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Bowflex PR3000 Home Gym

by storemaster Leave a reply »

The Bowflex PR3000 home gym is a great way to strengthen your muscles with over 50 strength exercises and a built-in rowing station. With up to 210 pounds of Power Rod resistance (can be upgraded to 310 pounds), this versatile machine helps work the abs, arms, chest, back, shoulders, and lower body. It includes a no-change cable pulley system, vertical bench press, triple-function hand grips for lat pull-down, and four-inch upholstered roller cushions for leg extension and leg curl exercises.

The PR3000 utilizes Bowflex’s patented Power Rods, which provide resistance, or weight, that feels as good as or better than free weights–but without the inertia or risk of joint pain usually associated with free weights. You can hook one, two, three, four or all of your Power Rod units to the cable pulley system and go from as little as 5 pounds all the way up to 210 pounds of resistance.

They’re precisely manufactured from a high-tech composite material under the highest quality control measures, then sheathed and tested 4 separate times to ensure quality and durability. The Power Rod units are so strong, you can flex them repeatedly but you won’t be able to wear them out.

Features and Specifications:

Multi-use Hand-Grip/Ankle Cuffs designed to add flexibility and performance to any workout
Workout Placard displays workout descriptions for easy reference while you’re exercising
Number of available exercises: 50+
No-change cable pulley system
210 pounds of Power Rod resistance (which can be upgraded to 310 pounds)
Four-inch upholstered roller cushions for leg extension and leg curl
Vertical bench press
Triple function hand grips for lat pull down
Triple function ankle cuff grips
Leg Attachment
Height: 83 inches (211 cm)
Length 64 inches (163 cm)
Width 41 inches (104 cm)
Workout Area: 100 x 78 inches (254 x 199 cm)
Maximum User Weight: 300 pounds (136 kg)

Exercises:

Bench Press

Decline Bench Press

Incline Bench Press

Crossover High Rear Delt Rows

Seated Shoulder Press

Shoulder Shrug

Lateral Shoulder Raise

Shoulder Rotator Cuff (internal)

Shoulder Rotator Cuff (external)

Standing Low Back Extension

Narrow Pulldowns

Stiff-Arm Pulldowns

Reverse Grip Pulldown

Triceps Pushdown

Triceps Extension

Seated Biceps Curl

Triceps Kickback

Seated (Resisted) Abdominal Crunch

Trunk Rotation

Leg Extension

Squat

Standing Calf Raise

Standing Hip Extension (knee bent)

Standing Hip Adduction

Standing Hip Abduction

Hip Flexion

Manufacturer’s Warranty
Frame – one year; Rods – seven years; Parts – 60 days

Bowflex PR3000 Home Gym

Features

Get a total body strength workout with affordable home gym; no cable changes needed between sets -
Provides as little as five or as many as 210 pounds of resistance via Bowflex Power Rods (upgradeable to 310 pounds)
Over 50 strength exercises; includes vertical bench press and lat pull down
Upholstered roller cushions for leg extension and leg curl, triple function ankle cuff grips
300-pound maximum user weight; requires 100 x 78-inch minimum workout area

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Tall
When you read the size its around 56″ tall but to stick the top on you need around 70″ at least, I had to lay mine one the side and take the top bar off and I still put a 3 foot mark on my Ceiling( my ceiling is 60″) but after that its Quite nice, but if I move I will have to leave it, had to jump on one sided to force it to stand up since I didnt have clearence. and know tilting it back or to the front dose not work. take even more space.

well engineered
You always hear how Bowflex machines are overpriced because of all of their expensive marketing. Perhaps, but the added sales volume does offset their fixed engineering costs, and this machine (PR3000) is one very-well engineered machine. It comes in one box, with all the pieces well cushioned in their allocated cubbyholes. 2 of us built it in 3 hours — again due to good product engineering. The finished product looks like it will last forever; certainly nothing cheap about the structural steel, cables, etc. My end cost (with shipping) was $899; I don’t see how Nautilus/Amazon makes money on this.

I’m not a gym guy, so can’t comment on the effectiveness of this kind of machine for strength training. I am 6′6″, and for many exercises I can barely fit the machine and get adequate cable travel. But I do fit, and after a month I am discernibly fitter.

I wouldn’t waste money for a mat; my tile floor shows no wear at all (rubber feet keep the metal off the floor) and it is nice to be able to yank the machine around for fine-tuning its placement.

Cons: The manual has many silly mistakes, a very limited pallet of exercises, and is not much help for designing a workout plan. The bows themselves stay somewhat bent after exercises, giving the impression that they will lose their effectiveness or break over time (no doubt that the reason Nautilus gives 7 years on this particular part is to reassure the end user). The resistance number on the bows are not only larger than free-weight equivalents, but not even self-consistent — each side has a 50 lbs rod that has more resistance than the sum of all the other rods on that side, nominally 55 lbs.

But all of the above quibbles are just that, quibbles. The machine is beautiful, takes little room (but you’ll want plenty around it for leg exercises), and has motivated me to exercise regularly. For the price, a real steel.

Nice for the Price
Like most people, I had seen the Bowflex commercials on TV and was skeptical of just how such a machine would produce the gods and goddesses shown in the ads. However, the idea of an all-in-one resistance machine was appealing and I often considered buying one. I finally took the plunge after undergoing quadriceps tendon repair surgery. Since my usual exercise was out of the question (running and martial arts) I decided to give the Bowflex a try. After all, I don’t want to become psychotic and fat while I’m recovering. While I cannot do the leg exercises yet, my experience has been positive.

Pros: On the plus side, the machine provides a wide range of exercises that enable you to work almost all of the muscle groups. It was easy to assemble and comes with fairly clear directions. It also includes a basic workout book, although you will probably want to supplement this with additional information about working out. Properly assembled, the machine seems very solid and as long as you maintain it, it should provide a safe workout.

As you can see from the pictures, it has three sets of handles: one high, one middle and one low. This allows you to get a wide range of workouts and replicate most traditional free weight training moves. It also has the attachment for doing leg lifts. The seat can be easily removed to allow you to safely do standing exercises.

A major plus for this machine is that the power rods connect to all the handles. In other words, you do not need to constantly switch cable connections for your workout. Some lower end models lack this feature, which would be a bit annoying.

Cons: While the machine allows you to do a large range of exercises, it does have clear limits. For example, you can only do leg lifts with the leg exercise attachment (although you can do leg exercises using the handles). Also, it suffers the inherent limitations of a rod based machine relative to free weights. For example, the weight on the resistance rods seem rather optimistic (I suspect the weight is based on the resistance offered at maximum bend). To compare the machine with free weights, I did curls with the 50 pound rod and with a 35 pound free weight. The free weight provided far more resistance (in the form of weight). This is because the weight always weighs 35 pounds and the rod’s resistance increases as it is pulled.

You will also want to spring for the 100 pound upgrade-this consists of two 50 rods. I think the rods should have been included, but I suppose that some people would be fine with the stock rods.

I’d suggest getting them when you get the machine, otherwise you’ll have to take the “rod box” off the machine so as to put in the rods. Mine didn’t come with instructions (just two rods and two screws in a cardboard box), but this is what I did: carefully lean the machine to one side, preferably with someone trustworthy holding it (make sure that they are not the beneficiary of your life insurance). Unscrew the three screws holding the box in place. Remove the box and take out the plugs (two of them, just ahead of the installed 50 rods). Insert the rods and screw the included screws into the rods (at the bottom). Put the rod box back in place and then screw the screws back in. Carefully test the rods to make sure they are secure, and then you are ready to go.