All of the doorways in my home have doorways with 6 inches from the molding on one side to the molding on the other side. Since the length from the front to the back of this bar is not adjustable, what happens is that the two furthest handles rest against the wall instead of being able to be used as intended (by holding them). You are only left with the use of the two closer handles in the middle, so you don''t get the benefit of alternating workouts by also using the wide handles. If I didn''t explain this clearly enough, please just measure the depth of your doorway including the molding. If it is close to 6 inches, skip this product. Unfortunately, the product description mentions the compatible door widths, but not the compatible doorway depths.
I''ve considered getting one of the available door frame pull-up bars for a while now, and I''m very happy that I had the opportunity to try this one. It has exceeded my expectations. I have a dip/pull-up stand, but it takes up more space than I like, so I''ve been wanting a more compact way to do those exercises. For me, this definitely fits the bill for pull-ups.
The video is just a short compilation of images that I hope are helpful, showing the product in a door frame and some details of the assembly "instructions." Below are details.
To set the stage I weigh about 130 pounds. So, I can''t give a reference on if this thing can really support the claimed 286 pounds. I was a little nervous about putting my weight on my door frame (perhaps for no reason), so I know that I''d be more nervous if I was heavier. After using this repeatedly for four days, I haven''t heard any creaking or other noises (except from my old joints). So, I am now confident that my door frame and this bar will support my weight without any issues.
ASSEMBLY
While there aren''t any real instructions for assembling this in the package that I received, there is a diagram (shown in the video) which made it pretty easy to assemble the relatively few parts. There are two screws, two medium bolts, and two long bolts just read the diagram so that you get the medium and long bolts in the right places. It comes with the two tools that are needed to tighten the screws and bolts, and total assembly time was about five minutes for me.
QUALITY
The product itself seems to be well made and I expect it to last a while. The metal pieces have a good fit and finish, and the cushion material doesn''t seem flimsy to me. There weren''t any rough patches on the metal or loose pieces that would make me doubt the quality of the manufacturing. I''ve hung from this and done many pull-ups without any noticeable bending/flexing of the metal pieces or wear on the cushions. Of course, only time will tell how well the cushions will hold up to repeated usage, as those are usually the first parts to wear.
MOUNTING
My door frames are about 35" wide and 5" thick with a 0.5" thick rim where the support bar sits. Mounting the workout bar was easy. It is a perfect fit on my door. Slipping it into or out of place is very easy. I use it on a door that it is a narrow hallway, so it doesn''t take much spare room to rotate it into place. The video might help you decide if it will work with your door frame dimensions. I''m about 5''9", and I can walk underneath it when it''s mounted without any trouble at all.
I haven''t installed the small metalic "safety wedge" that is intended to help keep the bar from accidentally being knocked off, but I think it''s only value is if you somehow push up on the bar before you start to exercise or really swing when you do pull-ups. Once you have your weight on the bar, the forces on the bar should keep the bar up against the frame.
USAGE
Pull-ups: I love the "neutral" position grips because it''s a new exercise for me. The narrow grip works very well, too. One note about the wide grip is that your elbows might hit against the door frame I have a smaller body frame and have to concentrate not to knock into the door frame when using the wide grip.
Push-ups: I already own a set of push-up handles that I really like, but I quite like both the close-grip that this bar offers, and also the wider grip that simulates doing bench press. It was great to work different muscles.
Dips: I honestly thought that the concept of doing dips on this was a joke. From the pictures, it looks like you can dip about an inch. However, if you bend your knees, you can actually get a decent distance with the dip. I was surprised at how tired my triceps got from using this bar for dips. I''m not ready to get rid of my dip stand, but it''s definitely better than I had expected.
Sit-ups: My door frames don''t have a lower lip, so I haven''t tried using it for sit-ups.
OVERALL
The product that I got might have been part of an initial production run, as there are some typos and erroneous statements in the manual and on the box (such as stating that it folds for easy storage which it does not). That aside, the product itself is quite good. I can''t speak to value because at the time of this review, there is no price listed. This product is visually identical (from what I can tell) to the Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar that is about $25 and I definitely think that it''s worth that much if it fits your door frames and will support your weight. I''ll update this review if I see a price that is much higher than that. Seeing as how similar they are, I can''t think of a reason to buy one over the other except for price.
