If late-night television commercials are to be believed, America’s soft-bodied sofa dwellers dream primarily of three things: owning a knife that can cut through a penny; obtaining cash for gold; and building their muscles with a minimum of time, money, and effort. Of these three dreams, the last appears to be the most pressing. Today, gullible endomorphs can choose from dozens of fitness miracles: the Total Gym, which is endorsed by Chuck Norris; the Ab Flyer, an expensive swing that tones your midsection; the Thigh Glider, which turns leg-spreading into an exciting workout; and the Flex Belt, which uses electronic stimulation to shock your abdomen into six-pack shape.
Twenty-five years ago, though, a single home-fitness product ruled the airwaves: Soloflex. The first comprehensive home-exercise device marketed to a mass audience, Soloflex broke ground with its unique design, which promised users a safe way to build their bodies at home; its magazine ads, featuring close-up photographs of chiseled torsos and abdomens; and its infomercials, which brought those torsos and abdomens to life. Although Soloflex no longer paces the home exercise market, it paved the way for all the Ab Flyers and Thigh Gliders to come and changed the way we think about building our bodies.
I called in and talked to Carly, who was most pleasant. I wanted to let you all know that your WBV board is really helping my son with autism. He’s only been using it for about a week, but he is much calmer and able to focus on his academics more. I was lead to try it on him by an article I saw in an in-flight magazine. Perhaps this info will lead you to new uses for your product.
It is a group at U WI that used to work with Paul Bach y Rita who have developed a tongue vibration that is helping reverse some of the symptoms of MS. Its thought that the vibration to the brain stem may be causing the brain to regenerate in areas.
I’m a long-time owner and user of Soloflex. I started with the original “Bucksteel” and to my regret left it with a sold house in Texas. I replaced it with a new Soloflex machine and thereafter with a Rockit, weight bench and bells.
Now that I have room in the new house in Florida, I just got your Equipment Organizer and it’s as great as I thought it would be. So, where is the organizer for the plates and hand bells? I have two sets of bells, plates and straps all over the place and need the organization for them. I’d also like to see the compound bar bell and placement rack to come back now that we have a big-enough exercise room.
I know, timing is everything; or “you snooze, you lose,” or something of the sort!
Meantime, thanks for the high quality, functional equipment that’s so basic in function, it never gets obsolete. Cheryl has begun to use the equipment and pound-for-pound may be in better condition than I am. My travel schedule away from home is my excuse for not being in better condition from more regular use.
Give my best to all my friends at Soloflex and special thanks for the Soloflex sweatshirt you sent with my last order!
C. L.
Hello all,
Just purchased a 1980-82 SOLOFLEX!
Wow, what a great machine. I foolishly gave away my 1st machine to a neighbor. But this 1 is my pride and joy. I am sitting here just looking at it and welcoming it to our house. It is amazing! I travelled 300 miles round trip today to pick it up and had a smile on my face every mile, what a find!
Thanks for wonderful service every time I call SOLOFLEX, the receptionist are the best!
I hope I can someday visit SOLOFLEX and thank Mr. and Ms. Wilson and the employees personally for manufacturing this amazing work of art.
Thanks,
Rob McHale
NYC
Whomever:
While working out yesterday on my Soloflex, it occurred to me that I should pass along to you my gratitude for and praise of your machine.
I bought my used Soloflex 20 years ago from a neighbor and have put it through a one-or-two-hour, upper and lower body workout three times a week almost every week since then, vacations and illness excepted. I was 54 years old then, and I am 74 now. I am 5-foot-9, 160 pounds, have a 32-inch waist, significant biceps, triceps, abs, pecs, thighs and calves, and I attribute most of that to your long-lasting, reliable, easy-to-use device. My only cost during those 20 years has been new bands. I would send you a picture, but unlike the Soloflex, the use of photos on the computer is a technique that eludes me.
