"My foolish Bowflex Ultimate is wilting in shame next to that big SBL460! I bought it for my husband for his birthday and I am so impressed with Body-Solid that I would like to purchase another gym for myself. Another reason I am sticking with Body-Solid , I've never seen such good customer service coupled with this high quality in equipment."
I wanted to get back into lifting free weights but wanted the safety of a spotter. While this isn't exactly free weight lifting it is the closest to it I could find. After reviewing Smith machines and leverage machines the BS SBL460P4 won out. I've been using it for over a year and have no regrets. I just need more weights now. Pros: heavy duty and durable. I did not need to modify any parts during assembly. Padding is heavy duty and so far no rips or cracks and I use this equipment at least four days a week. Coating is pretty good too. I don't consider myself a real serious lifter so the range of exercises works for me. This unit fully covers the core exercises and even some of the isolation exercises you might use dumb bells for. Cons: Assembly not for the light of heart. I'm mechanically inclined and it took two days to complete. The instructions were fairly easy where needed. I would not say the welds were quality but I can't say I've had any issues with them either. While the unit is heavy duting I would have liked the tube steel to be a little bit heavy. I got a little eager with the wrenches and pulled the side walls in at some points. The plastic end caps have a tendancy to fall off. Nothing a little glue won't cure. On some exercises the range of motion is a little awkward but not impossible. Just takes a little getting used to. That's the trade off for safety. The biggest down side is the bench. While it is heavy duty the post for the leg extension/curl is not a tight fit and wobbles a bit too much for me. Also the stablizer foot on the front is bolted and has a tendancy to roll up, causing the bench to rock. A tack weld on this connection took care of the issue. All in all, I would recommend the BS SBL460P4 if you want to lift free weights with the safety of a spotter. Body Solid makes a great product and I have absolutely no regrets. I also recommend their weight plates. The quad grip allows easy exercises with just the plate. Like I said, I purchased mine about a year ago, so mine was quite a bit cheaper. I purchased mine from Fitness Factory. I recommend calling direct. They were very friendly and helpful.
