Great Home Gym

I purchased this home gym two months ago and am very pleased and excited with the decision. I started exercising (cardio and dumbbell) and eating right four months ago. Once I added this home gym the weight started to fall off and the muscles started to build. In four months I have lost 34 lbs and 13% body fat (35% to 22%).



One note; if you have the opportunity to have a professional assemble the gym do so. It gave me a headache just looking at all of the pieces and took two people who have put many together over three hours.More detail ...

Make Sure You Have The Time

Though once this piece of excercise equipment is built it's everything the advertisements from print to infomercial declare. However somewhere I swear I read it takes only 45 minutes to put together and just taking the parts from the 5 large boxes took well over an hour. Further the actual installation took over two days; and I'd like to think my buddy and myself are pretty good at these things. However as I said once put together this is one solid helpful piece of excercise equipment. One more thing be sure you have the space for it once assembled. It really is a large piece of equipment both vertically and horizontally. Good Luck!More detail ...

Well worth the money

I have had a Galena model including the leg press add-on since 2004. It's a very solid well-made gym. I'm 6'3" and have not had any trouble doing any of the exercises. If you're much taller than 6'3" you may find the leg extension less than satisfactory. (It just barely works for me.) All parts move with ease and without noise except for the customary clank the moment the weight stack comes back to rest after an exercise. It came with all the straps and widgets needed to do the full range of exercises. So no other expense other than a book I purchased to help me see other ways to use a weight machine. (The manual and exercise poster that came with my Galena didn't describe all of the various exercises that can be done with it and there's a LOT more that can be done than what they tell you. Perhaps since 2004 they've added a little more documentation?) It fits nicely into a corner of the room and looks like it belongs in a commercial gym. For the money I didn't find anything else close to this quality back in 2004. I'm quite happy with my purchase.More detail ...

Good for tight spaces

Purchased this from amazon in May great smooth resistance throughout great range of motion from the arms. Only tight benches will fit in between for the workouts. Items are high quality and pieces come partially assembled making it easier to put together. More detail ...

You get what you pay for

The good: Machine can do a lot of different exercises. It's priced pretty well.



No big deal: Assembly took me almost 4 hours by myself but all the parts were there and bolts were well organized. After exercising a few times changing the cable hookups become very cumbersome. It makes super-sets impractical unless the exercises use the same cable hookups.



The Bad: After 2 weeks of use I snapped the 40lb resistance bar like a twig.



The Ugly: I would like to get this resistance bar replaced. When I try calling the only 2 phone numbers that I have for Weider (customer service number & sales number) I get a "number not available" message.More detail ...

Better Than Expected

I have owned this bowflex for 2 weeks and I am very very impressed. We have owned a "gravity edge" and have worked on a "Solo Flex" before and after seeing this bowflex we can understand why the machine has stayed popular for so long.



First the assembly wasn't too hard. It took me and my 13-year-old daughter about an hour and a half to put it together. I was relieved when I saw that the machine is very ruggedly built. Note that I said VERY ruggedly built. It would be hard to trash this machine without trying very hard.



Second the machine is very easy to adjust between exercises. Adding or removing weight is a piece of cake which is a relief after so many pinched fingers and long waits on other machines. Changing the bench position is just a tiny bit tougher to master than changing weights. There are occassions when you have to attach different pullies from the lat tower or the leg extension attachment. This takes a couple of times to get used to and then it's no problem either. I can change the machine from the leg extension position to the bench press position in just over 30 seconds.



Third the program is great and very easy to understand. It focuses on using heavy weight and 1 set per exercise and has an easy way for you to figure out which weight you should be using for each exercise. The program was explained well enough in the machine's manual but I bought a book called "The Bowflex Body Plan" when I ordered my machine and I'm glad I did. You don't have to have it but it explains more about the program to help you buy into it. It also has several routines that go beyond the initial six weeks plan... for those of us that are optimistic about wanting to continue past six weeks.



I am a house parent for a girls' home. We have six girls living here with us and all but one jumped right into our "bowflex club" with me. We all have workout logs and are doing our routines three times per week. So far we've been doing it for two weeks and nobody has dropped out. That has surprised me. The workout routine for the first two weeks takes around 15 minutes to complete so nobody has time to get bored.



What's great in all this is that over the last two weeks all 9 of us that are involved with the bowflex have gotten considerably stronger. Muscles are starting to show up on just about everybody which is really keeping everyone excited. I've already had people I know ask me if I'm losing weight most likely because my thighs have really tightened up already. We're all looking forward to how we'll progress. Since next week is our third week we'll be adding new exercises to the routine too.



I'm very glad I bought this machine at Amazon.com. Not only was it $200 cheaper than other places but it got to my house in only 4 days too. The only surprises we've had in this whole experience were good. We're very pleased.More detail ...

BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!

I purchased this item on December 9th. It came in a fair amount of time. That is not my issue. What is my issue is that It came with NONE of the pieces needed to actually put it together (screws bolts nuts.. etc..basically items numbers 24-58 on the INCLUDED IN YOUR ORDER list) For WEEKS now I have been trying to get them to call me back and complete my order. I got through to someone ONCE. I was then mailed 12 pieces of one of the many missing items. Of that kind I needed 16!! HAHA! Are you kidding me??? Is this how to do business?? I am making it my full time job to complain to everyone until my order get completed starting now.



unreal.More detail ...

A Real Machine

I saw this come up and I had to give this a rating it deserved. I'll hope to expand later.



