Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar
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List Price: Our Price: $23.90 You Save: $16.09 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $20.99 (click here) Category: Sports See more product details |
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Description of Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar
Iron Gym is the multi function training bar that combines every exercise you need to build a powerful upper body. Its the ultimate body sculpting and strength building tool that helps shape the upper body and tones your midsection. The durable steel construction holds up to 300 lbs. It is designed to fit residential doorways 24" to 32" wide with doorway trim or molding up to 3 ½ inches wide.Strengthen your back, biceps, and other upper body muscles in the comfort of your living room or dorm with the Iron Gym workout bar. Designed to fit conveniently in most doorway frames or sit on the floor for pushups, dips, and sit-ups, the Iron Gym is an ideal choice for people who want to get fit without buying expensive, space-intensive weight sets. When installed in the doorway, the device lets you perform pull-ups and chin-ups, with three grip positions--narrow, neutral, and wide--for working the inner and outer back. Once you're done with your back workout, you can quickly move the Iron Gym to the floor, where you can perform pushups while facing down, tricep dips while facing the other way, or sit-ups using the Iron Gym for foot stability.
The Iron Gym--whose durable steel frame installs quickly without tools or fasteners--holds up to 300 pounds and is designed to fit residential doorways 24 to 32 inches wide, with doorway trim or molding up to 3.5 inches wide.
Sports reviews of Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar
Customer Review: works great!
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
I've had the Iron Gym for about a month now, and it's worked great. As other reviewers have noted, it may not fit in every doorway, so measure yours and make sure you have a door it'll fit in. Some of my doors were near corners and there wasn't enough room on both sides to mount the Iron Gym there. The door to my garage has a steel frame and would have been a good choice, but it didn't have enough room above the door frame due to a low ceiling on the other side. But I still have a couple other doors with enough space all the way around, so I've used the Iron Gym on those. I weigh about 155 lbs., and I could hear the woodwork in the door frame creak a little the first couple of times I started working out with the Iron Gym. But it's held up fine, and I guess the wood has adjusted, since I don't hear creaking anymore when I work out. If you weigh over 200 (90kg), I'd suggest being very gentle with your workouts until you're sure the door frame moulding will hold.
As for the workouts, when I started, I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't do a single pull-up with proper form (the manual gives a good, concise description of how you should do each exercise). Now I can do up to 10 using the inner grips or 5-6 using the center grips, so there's definite improvement in 30 days, as the ads claimed. I haven't really been able to use the outer grips yet, partly because my doors are a little too narrow, and partly because I don't have the strength yet. The angle doesn't seem to work too well, so I'm not sure how useful the outer grips are in general. But using the inner and center grips, the workout is great -- if you make sure you use proper form and pull yourself up until you just can't do it any longer, you really get a good, quick, strength-building workout.
One other thing I'll note about the pull-ups is that, while the grips are comfortable, my hands start to get sore after a couple of reps. I've been using gloves while working out, and it helps a lot. (I use some ski gloves I had lying around, but maybe some gardening gloves or weightlifting gloves would be better.)
The push-up feature is great, too. It's very comfortable and gives a good workout. I haven't used the dip feature much, but it works OK too. The height of the Iron Gym for dips is probably not quite high enough to get the best workout, as other reviewers have noted. But it's better than nothing. I haven't tried using it for sit-ups yet.
Overall, a great product, especially for the price. I recommend it, but also read the other reviews which discuss the potential problems and downsides, and if those don't apply or you can live with them, buy it!
Customer Review: The next best thing...
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
...to one of those free-standing pullup/dip stations that take up a lot more space and cost about $100. It works...does what it's supposed to do. Excellent for use as pushup handles on the floor, too.
The only CONS:
1. The close-grip position is not as close as I'd like. I will use it for variety, but more often just put my close-grip V-bar handles on the straight bar instead, though of course that means that I'm an extra 5-6" lower to the ground, so have to bend my knees even more to avoid banging them on the floor at the bottomn of each pullup.
2. Due to the fact that both the wide grip and "close" grip handle bars are about 8" down from the top of the doorway, unless you are very short it means that you are a bit too close to the ground. This makes using a dip belt in order to do weighted pullups a bit clumsier, and also makes doing hanging leg raises impossible unless you really scrunch up and fold up your legs. This is where the free-standing pullup station has a big advantage.
3. Contrary to manufacturer's claims, you really can't use this thing on the floor to hold your feet down during situps, since there's no weight keeping your feet from flipping the thing over during the exercise. You're better off sticking your feet underneath a couch or bedframe!
4. Trying to do dips on this thing is an even bigger joke, unless you put it on a solid, elevated surface like a bench or a firm sofa and have your feet supported by a chair or something of the same height. Another big advantage of the freestanding pullup/dip station.
5. I didn't send in the coupon for the ab straps since I own some already, but really they'd be pretty useless anyway unless you're maybe 4 feet tall or your doorway is 10 feet tall!
6. Almost all of the complaints above are null if you do have a 10' high doorway. LOL
7. If you're the unfortunate owner of a non-standard doorway (e.g. no protruding frame, too wide, wall too thick or too thin) then you'll be SOL because this thing won't fit or work at all.
