Have you considered a pair of dumbbells and a mat? Even powerblocks would be a considerable $ saving. Or, how about just using body weight exercises, like hindu squats, pushups, chin-ups?

The question in my mind is twofold:

1. How much does it cost?
2. What benefits does it offer.

For the price of a *flex, you could buy a really good stationary bike, maybe a treadmill, and a set of free weights. Mats are dirt cheap. A bench is cheap. You can spend top dollar on free weights too, and get Competition grade equipment if you want, but that’s not necessary for the average guy — it just plain costs too much.

If you must do squats/bench press safely and don’t want a power rack, there is another device that will attach to your BB/DBS that is available that essentially consists of two ropes, a brake for each and a handle that activates the brake when you let go. Similar to the auto-stop on a lawn mower. It will hold the weight in place from ceiling joists when you let it go.

So, for your average needs, why is it necessary to spend an above average amount of money? Is it because of the promise that the *flex will do something special above and beyond free weights? Will you burn more calories using it?

Just look at what this machine is:

It’s a resistance machine that requires you yank on cables.

Yanking on cables removes the need to balance/stabilize the weight. So, by definition you are getting less of a workout.

And, burning calories is not the goal of weight training. In your case, it would be toning/strengthening and slowing the loss of lean tissue during dieting.

I can hear the complaining already – ” but I see results”. And so you would given a free weight routine that exercises the same muscle groups as the *flex routine. It is physically impossible for you not to see similar results.

Moreover, with a free weight routine, you’d have more functional strength, since your daily activities or any other sports you may take part in do not consist of merely yanking on levers. Free weights are not just for getting hyooge — I certainly do not have that goal, yet free weights are a very important part of my weekly routine.

My routing consists of several compound body exercises. I doubt very much that the *flex can mimic the action of a clean and jerk. And that really is a problem: Man cannot exercise using isolation exercises alone.

Hey, ever wonder why *Flex does advertise using a controlled experiment with a group using free weights vs a group using *Flex? Maybe because such an experiment would not support a claim that it is better/equivalent to free weights? I suspect that if it were really that good, they’d replace free weights in most commercial gyms, since most people don’t want to be hyooge, just to be “in shape”.

IMO, the only reason that a person even considers a *flex is because they identify with the ripped dudes and dudettes that are on T.V., listens to their “testimonials” and believes “hey that can be me!”.

Time for a reality check here. Visible abs requires a body fat level of under 10%. Getting there requires real dedication to your diet and major ab work to make enough muscle to want to look at. Heck, if you want inexpensive, you don’t even need weights to do that!