muscle contracts. You can start with weights you normally couldn't get moving and really blast your arms at full contraction.

So if you combine a dumbell workout with a bowflex workout, your arms really get a full workout. Now there are some advanced dumbell techniques like 21's or assisted curls, but the Bowflex fits in as a nice supplement.

I would not snub the Bowflex as a training tool, anything different will make you grow. Your muscles need to be shocked. This thing will shock them if you have never used one, and it will make you stronger. Food for thought, I have watched some guys get quite big with only body weight exercises. I have belonged to a gym most of my adult life and when I get in a routine I do gain size and strength. This most recent routine has added more size and strength than anything else I have ever done. The scale and the pics don't lie. The only thing I have really changed was adding in a few long intense Bowflex workouts a week. I would like to think my muscles were in the "wtf?" mode, and that's what did it. I don't know. That's why I started this blog, so everyone can watch and give me their opinion.

I'm 40 years old now and have parts failing. I have a bad joint in my foot, a bum knee, arthritis, etc... all that crap that comes with age. The fact that I can gain muscle this quickly at this age is a blessing in itself. So if I can blame that on the Bowflex, it was worth whatever the wife paid for it. Short of it is, it is no free weights but I don't regret having it.

Hope that rambling helps anybody thinking about getting one. One last note, look at the Ultimate model if you can. I saw one of the other models at a equipment retailer (The Extreme 2) and although it also looked very well made it was not the same beast. Like I said earlier, the Ultimate is built like a piece of commercial gym equipment. Very heavy duty. I use the preacher curl attachment and the bench for my dumbell workouts.