I soo want these, but $900?!?

[aab1]

http://www.fitnessdepot.ca/shop/stores/1/Bowflex-SelectTech-1090-Dumbbells-up-to-90-lbs-P818C24.aspx

 

It's a pair of one of those adjustable dumbells where you just turn the dial to how much you want it to weigh and it will weigh that when you pick it up!

 

They have a $420 model but it only goes up to 52.5 pounds and I already can do 45 pound bicep curls (I curl my 7 foot, 45 pound olympic barbell with one arm, kind of big for the job and not very adjustable especially for lower weights than 45 pounds for other exercises as that's obviously the minimum I can go with that bar as the bar itself is 45 pounds, and I can increase it in 5 pound increments up to 300 pounds, and I could buy additional weights, it can probably hold over 1000 pounds of weights, it's the same bar professional bodybuilders use in the olympics). So I'd outgrow that 52 pound one probably in a month making it a total waste of money, plus with the $900 one it's 180 pounds total, that's enough to bench press with! I always wanted to workout in my room, I think I'd work out more often if I could do it in my room and immediately do something else while I rest, so my rest time could be put to additional use.

 

I'll see what cheaper alternatives may be, but I certainly don't want 34 sets of dumbells, that costs even more than the adjustable one! Especially in storage space.

 

I'm DEFINATELY getting the 90 pound adjustable one some day, but $900?!?! I'll have to save for quite a while. I could get it on ebay for a few hundreds less, but shipping is like $400, so it's even more.

[Guest]

Try buying that much weight in 5lbs increments....its not cheap. Anyway there are a few different versions of this that are cheaper although I'd like to say bowflex is a great company.

[aab1]

Would it cost as much if I bought free weight plates? If so, then I'd much rather get the convenience of the bowflex thing if it's the same price as buying individual weights, the thing is, the fitness site doesn't seem to list any weights, just bars, so I'll go in store in 1-2 days to see.

 

Why do you say bowflex is a great company? This is their first product that makes any sense at all. Their "spring loaded" gym things are an absolute joke, no one can workout properly with that sort of junk, it's a marketing gimmick. Free weights are the only way to get a proper workout. Even home gyms with weights and pulleys aren't very good because they do all the stabilizing for you so only your main muscles are getting worked out, not the stabalizer muscles, so even though you may be strong on a home gym, once you lift a real world weight that isn't automatically stabilized you'll have lots of problems keeping it stable and balanced as those muscles would not have gotten worked out. This is why free weights is the only way to simulate a real world workout as your body is doing 100% of the work, rather than maybe 80% and having a machine doing the other 20% for you.

 

I used to work out with a home gym (weights/pulleys style) only and I did get great results, but I much prefer working out with free weights as I do now. It's far more dangerous of course since with a gym you couldn't kill or even hurt yourself no mater how stupid you are, they are extemely safe, but with free weights you need a spotter (human or mecanical), I built myself a metal rack that stops just above my body on the bench press, this allows me to push myself to my limits to the point where you literally drop the weights, that works you out fully, as not reaching your limits will not give a proper workout.

 

To get back to the dumbells, you said there are cheaper ones, I did see cheaper ones but they are all 52 pounds or less, I want 90 so I won't outgrow it, I already lift 45 pounds with bicep curls, so getting a 50 pound one is rather stupid.

 

I think I'll do one of two things:

1. Get the cheap $9 bumbell bars and weight plates, but I have absolutely no idea of the cost of the weights, it could be $40, it could be $1000, I have no idea, they are not on their website. This is also rather stupid because I have an olympic bar with 300 pounds of weights, but there's no such thing as an "olympic dumbell" (for those who don't know, the difference is normal ones have 1 inch holes in the weight plates, olympic uses 2 inch holes) as far as I can tell, so I can't use my existing weights on dumbells, there are adapters, but they are for barbells, not dumbells.

