I've owned a Soleflex, a Bowflex, and this Powertec Workbench Multisystem I pictured below. I threw away the Soleflex, since it wasn't known for getting you big. But I regret that til this day. I had gotten the entire Soleflex System for only $100, at a yard sale, and they were going for $1,000 at the time. It just needed one minor repair, and I took care of that. Anyway, I replaced it several years later with the Bowflex, and wounded up sitting the Soleflex out on the curb for pickup, since nobody wanted it, or wanted to buy it...smh. I was one of the only single brothers living in that subdivision, while everybody else was married with at least one child. So I guess the rest of the brothers felt they had no need for it.
I found the Soleflex was the safest machine for squats, although it did start giving me pain right above my right hip, since that was the side I use to lift the bar from, to get it above my shoulder. That was the main drawback, not having a way I could just get under the bar while still standing. Doing the squats on the Bowflex was way to awkward, not to mention I had the old model, although it was new at the time.
This Powertec Workbench Multisystem gave me the best benefits of all the machines I owned, because it holds free weights, and you can go real heavy, so heavy I wouldn't recommend it for a teenager. But this machine can mess your back up on the squat station, the station to the right. At first I was using it like a child playing with a new toy on Christmas morning. Then I started loading too much weight on it. It's hard to tell when you're going overboard, because the handles are already positioned high enough for you to squat under them, and stand up. But I think the real problem is the design on this squat station. I don't think it's designed to support your back for doing numerous squats, although that's the way they tried to engineer it. Til this day, I hurt my back using it without even adding weights. It feels like it forces my back in the wrong angle when I stand up. Other then this major flaw, this would have been the perfect machine.
But I still don't know if it's a flaw in the design, or if it's just me. I don't hear about this machine being advertised anymore, and I don't know anybody who owns one. I do notice the later machines that have a squat station, aren't designed like the Powertecs', which leads me to think it's a design flaw. For anybody here who used this model Powertec Workbench Multisystem with this squat station, did you experience the same thing sooner or later, or are you still able to do the squats with no problems. I sure wish there was a way I could fix this.
ive always been of the mantra "do what feels right for you"
the goal is SELF-improvement am I right?
nikka babble. 