David N. Mitchell
Dear Jerry Wilson,
Just thought I’d drop you a note to let you know that I still have the original machine I bought from you in ’78 or ’79, don’t recall which. I’m now 65 and still using the machine 3 times a week. I’m not doing the same intensity of workouts but still able to shovel snow for 6 hours without any back pains or muscle aches afterward, which I did this last storm that dropped 2 ft. of snow on us.
I also have the WVB bench as well.
Keep up the good work .
Sincerely,
Joe Fallon
Browns Mills, NJ
I just wanted to mention that I bought my Soloflex in 1984, and have been using it on a regular basis ever since! I have more than gotten my money’s worth!
I will be turning 50 in February (2009), and Im still using the same Soloflex that I bought in 1981, when I was 22. Ive updated the weight straps and added the butterfly and leg extension over the years, but the machine itself is still the same and its still going strong.
One of the best products I’ve ever owned.
I bought my Soloflex 22 years ago right after my first divorce. I wanted to get in better shape. I used it quite a bit the 1st two years and then got re-married. then it just sat dormant for the past 19. I am now going thru another divorce and sat my micahine back up to begin towork out again. I’ve never really been out of shape, but now at, soon to be 53 years old, I wanted to get toned again. I’m also a volunteer firefighter and could use all the help I can get when wearing full gear that wieghs in at 70 lbs. that includes the air pack. I bought my machine with the leg etension and the butterfly adapter. My recommendation to any one buying one is to make sure you get both of these with your machine. Guys, if there is anything to critque after all the use, all these years would be these few small items. I made a padded backrest for when using the butterfly. The only other thing would be the bench – it could be 12″ longer and also wider, some time it feels like your falling off. All in all a great machine and I would recommend it to any one.
“As the movie progressed, I got in increasingly better shape,” he tells Details. “There’s this one fight scene with Liam Neeson toward the end, where it’s, like, the apex of the work … I swear to God, it looked like my head was digitally superimposed onto someone else’s body. I was like, ‘This cannot be me—that’s the way I look?’ … ‘Cause as a kid I only fantasized about looking that way. Remember Soloflex commercials? That was huge when I was a kid. It was like, ‘I wanna be the Soloflex guy. Mom, can we get the Soloflex?’”
Just had a look-see at your new web site. Outstanding! When I heard that you weren’t selling the original Soloflex anymore and then I saw the web site go through a downward transition I thought the worst. But I love the new site and all the things available on it – especially the original, classic Soloflex – even if it IS refurbished. I purchased my Soloflex back in 1982 and it has stood the test of time. That was six years before my son was born, and he has since used it to gain strength for playing high school and college baseball and I’m still using it to stay in pretty decent shape. I’ve had to replace a few straps along the way, and the butterfly attachment had a new bushing structure, but you guys replaced that for me for free. Customer service has always been top-notch. American made and made to last – what a concept!
Thanks for a lifetime of good health….
Richard Whited
My name is Mike Jackson I was hurt at work of for 15months most in a cast found a use soloflex I went from 200lb before getting hurt to almost 300lbmake some change workout 3 days a week on my soloflex in about 9months down to 195 feel great thank MJ soloflex you work for me I just turn 57
Hey there. I just wanted to let you all know that next week marks the 16th anniversary of my Soloflex. Through the years it has earned it’s share of “character building” scrapes, scratches, and surface rust. And while I use it mainly for pull ups, dips, and such these days, she is still as solid as the day I got her way back in 1993. Other benches and machines have come and gone, but my Soloflex is the one constant I always come back to, time and time again. Thank you for building such a remarkable piece of equipment.