2. I would get the $900 adjustable dumbells with a loan to pay it back in a year (the fitness store offers delayed payment plans over 1-2 years), because I really want dumbells ASAP, and option #1 seems stupid no mater which way I put it (getting more plates with 1 inch holes when I have plenty with 2 inch holes is stupid, putting huge barbell adapters on tiny dumbells to use my existing ones is stupid, they are not made for dumbells, the idea would be regular to olympic dumbell adapters).

 

By the way, is it just me or is this forum's text box (where I'm typing this in) buddy as you can't imagine? It keeps screwing up each time I scroll up or down and gets all misaligned. No other forum that I access has this bug. It's extemely annoying having it screw up ever 1-2 lines.

 

Thanks

[aab1]

WTF, I typed "olympic dumbbell" on google to see if perhaps an olympic dumbbell exists, and it does! This means I can get a $30 pair of dumbells and use them with my existing olympic weights! Problem solved! And $870 saved!

[Guest]

Why do you say bowflex is a great company? This is their first product that makes any sense at all. Their "spring loaded" gym things are an absolute joke, no one can workout properly with that sort of junk, it's a marketing gimmick. Free weights are the only way to get a proper workout. Even home gyms with weights and pulleys aren't very good because they do all the stabilizing for you so only your main muscles are getting worked out, not the stabalizer muscles, so even though you may be strong on a home gym, once you lift a real world weight that isn't automatically stabilized you'll have lots of problems keeping it stable and balanced as those muscles would not have gotten worked out. This is why free weights is the only way to simulate a real world workout as your body is doing 100% of the work, rather than maybe 80% and having a machine doing the other 20% for you.

Thanks

 

How does bowlflex make no sense at all. I have a friend that bench presses nearly 600lbs and still swears by his Bowflex. I love the thing too. As for it being overly stabilizing have you tried it before...pretty much every first timer shakes like crazy even with weight they can do fairly easily. Also the weight doesn't get easier if you do it faster like with free weights. I do think free weights are better but the Bowflex is a close second unless you are way too strong. The first time I tried it I was 16 and benching 340lbs and I thought it was great for everything but squats.

[paulcats02]

i just picked up a pair of the elite powerblock set (each goes up to 50lbs in 5lb increments, they are expandable to 90-130lbs with additional plates which i may do later down the line).

i believe powerblock have been around for like 15 or more years and actually hold various patents for their products?

check out their prices.

you can get them directly or at an authorized seller for a bit less. check out their website, too, they have some very good video demos of exercises plus options like foldaway benches, bars, stands... it's http://www.powerblock.com.

in a nutshell, if you can use whatever it is you end up getting (or got), the product is solid, and the company has a good warranty and support to back it up, then it's a good thing.

for me, i am really look forward to getting my hands back on some iron (i've mostly been doing bodyweight only stuff like yoga and martial arts for the past few years) and these babies are small and compact and economical yet pack a decent punch, too.

best of luck with you and yours!

Edited September 23, 2007 by paulcats02

[aab1]

veganpotter: About stabalizing, I was not at all refering to the Bowflex, I was talking about home gyms with weights and pulley systems, I know nothing about the Bowflex gym because I think it's ridiculous. I knew someone that actually though "resistance training" meant using a bowflex! Geeze!

 

One thing I'm skeptic about the Bowflex (I've never seen or used one), is that due to the flexing "whatevers", I can only assume, and have read this from others, that the beginning of the rep is very easy since it would just start to flex, and the end of the rep it's much harder because it's at the end. Similar to if you are bench pressing and your weight weighs 40 pounds at the bottom of the rep and 200 at the top, that's a very unbalanced, improper, and unnatural workout. Freeweights don't get heavier as you lift them and lighter as you lower them, the weight is the same all along the rep.

 

Don't forget that completely different muscles are used in many exercises along the rep (the beginning of the rep works out different muscles than the middle and end of the rep), this means some muscles would be lifting perhaps 40 pounds while others are lifting 100, this is not a natural situation, no natural lifting behaves this way, in real life, any given object has a constant weight, it does not get heavier or lighter as you lift and lower it.

[aab1]

veganpotter: Does your 600 lbs bench pressing friend lift "600 pounds" on a bowflex or with free weights?

