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.

I hear a lot of positive things about Bowflex, even from dedicated bodybuilders so I am convinced it can help you. When planning for our home gym I looked at units on E-Bay, and even USED ones were going for $1000

Yes, until recently it didn't support leg training properly and even the new "Ultimate" suffers somewhat. But truthfully, very few pieces of home equipment offer a variety of quality leg exercises. I know in a couple of years I will have to shell out $1300 or so for a decent hack squat/leg press machine

You will have to stick with free squats, lunges, and aerobic work for leg development.

If you can pick this up for $300, I say go for it and see what happens for less than the price of a 1 yr gym membership

Hi, I've got one w/ lat extension and leg add-ons. It's probably one of the best home workout systems out there. I tend to go to the gym and only use it as a backup however.
You can do a lot with this machine. It's more versatile than buying a bunch of weights.
Go for it!

Thanks for the feedback Doug and Shark. It looks like it is still going to be worthwhile pursuing even if the lower body exercises are on the scant side.

I've gone to the bowflex site and printed off a copy of the exercise manaual for their bottom of the line model. It's a little scant on lower body exercises because it doesn't have the leg curl attachment, but there are a few that would add variation to what I'm doing. It's certainly going to give me much more variety on upper body exercises, the ones that I'm really wrestling with now with the dumbbells.

The Blowflex for sale is about 7 years old, one of their first models. Once I get the model number I can contact the company to see if they have attachments that will fit on it.

Now that I have the manual, I'll be able to give it a try for a few days and see how I feel about buying it.

Thanks again for your input.