My partner and I are in the process of moving into our new home (YAY! We are now homeowners!) We have a rec room, and I would love to have a home gym. I’m not a big fan of free weights, because I have, for some reason, an irrational fear of using them, as if I’m going to drop them on my neck and die or something. I also want to be able to work out alone if I wish, without a spotter.
I was looking online at the Bowflex Revolution. (This is more money than I really want to spend, but I’m probably just Windows shopping at the moment.) However, I’ve eliminated the Revolution from consideration, however, because my partner is 6’5" tall, and several reviews from people who were just over 6’ said that the machine was a bit short for them. I’m 6’0" myself. Does anyone have any recommendations, or stories of gyms that worked well (or did not work well) due to height considerations?
You can do just about everything you need to do using dumbbells. I feel a whole lot better bench pressing two dumbbells than one bar with equivalent weight because I can simply dump them on the floor if I can’t get them up.
First let me say I know NOTHING AT ALL about weight lifting. But it seems to me that with dumbells would lose some stability. I doing a bench press (that’s what it’s called right, when you lay on your back and push the weight straight up) with a weight that’s a little to heavy for you (or you’re a little to tired) and both your arms go out to the side and dislocate your shoulders.
yikes, that hurts just thinking about it.
In my opinion, using dumbbells develops your muscles better since you have to exert more effort keeping them steady.
In any case, as long as you have an appropriate floor (e.g. heavily padded concrete basement floor) just let go of them in times of trouble. It happens all the time at my gym.
To the OP: sorry about not really answering your direct question. Since you are both tall, you should also consider overhead clearance. I am not sure what the machines look like, but if you are stretching your arms over your head, you had better have 9’ ceilings or better.
I suggest you get over your fear of freeweights. Spend the time researching a GOOD weight bench. Mine is stable, has a leg lift station (which I don’t use much for legs but use for lat pulls)…The bench is ‘H’ shaped with the back of the seat leaning up against the - part of the H…it’s tall enough so that you can do squats on the back side and bench press type excercises on the front. The back side also has places for dumbbells.
Anyway, I’ve found when you don’t have a spotter you get REAL attunded to what your body is temming you WRT fatigue. The weightbench has brackets you can use to catch the bar if you really get in over your head. Sending the bar to one side (so the weight falls off) then having it fall to the OTHER side is an option in an emergency, but why are you lifting that close to your max without a spotter?
You’re better off learning the specifics of free weights slowly and carefully. I’ve been using freeweights, alone, in the basement, for a good 6 years and have only had one or two emergency situations, and those were handled with the safety equipment, or by rolling the bar down my chest and sitting up.
Barbells are a GREAT alternative, and Joey P is right; he knows nothing about weightlifting. As minor7flat5 said, the additional muscles needed to keep the barbells steady give a much better workout. You can also use barbells to do a couple of different excercises that would be difficult with a full sized bar. (Over the head lifts, as an example)
I wanted a bowflex type machine for the longest time, til I finally sat down with one and discovered: It was for short people, and with it maxed out, I could still lift more than it could give me.