I am very pleased with the quality, looks and operation. If you are looking for a home gym under $500 in the 150lb category then I highly recommend this product. I am just as pleased with the very professional service from Fitness Factory and especially their sales rep Judy B. I ordered the item on the 18th and it was in my garage the 22nd! Do not hesitate to use Fitness Factory
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Just put this together yesterday… it took about 2 hours total including the unwrapping. The box arrived via a freight company on a pallet. It’s heavy.
The instructions are illustrated very well. I opened the fastener package and laid everything out firs to make sure everything listed was in fact included, and it was. It is a solidly built contraption and everything fit together flawlessly.
After set-up I tried out all the different power rods and one of the 50lb rods snapped in 2 places. The rubber coating kept any debris from flying across the room luckily. I jumped online and it looks as if this is NOT an isolated case. I purchase the extra set of 50lb bars (as suggested in a few other reviews) so I will not be without in the meantime. There is even two capped holes in the rod holder base just for this upgrade. I will call the 800 number on Monday and see how their customer service is. I have high hopes that it will be replaced for Free (including shipping).
I’ll keep it short and sweet; this thing is amazing! The design, the packaging, the construction, and the assembly instructions, are all first rate. No catches, this product is as advertised! Great bang-for-buck!
This is my second one. The first one lasted 5 years with intermitant use. It is a very compact and versatile way to get exercise IF YOU WILL USE IT! I am satisfied with the device.
The product is great, but the shipping was a joke. The original order was lost when it shipped UPS and was handed over to the Post office, Why? The replacement came direct from UPS and arrived no problem. But I love the gym and it costs about what a gym membership costs for a month! And you use it because it is at home in front of you.
I was about to order something almost exactly on a home shopping network that was being presented by someone famous for twice the price. Glad i came here and found this one. Its great and way better than homeshoppin network.
I saw improvements in just a couple of weeks at 3 sessions/week. What I really appreciate is that the varied “bow” weights let you really evaluate how you are doing. Just following someone who demonstrates the moves doesn’t give you anything like the feed-back this Home Gym does, and I’ve had a lot of experience trying different approaches. I’m a senior citizen (female) who was a tennis whiz in my youth and I’ve always tried to keep fit.
I don’t usually review items I buy but I think the major flaw with the Bowflex line and the PR3000 needs to be stressed for people who don’t have a chance to check them out prior to buying one.
I tried one prior to purchase and also read the reviews so I was prepared to add additional rods to my PR3000, which I really like by the way. So for you guys and gals who have been lifting free weights at the gym, here is my try at telling you what you need….
I am 6′3″ tall and the machine fits me well. When I go to the gym, my chest workout after warming up is 3 sets of 8-10 reps with 135# (olympic bar with 45# plates on each end). By the end of the 3 sets, I’m flat done. When I got the Bowflex, I used the entire 210#, did 3 sets of 20 and could have done more.
Today, I put on the 310# and the 410# upgrade. With the 410#, I can do 8 reps and I’m done. The 310# weight just about equals the 135# I was using at the gym. I also tried moving the seat forward (4″ block behind my back) this made the 210# weight stack better but not good enough, also was bending the rods pretty far.
All in all, I don’t agree with the reviewer who said that the PR3000 is not enough, I downloaded the book for the Bowflex Ultimate II and use a lot of the exercises from that book. But I do agree with everyone that say not to consider 210# to be adequate in most cases. I could not find anything on the Nautilus/Bowflex sites that explains how they determine their weights but believe me when I say, I could not find anyway to justify 210# rating on this equipment.
Also, ebay sells a hook for the rod stacks that makes it a lot easier to hook multiple rods together. Necessary if you go to 410#.
Bowflex is a great product because its compact design lets you perform many different exercises with one machine.
The good-
1. The price is much more reasonable then the newer models.
2. This is a solid machine and very sturdy.
3. The pully system is designed so you don’t have to change cables when switching between the three grips.
4. You can upgrade the weight, however I think it should automatically come with 310 lbs.
The bad-
1. It does not have as many exercises as the newer bowflexes.
2. I wish the middle grips were on adjustable wings like the newer models, however there are multiple bolt holes so you can move them in closer or further apart.
3. 210 lbs is not enough weight if you are looking to bulk up. Bowflex rods provide increasing resistance which is good for the joints but does not provide a steady resistance throughout the rep. This means that the wight is no where near the listed resistance until you reach the maximum bend of the rods and then it is still underwight. You can easily bench almost twice the rod resistance as you can bench free wights.
4. Not directly related with this machine but I ordered the 100 lb upgrade rodes and one of the rodes is very noticably weaker then the other by about 10-20 lbs. So now when ever I us the extra rodes I have to adjust the weight by that much to balance it out. The good news is that all the rods that came with the machine were balanced. I wonder if these rodes are produced in lots with differing resistance levels and I happened to get two from different lots.
If you bench over 140 lbs then I would suggest you purchase the 100 lbs upgrade also. My max in the gym is around 200 lbs and I could easily bench 210 on this. Some people may not like the resistance feel to the rods but I do. If you workout the correct way, each rep lasting around 4 to 6 seconds, then you will feel a burn that you don’t feel with traditional weights. If you are over weight don’t plan on this machine magicaly burning off the fat. 20 minutes a day is not enough if you want to see real results quick. You will never get a body like the ones on the comercials working out only 20 minutes a day 3 days a week. For a nice tone body, plan on at least twice that long for three days a week, with cardio training at meadium to high intensity for at least 20-30 minutes 3 days a week, and eating only low calorie healthy food.