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Posts Tagged ‘Home Gyms’

Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE

January 18th, 2010 Johanna No comments

The trendiest home gym on the market nowadays is the Bowflex home gyms. There is a variety of alternatives and a lot of different goods from Bowflex. One of their more reasonably priced home gyms is the Bowflex Extreme 2 SE Home Gym. It is not the best home gym that is offered from Bowflex, but it is still one of the best on the market. There are not other companies that can top the Extreme 2 SE Home Gym.

The Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE Home Gym could be your key to looking years younger and feeling like you did back in the day. Strength building exercises for your entire body gives you a ton of age defying benefits. With the help of an efficiently designed home gym, you can flash through your workouts in just minutes per day. And the benefits you can reap include a trim, tight, and more muscular body.

The refurbished Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE presents a compact total-body workout solution that allows you to execute over 70 exercises. It includes a Lat Tower that adjusts to two positions, leg extension for developing strong, muscular legs, an abdominal crunch shoulder harness to help you build strong, defined abs, and a 4-position lower pulley/squat station that helps in building your gluts, hamstrings, and quads.

By exercising your whole body you will also help improve your posture and alignment and help your entire body function more efficiently. Combined with other healthy activities such as eating a well balanced diet and getting the proper rest, you and others should start noticing impressive results in weeks.

The Xtreme 2 SE utilizes Bowflex’s original Power Rods, which provide resistance, or weight, that feels as good as or better than free weights–but without the inertia or risk of joint pain usually associated with free weights. You can hook one, two, three, four or all of your Power Rod units to the cable pulley system and go from as little as 5 pounds all the way up to 210 pounds of resistance (can be upgraded to 410 pounds). They’re precisely manufactured from a high-tech composite material under the highest quality control measures, then sheathed and tested 4 separate times to ensure quality and durability. The Power Rod units are so strong, you can flex them repeatedly but you won’t be able to wear them out. This refurbished model of the Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE is backed by a full 6-month warranty.

Bowflex Revolution XP Lat Tower - NIB
Current Price: US $99.00
Bowflex Motivator 2 Home Gym
Current Price: US $400.00

Delivery

Designed to strong, small, and fully-featured, this home gym is well constructed. It ships in five boxes and requires some assembly. There are detailed directions and every piece fits together exactly like it should. Assembly should only take between 3 and 4 hours.

Workout

Bowflex ships a home workout DVD with each of their gym systems. The most basic is a three day per week full body workout. It only takes 25 – 30 minutes to complete. The machine is quiet so even in a cramped household you can work out with a spouse or children asleep in the next room. The workouts center on isolation exercises for every muscle group in your body and will deliver solid, if not amazing results.

Changing the resistance is easy, though unhooking the leg extension attachment is a bit cumbersome. The resistance bands are effective and truly feel like the dumbbells they are supposed to simulate.

Specifications

  • Number of exercises: 70+
  • Weight resistance: 210 pounds (can be upgraded to 410 pounds)
  • Leg attachment: Included
  • Lat tower attachment: Included
  • Aerobic rowing: No
  • Squat station: Included
  • Preacher curl attachment: No
  • Ab crunch accessory: Shoulder harness only
  • Adjustable main pulley system: Included (4-position adjustable pulleys)
  • No-change cable pulley system: Included
  • Dimensions: 83 x 58 x 49 inches (HxLxW)
  • Workout area: 8′ x 6′ 5″
  • Maximum user weight: 300 pounds

Manufacturer’s Warranty

This model of the Bowflex Revolution XP Home Gym has been refurbished to factory standards and is backed by a full 6-month warranty.

Exercises

The Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE home gym allows you to perform over 70 gym-quality exercises including:

Arm Exercises

  • Triceps Pushdown w/ Hand Grips
  • Triceps Hammer Pushdown
  • Triceps Pushdown w/ Lat Pulldown Bar
  • Single Arm Pushdown
  • Triceps Extension
  • Cross Triceps Extension
  • Hammer Triceps Extension
  • “Rope” Pushdowns
  • Seated Biceps Curl
  • Standing Biceps Curl
  • Concentration Biceps Curl
  • Hammer Biceps Curl
  • Barbell Biceps Curl
  • Reverse Barbell Biceps Curl
  • Seated Hammer Biceps Curl
  • Reverse Curl
  • Triceps Kickback
  • Hammer Triceps Kickback
  • Arm Opposition Push-pull
  • Upper Body Opposition Push-pull
  • Wrist Extension
  • Wrist Curl
  • Resisted Dip

Shoulder Exercises

  • Crossover Rear Delt Rows
  • Crossover High Rear Delt Rows
  • Reverse Fly
  • Crossover Reverse Fly
  • Seated Shoulder Press
  • Front Shoulder Raise
  • Shoulder Extension
  • Shoulder Shrug
  • Scapular Protraction
  • Scapular Depression
  • Lateral Shoulder Raise
  • Seated Forearm Lateral Shoulder Raise
  • Shoulder Rotator Cuff (internal)
  • Shoulder Rotator Cuff (external)
  • Crossover Seated Rear Delt Rows
  • Scapular Retraction

Leg Exercises

  • Leg Extension
  • Squat
  • Calf Raise
  • Single Leg Calf Raise
  • Standing Hip Extension (knee bent)
  • Standing Hip Extension (knee extended)
  • Standing Hip Abduction
  • Standing Hip Adduction
  • Leg Kickback
  • Hip Flexion
  • Dead Lift
  • Stiff Leg Dead Lift

