If you’re looking for a new home gym, our Bowflex Blaze vs PR3000 comparison might be able to help.
With so many home gyms out there, it’s hard to know where to start. A home gym is an attractive proposition for many reasons – convenience and cost being the main ones. Cutting out traveling time and gym membership costs can really help in the long run.
The Bowflex range of home gyms are great, but they’re all slightly different from each other, so which one you pick will depend on what you’re looking for.
In this comparison, we’ll take a look at each model, looking at their features, their pros and cons, their pricing, and their specifications, and then we’ll directly compare them both in a range of categories before we decide which one is our favorite.
If you’re in a hurry, though, we’ll give you the lowdown on the main differences between the two right away:
Topic Contents
Main Differences Between Bowflex Blaze vs Bowflex PR3000
The Main Differences Between Bowflex Blaze vs Bowflex PR3000 are:
- Bowflex Blaze can be folded, whereas Bowflex PR3000 cannot
- Bowflex Blaze involves swapping cables to complete different types of exercises, whereas Bowflex PR3000 works without stopping and starting
- Bowflex Blaze is a little cheaper, whereas Bowflex PR3000 is between $100-$200 more
- Bowflex Blaze has a sliding seat for rowing, whereas Bowflex PR3000 does not.
- Bowflex Blaze has 60 exercises, whereas Bowflex PR300 has 50.
- Bowflex Blaze can be fiddly to put together, whereas Bowflex PR3000 is easier to assemble
What Should I Look for in a Home Gym?
If you’re new to the home gym market, you can check out this guide to finding the best one. However, here are a few quick things to look out for:
Exercises
How many exercises can you complete, and which areas of the body do they cover? Some don’t offer as much in terms of arm exercises, for example. Others offer rowing, which is a great exercise to work out your whole body.
Ease of Use
If you want a home gym that offers a lot of flexibility, you might find yourself swapping cables to make it work. Some home gyms don’t require cable swapping, which is useful.
Storage
It’s obvious that you need a gym that will fit into your home. Consider how much space you’ll need around it, too. If it’s heavy, it might not work for you to drag it out into the middle of the room every time you want to use it. If space is really tight, you might want to consider a model that folds down a little to create more space.
Assembly
When it comes to assembly, home gyms tend to need two people to put it together. Check the reviews to see how easy it is to assemble.
Extra Features
Some home gyms come with extra features, like customization (for example, an adjustable seat or additional tension weight). They might also come with freebies, like covers, or instructional DVDs. The features you want will obviously be a personal choice.
Reviews
As always, check out the reviews. If a lot of people have the same issue with a home gym, chances are you might have that problem too.
Are Bowflex Home Gyms Any Good?
Bowflex is the name given to a range of fitness equipment, including home gyms, sold by the company Nautilus, Inc. They’re known for making good products. However, their home gyms are not necessarily favored by those who like to do heavy lifting – experienced bodybuilders may require more weight than they can offer.
Bowflex Blaze
The Bowflex Blaze is a popular choice for a home gym with a ton of features. It’s a compact, neat bit of kit that can fit into tight spaces, it has 60 different exercises, plus it can be customized by adding more resistance and adjusting the seat to change the angle of your workouts.
Exercises
You can do a lot of exercises using the Blaze – 60 of them, in fact. These include:
- Chest exercises, including shoulder horizontal adduction, bench press (including decline bench press and incline bench press), chest fly (incline and decline), resisted punch and lying cable crossover
- Shoulder exercises, including rear deltoid rows, standing lateral shoulder raise, seated shoulder press, front shoulder raise, shoulder extension, lying front shoulder raise, scapular retraction, and more
- Arm exercises, including triceps pushdown, single-arm pushdown, French press, seated biceps curl, lying biceps curl, reverse curl, ‘rope’ pushdown, and more
- Abdominal exercises, including reverse crunch, seated ab crunch, seated (resisted) oblique ab crunch, trunk rotation, and more
- Leg exercises, including leg extension, squat, ankle eversion, ankle inversion, leg press, prone leg curl, and more
The manual also includes a guide to warm-ups and cool-downs.
