BowFlex Revolution Home Gym

The Bowflex Revolution: (TL;DR review at bottom)Background: I am a 28 year old male, 5'11" / 180lbs. My wife is a 28 year old female 5'7" / 120lbs. We are of above average fitness, but are in no way comparable to athletes, body builders or frequent gym attendees. We stick to at-home calisthenics, running and swimming. Our fitness goals are to become overall more physically fit, NOT to become professional bodybuilders.Decision: We already have a good diet and consistently exercise. We wanted to work out together in the privacy of our own home. We wanted an at-home machine that would assist us in our fitness goals and be potentially more effective and entertaining than calisthenics. We looked at several home gyms and decided to go with the Bowflex revolution because of primarily two reasons: 1) Rowing machine with free moving chair. 2) Leg Press built in.Shipping: This product was available with Amazon Prime shipping, so it was shipped as expected. Promptly and intact. No issues here.Assembly: The assembly was surprisingly easy. It took approximately 2 hours from the time I opened the first box. The instructions are very clear and concise and the boxes are labeled 1 through 5. Box one has the words "Open this box first" which I thought was pretty awesome. Advice: Do NOT open any other box except box 1 until you have read the directions. The installation manual instructs how to assemble the machine from INSIDE the box...Look/Feel: After the installation, I am very satisfied with how sturdy and well built the machine is. It is definitely made from good quality parts. The pulley system is very smooth and very quiet. I am able to work out when people are sleeping in the next room (Given my music isn't too loud)Weights: The weights are... interesting to say the least. I have no proof or facts behind this, but I don't believe they are intended to "match" traditional free weights. I believe they are made solely for use with a Bowflex workout programs and not to be used with other "weighted" programs. For example: 130lbs on the Bowflex Revolution is A LOT heavier than 130lbs free weight barbell. I don't know why it is this way, it's just something I have noticed. The weights were originally difficult to put on due to the method that is required. After practice and use though, it became very easy and have no trouble with them.Manual: The manual is very informative. It contains pictures and descriptions of all the workouts on the Bowflex. It also has many prearranged workout programs to fit your needs.Cons: A couple things I am not completely satisfied with are unfortunately what made me buy the machine the first place. 1) The row machine was slightly disappointing, not quite what I expected. 2) The leg press caters to the tall. My wife is 5'7" and finds a hard time to get a good workout with it. When she gets low to get a deep press, the machine loses resistance (due to size, not due to defect). This means she cannot get a full press and defeats a lot of the exercise. Despite these minor complaints, the machine is still everything we wanted. ****UPDATE****: The leg press machine works fantastic. We were originally using it wrong, but, have since fixed our issue and are using it right. The leg press is a great feature.Warranty: With a 10 year warranty that is backed by Bowflex, it guarantees that you get the life out of your machine. **I called Bowflex and the sales representative stated that Amazon was an authorized distributor thus warranties are honored if purchased through Amazon**. 10 years is more than enough time to get your money's worth. We have a 9 year old son who can use this all the way through high school and have it STILL be in warranty.TL;DR: If you are looking for a home-gym to either 1) work on general fitness or 2) supplement your current gym regime, the Bowflex can do it well. It is well designed, well made and well supported. Do not expect this to make you a body builder or anything close to that. Expect this machine to make workouts fun and private. DO NOT EXPECT RESULTS WITHOUT PROPER DIET!.5 out of 5 stars - Easily - Would purchase again.

It works great the only thing was that the 10lb weight cracked on first use, but I am still able to use it. Also, the assembly goes by box which I didn't know. I opened everything and threw all the boxes and styrofoam away then I assembled but it wasn't hard to figure it out. You need two people to assemble just to hold it while you tighten screws.

I like the Bowflex Revolution a lot.BEWARE: Nautilus is not honoring the warranty unless the seller is an authorized dealer. I bought this product from "THE FITNESS OUTLET" through Amazon and I'm having trouble getting Nautilus to accept my warranty registration. So far, I have not had any problems with the gym...I just hope I don't need the warranty.

First off, I think this machine is probably fine for someone who doesn't plan on using a lot of weight in their workout or doesn't work out very frequently. It's relatively compact for what it does, easy to use and safer than using free weights.However, while the quality of most of the materials used in its construction is decent or good enough, one of the most important components is junk. Specifically, there are two yellow straps made of nylon, or something similar, that connect the cams to the cables. As you pull the cable out and let it back in, the yellow strap comes away from a small pulley and then wraps around it again. This repeated action creates a small amount of visible wear on the strap over time and eventually causes it to break.I broke my first strap about five years ago and have been breaking one every 9 or 10 months lately. If it breaks while I'm doing a bench press, I have full weight on one cable while zero on the other so it pulls me off one side of the bench and onto the floor. Admittedly, I probably use this thing at the edge of what it was designed for. I use it two or three times a week with around 300 lbs (220lbs included + 80 purchased separately) for a few of my exercises, three sets each. However, since this was designed to handle 300lbs, it shouldn't break at all. These straps are simply too thin and it takes way too much effort to replace them. If one breaks, you don't just change the strap but, instead, you have to replace the entire cam. That's just bad design.This thing has a 10 year warranty so Bowflex has been good about sending out replacement parts. However, I'm concerned about how expensive this will get once the warranty expires in a couple of years.The bottom line is that this machine will probably last a reasonably long time if you don't plan on purchasing the extra weight set but, if you think you'll use something heavier, you should probably get a nice set of free weights at a much lower price.