Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Sixpence on February 19, 2006, 09:25:18 AM
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Was looking into getting one of these machines. I really don't want to join a gym and would like to get something for home use. I have seen some cheaper alternatives, but I like what I see. Anyone have one of these?
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Chuck Norris will roundhouse kick you to the face if you dont get one.
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Here is a thread of opinions on Bowflex:
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-16218
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
Here is a thread of opinions on Bowflex:
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-16218
Thnx for the link, I have read a few of these, I was hoping someone here might have one. It seems compact where you can get alot out of a small amount of space.
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Originally posted by Sixpence
Thnx for the link, I have read a few of these, I was hoping someone here might have one. It seems compact where you can get alot out of a small amount of space.
I used to have my own home equipment in our first house, in one of the garage bays. I found I wasn't discipline enough to "push" myself. I needed a gym environment, where I could call on another gym rat to come over and spot me when I needed it. In my home gym, my body weight went from 155 lbs. to 170lb. in 2 years.(I was 32) I joined a gym and within 2 years, I went from 170lb to 215lb. body weight. (I'm hovering around 205 right now, a comfortable body weight for me at 45 years old) I think the gym pushes you mentally.
It all depends what your goals are....if you just want to tone, without losing or gaining weight, the Bowflex should be good for you. Those guys on TV did NOT get to look like they do by Bowflex. ;)
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I did notice that a lot of the "guys" on that board have no car and.... never had one... when asked about dating they seem to not really understand... they talk about women like they have never seen one.... "never came up" when asked about how they date without a car... you get the impression their "dates" all come from the gym.
lazs
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The only big problem with bowflex in my opinion is that the resistance increases the farther you pull on the cables. Pre-loading the pull helps but it's still not at all linear.
You may be better off getting a nice adjustable bench, some free weights, and a good book on how to use them.
I tend to injure myself lifting weights due to instability in my joints caused by a decade of competitive swimming, so I usually workout in the pool... A good swim workout offers infinately variable resistance and level of difficulty for every single muscle group without having to change weights or reconfigure any equipment :)
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I use both the bowflex and free weights. Some things are much better suited for the bowflex, some are better with free weights. If you are limited in space the boxflex is the way to go. Eagl pointed out a flaw in the bowflex that can be a pain. It really is not as much weight as it list. For instance Mine has 400 lbs of resistance" and I can bench press every bit of it. That being said I can't come anywhere near 400lbs on free weights.
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There are many different lifts you can with just a barbell and free weights. You can work lower body and upper body with just a barbell and bench. Work your chest with benching. Then use the barbell for deadlifts, shoulder press, working your biceps with bicep curls or bent over rows, and you can do RDLs which are romanian deadlifts that work hamstrings. Most of these are about form so you can isolate the muscle and able to work the muscle. And if you can get a cage to rest a barbell on you can do the squad lifts.
But in general if you have a barbell you can work out many parts of you body.
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I have a home gym in my garage; it's a big coat hanger. I also have a rowboat and a kayak; much better choice for me and I use them all the time.
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Well, I thought the resistance method might make a difference, maybe not I guess.
I am slowly getting back into a work out routine. What my workouts would be when I was young was done on the cheap. I would stretch alot, mainly legs, hamstrings, quads, the works, I felt that stretching the legs in itself was a great workout(actually, I learned it from karate when I was young), then I would walk for about 2 hours, sometimes 4(I hated running, sprints were ok, but distance, I hated it and couldn't make myself do it). For upper body that was done on the cheap too, I had a chin up bar and would do push ups and sit ups. I would ride my bike alot too. Shoot, at one point I could do 21 chin ups and 75 push ups was a breeze. That was @ 200 lbs, I used to be in great shape.
I have a treadmill now for walking, I have the nordictrack 1900. That combined with the bowflex I thought would cram alot of what I used to do right in my own home. I don't have the time to do what I did when I had less responsibilty.
My health is the issue, it's kind of funny reading Rip's post, I envy him. My problem is keeping weight off. If I do not exercise, I put weight on, it's just the way i'm made, and sometimes it feels like such a burden. I am 40, and I don't want my health to become an issue. Diabetes runs in the family, and although my cholesterol and blood pressure are fine, weight is a problem, so I want to nip it in the bud before it's too late.
So it's not about building muscle, it's more about weight and health. Maybe i'll skip the bowflex for now and see where the push ups and sit ups take me.
To be honest, I don't enjoy working out anymore, but the fear of my health failing is what makes me do it.
Thnx for the info guys.
