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York Fitness Bodygym
by dannylee
If you're looking to pump some serious iron and become beefcake, this is not for you - but if you're more concerned with getting into shape and challenging your body in the comfort of your own home, then you're on the right path.
The York Bodygym is well constructed with no beating around the bush - deceptively stable and ... grounded despite the narrow footprint. For one it's a heavy piece of kit which will push your boundaries in the act of merely moving it, and you'll need to take stock of all your fingers to ensure they are still in one piece after unfolding the deckchair-like construct. Some initial assembly is required but that would namely be just a couple hooks and strings. The 'trolley', which will be your platform from now on, is a foam cushioned board which is adequately comfortable for kneeling or lying on. During exercises it was never a cause for pain or pressure on my knees or back, which means that if you can't hack it then it's just you and not the equipment. That's a GOOD thing. In terms of total space, the bodygym can consume a lot if you're looking to properly explore all of the things that you can do on it. We're talking a floorpan of about 2 metres squared, mostly for the wings-aspread actions that come with the chest-flies and alike.
Users sit, lie or kneel atop the padded trolley and perform a range of routines. Supplied with the bodygym is a large, double-sided exercise sheet demonstrating and explaining a whole spectrum of activities complete with concise pictures of models performing them. It's nice to see a bit more instruction than the typical postage-stamp explanations or advice you typically find with some fitness gear. Using the string-bound handles on either side of the pulley hooks at the head of the frame, you and the castor-fitted trolley 'climb up' the sloped rails as you pull. A slightly strange feeling; you yourself are the weight, and the effort required is proportional to your mass. All tasks are worked through in a lying, sitting or kneeling position facing either up or down. There are 5 levels of difficulty but it is far from a quick-release effort to change between them. Going through the motions of unscrewing a linchpin from a threaded hole and removing it completely and then retightening seems unnecessarily slow. A slide-in pin would have made this process much quicker and far less of an obstruction. As the angle of the trolley increases, you had better make sure you're wearing something which won't leave you sliding slowly down the faux-leather face of the trolley!
Because of the freeform nature of this equipment, you will find that your core muscles are used far more than they would be on a massive multi-gym variety. This is a great thing, as the abdominal muscles are probably neglected more than any other group by keep-fitters, whereas they should consume much of your focus and attention. Using the bodygym won't make you a beefcake as the capacity for pushing-the-limit is not really there, but as a tool for maintaining good figure and form then it can deliver. The bodygym demands but also promotes good posture and form during exercising.
The useable life of the sturdy bodygym is no doubt years in length, but I found the application of it was not quite so consistent. After months of usage I have since turned my nose up at my bodygym after some time and prefer to focus on running, rowing and swimming at my nearest gym. Being as cheap as it was, I've no qualms about stashing it away in the shed until one day I may find use for it.
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Life Fitness Optima Series Chest Press
by Revo9
The optima chest press is a horizontal bench press machine which works the pectoral muscles and allows the user to develop a more powerful chest. The product is produced by lifefitness, my boxing club acquired the product from an online sports store for £2,880 with free postage.
Appearance
The product looks very classy ... and modern when it is fully assembled. The product fully assembled weighs 250kg with the weights stack at the side going up to 135kg. The weights stack is magnetically adjustable with a magnetic pin which allows you to select different settings easily. The product is silver/grey colour and is made from a tough and robust 11 gauge steel whilst the seating and handles are made from a rubbery black leather material that looks clean and classy. I believe if you order from Lifefitness you can change the colour of the chair and outer steel casing to a colour to suit your needs, I believe they include, red, grey, black, blue etcetera. The handles are used to push away from your chest, whilst you sit on the chair. The chair is adjustable up and down to suit different people in height. The handle depth can be adjusted too, there is a small lever to the right as you sit down and as you move it the handles will move in regard to how you've changed the lever. This lever allows you to control the range of motion you actually press out, so it is a useful feature.The product stands at around 160cm and has a length of 104cm I measured the other day and whilst it is quite large in size, it certainly is smaller than other weights machines such as the cable crossover machine we have in the gym too. There are also some rubber attachments on the bottom of the product which stop it scratching and damaging flooring which work well, as my Boxing gyms wooden floor remains undamaged!
