The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is among the best home gyms under $1500. It helps the user build up their muscles, and tone their body by giving them a complete body workout. Bowflex is known for the best quality materials used in its fitness machines.
So when you buy a Bowflex, you know you will be getting only the best! The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is quite convenient and flexible and offers the user a wide range of exercise options. If you want a fitness machine that helps you work on every single part of your body, then this machine is a perfect choice.
This home gym comes with a Power Rod Resistance of 210 lbs. In case you wish to make your workouts more challenging, you can upgrade the weight to either 310 lbs or even 410 lbs, depending on your fitness levels.
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym has a Lat tower that helps the user work on their shoulders and back. The user can work on their hamstrings, quads, and glutes by using the lower pulley station or the squat station. Read our Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym Review 2021 to know more about this home gym.
Best Suited to Whom?
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is a good fitness machine for people who want a complete body workout, but do not wish to make use of weight stacks. If you prefer resistance over the weight stacks, then you could opt for this machine.
This multi-gym has different work stations that help the user focus on different muscle groups, thereby ensuring every single muscle is worked upon. It comes with the Bowflex Power Rods.
Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym Assembly, Design and Build Quality
Assembly
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym’s assembly process is quite easy and it is accompanied by an instruction manual. With the help of the manual, the entire process would take about 2.5 hours. The tools needed for the assembly process are scissors, wrenches, Allen wrenches and a power tool.
Design and Build Quality
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym comes with a sturdy frame and an adjustable seat. The home gym has an ergonomic design. This design ensures that the user gets ample support on the legs and knees while executing lat exercises.
This home gym is a very compact fitness machine and is good for those who can set aside less space for a fitness machine. The base has an X shape that provides the machine sufficient stability. The machine is quite comfortable and the operation is smooth and silent.
The manufacturer Bowflex offers a lifetime guarantee on the power rods of this machine. This is definitely one of the best home gyms 2021 and is best suited for home use. If you do not wish to hit the gym to work out, then the Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is the best option for you.
The machine is not just attractive with its striking grey frame and red seat combination, but also has many amazing features that help you achieve your fitness goals.
Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym Features
Power Rod Resistance
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym comes with its unique Power Rod technology which sets this machine apart from the crowd. This machine does not come with weight stacks. Instead, you get flexible rods that give you the resistance that is required.
The cables and pulleys deliver the resistance in this machine. This gym definitely is a must-have for any fitness lover, as you need not always have weight stacks to get the body you desire.
Pulley system
The Bowflex Multi Gym comes with a cable pulley system. This system has many distinct positions that make every exercise effective – the basic position, the lat pulldown, squats, ab crunch and rowing. In addition to these five positions, you also get a sixth position – the leg extension.
The lower pulley system permits the user to execute squats. With the help of this station, the user can also perform workouts that strengthen the glutes, the quadriceps as well as the hamstrings.
Folding
The most important factor of the Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is that it is a space saver. It is quite a compact machine. The workout area needed for this home gym is around 8 feet x 6 ½ feet.
Body Weight Capacity
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym can withstand a user weight of about 210 lbs and this can be upgraded to 310 lbs and 410 lbs. So if you are on the lookout for a home gym that can help you build muscle, then this machine is one of the best home gyms available in the market.
It is suitable for those who also wish to tone every single part of their body.
Ergonomic Seat
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym comes with a seat that has a Polyurethane cushion and can be adjusted easily. The ergonomic design offers a lot of extra support to your back while you perform exercises for the leg. It also offers knee support when you execute lat exercises.
Safety Measures
When you make use of the Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym, a lot of precautionary measures have to be kept in mind. You have to make sure that all the cables, fasteners, etc.have been secured and are in place. There is a lock knob that can secure the sliders.
This ensures that the pulleys remain constant while you workout. Bar holders are available to provide the required support for the lat bar. Also, it is advised not to try chin-up exercises using the bar.
