Bowflex or free weights

I am new to this board so if this has already been brought up please let me know. I have a question. I have free weights at home I have the whole thing- Power rack with a lat attachment, barbell for bench brabell for arms, and I also have a set of Power blocks. But I have been thinking about selling my stuff and getting a bowflex, I have heard good and bad so what is the real deal will the bowflex bulid muscle like free weights because I have heard that it will because there is always tension on your muscle unlike free weights so someone please help me. I have some good stuff and I do not want to sell it and regret it later on. Thanks

free wieghts are better if you wanna build muscle mass but bow flex gets you cut. If you can have both do free wieghts for a week then bow flew a week or do every other day

Thanks, I think I rather be cut I am 29 married and have two kids I rather be cut and look good for a long time than look big right know and watch it all turn to fat as I get older

and watch it all turn to fat as I get older

Muscle turning to fat is such a myth.

Hopefully this forum will help to educate. Welcome to DB.

If you just want to workout, have space, and have quick easy workouts, then a Bowflex is just fine. If you want to work the muscles as they truly move, with real weight, and build mass, then free weights.

But from the sounds of it, Bowflex would be fine for you.

I liked my Soloflex. I didn't gain much mass. But I kept in shape. It was compact. I liked that it worked ever major muscle. Good piece of equipment.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Do You Twitter?  If So....
Follow Me On Twitter

ORIGINAL: andy

free wieghts are better if you wanna build muscle mass but bow flex gets you cut. If you can have both do free wieghts for a week then bow flew a week or do every other day

 
There is no basis for assuming that a bow is only good for cutting. For size, u need progressive resistance over time, whether weights or bow.
 
Either form of resistance then has to be accompanied by an effective diet for cutting.

Don't sell your free weights defintely keep them. Bowflex is good, but freeweights are ten times better. Bowflex and other machines have a limited motion which cut out the use of stabilizer muscles which limit gains. Free weights use those muscles and thus produce better results. The myth about muscle turning to fat is not true like Marc said. So keep the freeweights.

Lifts: Bench-285, ATG Squat-485, Deadlift-495

Actually, the bowflex is very good in regards to the enlistment of stabilizer muscles, it's even a legit part of their marketing literature.

Another preconception easily disgarded lol
 
Not the same as some machines that do not enlist stabilizer muscles. Besides which the whole stabilizer muscle theory's unproven as to any real advantage.

bowflex works on resistance.  it's not bad at all. just depends on what you want
 
and muscle doesn't turn into fat

i would venture to say that everyone on the bowflex commercials with the ripped bodies did NOT train on a bowflex to look the way they do.  in some form or another... they HAD to have incoorporated free weight exercises into their regime.

they might have gotten on a bowflex for a time, but i can pretty much guarantee that those people did not get their bodies by using the bowflex 100% of the time.   Other things were used.

My name is FOX.... and I approve this message.

Return of the living dead .......................................................

ORIGINAL: TheSilverFox

i would venture to say that everyone on the bowflex commercials with the ripped bodies did NOT train on a bowflex to look the way they do.  in some form or another... they HAD to have incoorporated free weight exercises into their regime.

they might have gotten on a bowflex for a time, but i can pretty much guarantee that those people did not get their bodies by using the bowflex 100% of the time.   Other things were used.

 
haha like that 50 year old grandma that looked fiiiiiiiiiine on that one commercial
 
but you're right.  i'd be willing to say nobody that works out on just a bowflex will look as good as some of the members here.
 
but that's how bowflex sells so many products. they put these nice bodied people on the commercials and people think the bowflex allowed them to look that good.
 
also, that 4 week gurantee of "noticing a differnece in 4 weeks" is genius.  If you tell someone they're going to notice a difference in 4 weeks, you bet that person is going to look in the mirror in 4 weeks and look as every single part of their body to find a difference; they'll look hard enough to say they found one, and then fall in love with the bowflex. 
 
i know i've fallen victim to it before, but the bowflex and every other weight company never mentions anything about diet.  they want people to think that working out alone is going to get you jacked.  but diet is the most important thing.
 
that's why i rarely listen to outside sources about working out. (but i am glad i listened about food being #1 over supps, thanks yall.) the only people i listen to are the guy i train with, my 2 day a week trainer, and most importantly, myself.  these companies are so good at brainwashing and tricking the public that it makes me sick

Everyone has to make money, and that's just there method, but I agree it would be nice to go in a more truthful way about it.