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You’ve got to find something fun then. I’m 40 as well and also have lost a bit of leanness. I hate “working out” but enjoy doing stuff outdoors. Get a: bicycle, rowboat, roller blades, cross country skies, kayak, dog, or even join a soccer team, etc. If you’ve never done some of these things, rent or borrow equipment to try it out. I take my daughters out in the rowboat several times a week in the spring, summer and fall. When its nasty or dangerous or they can’t go I take the kayak.
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I can bench 308 with it
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Originally posted by eskimo2
You’ve got to find something fun then. I’m 40 as well and also have lost a bit of leanness. I hate “working out” but enjoy doing stuff outdoors. Get a: bicycle, rowboat, roller blades, cross country skies, kayak, dog, or even join a soccer team, etc. If you’ve never done some of these things, rent or borrow equipment to try it out. I take my daughters out in the rowboat several times a week in the spring, summer and fall. When its nasty or dangerous or they can’t go I take the kayak.
Personally I like all the above. The "working out" allows me to do the outdoor stuff with the kids without being sore the next day. ;)
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Originally posted by lazs2
I did notice that a lot of the "guys" on that board have no car and.... never had one... when asked about dating they seem to not really understand... they talk about women like they have never seen one.... "never came up" when asked about how they date without a car... you get the impression their "dates" all come from the gym.
lazs
come out of the closet lazs, we'll except you. :p
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Then the best thing can do is aerobic work if trying to lose fat. Go running, set a goal length and dont stop and walk. Keep running doesnt matter how slow your going. Pushups wont do much except build muscle in the upper body if thats what you want.
Doing heavy lifting though can help lose weight but wont see it on a scale as muscle weights twice as much as fat. If your sweating a lot while lifting heavy weights you are burning fat.
If you want to go cheap though and avoid those expensive machines just by a bench. You can many excercises with just that and work many different muscles as I listed in my post above.
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Check the used mechandise in buy & sell...always lots people sellin that sorta stuff cheap.
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Originally posted by eskimo2
I also have a rowboat and a kayak
Hey eskimo, you have one of these:
(http://www.yin.or.jp/user/hatago/boat_image/rowboat.jpg)
or one of these:
(http://www.gorow.com/ocregister2000.jpg)
I have the latter, a cedar single shell I bought new in '87, and one of these that I row in the winter.
(http://www.concept2.ee/images/disain_ergo1.jpg)
When weight training is on the menu, I go to the gym. It seems that the act of going somewhere to weight train is a motivation in and of itself to actually get the circuit done.
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100 crunchies
100 push-ups
a day
and get one of these (http://www.waterrower.com/)
I have one and love it.
Take a bike out or run a bit. Clubs are a waste of money.........something for the muckies.
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Originally posted by Monk
100 crunchies
100 push-ups
a day
and get one of these (http://www.waterrower.com/)
I have one and love it.
Take a bike out or run a bit. Clubs are a waste of money.........something for the muckies.
I would argue that, we have a family membership at the YMCA and we all use it 364 days a year, either swimming lessons for the kids, basketball, my son lifts weights and runs on the treadmill with me (he's 10, so his weight lifting is light weight, lots of reps) and the wife takes advantage of the aerobics at the club. They even have this "Parents NIght Out" program where you drop your kids off, while you and your spouse can go out and enjoy a night until 11pm without the kids. They feed the kids, take them to the pool, other fun activities.
Speaking of excercise, gotta go, the family is heading up to the pass to get some skiing/snowboarding in. Ciao!
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I have a POS flat bottomed, square nosed, 11.5’ x 3.5’, aluminum skiff and wooden oars. The only good thing about it is that I can put it on my car’s roof rack by myself and it will hold my daughters and enough toys, food and junk to entertain them for a couple of hours. I typically row from two to six miles whenever I take them out. I also have a POS $35 garage sale two-hole kayak that I re-glassed; it can hold my wife, two oldest daughters and I but usually just I put both kids in the front hole. The hull is canoe shaped, so it’s not very fast but is pretty stable. Lastly I have two POS whitewater kayaks that I’ve had forever and have hauled from Alaska to Colorado and now to Ohio. I would love to get a sculling boat or an efficient family-sized row boat, but I am poor so I just use the heck out of what I have. I think I’d paddle an old log if it’s all I had.
When I lived in Hawaii I had a skinny 19’ sit-on-top ocean racing kayak. That was the best paddling experience ever. I cruised all over Oahu, surfed, chased turtles, dolphins, cargo ships and even participated in ocean racing (I sucked though).
(http://www.wwiirt.com/halls/images/jan_06_kayak_geese.jpg)
(http://www.wwiirt.com/halls/archived_stories/kayak_a.jpg)
(http://www.wwiirt.com/halls/archived_stories/girls_rowboat_3.jpg)
eskimo
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Eskimo,
Make sure you get the girls used to the idea of hopping out of the boat and swimming occasionally. Get some masks, snorkels, and kiddie size fins and get them in the water whenever you find something interesting underwater. They're the perfect age to start getting them comfortable with skindiving equipment in a swimming pool.