Back Exercises

  • Standing Low Back Extension
  • Bent Rear Delt Row
  • Crossover Bent Rear Delt Row
  • Seated Wide Lat Pulldowns
  • Narrow Pulldowns w/ Lat Pulldown Bar
  • Narrow Pulldowns w/ Hand Grips
  • Reverse Grip Pulldowns
  • Crossover Wide Pulldowns
  • Crossover Narrow Pulldowns
  • Pulldowns
  • Stiff Arm Pulldowns
  • Standing Shoulder Pullover w/ Hand Grips
  • Crossover Seated Lat Rows
  • Seated Lat Rows
  • Reverse Grip Pulldown with Lat Bar

Abdominal Exercises

  • Seated (resisted) Abdominal Crunch
  • Seated (resisted) Oblique Abdominal Crunch
  • Trunk Rotation

Chest Exercises

  • Bench Press
  • Chest Fly
  • Decline Bench Press
  • Incline Bench Press
  • Decline Chest Fly
  • Incline Chest Fly
BOWFLEX XTREME 2
Current Price: US $600.00

Bowflex TreadClimber

January 17th, 2010 Johanna No comments

The Bowflex TreadClimber is a unique new combination cardio machine from Nautulis fitness. Nautulis Fitness is the same company that started the exercise machine craze in health clubs. Remember those blue painted machines with the black weight stacks? That was Nautulis.

The Bowflex TreadClimber is a low collision, 3-in-1 home fitness exercises machine. It merges the features of a treadmill and of a regular stair climber, elliptical as well, so you burn the same quantity of calories in just half the time (30 minutes a day) it takes on the other two machines combined. It is great for the beginner or for expert enthusiasts, because it has 12 intensity settings.

Treadmill Action

The ideal exercise to begin with when aiming to lose weight is walking. Walking is low impact and nearly anyone can do it on a regular basis (exception to disabled of course). Walking on a treadmill will burn on average 700 calories an hour when on a high setting.

Stair Climber Action

Bowflex Revolution XP Lat Tower - NIB
Current Price: US $99.00
Bowflex Motivator 2 Home Gym
Current Price: US $400.00

Stair stepper machine is a great way to amplify the intensity of your workout. While walking increases caloric burn a stair stepping action will also increase muscle mass and tone, both of which have the added benefit of burning even more calories. Depending on your initial weight, you can anticipate to burn 5.9 – 8.8 calories per minute. That interprets into nearly five hundred calories an hour at normal speed.

Elliptical Movement

Elliptical are known for smooth low impact movement. When doing a work out on a typical treadmill you will have at least some harsh impact to knees and other joints, with an elliptical machine you do not. After some time, you get the same calorie-burning workout that you can get with a treadmill but with considerably less effort.

It is always best to know the benefits and the drawback of the system before purchasing one. It is because, every person is unique and one thing may be good for him and one thing is not. As for this machine, not all people can get the benefits of it because of some circumstances like health conditions and personal preferences. So it is a wise action to examine the machine before acquiring it. However, after carefully checking the machine’s complex engineering, there is no doubt that safety and fitness for all are the main objectives why it was invented.

Benefits

Health Benefits (Cardiovascular-friendly). It is designed and built to help people get better and maintain good health. This machine is an expert when it comes to health development factor. The heart rate gradually increases allowing blood and oxygen to circulate in the body more efficiently as if you are just walking a distance.

Having a BowFlex TreadClimber at home will really help you in your weight-loss journey at the same develop a healthier heart. You would even develop a good sleeping habit and self-discipline.

Provides gentle but constant workout. TreadClimber does not provide heavy cardiovascular workouts. It is designed to provide a mild and gentle yet persistent exercise to let the body sweat and heart pumping naturally. You may need to perform basic calisthenics to prepare yourself with the workout to prevent undetermined effects from sudden motion applied to different muscles of your body.

Safe. The machine offers a low to moderate impact workout for the body which is best for people with back and knee problems. People with these minor conditions can benefit a lot from the machine when aiming to regain strength for the body. What they need is a good and promising exercise that has to be easy and gentle which TreadClimber alone can offer.

Convenience. Easy to use features coupled with an astonishing display and high-tech controls. This is not just your typical workout equipment; it can also be a great piece to display.

Drawback

TreadClimber can be expensive. Despite the benefit it offers, this innovative piece of machine comes with an even more amazing price tag. TreadClimbers can be 10 – 20% more expensive than normal treadmills and 40 – 50% more expensive than steppers and oblique machines.

Users may need time to get acquainted with the machine. With its features and design, using the machine efficiently requires a little bit of familiarization to the controls. But rest assured that after few sessions of using the machine, bit by bit you’ll be able to manage to use it smoothly.

The maximum speed is only 4mph, so you can’t really run or even jog, the tread climber also doesn’t allow for long strides.

The motion does take some getting used to your feet can slip between the belts if you’re not careful.

How the Bowflex TreadClimber Works?

The treadClimber has two platforms rather than a single flat walking surface you find on a treadmill. Each platform rises separately. As you put your foot on the left platform it goes down while the right one goes up. If you have used stair steppers you know that you are going up and down in a straight line. Steppers are my least favorite cardio piece (other than a skier). The TreadClimber is different. There is a gradual hill climbing movement that is really easy on my knees.  The TreadClimber gives your feet a natural range of motion. Your feet can move around although the platform is much narrower than on a treadmill.

Is a treadClimber Worth the Money?

Yes. As a result of the treadClimber reviews over the internet, since they do provide a solid workout it is recommended if you have the money to spend. If not, you are probably better off with another machine.

For you to spend that kind of money on a machine like the Nautilus Treadclimber and Bowflex Treadclimber just to decide that you don’t like the motion would be a waste. In no doubt, you could always return it within 30 days but you don’t get your shipping/handling fees back, and in most cases have to pay for shipping it back to the company.