Hand Grips
(i) 5-Way Hand-Grip and Ankle Cuffs:
The handgrips are created in a very unique manner. They offer flexibility as well as performance to your workouts. The functions are Regular Grip, Ankle Cuff, Shoulder Cuff, Non-Grip Cuff and Foot Cuff.
The fit of these handgrips is quite good and they secure the wrist, instep as well as ankle very well. The handgrips can be fixed to the cables when you fix the cable clip to the D-ring.
(ii) Standard Grip:
The user must make sure that the handle and cuff are to be held together to get a good standard grip without the necessity to use the cuff area. This grip is ideal for many exercises.
This grip is good for Hammer Grip workouts wherein the handgrip has to be held vertically to support the wrist in a much better way.
(iii) Handcuff-Grip:
To get a hand-cuff grip, the user has to insert their hand right into the cuff. When they do this, the foam pad will rest on the back of their hand. Then they can get a hold of the remaining grip.
This kind of grip is perfect for workouts such as the front shoulder raise or even any workout where the palm is facing down.
(iv) Ankle Cuff-Grip:
You can enlarge the opening of the cuff so as to accommodate your ankle. All you need to do is place your hand in the cuff. After this step, you have to push it far from the handle.
Then you can place either your ankle or foot and tighten the grip. For this, you will have to slide back the handle to the cuff.
(v) Arch Cuff-Grip:
In this kind of grip, the cuff needs to be placed over the foot arch. So, the user will have to keep his foot in the cuff area till it is around the instep arch post which the cuff can be tightened.
(vi) Shoulder Harness:
The ends of the machine’s harness have D-rings. The user will have to fix the snap hooks to these rings. Then the harness has to be kept on their shoulders allowing the handles to hang over the chest.
Lateral Pull-down Bar
The Lat Pull-down Bar allows the user to perform exercises for the back, tricep muscles as well as shoulders.
Abdominal Crunch Shoulder Harness
This allows the user to strengthen the abdomen muscles by way of attaching resistance to their abdominal workouts. For this workout, the pulleys have to be moved to the smaller abdominal bar.
Leg Extension Attachment
The attachment allows the user to focus on all the main muscle groups located in the legs. This helps you get toned muscles on your legs.
Instructional guide
Every single home gym machines from Bowflex is accompanied by an instructional guide. This offers a lot of assistance in customizing the programs that match your requirements.
Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym Workout Programs
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is a multi-gym that allows the user to work on the main muscle areas – chest, shoulder, abdomen, legs, back and arms. Let us have a look at the exercises that can be performed for each area.
(i) Chest Muscles
There are 4 distinct workouts to strengthen the chest muscles with the help of the Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym. The pectoralis major muscles can be an area of focus while doing the bench press; it also permits the user to concentrate on the triceps and anterior deltoids.
The chest muscles can be highlighted by executing the chest fly by using the wide stance for the center top bar pulley, thereby focusing on the pecs major.
The user can also focus on the main chest muscles by using the decline bench press wherein the center crossbar is utilized in the basic position. If you wish to focus on the higher area of the pectoralis major chest muscle, the incline bench press can be made use of.
(ii) Shoulder Muscles
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym allows you to execute numerous exercises that focus on the shoulder.
The workouts that can be tried are the crossover high rear deltoid rows, the reverse fly, the crossover reverse fly, the lateral shoulder raise, the crossover rear deltoid rows, the front shoulder raise, the seated forearm lateral shoulder raise, the seat shoulder press, the shoulder shrug, the internal and external shoulder rotator cuff along with the shoulder extension.
These exercises for the shoulder also work on the trapezius along with the rhomboids muscles, the sides of the ribcage as well as the serratus anterior muscles. It also works on your arms. You can enhance the efficiency of the workouts by adjusting the position of the pulleys and making use of hand grips.