Does this come in separate boxes? Yes about six. (I had more as I bought extra.) Does it take a while to put together? Yes a few hours over a few days. Has it been amazing? Yes. I saw nearly instantaneous results. It's easy to use and makes working out from home a dream. I can shift between various exercises quickly and easily. I highly recommend it.



Also I highly recommend the ab attachment which is not included in this. It makes an ab workout easier faster and more effective.More detail ...

Near Perfect!

I've had this home gym for a few months now and am finally submitting a review. I wanted to put some miles on it as well as see if the novelty would wear off before rating. Overall I am still very satisfied and thrilled with the purchase. It's been worth every penny not having to spend money on gym memberships time and gas (which = more $).



I did alot of comparisons before and after the purchase. I can honestly say - for the value quality versatility and convenience - you just can't beat it.



I chose this gym for the following main reasons:

1. Well built.

2. Comes with most of the main components (especially cables) already assembled. You will need a helping hand to lift move and hold a section or two while you fasten them together. My 10 year old son was perfect for the job.

3. Most versatile - in terms of types of exercises (especially when you get creative and add certain attachments to it). Fully adjustable for fit and comfortability.

4. Iron stack (not cement blocks). Plus you can purchase and add more weight to the standard 160lbs that come with it.

5. Relatively small footprint. I had a leverage bench press machine (used only for chest exercises) that took up more space than this gym that practically works out your whole body.

6. Much easier than adding and removing free weight plates when changing exercises. On this machine it's a matter of pulling and setting a couple of pins and clips and jumping right to the next workout. No lagging! Because of the ease resulting from the clever design I find that it's more fun and addictive to use.

7. Looks a lot nicer than most home gyms.

8. Allows me to be home with my family after work and still get in a great workout.



My friends love it and always get on it when they're visiting.



Recommend if:

You want to stay healthy develop strength stamina and endurance build toned muscle and have a good physical appearance.



Bottom line is: I LOVE IT; I'm glad I got it and would recommend it without hesitation. It's a home gym and a great quality home gym. Don't expect a super-heavy-duty industrial-grade one-excercise-specific piece of commercial-gym equipment.



PS> Instead of a $79 rubber mat I bought a $15 six-piece foam puzzle mat set to put under it; and works just fine! Put money saved towards other fun attachments - like the rope attachment for tricep pulldowns!

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Excellent deal quick shipping

I purchased the refurbished model of the Xtreme 2 SE. Other than that some items remained assembled (which helped in assembly) it appeared unused and new. It shipped within 3 working days and arrived in 12 days from time of order. It arrived on a pallet and the boxes were damaged but was packed well enough internally that the forklift damage didn't affect the components and all parts and pieces remained inside the opened boxes.



It was very easy to assemble. I opened all the packages took inventory to ensure I had all the parts including bolts and screws and gathered tools. The only item not included was an allen wrench that was to be used on the majority of the "button head" bolts. Fortunately I had one in the tool box. Assembly instructions were in clear concise American English with adequate assembly diagrams. From delivery hauling the items upstates unboxing removing packing materials to curbside inventory tool search and assembly to first test run was 3 unrushed hours.



I have used it for several days and find that it will serve its desired purpose to help me maintain muscle tone and general health. I have used free weights extensively in the past and the resistance system is different but I can see that for working out solo and for general fitness it will be ideal and you are going to have to work to injure yourself unlike free weights.



The "No Change Pulley System" is a joy to use. No having to switch cables to work out. You do need to plan your workouts to keep from switching attachments but with the right planning it is very easy to get a workout with minimal adjustment/change time between exercises. It is quicker than a free weight system unless you have free run of a gym with each station set up for each particular exercise set with your particular weights. The resistance bars are easy to change and quick to adjust.



Small footprint but you will also need a spot to store attachments. I purchased an upgrade to 310 lbs and inserted them when assembling. I recommend that you do that also as you would have to do some disassembly if you install them after the intial assembly and if you search the web you can find discount coupons to save 10-20% of the $99 asking price. I also purchased the Easy Curl bar at the same time (not required but I am glad I got it). The system does come with a strap to retain the resistance bars when not in use.



I am very pleased with the purchase and as only time will tell how it will hold up it appears to be a solid well built machine that has all of the items that I will need to maintain general fitness and allow the wife to do the same.



I highly recommend the refurbished Bowflex Xtreme 2 SEMore detail ...

Total Gym - great workout!

I have been using the Total Gym XL for around 5 weeks. If you are a serious bodybuilder this is probably not the home gym for you. But if you are looking to tone up and strenghten your whole body or if you are like me over 55 and trying not to lose any more muscle mass :) this is GREAT piece of equipment! After just a couple days of getting used to the gym it takes just seconds to change the resistance level add or remove the wing attachment or add or remove the cable pulley for the various exercises. The included DVDs flip chart and wall chart make it easy to tailor your workout to your personal goals. It is a well made piece of equipment and glides very smoothly. Improvements come quickly at first - I have already moved up a level of resistance in several exercises. Highly recommended. More detail ...

Good entry level equipment

OK I bought a used total gym 3000 for 100.00 a year ago. I have used it on a regular basis ever since. The unit has gotten a little noiser and is not nearly as easy to put away as they would have you believe. However it *does* work you out well. It is easy to use and effective. Maybe the body rail is better (it would be nice to have something wall mounted!) BUT - this is a review of the total gym 3000. I have lost weight gained muscle and never hurt myself. Does everything it says it will do. Certainly not a ripoff IF you use it. More detail ...