Favorite Gear - Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE Home Gym

For approximately 10 years I was a member at 24 Hour Fitness gyms and overall I really enjoyed the experience. However as I began spending a greater percentage of my days at work, I found it becoming more and more difficult to make it over to the gym. So about 5 years ago I decided that I would empty one of the spare rooms in my house and covert it into a workout room. The room is pretty small at about 10x10', so I had very limited space to work with. Fortunately I live in Southern California, so all of my cardio work is done outdoors in the form of hiking and running. So I did not need a large piece of cardio equipment in the room. So that left a couple of pieces of strength training equipment that would fit into the room and give me enough space to workout without having to move equipment around.

I began the search online and quickly found that most of the strength training and weight machines on the market were large in size and would not work for what I was looking for. That was when I remembered all of those Bowflex commercials I saw while watching Sportscenter in the middle of the night. So off I went in search of Bowflex equipment.

The first piece of equipment I needed was a home gym. I wanted something that would allow me to target just about any muscle group in body: arms, legs, back, chest, abs... everything. So I narrowed the selection down to the Bowflex Home Gyms. There were a number of options here, from the smaller entry level gyms to the Ultimate home gyms. After a ton of research I settled in on the Bowflex Xtreme 2 Home Gym.


The Bowflex Xtreme 2 Home Gym is one of the power rod based gyms. It provides a wide range of exercises (over 70) covering all sections of the body. It comes with 210 pounds of resistance standard, though I ended up getting a 100 pound upgrade to bring the total resistance to 310 pounds. You can upgrade further to 410 pounds for those stronger folks out there! The Bowflex Xtreme 2 uses a combination of multiple hand grips and bars with multiple pulley positions to cover just about any exercise you could ask for. With the lat bar upper pulley positions, the mid chest/back pulley positions, plus the lower leg level positions, you can create just about any angle you need. Plus each of the positions also allows a wider or narrower position. Add in a leg extension all exercises are covered.

I have been using the Bowflex Xtreme 2 for about five years now and am very pleased with the results. The machine works every bit as well today as it did the day I set it up. The movements are smooth with a nice peak difficulty at the ends of the movements as the power rods reach their maximum bend. While nothing can replace an entire 24 Hour Fitness gym, I do feel as though this machine allows me to do everything I need to keep strong and in shape. So I would highly recommend the Bowflex Xtreme 2, or any of the other Bowflex home gyms. The current version of the gym I have is the Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE Home Gym.


So if you are looking for a home gym that will provide you with a wide range of exercises without taking up too much space, I would recommend taking a look at the Bowflex products. They have a few additional models worth looking at as well:

• Bowflex Motivator 2 Home Gym
• Bowflex Xceed Plus Home Gym
• Bowflex Ultimate XTLU Home Gym

My next article will be about my latest addition to my workout room, the Bowflex SelectTech weights.

-BeeHawk-