BowFlex, Resistance Band type Resitance

plasma

Banned
What is better a weight machine, a Bowflex, body weight or free weights? Could one convert all muscle exercises to resistance band type exercises? What would be the benefits or drawbacks?
How does one stay motivated and focused when working with these fun things, and count reps accurately? I regularly do hundreds of push ups, weights, pulls ups or other strict regimens daily. I recently put two resistance bands on my home chin up bar. Hopefully I will be motivated enough to use them seriously as they are so fun to explore and play with, it's easy to forget they are serious conditioning tools.
The best thread this year was a study about how biking sissifies the bones. Of course, we're pounding on the court all day and that builds strength. Goes back to the science of how different exercises build different bodies. Let's get specific about the science of muscle building. Is BOwflex really "designed to work"? Does this type of elastic dual resistance have benefits? Does it stabilize and therefore reduce the workout like other machines?
What about resistance bands? They seem to provide awesome resistance throughout the motion but not the same complete feeling of resistance at the end....
 

oti

New User
never had a better fitness than when i worked out with a bowflex.....strength was everywhere
 

volusiano

Hall of Fame
Are you talking about the Bowflex Revolution that uses the rotating discs that has rubber bands inside? Or the common Bowflex that has the rods for resistance? I don't know exactly what "elastic dual resistance" means.

I have the Blowflex Revolution and it's pretty cool. The resistance is equal throughout the motion unlike the rod type where it's heavier at one end and lighter at the other end of the motion range. This rubber band technology was borrow from NASA where they invented it to allow astronauts to exercise in the absence of gravity.

The design of the machine is also pretty ingenious in that it allows you to do virtually almost all kinds of exercises of many other machines combined on a single machine. It's not cheap, though. I bought mine used on Craigslist for 1/2 price.
 

plasma

Banned
dual elastic resistance refers to the sophisticated system of buying a $3 theraband from the sports store and using it as a weight. Could you use a theraband or resistance cord to emulate the Bowflex...somewhat???
thanks
btw, knew a guy who was jacked from the original Bowflex....any anti Bowflex folks here? Never tried it but the idea sounds cool. Have to admit that with some stuff like benching, I'd just prefer a machine or weights to that type of resistance.
Bho! BHo! Bho! big up to my up-full exercise bredren...Bo!....(flex)
 
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