GENERAL ALTERNATIVE/ADVICE: if you have a tree with a more or less horizontal thick strong branch, you'd be better off jerry-rigging your own pullup station by using some polypropolene rope, a sturdy carbiner, and buy a good chrome lat bar and/or close-grip V-bar. It'll cost you a little more but will be ergonomically perfect and the hardware will surely last far longer.
JUST REMEMBER: any kind of real pullup is far better for you than a machine, especially a hunkajunk Bowflex!
Customer Review: Works fine for me.
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
I bought the Iron Gym about a month ago, and hundreds of pull ups later, it's still working fine for me. At first I was hesitant, because I'm 230 lbs., but after my first use I have never had even an ounce of concern since. I've heard a lot of people give poor reviews based upon the door size required, and maybe I just picked up a newer version of the packaging, but it states clearly on the box that the unit fits standard door frames 24-32" wide.
Construction-wise, I can't complain. I have no mechanical aptitude at all and put the unit together in under 5 minutes. Within 10 minutes of taking it out of the car I was using it.
As far as the pull ups and chin ups go, it's pretty good. My range of motion is impeded a little when I do wide grip pull ups, and since the handle is straight across, you get stuck at a certain point in the movement, but all of the other pulling and chinning exercises are fine and unimpeded.
There's some other dumb little crap they say you can do, like push ups with an increased range of motion. Okay, I have no problem with that. Sit ups, with the unit anchored by the door as it lays on the floor (okay...if you absolutely no core stability and really need the assistance), and finally, dips. The dips in my opinion using this unit, which stands no more than a few inches off the floor are kind of worthless. Dips are all about range of motion, and you get little of that using this unit. Just use the side of your bed or a chair for those, and it'll be time much better spent.
If you want to get the ab straps, that's up to you, but I don't personally feel that they're necessary, but that's just my personal opinion. I've also heard people say that Pro Fit uses this as an opportunity to sales pitch and annoy you. In my opinion, elastic bands from Jumpstretch.com or Iron Woody Fitness or even two bathroom towels would accomplish the same thing at much less the cost.
Never had a need for their customer service, and hope I don't ever have one, so I can't comment on that.
Overall, I give it five stars, because it delivers on everything it claims to do. If you look at them, most of the bad reviews have nothing to do with this product's actual performance as a fitness tool. I don't think it's as good as a power tower, but many of us do not have the means ($100+) or space to own one, and in this case, the Iron Gym is a great alternative.
Customer Review: Excellent pullup bar. Solid and reliable. - Update at end of review
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
I got this 2 1/2 months ago, and I have used it daily since then. I have gone from just 10 pull ups a day (in multiple sets) to more than 50 pull ups a day. Here are my impressions of this bar:
- Very easy to assemble. All that is needed is included in the package, and it only takes a few minutes to mount the bar.
- The bar is solid and reliable. I was a little leery to hang my weight from a door frame, but I have not had any problems. I suppose that as long as your door frame is solid you shouldn't have any problem either. There is a retention clip that is used as a sort of security measure, by the way. All in all, I have full confidence in this bar now.
- It seems very well built, and I think it will stand the test of time.
- Versatility: You can use this bar to do pull ups (palms facing away,) chin ups (palms facing towards you,) and neutral grip pull ups (palms facing each other.) Not all bars have handles that allow you to do neutral grip pull ups, and this is definitely a plus, since when doing pull ups variety is important (it will allow you to engage different muscle fibers in your back.)
I really have not used this bar for push ups or sit ups, but alone on its merits as a pull up bar, it deserves the highest rating.
UPDATE:
After 4 months, the foam on the grip areas started peeling off and eventually breaking away. Maybe it's because I use exercise gloves when doing pull ups, but I think the construction in the grip area should be better. This is not diminishing my ability to do pull ups however, and given the overall quality of the bar, I still maintain my original review rating. But consider what I mentioned about the foam falling appart when you buy this product, and whether that might be an issue for you.
Customer Review: One of the best training devices I have in my home workout arsenal
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
I won't waste your time by repeating many of the great reviews on this product, but I'll tell you that I've had it since Sept '08 and it delivers as advertised... I searched for a while for a chin-up bar that uses your weight to stay in place as opposed to hardware which leaves holes everywhere and sometimes breaks away, and before you know it, you might need a new door trim. I really love my Iron Gym as it allows me to do various chin-up grips, deeper pushups, and tricep dips at home or on the road. I opted out of getting their ab straps though; I bought Valeo ab straps (that use extra-large carabiners to attach) and they work great.
There is no doubt doing leg lifts with this device helped my midsection a lot--the bottom section of my abs that is quite difficult for me to intensely isolate exercising on the ground is made easier using the ab straps, and has defined the bottom of my waist to meet with the upper part of my abs. My Iron Gym helped me to improve my upper body endurance strength, and will be there wherever I take it to either maintain or go the next mile. It's the chin-up bar that can be set up at home whenever you want without worrying about being embarrased about approaching the chin-up bar that seems to have a spotlight in the middle of the weight room--some of you know what I'm talking about, LOL. And I can't do a lot of them completely unassisted-- I do chair assisted chin-ups with it, but I have noticed since using it regularly that I've pushed the chair farther away with the same reps and it's great to see and know that I'm improving without needing to worry about that "spotlight" in the gym. Anyone who wants that comfort of a home workout will find a great addition to their arsenal in the Iron Gym.