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Our Bowflex Ultimate 2 review takes a look at a home gym claimed to provide the total solution for your home workout – sounds great, but does it live up to the marketing hype?
OK, so you’ve seen the TV infomercials with some buff fitness models working away on a Bowflex home gym whilst a slick salesperson spouts on about how the home gym in question will sculpt and shape those abs, thighs, arms, chest and so on.
But are you really going to get a body to die for if you buy one?
Well the high end Bowflex home gyms, which includes the Bowflex Ultimate 2 represent a significant investment of your hard earned cash so it pays to be sure before you flash your credit card.
Let’s take a look at the specification and then cast a critical eye over what you get for your money…
Bowflex Ultimate 2 Review – Specification
- Model: Ultimate 2
- Length: 92″ (234cm)
- Width: 46″ (117cm)
- Height: 82″(209cm)
- Folded footprint: 44″ x 46″ (112cm x 117cm)
- Workout area: 9′ 4″ x 6′ 6″ (285cm x 200cm)
- Workouts: 95+ exercises
- Resistance: 310lbs/140kg (can upgrade to 410lbs/186kg)
- Weights included: N/a – uses PowerRods (included)
- Warranty: 12 years, unlimited on PowerRods
- Price: Around $2,499
Bowflex Ultimate 2 Review – Any Good…?
Bowflex claims that the Ultimate 2 Home Gym provides a total body solution and gives you the complete workout.
It’s hard to argue otherwise as the Ultimate 2 offers over 95 exercises and includes a lat tower, leg extension/leg curl station, preacher curl attachment, integrated squat station, chest/shoulder press, a cardiovascular rower and more.
The great thing about compact home gyms like this is that they effectively turn your spare room into a near commercial quality gym.
The footprint is small, the Ultimate 2 folds away for easy storage between workouts and because it doesn’t use heavy weights for resistance, it’s relatively lightweight and shouldn’t come crashing through your living room ceiling!
We like the fact that you don’t need to change cables to move from exercise to exercise and it’s simple to operate.
Apart from adjusting the bench height/incline, the only real change to the configuration required is lifting the bench out when you want to squat.
Resistance is provided by Bowflex’s patented PowerRods. You attach the cable and the rod bends as you complete the movement.
We found this simple, smooth and effective and if you do need more than the 310lbs of resistance that comes with the Ultimate 2 you can buy an extra 100lbs resistance of rods for $99.
Bowflex Ultimate 2 Review – The Bottom Line…
Our Bowflex Ultimate 2 review left us impressed by this near commercial quality home gym – the 12 year warranty certainly provides piece of mind given the financial investment you’ll be making.
We would recommend this well conceived and very versatile piece of kit to anyone looking for a compact home gym that will provide a challenging, whole body workout as part of a fitness or weight loss program.
It’s probably not going to appeal to body builders, but for the majority of people looking to shape, tone or build some muscle it fits the bill perfectly.
It’s not cheap, but in our opinion provides value for money given the number of individual pieces of equipment it replaces.
You get a complete resistance and cardiovascular conditioning program in a relatively small, neat and beautifully constructed package – highly recommended.
