Bowflex Motivator 2 Home Gym [Discontinued]

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 ...