(iii) Back Muscles
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym offers a wide variety of exercises for your back. The lateral bar helps in working on the upper back muscles. With the help of the bent lat bar, you can perform the narrow pull-down which focuses on the large muscles of the back – latissimus dorsi, teres major and the rear deltoids. It also works on the biceps.
The squat pulley can be used to perform the seated lat row as well as the crossover seated lat row. The standing low back extension helps in building strength in the lower back muscles like the deep muscles of the spine muscles, as well as various muscle groups like your hamstrings and gluteus maximus.
(iv) Biceps and Triceps
The lateral tower can be used to work on the arm muscles. You can work on the triceps with the triceps pushdown. There are three distinct types of workouts that can be performed.
The center crossbar pulley has to be at the narrow position in order to execute the triceps extension, the cross tri extension and the hammer tri extension. The workouts that focus on the triceps are the tri kickback, the resisted dip, and the hammer tri kickback.
There are numerous workouts that concentrate on the biceps. You can begin with the biceps curl or use the hand grips and perform the concentrated biceps curl along with the squat pulley frame.
For reverse curls, you need to fix the straps to work on the deep arm muscle along with the front forearm muscles (brachioradialis, biceps).
The squat bar can be utilized for a reverse barbell curl as well as the biceps barbell curl. You can also perform the seated bicep as well as the hammer curl with the help of the hand grips. The wrist curl along with extension focus on the wrists.
(v) Leg Muscles
Generally, people just overwork on the upper body and forget to shift the focus on the leg area as well. In order to have a good balanced toned body, you must work on the legs as well.
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym offers a wide range of leg exercises that will help you out. There are more than 10 options available to develop strong legs – the leg extension works on the upper thigh front muscles. The squat bar can give you quite a challenging workout for the legs.
The handgrips of the Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym to perform the standing hip extension. Kickbacks work on the buttocks or on the front muscles of the hip. Deadlifts can be performed for the glutes.
The user can also perform standing hip adduction in order to work on the core of the thighs – the inside as well as outside. If you remove the leg extension and the seat, you can perform calf raises.
(vi) Core Muscles
The center crossbar has to be maintained at the basic position in order to perform the trunk rotation workout that focuses on many core areas, However, the resistance has to be the minimum and the alignment has to be perfect to perform this.
The resisted oblique abdominal crunch will need the abdominal crunch shoulder harness. You can focus on the abs – lower and upper, by making use of the abdominal bar pulley.
Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym Warranty
The manufacturer offers a limited warranty on all the products of Bowflex. The warranty is applicable to the product purchased by the original purchaser. All the defects in either material or workmanship are covered by the warranty, however, commercial use is not covered as well as any misuse is not covered.
The manufacturer offers a warranty of seven years on the machine. Have a look at some of the best home gyms 2021 to know the best models available in the market.
Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym Pros and Cons
Pros
- The Home gym has a very sturdy frame
- This machine is very compact and good for tiny spaces
- It requires a workout area of just 8 feet by 6 ½ feet
- The power rods come with a no-time-limit warranty
- The weight can be upgraded to 310 or 410 pounds
- The machine is accompanied by a shoulder harness, ab crunch, and squat bar
- It offers a wide range of workouts, about 70+
- No need to change cables while moving from squats to either lats or leg workouts
- It comes with an ergonomic bench
- A 7-year warranty is offered on the frame
Cons
- The assembly is a complicated activity
- Repositioning the rods requires time
Verdict
In contrast to other home gyms, Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Multi Gym is quite unique. Instead of weight racks, this machine comes with power rods – this allows the user to experience the advantages of weight training workouts minus the need to lift weights.
The Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is made of high-quality material and is quite sturdy. This home gym is quite compact and does not require a lot of workout space. It can fit into any small room or apartment and ensures that the user gets a complete body workout with its wide range of exercise options.
It is one of the best home gyms under $1500 and if you are on the lookout for a compact and efficient home gym, the Bowflex Xtreme SE Home Gym is a good pick.
