When we were cooped up last spring by the global pandemic, we weren’t left with many fitness options. Stripped of our gyms, cycling and HIIT lessons, yoga and boxing studios, sports, and other outdoor activities there for a while, we did what we could at home. But in your living room, you can only do so many push-ups and bodyweight exercises until you itch for proper equipment, such as dumbbells and bands of resistance. And the market for home fitness equipment grew, like so many items in quarantine, with most of it selling out online.
I was fortunate enough to start building up my pre-Covid garage gym and soon became familiar with the golden rule of home workout spaces: optimizing the ratio of flexibility to space-efficiency. No matter where you intend to exercise at home, having a large piece of equipment that does one thing just doesn’t pay. Enter: Bowflex, a company that actually does very well for flexible equipment. For a few years, I have been using the customizable Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells ($349; bowflex.com) and can’t emphasize enough how convenient it is to have the equivalent of a complete dumbbell package tucked away in one corner.
With that said, I was very anxious to test the new adjustable barbell and curl bar system of the company. The SelectTech 2080 Barbell bowflex with Curl Bar ($549; bowflex.com) has two handles, one straight and one EZ curl, so there are infinite possibilities for workouts. (ICYDK, an EZ curl bar has zig zags in the bar to make it easier on your wrists; it can be set at a slant instead of making the wrist pushed flat, which is more relaxed when lifting.) In a few square feet of your living room, you might rather conceivably do a full-body workout. For a number of presses, rows, squats and posterior chain exercises, the straight bar is fine when the arms are shot by the curl bar. Cha The Cha
This may be the only piece of fitness equipment in your home. That is, as long as you don’t have to be very heavy at all. Though this is not necessarily a perfect choice for most people, it is not for the powerlifters out there. The fact that they are not expandable has always been my main concern about the dumbbells-if you get to a point where 52.5 pounds does not cut it, you have no choice but to look for other alternatives (or you could just buy the heavier set from the start). With its barbell, which ranges from 20-80 pounds, but is expandable to 120 pounds, which can definitely cover most individuals for most workouts, Bowflex rectified that somewhat.
It really isn’t bad as far as room usage goes, but it could be better. It measures about 60 inches wide on the stand, which will store both bars, and comes about 19 inches off the wall. A bit on the bulky side is the solid plastic base that houses the unused covers, but I can’t see it being much changed. I don’t think it’s more space-efficient in the grand scheme than a traditional curl bar and some plates that could be placed under a bed or in a cupboard when not used, but the weight range has a major convenience factor. Also, you can normally get a curl bar and some weights for around $100 considering (prices are unusually high at the moment due to continued demand),
However, the SelectTech curl bar turned out better than expected when used. I don’t do a lot of curls, but for skull crushers, I loved it. The cambers on the bar are rather ergonomic (read: the zig zags in the form of the curl bar), making it easy to keep in any direction, whether doing bicep curls or tricep extensions. And depending on how you look at it, this may be a pro or a con, but unlike an olympic curl bar, as you might find in your regular gym, the weights don’t rotate at the ends. This means you’re going to have to expend a little more energy to stop the whole bar from spinning in your hands. It’s not a bad thing to have a little extra challenge and I don’t think it takes too much away from that.
It might be a splurge, but without turning your home into a Planet Fitness, the Bowflex SelectTeck barbell package gives you what you need to spice up your workouts. Plus, from bicep curls to bent-over circles, it’s flexible enough for a number of workouts. And this is the ideal opportunity to treat yourself right after the holidays, with most at-home fitness necessities incredibly difficult to come by.
SelectTech 2080 Barbell bowflex with Curl Bar
To buy: SelectTech 2080 Barbell bowflex with Curl Bar, $549, bowflex.com; $199 for the stand; $149 for expansion weights
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