I've found being comfortable in any water environment has been a huge benefit in my life, and it's funny/sad how so many people are terrified by the thought of swimming in the ocean. If kids are introduced to it when they're young, they'll benefit from that extra comfort level for their entire life. Few things are as cool as rowing/paddling a kayak out into the ocean, seeing a huge flock of manta rays swimming underneath, and being able to jump in and dive down for a closer look. Been there as a kid at scout camp out on catalina island, and it's one of my favorite growing-up memories. But it wouldn't have happened if my parent's weren't proactive in making sure I got into the water.
The same goes for camping and outdoor skills, but this thread semi-hijack is about boats :)
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I work out twice a day by carrying a cow up a mountain.
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Originally posted by eagl
Eskimo,
Make sure you get the girls used to the idea of hopping out of the boat and swimming occasionally. Get some masks, snorkels, and kiddie size fins and get them in the water whenever you find something interesting underwater. They're the perfect age to start getting them comfortable with skindiving equipment in a swimming pool.
I've found being comfortable in any water environment has been a huge benefit in my life, and it's funny/sad how so many people are terrified by the thought of swimming in the ocean. If kids are introduced to it when they're young, they'll benefit from that extra comfort level for their entire life. Few things are as cool as rowing/paddling a kayak out into the ocean, seeing a huge flock of manta rays swimming underneath, and being able to jump in and dive down for a closer look. Been there as a kid at scout camp out on catalina island, and it's one of my favorite growing-up memories. But it wouldn't have happened if my parent's weren't proactive in making sure I got into the water.
The same goes for camping and outdoor skills, but this thread semi-hijack is about boats :)
That’s good advice. We take them to swimming lessons in the summers. The six year old is naturally a wimp and wouldn’t put her head under water until she was 5 last summer. The four year old is pretty much the opposite and would spend most of her time under water last year when she was three. We have one more who turns one in a couple of weeks; no Idea how she will turn out. The lakes in my part of Ohio are not great for swimming; lots of little creatures that can make you sick. The summer before last the entire family (from age 2 to 85) got sick from swimming at a designated swimming lake. Our doctors advised that they saw lots of cases like ours all summer long.
I actually have a fear of water and can’t swim worth a damn. I’m religious about wearing a life jacket though. In Hawaii I got my butt kicked in the surf a few times. After whipping out in the surf I’d have to get back on my boat, point it into the next wave, paddle into it, put my head and chest down and knife the paddle so that I could punch through it. Usually I couldn’t make it all happen quickly enough and the wave would eat me up again. Several minutes of this would just wear me out. Without a life jacket on I don’t think I would have survived some of those episodes.
Since this thread has been totally hijacked to boating, here are a few kayak clips from my family web site:
Kayaking on Ice - 1-28-06
http://www.wwiirt.com/halls/movies/kayak_1_28_2006.wmv
Windows Media Video - 66 seconds, 4.7 MB
Kayaking in January - 1-25-06
http://www.wwiirt.com/halls/movies/kayak_jan.wmv
Windows Media Video - 34 seconds, 2.7 MB
David, Svea & Brigitta in the two hole Kayak - 3-29-05
http://www.wwiirt.com/halls/movies/kayaking_2005.wmv
Windows Media Video - 25 seconds, 1.2 MB
eskimo
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Surf swimming is an art... Takes practice in low surf conditions before you figure it out. In many cases, you're best off hugging your gear and diving for the bottom under the wave. If you have a kayak or whatever that you have to drag with you, either throw it over the wave ahead of you and dive under, or just tie it to your ankle and go under the waves with the kayak/board/whatever smashing through/over the wave up top.
Snorkeling is fun though. Get the kids some mask/snorkel/fin sets for the pool. Go cheap since you don't need expensive gear as a kid and they'll outgrow it in a year anyhow. If possible, get fins that have adjustable straps so at least those will last a year or two. Then if/when you get to a nice snorkeling location, buy some newer gear and let the kids enjoy the underwater sights instead of having to first learn how to get comfortable diving down before they can enjoy what they see.
Heck, put on a mask and some fins yourself, and un-learn your water aversion :) Thrash about in a pool until you can swim for about 30 min without much rest, and then take scuba lessons. If you can get that first scuba certificate, you won't regret it.
In that second vid, I thought the swan was gonna come over and kick your butt :)
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Cargo magazine has a pretty good workout program going on; combo of Pilates, free weight, and cardio. Starts out with 15 minutes of Pilates and some jumprope. No gym membership, no big equipment required. Even has an online log to track your progress and keep you motivated, along with diet and training tips.