While you can perform a number of different workout types on a Bowflex, it was designed primarily to help you build muscle mass. Although you can decrease the amount of resistance for each exercise to create muscular endurance and cardio routines, the makers of the Bowflex market it as a muscle-building machine — and it can do that.
How a Bowflex Works
Bowflex home gyms do not use weight stacks, like many exercise machines do. You create resistance moving a bar or handle or pulling cables against a series of rods or wheels, depending on which Bowflex model you own.
Unlike free weights, Bowflex machines create constant resistance, rather than the variable resistance you experience with equipment like a resistance band.
How Does a Bowflex build muscles?
Resistance exercise that causes slight tears in your muscles (“feel the burn?”) help you build muscle. The recovery process from this muscle damage (known as hypertrophy) helps your body recover from this stress, and this repair process creates larger muscles.
So, can the Bowflex build muscle mass? Yes, a Bowflex can provide enough resistance to provide you with your maximum muscle-building benefit, depending on your strength. For example, if the maximum weight you can lift of move for a particular exercise is 180 lbs., and the Bowflex you own provides up to 210 lbs. of resistance, you can bodybuild at your max on the machine.
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A Bowflex Provides Full-Body Workouts
A Bowflex home gym lets you work all of your muscles, including the arms, legs, back, core and chest. Depending on which machine you use, you can perform exercises standing or sitting. You can perform many traditional bodybuilding exercises, such as curls, kickbacks, rows and presses. All of the Bowflex home gyms come with leg bars to let you do leg presses, curls and raises.