Treadmills For Fitness!

Bowflex Home Gyms - No Bigfoot Here!

Bowflex Saves Space!

The Bowflex fitness machines are the home equivalent of a total gym workout in one small package. They give you good strength training and even better circuit training exercises to improve and maintain your body in a small workout space. Each Bowflex is different in its actual dimensions and required floor space. If workout space is limited in your home, you’ll be happy that most Bowflex machines come on wheels and fold up to roll away for easy storage. This helps keep your workout space free when not being used for exercise.

Lotsa Machine, Not Much Space!

These total gym systems work everything from your arms to your abdominals and your legs. They save your space since no other strength or circuit training exercise machines are needed. The Bowflex Sport fitness machine has a workout footprint of about nine feet deep and almost seven feet wide. It extends about seven and a half feet high. The folded footprint is fifty-two inches long by thirty-eight inches wide. This average size Bowflex requires a workout space of about ten feet by nine feet, the size of a small bedroom. The Bowflex Xtreme 2 Home Gym is a smaller fitness trainer than the Bowflex Sport. This one has a workout area of seven feet by six feet. While it is designed for a smaller area, this Bowflex does not have the fold up option and will require a permanent dedicated place in your home. This fitness trainer features more of a vertical workout style and comes with the leg extension and a leg curl attachment. Bowflex Xtreme XLU fitness machine is a smaller version of the Xtreme XTLU. It features a workout area of five feet by six feet. So what is the difference between these two total gym systems? With the XLU, you have the capability of performing about sixty different exercises. The XTLU has over sixty-five different exercise possibilities and also comes with the leg curl attachment and leg extension. The attachments require more floor space, so the XTLU is longer by about two feet over the XLU.

Bowflex Fits Into Your Life!

If you are lucky enough to have a room dedicated to your home gym, or a large space in your basement, you might want to consider the largest of the Bowflex fitness trainers. The Bowflex Ultimate XTLU total gym workout system has a workout area of seven feet by nine feet. It folds and rolls into a closet or other area for storage. The XTLU is the biggest fitness trainer, and most effective total gym system, with over ninety exercises and many attachments that need the space to be used properly. For the ultimate in sapce saving exercise equipment, Bowflex offers more that you’ll ever need, and in less room than you’d think!

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The Bowflex Treadclimber!

How a Bowflex Tread Climber Works

You can effectively lose weight and improve your health with a Bowflex exercise machine. Bowflex is a company that offers a variety of exercise equipment. One of the best cardiovascular workouts you can get comes from the Bowflex Treadclimber. Its name indicates its origins. Similar in some ways to a treadmill, the Bowflex Treadclimber allows you to walk as you normally would, except it adds a natural step-like motion to your movement. The Treadclimber combines both the treadmill and the stair stepper. You get the benefits that you would get from both machines from just the Bowflex.

Using the Treadclimber

How does a Bowflex Treadclimber TC5000 work to help you lose weight and strengthen your muscles? A treadmill has a flat, single walking surface that may incline to increase the intensity of the workout. The Bowflex, on the other hand, has two platforms that raise and lower independent of one another. When you step down with one foot, the opposite foot goes up, and it feels much like climbing a gradual hill. If you’ve ever climbed on a stair stepper, you know that it’s like climbing straight up a ladder. Thankfully, the Bowflex exercise equipment does not make you feel that way. A Bowflex is actually closer to an elliptical machine than a stepper. On an elliptical machine, you have to lock your feet into straps on the pedals, and the movement isn’t quite natural. However a Treadclimber benefits you by allowing freedom of movement of your feet. As you’re walking on the Bowflex, your feet are free to lift up off the platform just like you do when you’re walking on a standard treadmill or when walking normally. You experience a much more natural range of motion. You can increase the intensity of your workout on a Bowflex by changing the resistance. The resistance of the Bowflex Treadclimber isn’t changed as easily or conveniently as you can change it on a treadmill. Before getting on the machine, you turn the knob on the console to select your resistance level. The drawback is that you have to get off the machine if you want to adjust the resistance during your workout.

Bowflex works your heart!

The equipment gives you a low impact, cardiovascular exercise that helps you burn calories and strengthen muscles all at the same time. You’ll increase your heart rate and get great results in thirty minutes a day, three times a week. The Bowflex burns an average of 321 calories in a thirty-minute period, as compared to 240 calories burned on a treadmill, and 191 calories on a stepper. This really speeds up the accumulation of 3500 calories needed to burn off a pound of fat. The movement of the Bowflex strengthens the core muscles in your body, too.

Bowflex Treadclimbers - A Versatile Choice!

A Bowflex Treadclimber TC5000 offers the same health benefits of the most popular work out equipment: the treadmill, stepper, and elliptical machine, yet offers a unique and natural movement that burns more calories and strengthens muscles. It leads your body to health with its resistance cardiovascular workout.

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Bowflex Recall - Fact and Fiction

Exercise On The Ropes: The Bowflex Recall

In the beginning of 2004, the popular home gym system, some Bowflex fitness machines were recalled by The Consumer Product Safety Commission. There had been a number of overwhelming consumer reports of injury from mechanical failure and problems with the Bowflex.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, this was the second time that the Nautilus Group, the makers of the Bowflex fitness machines, had recalled their home gym exercise equipment. Makes you wonder about the safety of the equipment, doesn’t it? The Bowflex fitness machine manufacturers and The Consumer Product Safety Commission did a recall of certain Bowflex home gyms at the end of January that same year. Almost 782,000 Bowflex fitness machines and exercise equipment were recalled at that time. This recall affected the about 680,000 Bowflex Power Pro XL, XTL, and the XTLU gym systems that have the Lat Tower attachment and well over 100,000 Bowflex Ultimate Fitness Machines.

