Bowflex Detail

June 9, 2009 4:24 PM

On a bowflex machine, when you follow a specified workout that uses two pulleys, is the "weight" calculated by adding the numbers of the rods on both pulleys together? Or do you simply add up the number on one side?

I have an old bowflex and forgot something basic! The "Power Rods" each have numbers on them, signifying resistance or "weight." Say I want to do a 70 lb press, do I hook up 35 on each side or do I hook up 70 on each side. Now, before someone says, "It doesn't matter, as long as you're consistent," let me add that I have an entire workout history from "back in the day" on this machine, and I want to compare with that; and I don't remember how I did it back then, except that I probably did it "right," after watching a DVD. This time, I just want to get started.

posted by swlabr to health & fitness (5 comments total)

If you put up 70 pounds on each side doesn't this mean each arm is trying to move 70 pounds worth of resistance, or a 140 pound press?

That's what would happen if you were lifting free weights.
posted by dfriedman at 4:45 PM on June 9

That's what has confused me: You're perfectly right, if it's dead weights. But these workouts call for, say, an 85 lb. bench press; yet the smallest increment of resistance on any one side is five pounds. So, either it is imbalanced or you can't get 85. All of the rods are marked with numbers evenly divisible by five. There is no 2 1/2 lb. rod to make a total of five.

So, I feel stupid for asking the question and think the manual is stupid not to answer it where I can find it: It has to be that you to get 85 on a bowflex, you put 85 on each side. Oddly enough, the bowflex fancy workout program for the computer, which is actually quite nice, has some one-arm workouts where the suggested weight ends in "5," so in that case, I guess 5 on one-side is 5. But for two-arm workouts, 5 for both arms means 5 on each side........
posted by swlabr at 5:08 PM on June 9

Hmm. Surely there's some number of pounds x where you can easily bench-press x pounds, but couldn't possibly bench-press 2x. Load up that number of power rods and see if you can move it.
posted by box at 5:39 PM on June 9

Definitely add them together. 50 lbs on each side equals a 100 lb bench press. I also got confused by the notation and accidentally doubled my load one workout-- I have never felt so weak, or so sore!
posted by bonheur at 6:22 PM on June 9

Well, for the good of the order, I must report/admit that I just noticed, on the graphical interface for the Bowflex i-Trainer program I am using, the following language above the workout chart, "The weight is shown for each side of the power rods."
posted by swlabr at 12:42 PM on June 20