Just wanted to say what a geat product the WBV platform is. I was a bit skeptical at first reading about the benefits other people were posting but decided to give it a try. I’ve had various aches and pains for years and tried various exercises (under doctors’ advice)which left me exhausted, and more times than not, left me with more pain than I had before! I’ve had the WBV board for a couple of months now and I don’t know how I’ve lived without it for all these years! I used to suffer from vertigo, plantar faciitis, and back/hip pain on a regular basis….not anymore! I use it everynight for 20 minutes & am working up to 30 minutes at the higher settings. I can tell you that I now get such a sound sleep I can sleep through earthquakes! Thanks Soloflex! E. Montoya
So this weekend, my parents brought me my own personal gym. The soloflex had stayed up in the second story of my parents hourse for years and they made the mistake of asking me if I could use it. Trying not to exert the overwhemling desperation flowing through my veins, I managed to hold off a few seconds before I responded with a definitive “yes.” So Friday, my parents and my sister came down to College Station to take away the old weight bench and drop off a pretty cool personal gym. Yeah, it’s not the most high-tech training system, but it works for a dude who doesn’t want to pay 30 dollars a month to go to a gym (that isn’t even open and HIS ideal hours) and whose schedule is so strange he doesn’t feel right about using free weights at night alone with a poppy shoulder.
I look at it as a new toy. I approached just like I woudl a video game. Without reading the instructions I decided to see if I could bench press the 50 pound straps on each side. I gradually lowered the weight until 10 pounds were on each side. At first, I felt like a complete whuss, but I did remember my father procide me with sage advice warning me to start with smaller weight. He confirmed it when I called him later by saying “It’s a little harder than you think.” It’s not like free wieghts, those bands can be pretty hard to move even if you are a stacked muscle-head. Maybe that’s why the maximum weight is only 50 pounds.
I had some time last night and before work and I’m pretty sure I’m sore because of my 30-45 minute work out. I still have the butterfly attachment hooked up and it tempts me everytime I walk by. In addition, I’m not sure where I’m going to stick my bike because the soloflex encompasses it’s old hangout. I enjoy the acquirement though. I can watch TV as I fidget with the settings and even run though several sets in a few minutes.
I just hope I dont start to resemble some sort of steroid-driven muscle-head, I’d hate for my super-wide shoulders to prevent me from passing through doors
If late-night television commercials are to be believed, America’s soft-bodied sofa dwellers dream primarily of three things: owning a knife that can cut through a penny; obtaining cash for gold; and building their muscles with a minimum of time, money, and effort. Of these three dreams, the last appears to be the most pressing. Today, gullible endomorphs can choose from dozens of fitness miracles: the Total Gym, which is endorsed by Chuck Norris; the Ab Flyer, an expensive swing that tones your midsection; the Thigh Glider, which turns leg-spreading into an exciting workout; and the Flex Belt, which uses electronic stimulation to shock your abdomen into six-pack shape.
Hi,
I will be turning 50 in February (2009), and Im still using the same Soloflex that I bought in 1981, when I was 22. Ive updated the weight straps and added the butterfly and leg extension over the years, but the machine itself is still the same and its still going strong.
“As the movie progressed, I got in increasingly better shape,” he tells Details. “There’s this one fight scene with Liam Neeson toward the end, where it’s, like, the apex of the work … I swear to God, it looked like my head was digitally superimposed onto someone else’s body. I was like, ‘This cannot be me—that’s the way I look?’ … ‘Cause as a kid I only fantasized about looking that way. Remember Soloflex commercials? That was huge when I was a kid. It was like, ‘I wanna be the Soloflex guy. Mom, can we get the Soloflex?’”
Soloflex…
Just wanted to say what a geat product the WBV platform is. I was a bit skeptical at first reading about the benefits other people were posting but decided to give it a try. I’ve had various aches and pains for years and tried various exercises (under doctors’ advice)which left me exhausted, and more times than not, left me with more pain than I had before! I’ve had the WBV board for a couple of months now and I don’t know how I’ve lived without it for all these years! I used to suffer from vertigo, plantar faciitis, and back/hip pain on a regular basis….not anymore! I use it everynight for 20 minutes & am working up to 30 minutes at the higher settings. I can tell you that I now get such a sound sleep I can sleep through earthquakes! Thanks Soloflex! E. Montoya
Late for you, early for me