The Problem and The Fix for Bowflex

Then, in November of the same year, the makers of the Bowflex fitness machines and the Consumer Product Safety Commission additional recalled all of the Bowflex Power Pro models for faulty seat pins that were not fitting properly. The seat pins kept falling out, causing problems and injury to the consumer. The two major safety issues of the Bowflex fitness machines are the backboard benches and the Lat Tower. The backboard benches would break after regular use of these home gyms over a short period of time. There were reports of over seventy injuries including shoulder, back and neck injury cases. None of the cases were reported as serious. The Lat Tower on the Bowflex fitness machine and exercise equipment would rotate forward and in some cases even fall on top of the person using it! Can you imagine that? You’re pulling down on the handgrips to work out your shoulders, and the lat tower rotates and crashes on your head! There were about eighteen injury reports on the back, nose, teeth, head and shoulders. Many of these injuries required stitches. The good news is it seems that the Nautilus Group has fixed the problems with the Bowflex. None of the current Bowflex models made after December 2004 have been recalled for any safety issues. If you purchased your Bowflex before December 2004, however, you may want to contact the Nautilus Group to see about a resolution, and use extreme caution when exercising with your Bowflex. The Nautilus Group is offering anyone with these home gyms a free repair kit that will fix both safety issues with the Bowflex exercise equipment. They have a twenty-four hour hot line you can call to get your free repair kit shipped directly to your home.

Caution on used or older models of Bowflex

The Bowflex website also has more information about the Bowflex fitness equipment and all the precautions needed to use these home gyms until your repair package can be assembled onto the machine. Basically, if you have one of the recalled Bowflex machines, you should only use the backboard bench in the first position and not adjust it. Avoid use of the Lat Tower at all until you’ve received and installed the repair kit to your Bowflex fitness equipment. The Bowflex fitness machine and home gym system recall affects anyone with the stated models that were purchased between the dates of January 1995 and December 2003. If you’re in the market for a new Bowflex, then know from all these facts that Bowflex is a company dedicated to safety and consumer satisfaction!

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Bowflex Home gyms can be huge pieces of exercise equipment that take up an entire room. Or they can be a single piece of equipment that fits nicely into the corner. Some Bowflexes don’t require their own addresses in your home, and yet it’s one of the most powerful home gyms on the market.

What Compares with Bowflex?

People who use the Bowflex for twenty minutes a day, three days a week have reported amazing results in the strength and tone of their bodies, as well as improved weight loss. The low impact Bowflex Power Rods reduce or eliminate the joint pain that often occurs when lifting free weights. And they provide even resistance for a consistent workout. Bowflex offers an unconditional money back guarantee for people who are skeptical of the exclusive Power Rod system for weight training. You can use the Bowflex in their homes for up to six weeks, and if you’re not happy with it for any reason, return it for a full refund. (But you pay the shipping and handling on the return. It’s supposed to go back in the original box with EVERYTHING returned to get your refund) The Crossbow Weider makes the competitive home gym, the Crossbow. Often compared to Bowflex for its similarly designed exercise equipment, the crossbow is fairly large, so you’ll likely need an entire room to set it up in- or the basement, the whole basement. Why is it called Crossbow? Take a look at one on the web. And think Robin Hood. Now, it’s not lethal, but it looks like it could be. Maybe it makes you think powerful thoughts while you’re developing powerful muscles. Weider built “only” 65 different exercises into a single machine as compared to 90+ for Bowflex. But 65 should be plenty for most of us.

What Are the Differences?

Popular exercises for this style of home gym include chest press, incline fly, leg press, bent over row and shoulder press. Like Bowflex, this is both a cardiovascular and weight training machine and allows both forms of exercise on a single piece of exercise equipment. The Crossbow uses a system they call Compound Resistance, which is meant to provide a full range of motion. You can easily change the amount of resistance, meaning you don’t waste time changing weights. Another feature of the Crossbow that you won’t find on Bowflex home gyms is the “lat tower”. This helps you strengthen your lats, traps and shoulders. The reason most people choose a Crossbow over a Bowflex is because of the price difference- Crossbows are far less expensive. You may also find you have a better range of motion with a Crossbow, and more weight resistance.

Another Bowflex Competitor

Trailing these two competitors is the Bodycraft home gym. It’s a complete weight training exercise equipment machines, but only for weight training. With the optional Leg Press unit, it mirrors professional ones in an in-home unit. The Bodycraft doesn’t offer any form of aerobic exercise to build up your endurance. It is strictly for weight training, which builds strength in specific muscles. Bodycraft home gyms differ from both Bowflex and Crossbow in that they use the traditional weight system rather than resistance training.

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Treadmills For Fitness offers equipment designed to give you the kind of low-impact workouts your body’s been craving, with the added benefits of state of the art fitness technology as well as top-grade workmanship. There are a number of treadmills available on the market today, and the new machines hitting the market now are giving you the kind of machine made to take your fitness to the next level! No more farming out the kids, finding the car keys, fighting traffic and jockeying for parking spaces! You can work out on your own terms and save time and money. Treadmills are compact and easy to use, and will give you more time in your busy day for all the other needs pressing for your attention.

Treadmills for fitness makes it hard to fail at getting fit, with numerous choices available for all your equipment needs, you can design the workout regimen suited to your own particular needs. Whether your’ trying to lose weight or get strong or some combination of these, treadmills for fitness delivers! Studies show that a 20-30 minute workout three times a week can bring about your desired results in less time than you imagine.

Here we’ll look into all the major brands, their pluses and minuses, as well as other useful treadmill and fitness resources all designed to help you get in the kind of shape you want to be!

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