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Anyone here remember the Soloflex from the 80s/90s?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guestx
  • Start date Start date
Hell yeah.

They plug that thing a few times in Over the Top with Sylvester Stallone.
 
We got a solo flex when I was in middle school. It sucked. You had to crawl under the bar to bench or squat and the lbs weren't even close to accurate.
 
When I was a kid my mom had a boyfriend named Leo. He loved three things in life the 49ers, his gold Iroc-Z, and his Soloflex. He was a big black guy who got even bigger from using the Soloflex.

When I was around 18 he died of cancer and left it to me. I put that thing to good use. Thing was awesome. Can do workouts with the bands,bodyweight exercises like pull-ups, and you could even put bars on the ends and then add extra weights.

I kept it for years, in fact I just sold it recently when I moved because there is no place for anything. The bands go for a good amount on eBay, seems like a lot of people still use it.

Good shit mayne.
 
IndyCovaHart said:
Let's just say it was definitely the joke of the town among the "carry around a gallon of water at all times" gym crowd.
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Well that's to be expected, I guess. The same crowd today is constantly shitting on the Bowflex. And you know, the thing is, I've always been a free weights guy and would argue it's the best way to get in shape, but saying one thing is good or better doesn't mean that another thing has to be useless.

I think that machines like the Soloflex or Bowflex, while not being optimal, can still be useful and are definitely a hell of a lot better than nothing. And if it comes down to someone either using a machine like that or just not working out at all then the choice is obvious.
 
feltburner said:
If nuclear war breaks out, the only survivors will be cockroaches and soloflexes. These things were built better than most houses are today. I have a bowflex now which is far superior, but the soloflex was a beast.
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You think the Bowflex is superior? That's interesting. I found a lot of stuff online where people who have used both preferred the Soloflex because it more closely resembled a free weight workout.
 
Hankooks said:
We got a solo flex when I was in middle school. It sucked. You had to crawl under the bar to bench or squat and the lbs weren't even close to accurate.
Click to expand...

On the bolded part at least, does it really even matter what the numbers say? All that should be important is that you're able to increase the resistance to the point that it challenges you.
 
Soma said:
When I was a kid my mom had a boyfriend named Leo. He loved three things in life the 49ers, his gold Iroc-Z, and his Soloflex. He was a big black guy who got even bigger from using the Soloflex.

When I was around 18 he died of cancer and left it to me. I put that thing to good use. Thing was awesome. Can do workouts with the bands,bodyweight exercises like pull-ups, and you could even put bars on the ends and then add extra weights.

I kept it for years, in fact I just sold it recently when I moved because there is no place for anything. The bands go for a good amount on eBay, seems like a lot of people still use it.

Good shit mayne.
Click to expand...


Damn, that's awesome. "The 49ers, his gold IROC-Z and his Soloflex." Love it.

Apparently the company is still around and they still sell them. I guess they just don't do the commercials anymore for whatever reason.

If I had a bigger place then I'd actually be interested in buying one just to fuck around with it. The only problem is that they are just WAY too goddamn expensive (although I know you can get them really cheaply used). Apparently the top of the line model is like $2,000 when, in my opinion, it should be like $400 max.

Even these days they apparently just look like they pretty much always have. Like I said in the OP, very simple and elegant design:



chair02_2.jpg
 
shadow_priest_x said:
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holy shit, I remember as a kid thinking this guy was huge and it made me want to buy the soloflex. Now he just looks like some twink who couldnt even spot my bench.

Society has really changed perceptions of swole.
 
bad seed said:
holy shit, I remember as a kid thinking this guy was huge and it made me want to buy the soloflex. Now he just looks like some twink who couldnt even spot my bench.

Society has really changed perceptions of swole.
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LOL "some twink who couldn't even spot my bench." That's hilarious.

To be fair though, despite not being especially swole, that dude is still in better shape than like 95% of the people on the planet. I've always been a skinny guy so I'd be reasonably pleased with that physique.
 
I had the generic version, called the flex cts. Same thing but without the elegance.

When I first got it I was so weak that I couldn't climb the pole in p.e. class.

After a summer of using the flex, I was able to smoke that pole.
 
bad seed said:
holy shit, I remember as a kid thinking this guy was huge and it made me want to buy the soloflex. Now he just looks like some twink who couldnt even spot my bench.

Society has really changed perceptions of swole.
Click to expand...

Good point.

What pisses me off the most about these things is that the assumption is that you can look like the models using it- or close to it- by using the Soloflex or Bowflex or whatever.

Anyone that's ever worked out halfway seriously knows that's bullshit. Every single one of those fitness models got their bodies at an old-fashioned gym with free weights, not by using some gimmicky bullshit.

Same with the million ab machines. Get a dude that's been strict on his diet and religious on his gym going for a decade and make the public believe he got that way through a damn ab machine.

Scam artists the lot of them.
 
Soma said:
When I was a kid my mom had a boyfriend named Leo. He loved three things in life the 49ers, his gold Iroc-Z, and his Soloflex. He was a big black guy who got even bigger from using the Soloflex.

When I was around 18 he died of cancer and left it to me. I put that thing to good use. Thing was awesome. Can do workouts with the bands,bodyweight exercises like pull-ups, and you could even put bars on the ends and then add extra weights.

I kept it for years, in fact I just sold it recently when I moved because there is no place for anything. The bands go for a good amount on eBay, seems like a lot of people still use it.

Good shit mayne.
Click to expand...

That's cool. That's old school shit.
 
The Soloflex had a cameo in Goonies. Bran (Josh Brolin) was using one.
 
Fedorgasm said:
I had the generic version, called the flex cts. Same thing but without the elegance.

When I first got it I was so weak that I couldn't climb the pole in p.e. class.

After the summer of Ghey, I was able to smoke that pole.
Click to expand...

*fixed
 
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