Comfort
The comfort of the product is very good. The seat is made from good upholstery and padding, it is firm yet still comfortable. The seat is adjustable for people with different heights and the handles are adjustable by a lever to the right of the chair. Altering the handles can let you adjust the range of motion so this is brilliant so you don't strain too far back and damage your shoulders. The handles have some rubber grips on them so this helps aids your grip when your lifting a lot of weight and it won't slip away. The weights stack is close to the chair, to your right as you sit on it, and is freely and easily adjustable by means of a magnetic weights pin which just slots in between the weight plates. There is a steel bar at the bottom of the chest press machine, that allows you to push your feet against which is more comfortable when your pushing heavy weights out since it makes you feel more stable.
Durability
The durability is second to none, the product is made from a tough strong 11 gauge steel outer casing, good quality leather/rubber seating and handles, has an electrostatic coating to stop scratches, is well oiled and lubricated for fluent motion and I believe certain parts of it come with a 10 year warranty. The handles I was inititally worried would become scratched and damaged and maybe fall off, making gripping the machine dangerous and difficult. The handles are made from a special "thermo rubber" it said on the instructions sheet and it is one of the most durable materials I've every trained with. Even after commercial usage in my boxing gym, for a good 9 months now, the product is still as good as ever in terms of functionality and appearance. This product could in effect last a lifetime especially if it used in a home gym as opposed to a commercial one which might have hundreds of people using it daily. Overall, a high quality and durable weights machine used by LifeFitness.
Assembly
The product was not too difficult to assemble considering it was large and weighed 250kg altogether, consisted of numerous components and had upholstery to attach. I believe the product had decent instructions and took my boxing trainer and 3 other boxers about 30 to 40 minutes to construct. That said, although a single person might be able to do it easily, It would be better having a friend or partner to help and just clarify on the instructions included and what needs to be fixed where and so on.
Pricing
The product was bought by my Boxing gym for £2,880 online in the UK. I personally think this was far too much but my trainers did have commercial usage in mind and it has held up nicely in that regard. The postage was free to my gym which is located in mainland UK which was a nice touch as the sheer 250kg weight of the machine would have been extortionate to post. You can only really use the machine for horizontal plane chest pressing, whilst it is easy to adjust and very durable, I personally would have preferred an olympic sized barbell and weights set which would cost about £200 on eBay. I just don't think a price tag of £2,880 in which you can only use it for chest pressing is versatile enough unless your a commercial fitness gym or boxing gym and can spare to spend so much cash. I think in summary a good quality product, free postage but an extremely high price tag of not far under £3,000!
Drawbacks
Besides the price, I've also noticed some shoulder problems after a few months usage in my gym. When you use a weights machine, especially a chest pressing machine, you push the weight out in a fixed plane or motion. When you use free weights like dumbbells for example, you push to your natural movement plane, which does not exert harsh strains to your muscles and joints. You also activate stabiliser muscles to balance the weight through the movement with free weights, with machines you do not get this. So whilst I think the product is itself safer because a weight wouldn't fall on you than free weights, I think the probability of shoulder pain and strain is much higher when I used the Lifefitness Optima chest press machine because of this fixed and unnatural plane of movement. Because of the shoulder pain I developed a couple of months ago, I have stopped using the product for the time being.
Conclusion
To conclude, the product is extremely durable and well made, comfortable, made from high quality components, looks great in grey and black, not too big, has an easily adjustable weights stack and stable handles. However, I think the whopping price tag of £2,880 and a potentially dangerous range of motion that damaged my shoulder joint need to be taken into consideration. For a commercial gym or boxing club I think the product is well made and will be a good investment but I think for personal use, an olympic barbell and weights package from eBay or discountsupplements.co.uk would be a better investment for you.
© Revo9 (2011)
*Note, I am both a member of Ciao and Dooyoo.co.uk under the same username of Revo9*
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