I have the opportunity to try before I buy an older model Blowflex machine. It has resistance to 250 lbs. The bench can be made flat or seated. The bench is low to the ground, unlike the new model which has a normal bench height. It only has one set of pulleys at ground level. The bench does not have the ankle and knee padded holders. Don't know what those are called - but I've seen people use the ankle ones to hold themeselves steady while doing crunches, and the knee ones generally have weight for doing calf, hamstring and quad exercises. This model does not have those.

The owner is looking for the book with the exercises, and will let me try it for a few days before I decide to buy.

Questions:
- does anyone have one like this and find it is satisfying?

- with only one set of pulleys at floor level, will this restrict range of motion and direction? I tried ackwardly to do flyes with it quickly last night but really didn't have time to experiment to see if it was working the right muscles.

- will it give me a solid base of lower body exercises? It looks like it will be great for upper body, but I want/need something that will really work my lower body.

It could be a pretty good deal, but if it is going to be too limiting from the start, then it might just be a waste of money.

I'm going to be checking out those web sites that have the resistance training exercises to see if the ones tagged as cable exercises can be done on this thing...but don't know if the single set of low pulleys will be a limiting factor.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.