 

Can you even know how much you're lifting with a bowflex or is it "bowflex proprietary measures" like "I flex 4 bowflex bands" which means nothing to someone using proper free weights. Even if they do put a simulated weight measure on it, as I said above, the weight you're actually "lifting" increases and decreases along the rep, so there's really no way to know how much you're liftng.

 

Anyway, I think any professional bodybuilder would agree the bowflex is a real joke. It was my experience on the bodybuilding.com forums, they all ridicule the bowflex, as do I, because it's not a natural way to workout. If you eat natural, why not workout natural?

[Guest]

Pretty much all the movements you do require you to pull the cable enough to engage the Bows enough to give full resistance...after that its consistent the whole way through. Trust me...its the real deal and its by no means ridiculous. If I was still a shot putter and they made a version that went up to 600-700lbs I would probably be willing to not use free weights for anything other than Olympic Lifts.

[aab1]

I looked at the bowflex website and they themselves say:

"Power Rod® units provide progressive resistance increasing intensity through the exercise"

 

I also saw they have a new "SpiraFlex" model that goes up to 600 pounds, and they gave up on the silly bows, and say this new technology simulates free weights, although I'm not so sure, at least it confirms that they know that their original one doesn't simulate free weights in anyway, and they themselves say it's progressive resistance along the rep, they're the ones saying it, not just me. Even with their new "spiraflex", which is probably better because it provides a constant rather than progressive resistance, doesn't interest me at all. It was made to workout in space where free weights obviosuly don't work, I don't know about you guys, but I'm on planet earth where free weights work just fine at a fraction of the cost while providing better results.

 

Also, aren't bowflex products only available for lease? i saw they sell the dumbbells but I never saw their gyms sold in any way other than leasing it.

[Guest]

Yes you can get them for lease(I don't think you can with the dumbbells though) and its quite popular to do so. You can buy them too...off the website and the base models can be purchased at fitness stores. If you look on EBAY lots of the people selling are selling an old model to buy a new model because they love it so much. Also if you look at the prices you'll see that a model just a few years old will sell for maybe $200 less than retail which is a testament to the quality. As for the resistance being gradual they state that because its obvious with the bows...however once you get to the actual position you'll start lifting at...the change in weight isn't really noticeable. As for the spiraflex it looks interesting and I'd like to try it but I like the other models a bit more. And no they aren't gonna stop making the standard bowflexs...the spiraflex is a different animal and they know that. Anyway freeweights don't provide constant resistance either thanks to momentum...even at slow speeds momentum is a huge problem with free weights...just try doing full slow bench press...then slow bench press going halfway down...you'll see what I mean...this is even more drastic than the bowflex by far.

[aab1]

I fully agree momentum is an issue with free weights, but it's natural with anything you lift, the effects of the bowflex aren't. Shouldn't a workout simulate as close to reality as what you'll use your muscles for in real life?

 

Anyway, I'll stick to free weights.

[Guest]

If we should simulate what we do in real life then we wouldn't need to lift weights anyway(and of course we don't need to)...what kind of a situation in real life requires you to do a bench press type movement unless you live in a cave and a big rock falls on you. Lifting weights gets you strong and thats all it does...the bowflex will get you strong too unless you are just too strong for it which is unlikely.

[aab1]

Again I agree with almost everything you say, but I prefer free weights. I must admit the new spiroflex looks very interesting, but I still probably wouldn't get it, not any time soon anyway, I have no idea of the cost also, is it $2000? $10000?

 

I'm happy with my olympic barbell and bench press/squat rack. I can do most exercises and with dumbells I'll be more than happy.

 

As I said I just discovered that olympic dumbell bars do in fact exist, meaning I could use my existing olympic weights on them, I may need to get some extra weights but I haven't done the maths on if my existing weights will work for dumbells, my weight set is made for an olympic barbell, not dumbells, so I'll probably need a few extra plates. I can get 2 olympic dumbbells for $30 plus shipping, that's $870 less than the bowflex ones!

