BowFlex OnLine
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You gotta admit those militiary guys,hot buffed chicks and models on those Bowflex infomercials look HOT!

Right off the bat though if your staying up late enough to watch those infomercials dont plan on gaining lots of muscle anytime soon!

Bowflex is a household name now and what having sold 800,000 to a million or so units can you really gain lots of muscle using a bowflex? Or is Universal ( the owner of Bowflex) marketing geniuses?

Is the Bowflex just for maintaining what guys like you and me have worked our butts off in the gym for years to attain?

Or Is The Bowflex just another gimmick that ends up hanging shirts and drycleaning like that Tony Little "Gizelle" ?,which I assure you I would never be caught dead on ....(sorry Tony I think your hair is frickin ugly too)

Right now Im going to tell you I love the Bowflex! But alone it is not perfect or quite complete enough to give you that same muscle blasting workout you can get if you know what you are doing at most decently equiped commercial gyms. Why? Lets go through the strengths and weaknesses of the Bowflex and what it takes to gain lots of muscle.

The tension /resistance of the Bowflex is nothing like free weights or even cable commercial gym equipment. What's it like? Well imagine a bow and arrow. The more you pull back the more tension you get. Im not talking elastic band tension here I mean serious resistance that probably really does make those military cats in the infomercials sweat!

This is a double edged sword. In order to get full advantage of a bowflex workout, exercise range of motion has to be greatly modified. Full range of motion is wasting your time.

In our tests following a partial repetition scheme type workout and higher repetition routines are the key to building muscle .

FInd the highest resistance range of motion frmo point 'A" to point "B" and do slow continuous tension reps till failure and a bowflex may actually surpass free weights for packing on muscle for many chest,back,arm and shoulder exercises.

BUt what about legs and calves? For you panzies out there that can't sleep the night before leg training day, then your saved by what I think is the Bowflexes weakest link....Its leg training ability.

The squat bar apparatus seemed to put unnatural strain on 9 out of 14 of our test subjects. The leg press set up ,even with the extra 100 pounds resistance is a living hell without some sort of padded shoes or sandals on. Several test subjects complained about the weight belt being rather painful when in the middle of a set of leg press.

Calf training has the same issues as leg press. The training belt is painful and the weight resistance is just not enough for seasoned athletes without ressorting to super slow partial repetitions.Many test subjects complained about sore feet as well when doing calf presses.

So how do you get around these shortcomings? It depends on how much extra room you have for your home gym . You can go all out and get yourself a cheap squat rack and be the man performing squats...the "king" of all exercises . Or if you dont have the room for a squat rack then a set of power blocks is the way to go.

Actually I recommend any Bowflex owner to invest in a set of powerblocks ( these are dumbbells that can easily be weight adjusted from as low as 5 pounds to a serious 110 pounds) .

The powerblocks or even a dumbbell rack ( I like the powerblocks for space considerations) can be used for many great leg workout exercises. In my best selling book Underground Mass Secrets I give several workouts using bowflex and dumbbell equipment. My current favourites are grabbing two dumbbells and walking up and down flights of stairs two stairs at a time.The greater the number of stairs the greater the streses placed on your glutes.( Yes this is probably the top ranked means of developing your rear to its genetic potential...)

You can also just do squats holding the dumbbells and stiff legged dead lifts holding the powerblocks as well.

What is the greatest challenge of training bowflex style? I would say it is combining your exercises in order to keep your heart rate up "Underground Mass Secrets " style!

Without a set of dumbbells this may be close to impossible but with dumbbells it is actually pleasurable for us self created masochists!

Factually I dont think there is a workout routine that I can't blast through in less than 12-18 minutes max!

My heart rate is screaming my lungs burning, my muscles damn right pissed !

I dont know about you but that is why I do this in the first place! Me and my Bowflex have put on some serious slabs of striated vascular dense powerful mass together...Bowflex Will you marry me?

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