I almost took a star away for the lack of assembly instructions. I do think the company should add step-by-step assembly instructions, but assembly really shouldn''t be difficult for most people even with the existing diagram.
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இ Fuzzy Wuzzy''s Summary:ѾѾѾ Somewhat recommended, with reservations and only lukewarm fuzzies.
There are a lot of these so-called "door gym" setups on the market, and this model provides basic door gym functionality at a very competitive price to help you perform four main exercises without taking up the floor space that larger exercise benches and exercise equipment normally requires. So this is also a nice piece of exercise equipment for people who live in smaller apartments.
When mounted to the top of a door frame that is 24 inches to 32 inches wide to perform pull-up exercises, provided that you weigh less than 300 pounds, the orientation of the bars give you at least three different ways to grip the bars and work out different muscle areas of your arms.
When placed on the floor with the crossbar placed behind a door frame, you can tuck your feet underneath the crossbar to hold them down while you perform sit-ups.
When placed free-standing on the floor, you can grip either the curved bars or straight crossbar to perform push-ups. Or you can sit facing away from the Workout Bar, grip the curved bars, and raise and dip your upright torso up and down to exercise your triceps.
In practice, however, I find that using this Workout Bar for pull-ups and sit-ups is the most effective, using it for push-ups is moderately effective for adding variety, and using it for dips is the least effective.
For push-ups, I like to simply place my hands on the floor/carpet, and sometimes raise my feet onto a chair or exercise ball for increased resistance, or to make it even harder, I spread my legs and perform some one-armed push-ups. Normally, the more that you raise your hands off the ground, the easier the push-ups become because you are reducing both the gravitational load and pivot angle. The same applies if you perform push-ups by pivoting off of your knees instead of your toes; the load is a lot less. But because you can lower your torso a little bit more lower (past the height level where your hands are) when grabbing onto the bars of this Workout Bar, it does add extra variety to your push-up routines.
When using this Workout Bar to perform dips (as depicted in the Amazon product photo showing the person grabbing the curved bars and facing away), I find that this Workout Bar is only mildly effective are working my triceps. The problem is that the curved bars do not provide enough height and ground clearance to work my triceps while I am pushing my upright torso off of the ground. So this lack of clearance results in hardly any strain on my triceps. You may find these dips to be challenging early on when you first start using this Workout Bar, but then you may eventually find that you have hit your limit for how much of a workout this provides (especially for men who typically have more upper body strength than women). One way that I was able to increase the effectiveness of this Workout Bar when performing dips was to place the Workout Bar on a bench so that I could now lower my body much lower than before and then push it back up. But, ideally, the curved bars should be at least twice as high off of the ground for a better workout (even though that would also alter the geometry of the Workout Bar and how it could be used on a door frame as a pull-up bar).
When using this Workout Bar for either pull-ups or sit-ups and utilizing a door frame as a support brace, make sure that the width of your door frame opening is no more than 32 inches wide. The crossbar on the Workout Bar is a little over 36 inches long and the door frame opening cannot be wider than 32 inches across in order for the crossbar to securely brace against the door frame on both sides. The Workout Bar uses a cantilever design to remain in place while you are performing pull-ups on it. So you need to have enough of the crossbar bracing against the door frame on both sides in order to keep it stable. Also, make sure that your door frame and all related molding are sturdy enough to be able to support the weight load of using it as a support for performing pull-ups.
The Workout Bar is shipped disassembled and assembly was very easy and involved just four bar sections, a rectangular plastic bar, a handful of nuts and bolts, and a wrench for tightening the hex bolts with. While using the supplied wrench to tighten one hex bolt, however, the supplied lock washer quickly split into two pieces before I had even fully tightened the hex bolt to secure a curved bar to the straight crossbar. And while tightening another hex bolt, the supplied wrench bent and distorted to the point that it became unusable. I then used my own socket wrench to complete the assembly of the Workout Bar, and I replaced the lock washers that the Workout Bar had included with my own better stiffer lock washers. But I was surprised at how soft the metal was on both the lock washer and the supplied wrench tool. If I had used their included lock washers to assemble the unit, but I was careful not to tighten them much, then the two curved bars could shift in their connection to the crossbar whenever I used it for pull-ups or push-ups.
