Bow Flex use

swekmom

Just bought a Bow Flex off of Craig's List since I am no where near ready for free weights. Has anyone here used a Bow Flex in their weight loss and if so - any suggestions? The owner's manual has a 6 week plan with different exercises and a diet plan but the diet plan is scary! It says to start out at 1200 calories for weeks 1 & 3, go down to 1100 calories for weeks 3&4 and then down to 1000 calories for weeks 5&6. And it says the macros should be 60/20/20 (carbs/protein/fat). I will not be following this diet!! I can't even imagine how hungry and grumpy I would be at 1000 calories a day!!

Any way - any help would be appreciated.

jbnl1991

I have not used the Bow Flex, but I started with small weights and worked up from there. The most important thing is that you start. Use the exercise plan and toss the "diet" plan in the trash!

heybales

You can treat the workouts 2 different ways, depending on how fast you can move the pins and ropes and weights around.

Circuit training, less than 60 sec rests (so gotta move stuff quickly), 15-20 reps, but still heavy enough almost failure at the end.
5-8 compound (ha!) lifts, leaving the minor stuff (biceps/triceps) out of the mix.
You go from lift to lift, and repeat the cycle 3 to 4 times.
This has bigger calorie burn than normal lifting, but is still strength training so retaining muscle mass.

Lifting style, still 5-8 compound lifts, but 3 sets x 8 to 12 reps at one time, 1-3 min rests between, same almost failure at the end. Would be heavier weights to lift with fewer reps.
Complete one lift, move on to next one - so less rushing to get stuff changed to do a different lift.

What's the copyright date on the material for that diet plan, that is scary without any clarifies who it might be for?