[Guest]

I've never seen olympic dumbells but I have a pair of 1inch standard dumbell bars that'll comfortably hold 75lbs of plates(you could go heavier but larger diameter plates would suck) and they work fine but it sure gets old changing the weight. As for the bowflex I think the new one is close to $3000...or at least it was.

[aab1]

Well I bought extra weight plates yesterday to fill 2 olympic dumbbells with up to 48 pounds each for now. I also got 2 olympic dumbbells on ebay for $30 for the pair plus $50 shipping to Canada.

 

The weights are WAY cheaper than I thought, like 58 cents/pound I think!

 

Also, the plates they sell now aren't like the ones I got several years ago when I bought the olympic barbell with 300 pounds. The old ones were solid, the new ones have 3 handles around each plate (even the 2.5 pounds!). So some are physically bigger in diameter than full plates to make up for the holes.

 

Now I'm thinking I'll get a whole set of weights for the dumbbells so both dumbells have the same weights/sizes. But then I realized it goes against my point of getting olympic dumbbells which was to keep my existing weight plates.

 

Anyway I figured it's not a bad buy because I'm sure these olympic ones can hold much more than the small 1 inch bars, plus they match my barbell as they are both olympic! So it will have ended up costing me:

$80 ($30+50) for the 2 dumbbells

$15 for the weights I bought already

Optional: $26 to replace all weight plates to the new type for the dumbbells

 

I'll wait a bit before spending that $26, after all the only problem will be different plates on each dumbbell.

 

These are the ones I got:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260164577826

 

They are 13 pounds each without weights so I'll be able to choose between 13 pounds and 48 pounds in 5 pound increments (until I buy more weights).

 

I think this is a good cheaper alternative to the $900 Bowflex ones. I'm not so sure I needed olympic dumbbells anymore now that I'll eventually get a plate set dedicated to them (the point was to use most of my existing weights). What advantages would an olympic dumbbell have? I assume it can hold more weight? One cheaper model had a 50 pound limit but per dumbbell but I spent a bit more for heavy duty models.

 

 

Thanks

[VeganEssentials]

With olympic DB handles, just be careful about quality. There are some really cheam aluminum ones out there that bend easily and may not be too safe for some lifts (such as anything overhead). I dropped one in the grass once with only around 90 lbs. on it and the handle tweaked considerably, which isn't good. Try to make sure you're getting ones that are solid material and not hollow and that should take care of things pretty well.

[aab1]

With olympic DB handles, just be careful about quality. There are some really cheam aluminum ones out there that bend easily and may not be too safe for some lifts (such as anything overhead). I dropped one in the grass once with only around 90 lbs. on it and the handle tweaked considerably, which isn't good. Try to make sure you're getting ones that are solid material and not hollow and that should take care of things pretty well.

 

The ones I got weigh 13 pounds each (26 total), so I highly doubt they are hollow. That's why I avoided the cheap ones that said they had a 50 pound limit and got heavy duty ones.

 

I just find it stupid now that I got olympic dumbbells for nothing, my reason was to use my existing olympic weights but now I saw the new weights they sell are completely different so I'll have to get a whole set of the new weights just for the dumbbells. The thing is, knowing I would have needed a whole new set of weights anyway, I wouldn't have gone with olympics and would have gotten regular dumbbells.

 

So can anyone tell me if there are any advantages of olympic dumbbells over regulars so I least I feel like I didn't waste the $60 more I spent on the olympic ones? I assume they can hold much more weight than the small 1 inch dumbbells.

[Guest]

They can hold much more weight but what can you do with it. Dumbbell presses with 25 or 45lbs plates will really limit your range of motion so you'll need to use tons of 10lbs weight and you'll still have those long bars getting in the way. Is there a way you can take them back???

[aab1]

They can hold much more weight but what can you do with it. Dumbbell presses with 25 or 45lbs plates will really limit your range of motion so you'll need to use tons of 10lbs weight and you'll still have those long bars getting in the way. Is there a way you can take them back???

