Weider Crossbow or Bowflex?

[spartacus321]

Bowflex seems to be very popular but a friend recently told me about the competitor to the Bowflex which is the Weider Crossbow system... works almost the same, with the tension rods, etc.

The major difference I believe was the price between the two, with the Crossbow coming out alot cheaper...

I'm thinking of getting one soon and wanted to know which would be the better buy, regardless of price. Anyone here owns/uses a crossbow home gym and can safely say it's worth it?

Thanks.

 

[mrrman]

I was looking at both to....sort of had my mind set on the Crossbow because of price but overall I think the Bowflex is the one to get...

 

[TitanDiddly]

Never buy anything with prolific TV advertising.

 

[edro]

My roommate had a Crossbow, and since we moved into a new apartment, he just took it home to his parents' house. I personally hate the thing. I would probably hate teh Crossbow too though. I hate the "bow" tension feeling. It is very unstable compared to dumbells...to me. You get this weird wobble motion going. They say that is supposed to help you with stabilizer muscles, but I still hate it. Plus, even though you CAN do all the exercises they say you can, you really can't effectively. I will stick to my gym. If you can't make it to a real gym, I guess it's ok, but I would rather buy a free weights setup. You can do damn near everything with dumbells.

 

[Kelemvor]

I'd go with the Crossbow. Much cheaper, better range of motion.

Oh yeah.. Where's the POLL?

 

[cjgallen]

We have the Chuck Norris Totaly Gym, got it new on ebay for around $400. It uses your own body weight as resistance, but you can use a regular barbell and weights to add resistance if you require it. Worth considering I guess. Never tried the bowflex/crossbow types, so I can't really give you a comparison.

 

[spartacus321]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
I'd go with the Crossbow. Much cheaper, better range of motion.

Oh yeah.. Where's the POLL?

Ooops!

Poll added!

 

[Rudee]

It doesn't matter as they will both end up as expensive dust collectors.

 

[Trogdor91]

Free weights.

 

[BannedTroll]

Originally posted by: Trogdor91
Free weights.

 

[Gurck]

Neither, both are way overpriced and won't do what you want. Even if they weren't spending all of their profits on advertising instead of R&D, there's no way to get the full benefits of weight training without freeweights... or even come close, for that matter.

 

[spartacus321]

Thanks for all the comments so far...

I'm 6'1 and around 220 pounds, i'd say over the past 4 months or so i've gained about 10 pounds, i've never really been happy with my physique so i'm looking to lose a bit of the weight first then get into the muscle training.

I have an Orbitrek which i'll start using frequently, also play football (soccer) twice a week, and would probably start walking/running too.

Hoping to cut down to around 200 pounds, aiming to get there by july/august.

 

[Trogdor91]

Easiest way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: BannedTroll

Originally posted by: Trogdor91
Free weights.

 

[Wahsapa]

Originally posted by: Trogdor91
Easiest way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn

wrong

easiest way to lose weight is to smoke crack

 

[Peetoeng]

Join a gym on month per month basis. You can quit anytime w/o spending lots of money upront but end up with big chunk of useless equipment.

 

[Astu222]

Originally posted by: Wahsapa

Originally posted by: Trogdor91
Easiest way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn

wrong

easiest way to lose weight is to smoke crack

:thumbsup:

 

[scauffiel]

If you're going to go ahead and get something like this, look into one of those "play it again sports" types of stores that sells fitness gear on consignment. I was considering the Bowflex and one finally came in at a bit less than $600 in brand new condition. For a machine that goes for something like $2k, that was a pretty good deal.

Steve