Design and Features
The Bowflex Blaze looks nice, and it’s designed not to be too bulky. It’s ergonomic, with a comfortable seat.
The Bowflex works using the Power Rod system, giving you resistance without the risk of damage or pain to your joints. It has multiple pulley positions, a lat tower with an angled lat bar, a squat station, a leg curl attachment, a sliding seat rail (for rowing training), and triple function hand grip/ankle cuffs. It’s got a huge amount of features for a home gym – enough to keep you busy for a long time.
It’s also customizable – you can add more resistance, up to 410 pounds (although this upgrade does cost extra). You can also move the seat rail, allowing you to customize your workouts. The resistance does reduce after a while according to reviewers.
It’s designed to be compact – you can fold it down for easy storage, and as far as home gyms go, it’s not too heavy. However, although it’s advertised as being easy to put together, some reviewers found it was a bit difficult and fiddly.
Despite the issues mentioned above, user reviews for the Blaze are generally positive. Users found the sliding bench seat to be a really useful feature (many found it to be comparable to a specialized rowing machine), and they liked having so many options for different exercises in one piece of equipment. They also found the resistance upgrade very simple to install.
It has a visual guide to exercises, which is great as a quick reference.
Specifications
- Weight: 214 pounds
- Dimensions: 59 x 23 x 14 inches
- Resistance: Up to 210 pounds, or 410 pounds with upgrade
- Amount of exercises: 60
Pros of the Bowflex Blaze
- Customizable using resistance upgrade
- Folds for easy storage
- 60 workouts with a nice variety to choose from
- Allows you to work out your whole body using just one machine
- Rowing exercises work really well
Cons of the Bowflex Blaze
- Fiddly to put together
- Resistance reduces after a lot of use
- May be too light for advanced users
- Not as advanced as other Bowflex models (like the Power Pro).
See the latest price for the Bowflex Blaze here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions about the Bowflex Blaze? We might be able to answer it here:
Can I use the Bowflex Blaze even if I’m very tall?
Yes – even users over 6ft tall had no issues.
Is the Bowflex Blaze stable on carpet?
Yes, it works really well on carpet.
How many people does it take to assemble the Blaze?
Two people are required for assembly.
How long does it take to assemble the Bowflex Blaze?
It takes around 2-3 hours to assemble.
Can I get a cover for the Bowflex Blaze?
No, they do not manufacture a cover for the Blaze at this time.
Is there a pullup bar on the Bowflex Blaze?
No, there isn’t. There is a lat pulldown station, however, that allows you to work the upper part of your body.
What’s the warranty for the Bowflex Blaze?
There is a one-year warranty for the frame, a 60-day warranty for the parts, and a 5-year warranty for the rods.
Bowflex PR3000
The Bowflex PR3000 is another great model, but it’s a little different than the Blaze – and costs a little more. It doesn’t involve swapping cables to complete different types of exercises, which is a really useful feature.
Exercises
The PR3000 has over 50 exercises, including:
- Bench press
- Decline bench press
- Incline bench press
- Crossover High Rear Delt Rows
- Seated Shoulder Press
- Shoulder Shrug
- Lateral Shoulder Raise
- Shoulder Rotator Cuff (Internal)
- Shoulder Rotator Cuff (External)
- Standing Low Back Extension
- Narrow Pulldowns with Handgrips
- Stiff Arm Pulldowns
- Reverse Grip Pulldown with Handgrips
- Triceps Pushdown
- Triceps Extension
- Seated Biceps Curl
- Triceps Kickback
- Seated (Resisted) Abdominal Crunch
- Trunk Rotation
- Leg Extension
- Squat
- Standing Hip Extension
- Standing Hip Abduction
- Standing Hip Adduction
- Standing Leg Kickback
- Standing Calf Raise
The manual gives a guide on warm-ups and cool-downs, too.
Design and Features
The PR3000 looks pretty different to the Blaze – for one thing, it’s red and black, as opposed to silver. It cannot be folded down, so you may need to take that into consideration – however, it is designed to be compact, and users found it fit just fine in small rooms. The heavy steel construction is sturdy and sleek, and it has detachable hand grips/ankle cuffs.