The grip areas on the Workout Bar are wrapped with a plush soft foam rubber. Unfortunately, this soft of a foam rubber is TOO soft for use on exercise equipment like this where you are gripping onto it to push or pull your entire body weight. This lightweight-density foam rubber would be great for use on 10-pound or 20-pound dumbbells, but not for use on exercise equipment grab-handles where more than 80 or 100 pounds is being pushed on or pulled on. I have bought exercise equipment before that used thin soft foam rubber like this, and it is only a matter of time before this foam rubber tears and becomes abraded off, necessitating the wrapping of duct tape around the foam rubber to keep some of it intact. I would have much preferred a thicker and far stiffer foam rubber that is more durable.
An 18-inch long plastic bar is fastened to the two curved bars, and this plastic bar is what rests on top of the door frame/molding. No screws or bolts are used to fasten the Workout Bar to the door frame, and you are supposed to take it down when you are not using it. A supplied L-shaped "Safety Wedge" can be inserted behind the top door frame molding to further stabilize the Workout Bar while you are using it for pull-ups. I did not use this "Safety Wedge" because I did not want to damage my door molding by wedging this between the wall and the door frame molding. The metal on this L-shaped "Safety Wedge" also seemed soft; I could bend the L-shape using my fingers. Besides, the Workout Bar seems quite stable for pull-ups without using the "Safety Wedge". I wondered about the use of plastic on this rectangular door frame bar instead of using a sturdier, more durable, lightweight metal like aluminum, but so far, it seems to hold up with repeated pull-up sessions. Neither the door frame nor the plastic bar on the Workout Bar have been warped or bent after more than a month of regular usage.
Overall, especially at its current $20 Amazon price, this is a good BASIC workout bar. There are various other "door gym" workout bars that costs $5 or $10 more, but they basically all work the same way, and many of them even look very similar. But the main advantage of a workout bar like this is that it gives you the ability to perform pull-ups without using far larger (and far more expensive) exercise equipment. But you do not really need this workout bar to perform sit-ups, dips, and push-ups. For example, in the past, I could always find some sofa or bed frame to tuck my feet into and hold them down while I performed sit-ups. I would actually rate this 3.5 stars (instead of just 3 stars), especially at its currently (heavily) discounted price.
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I wasn''t that impressed with the Ultega Upper Body Workout Bar. It''s quite easy to put together but actually using it is a pain. It''s not adjustable so it can only work with very specific door frames. The bar won''t fit in most doors (although it says it is for 24-32 inch doors) and when it does fit, it never feels secure. You''re given a "Safety Wedge" to help secure it, but it''s this tiny flimsy piece of metal that did nothing to reassure me while I was using it. Add in the fact that the foam handles on the end of the bars are slippery and move around even when your hands are dry, and you have an accident waiting to happen with this thing.The good news is this just means that pullup will be a problem with this, You can still use the Upper Body Workout Bar for push-ups and dips. The fourth exercise is supposed to be for situps, but again, due to how the bar doesn''t actually fit in door frames very well, I wouldn''t recommend it for that either.
All in all there are better multi-function bars out there. You can also just get equipment to help with specific exercises if you really want to do pull-ups no one really needs something to do sit-ups or push-ups with anyway. You''re better off passing on this thing entirely.
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The problem with this device (which I was really looking forward to using) is the door mounting element. Assembling the device took less than fifteen minutes. It seems sturdy enough and, while I can imagine repeated use tearing apart the foam rubber, this could be easily remedied down the road.The problem is finding a doorway to mount it securely. As it turns out, none of the doorways in my apartment work. The one that might have a chance has a door frame that is too narrow. There is one small and flimsy metal piece that is supposed to help secure the plastic bar to the top of your door frame. Naturally, it is not strong enough and could easily be bent with your hands. Given a wide enough door frame ledge for the plastic crossbar to rest upon comfortably, there wouldn''t be too much need to depend upon the flimsy guard, as the longer crossbar rests against the other side of the doorway and balances the stress. However, in my case, I don''t have that. My door frames ledges are either not wide enough or I don''t have enough space to accomodate the longer crossbar.
I have thought about some options and I could probably mount a 2 x 4 to an open doorway area and then get some stronger guards to prevent the crossbar from slipping off the 2 x 4. This should work and I''ll give it a try (if the landlord doesn''t mind...), but until then consider this review a warning that the successful use of this device depends upon your doorways/doorframes and the available space around them.
I''ll write more after I make the adaptations.
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