 

Why take them back? What would 1 inch bars offer more other than $60 savings?

 

And no, I can't return either the dumbbells or weights.

[Guest]

1" bars will be far less cumbersome and therefore you'll be able to do more things with them. It'll also be better without the rotating bearings since they tend to produce a gyroscopic effect making momentum more of an issue..it makes a surprising difference with arched movements. Also for that price I can't imagine they'd last all that long.[/u]

[aab1]

>1" bars will be far less cumbersome and therefore you'll be able to do more things with them

 

I looked at a website with exercise animations and didn't see any dumbbell exercises where the extra dumbbell lenght would get in the way. Could you give me some examples? How long are 1 inch dumbbell handles? Mine are 20" which is quite long. OK I just found regular ones at 14". Does 6 inches more really make a difference? Especially when I can't find a single exercise where the extra lenght would be in the way. I did find another advantage for the olympic ones, they weigh 13 pounds by themselves, so less plates are needed.

 

>Also for that price I can't imagine they'd last all that long.

 

Price on eBay is irrelevant, you can get items worth $1000 for $30 and get the exact same quality as if you had paid $1000. Raw organic vanilla is one example that comes to mind, I get $1200 worth for about $50, and it's even better quality than the one sold at $1200 locally. So price is not an indicator of quality. Secondly, as I said I got heavy duty solid steel ones that weight 13 pounds each, the cheap hollow ones are 6 pounds each, I obviously didn't want those as they would have bent in no time.

 

I think I wont regret my choice even though it was $60 more, at least it's still $800 less than the bowflex! I can also put more weight on these if I want to do bench press, squats or deadlifts with them.

[Guest]

They'll get in the way for hammer curls, or curls from the side where you may want to rotate. With curls you'll need to bring them up much further before rotating that you would otherwise. You can't go as deep with dumbbell presses since the bar will bump your shoulders. You can't get as good of a squeeze with dumbbell presses because they'll bump 6" earlier(3"for each), then if you rotate your hands to squeeze at the top you won't be able to do it as gradually. To do standing shoulder presses the bars will need to be further from your head and that may be hard on the shoulders...the list goes on and on. As for the quality if you've lifted with quality bars you can definitely tell the difference. A good Olympic bar will have aerospace quality bearing that cost more than you paid for your set...the ones you'll get will be fine until the bearing seize, or pop out and you'll have things sliding around in them. Also they are probably made heavy for shortcomings in craftsmanship...meaning cheap steal that doesn't machine well...thus they make up for it with mass. I've used $200 bars and my $40 pieces of crap I bought at sports authority and you definitely feel it. As for your vanilla I'd say its probably suspect(meaning not organic, has additives to preserve its flavor making it seem better, or its unethically harvested like so many things). Theres a lot of crap online sold as something it isn't. This is really obvious in the bike industry as well as the supplement industry.

[Guest]

They'll get in the way for hammer curls, or curls from the side where you may want to rotate. With curls you'll need to bring them up much further before rotating that you would otherwise. You can't go as deep with dumbbell presses since the bar will bump your shoulders. You can't get as good of a squeeze with dumbbell presses because they'll bump 6" earlier(3"for each), then if you rotate your hands to squeeze at the top you won't be able to do it as gradually. To do standing shoulder presses the bars will need to be further from your head and that may be hard on the shoulders...the list goes on and on. As for the quality if you've lifted with quality bars you can definitely tell the difference. A good Olympic bar will have aerospace quality bearing that cost more than you paid for your set...the ones you'll get will be fine until the bearing seize, or pop out and you'll have things sliding around in them. Also they are probably made heavy for shortcomings in craftsmanship...meaning cheap steal that doesn't machine well...thus they make up for it with mass. I've used $200 bars and my $40 pieces of crap I bought at sports authority and you definitely feel it. As for your vanilla I'd say its probably suspect(meaning not organic, has additives to preserve its flavor making it seem better, or its unethically harvested like so many things). Theres a lot of crap online sold as something it isn't. This is really obvious in the bike industry as well as the supplement industry.