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Health and Fitness > Fitness Equipment > What is the Bowflex Revolution?
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Brent Craig
The dictionary defines revolution as “a sudden or momentous change in a situation”. In the case of home gym training equipment, the Bowflex Revolution certainly lives up to that description.
Bowflex is the branch of Nautilus that deals specifically with equipment for home training enthusiasts. Nautilus is a brand that is recognized by most who have spent any time in a commercial gym. Their reputation for building durable, and well-designed equipment is unparallelled. In the commercial gym environment, however, most Nautilus machines are geared toward one or two specific muscles or muscle groups. That's why there are so many machines in a commercial gym; not just to accommodate the numbers but to accommodate the many different exercises. In a home gym, this is simply impractical.
Another reason most commercial gym equipment is not practical at home is that the machines usually use weight plates to create resistance. This means a machine often has to have hundreds of pounds of weight in order to provide a decent workout. To have that much weight in a home machine, bearing down on your floor joists, or needing to be moved occasionally, is just not realistic.
Enter the Bowflex. Nautilus' first attempt at dealing with these two barriers to a practical home gym was the Power Rod technology. This idea was using resistant plastic rods instead of weights. The movement is smooth, the rods very lightweight, and the one machine was designed for a multitude of exercises.
But again two disadvantages occurred with the Bowflex Power Rod system. First, the rods are long, and need a fair bit of space on either side for free movement, thus making the space requirement for the machine pretty large. Second, the rods offer what is known as progressive resistance, meaning that the further the rod is bent the more force is required. This is fine on the positive motion, but on the negative the resistance tapers off, meaning the full range of the movement is
not being resisted.
But now with the Bowflex Revolution both of these problems have been addressed. Instead of using power rods, the Revolution uses what is called Spiraflex technology, a design that was created to allow astronauts to work out in a zero gravity environment. Spiraflex uses strong elastic bands coiled around a mechanism inside a drum. It looks very much like a standard weight plate, but weighs a lot less. And, unlike the power rods, the plates are very compact, so the machine requires a much smaller footprint in a room in order to function.
Second, the tension of the Spiraflex plates is what is called linear, meaning it is a constant level, from start to finish in a movement. This is a far more efficient form of resistance, since from start to finish the muscles must work hard in order to complete the movement. Many free weight enthusiasts, for instance, will often do what they call negative reps, with the help of an assistant. For instance, a weight lifter will get help pushing up a bench press, but must return the bar back down slowly unassisted. The linear resistance of the Spiraflex plates offers equal positive and negative tension, so the full range of the motion is being resisted. This is a very efficient way to work a muscle.
The Bowflex Revolution has taken the next step in the evolution of home gyms. It is still a fairly heavy unit, but one that can be folded up and moved by a single person. It is compact, and can be setup in a reasonably small space. The workouts themselves are excellent, and there are literally hundreds of different exercises that can be done on the machine. The Bowflex Revolution certainly does qualify as a sudden or momentous change in the situation of home training.
For more information on Bowflex or The Bowflex Revolution, please visit:
http://www.HomeSportsGear.com
Brent Craig is a writer/researcher and an avid Bowflex user.
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