The PR3000 is designed to be easy to use, with no cable adjustments. It’s designed to give you a full range of motion, with no need to keep stopping and starting to change cables.
Like the Blaze, it can be customized to add more resistance. However, you can only add up to 310lbs – this may not be enough for you in the long run.
In terms of installation, it’s fairly easy to put together and takes around 2-3 hours.
Users like how easy it is to switch from one exercise to another, finding that they are able to get a full-body workout using just one piece of equipment.
Like the Blaze, it has a picture guide to exercises, which is a really useful reminder.
Specifications
- Dimensions: 64 x 41 x 83 inches
- Resistance: Up to 310 pounds with upgrade
- Amount of exercises: 50
Pros of the Bowflex PR3000
- Sleek, space-saving design
- Easy to install
- No need to swap over cables
- Can go up to 310lbs of resistance using the upgrade
Cons of the Bowflex PR3000
- Doesn’t have a rowing function
- Can’t be folded
- Doesn’t have as many exercises as other Bowflex gyms
See the latest price for the Bowflex PR3000 here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions about the PR3000? We might be able to help:
What’s the maximum user weight for the PR3000?
The max user weight is 300lbs.
Does the PR3000 come with a warranty?
There is a one-year warranty for the frame, 60-day warranty for parts, and a 7-year warranty for the rods.
How long does it take to assemble the PR3000?
It takes around 2-3 hours.
How many people are needed to assemble the Bowflex PR3000?
You’ll need two people to assemble it.
Does the Bowflex PR3000 come with a cover?
No, it doesn’t come with a cover.
Bowflex Blaze vs Bowflex PR3000 – Which is the Best?
The question remains – which Bowflex home gym is the best?
We’re going to directly compare them both in a range of categories. Let’s start with exercises:
Exercises
When it comes to exercises, the Blaze wins – there’s more to choose from here, plus the sliding seat acts as a rowing machine, which users were really impressed with. Considering the PR3000 costs more, it’s a shame it comes with fewer exercises. Plus, the Blaze can be customized up to 410lbs of tension – which is 100lbs more than the PR3000.
Size/Storage
Again, we’ll give this one to the Blaze. Being able to fold it up is a huge bonus if you live in a tiny space. Both are designed to be compact, but the Blaze does have the edge here.
Assembly
Users found the PR3000 easy to put together, whereas the Blaze seemed to give people more issues. So we’ll give this one to the PR3000.
Ease of Use
This is going to have to go to the PR3000. Being able to transition into different types of exercise without having to swap cables is a great bonus, and in the long run, may save a lot of time and frustration.
Warranty
The warranty on both machines is much the same, although the Blaze does have a slightly shorter warranty on the rods (5 years instead of 7). We’ll give this to the PR3000 because of this.
Conclusion – Which One Should You Get?
If you’re considering which Bowflex home gym to get, and you’re stuck between these two, it’s going to be a close call. Although the PR3000 won in three of the above categories, it does have some drawbacks. Not being able to fold it is a bit of an issue, plus it has fewer exercises than the Blaze – and the lack of a sliding seat makes rowing impossible.
Based on this, we’d recommend the Blaze as our top choice today – with a few caveats. The Blaze is a bit trickier to put together, and you have to swap cables to complete different types of exercises, which is a bit of a pain. However, it has more options in terms of types of exercise, and it can be folded, which is great.
However – if you want a smoother experience without swapping cables, the PR3000 would be a good choice too. If you’re not bothered about saving space, it may even be the better choice for your situation.
Basically, it boils down to personal preference – but we think the Blaze offers more features for the money, especially as it costs less than the PR3000.
Jodie Chiffey is a nutrition and health expert who owns over 50 pairs of athletic shoes and puts them to good use. She is always looking for a new healthy recipe, loves juicing and tests new products at home, and reports back to us here at Alt Protein. Jodie’s articles and recipes can also be found on her successful blog called The Juice Chief.
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