Let me start by saying that this is an absolute first rate piece of equipment. I'm the type of person who researches a purchase like this to death before actually making it, and I could find no manufacturer of exercise equipment out there with a better reputation than Bodycraft. And get this - when you call their 800 number a HUMAN BEING answers the phone! To me, this is priceless.
Also, I put my entire gym together all by myself. My wife did help with discarding the mountain of boxes and plastic packaging that accumulated, but refused to assist with the actual assembly because of her unfounded notion that I'm too much of a perfectionist.
Anyway, solo assembly does allow one an intimate familiarity with the unit. Not only was every piece there that was supposed to be there, everything actually fit just like it should. During the whole assembly process (and close examination of each individual part), I could find NO instance where quality appeared to be compromised in any way.
I mean - the manufacturer warranties every single piece of the thing for as long as you live, so do the math. And buy it while you're young.
So of all the gym's Bodycraft makes, why did I choose the K2? In a word - SQUATS! Everything I've ever learned about fitness tells me that squats are the best single exercise you can do. And that's one exercise that's noticeably absent in most home gyms. Sure, you can do leg curls and extensions, and some even throw in a leg press. But nothing beats squats for total fitness - and this machine allows you to do them to total exhaustion, in total safety.
And when you throw in the upper, lower, and mid level cable pulleys - plus the movable arms (an idea borrowed from Bowflex's Revolution), I'd defy anyone to tell me an exercise you can't do on this gym.
Okay, now that I've got everything thinking I'm probably a Bodycraft stockholder or something, I'm going to try to pick this thing apart. So here's some bad stuff.
First of all, this thing is EXPENSIVE! I know that you get what you pay for, blah blah blah - but $3400 is still a lot of cash to lay out for exercise stuff. That's why you should buy it while you're young so the warranty will be longer, and you'll have more years over which to amortize the cost.
Also, it comes in about a gillion boxes - none of which are even remotely light weight or easy to handle. (There's a down side to buying quality stuff - It weighs more.) It could be argued that anyone capable of muscling all these boxes into the assembly area is already in great shape, and probably doesn't need the gym anyway.
And if you haven't achieved all your fitness goals getting all the parts in your basement, don't worry. By the time you get everything unpackaged and laid out in some sort of recognizable order, you will have.
But alas, the actual assembly process isn't all that bad. The instructions are very concise and easy to follow, and having virtually every piece machined to perfection certainly helps.
One word of caution though - leave all the nuts, bolts, washers, etc. that are in labeled bags IN THOSE BAGS! The instructions will reference those parts based on those labels. If you take them out, you'll have to measure each individual bolt to figure out whether or not it's the one you're looking for.
Oh... and don't forget to drink lots of fluids.
Once assembly is complete though, and you get a little feel for the K2, you'll realize that the lifetime warranty Bodycraft gives you probably isn't ever going to come into play. This is one well built gym!
On a somewhat funny side-note, I had ordered Bowflex's DVD a few weeks prior, and they called me about the time I'd finished putting the K2 together to see if I was ready to order a new Bowflex. After explaining that I'd bought a Bodycraft over the Bowflex - because I'd never seen a Bowflex in a commercial gym, etc., the lady thanked my politely and told me whenever I get ready to UPGRADE to a Bowflex, to give them a call.
Folks, trust me on this one - If you own this gym, the word "upgrade" isn't even applicable. And if you've endured the assembly process, you ain't gonna be changing nothing for quite awhile!
But after living with the K2 for about a month now, I have 3 gripes:
1. When you're trying to "guesstimate" the weight you're lifting on the bench press, I don't think they made allowances for the actual weight of the bar assembly you're lifting. For example, 100 lbs. of free weights is considerably lighter than 100 lbs. on the K2.
2. I love the isolation of doing "dumbbell presses" on the cable arms, and find the little balls on the ends of the cables that rest against the pulley don't float like they do on cheaper machines. These things seem to want to rake across my arms just north of the elbows causing annoying little bruises.
3. There's a little feeder pulley on the end of each movable arm that doesn't seem to be of the same quality of the other pulleys. Hence, when the cable contacts this pulley, it makes a slight noise it doesn't otherwise make. I know that no one other than someone like me would probably even notice this,but it bothers me since it seems to be about the only flaw on an otherwise really well thought out machine.
In summary, if you're looking for a commercial quality gym for the home, you've got about 10' X 12' of good solid floor space, and $3,400 to invest in your future health, I can't imagine investing it more wisely.
And if you happen to live in the Cincinnati, OH area, check out Exercise & Leisure Co. They're a great bunch of guys, match whatever price you'll find online, and they'll deliver it AND even put it together for you if you don't live too far away.
Product DescriptionShape your body, get strong, and lose weight with the BodyCraft K2 strength training system. The K2 is distinguished by its dual weight stack system, which can accommodate multiple users at the same time or quicker transitions for the single user. It's ideal for couples who want to make their workouts more efficient, or for folks who want to keep their pulse rate high while circuit training. The K2 offers two main stations. Station one incorporates a press/row/squat arm for safe, machine-style bench presses, decline presses, incline presses, shoulder presses, leveraged rows, and squats, with an adjustable bench that accommodates all the traditional angles (the bench slides out of the way for squats). The unique doubling feature, meanwhile, provides a 1:2 ratio for presses and squats, thereby delivering up to 400 pounds of resistance on the 200-pound weight stack. The press arm is even strong enough for dips and folds out of the way for dumbbell work.
Station two includes fully adjustable training/cable arms that support more than 100 exercises, including every exercise you've ever performed with dumbbells. Also a great station for sport-specific exercises, the station offers a high pulley for lat pulldowns and tricep pushdowns, a self-aligning leg extension/leg curl option, and a mid pulley for ab crunches and tricep extensions. And to make each exercise easier to perform, BodyCraft mounted exercise charts right on the machine.
Construction details include heavy-gauge steel tubing; 4.5-inch diameter, fiberglass-reinforced nylon pulleys with sealed ball bearing hubs; internally lubricated cables rated at 2,000 pounds of tensile strength; extremely dense foam upholstery with double-stitched, heavy-gauge vinyl covers; 1.25-inch-thick, precision-milled weight plates with EZ Glide nylon bushings; and a platinum gray powder-coated finish. The K2 measures 132 by 83 by 120 inches (W x H x D) and comes with a straight bar, lat bar, ankle strap, ab strap, hand grips, and a workout DVD.
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Perfect high-quality add-on for the BodyCraft bench. My only suggestion is that when doing leg curls to use some padding under your stomach so that the space and hard edges of the bench's padding between the seat of the bench and the back support part of it don'tunnecessarily irritate you.
