Review of Iron Gym Extreme aka Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar
Posted on February 10th, 2009 in Fitness
I paid $39.99 for this product on Amazon.com in January of 2009. It took about 2 weeks before it arrived. Here’s my review of the Iron Gym Xtreme. (Update: I guess they finally got around to adding the ‘e’ to ‘xtreme’ so it’s now Iron Gym Extreme.)
This is not to be confused with the regular iron gym, which had some limitations in movement compared to other pull-up bars (like the P90X pull up bar, the one I was encouraged to get for the P90X program but it costs a lot more ($100).! (Update: Since this review was initially written, it looks like the P90X bar has come down in price better to match the competition from Iron Gym Extreme).
The Decision
I wanted a pull-up bar I could use with the P90X exercise program. There was no way I was going to pay $100 for a chin-up bar, as nice as it may look:
Check out all those ways to grip on that bar. You can do more than just close-grip pull-ups, you can also do wide grip, which is great for the back and shoulders. Since P90x is the program I’m going to use this with, I needed a good substitute to that bar that has all the same features.
When I looked online, I saw the regular iron gym bar, that had tons of favorable reviews, was the one that was ‘as seen on tv’, and only costs 29.99. Then there was the iron gym xtreme, which looked exactly like the p90x bar, only costs 39.99, but was so new it had no reviews.
The Concern
I weigh 245 pounds. This thing says it can hold 300 pounds. I believe that. My real concern was can my house handle my weight? Is the door frame strong enough to handle me, or am I going to come tumbling down with trim and nails?
I have full faith that this thing will stay put over the door frame as long as my door frame holds. Maybe I didn’t have a lot of faith in my house. As of this writing, I really still don’t (more on that later).
Still, I read almost all of the 128 reviews of the original iron gym when the original was still on amazon (for some reason, I don’t see it there anymore). There were a couple of people who were in my weight range who voiced the same concern, but then said, “yes, it holds.” Not once have I seen anyone state, “Well, my house came crashing down.”
I figured the xtreme version would hold up just as well, so I bought it.
2 weeks later, it arrives.
I got the box and put it on my coffee table:
After assembling it (about 15 minutes), I put it on the floor:
But there was this one piece that I had no idea what it went to. I thought I had left something out during assembly:
It turns out that piece slides between your trim and the wall, and helps keep the iron gym in place. Don’t worry – it’s not screwed or hammered in – easily removable.
Please note that the iron gym is meant to fit in door frames of a certain width. My doorway thickness is about six inches. If yours is greatly different, beware. Also, if your trim isn’t like the trim shown in my photos, just be aware that it might not fit. Your doorway must have trim for the iron gym to stay in place. Try to find a door in your house that looks like this.
The iron gym support bar should look like this once in place.
and here it is from the front (the side I will be exercising from):
The doorway I’m using it in is very close to the next wall, so the iron gym barely fits. It’s best to have a bit of space on either side of the door so that the iron gym handles aren’t scraping up against a wall. The picture doesn’t do a good job of showing the position of that far wall. So rule of thumb, if your door trip buts right up next to the wall, that’s not a good door way to use this in.
I’ve had some more questions about placement of the iron gym. If you are putting it in a doorway that has a swinging door, you will be doing your workouts on the other side of the frame than where the door hinges are.
Using it
Let me be frank – I’m still scared to use this thing with my full weight (245 pounds). Not because I don’t trust the iron gym, but because I don’t trust my own house.
I grabbed the handles and slowly lifted my feet off the ground. I heard my house give a tiny bump of stress, but it held very firm. I did one pull up and let myself back down. I lifted the iron gym off the trim and there were no black marks left on the wall (Update – oh yes, there are scuff marks, but they didn’t appear until after a few uses. I thought I read somewhere on how to prevent them, but I can’t find it. As soon as I know I’ll post it here. Maybe it was something about wrapping the two bulbs that go against the trim in some kind of covering like cellophane. And the bar that locks above the trim leaves scuff marks, too. Maybe painters tape on the wall could prevent that. I haven’t tried these techniques – let me know if you have any tips on this).
For now in my workouts, I put a chair in the door and leave one leg on the chair while I use the iron gym. This helps me for two reasons:
- I’m weak and can’t do more than a couple of reps with my full body weight anyway.
- I have peace of mind in that I’m not putting great stress on my house.
Luckily, in the P90X program, the one-leg-on-the-chair method is actually a recommended approach for beginners (like me).
Bottom line – this thing does what it says and supports people as heavy as me. It’s a great substitute for more expensive chin-up bars. I like it alot – I feel it in my workouts. I’m still cautious about my house but that issue is inside my head, not any problem with the product at all. I would buy this thing again no question.
If you do buy it…
If you do decide to buy the iron gym xtreme from amazon, please consider doing it by clicking the puchase link from this page. It counts as a referral for me – it doesn’t cost you a penny extra that way.
Update (March 23, 2009) : Thanks for all the great questions that have come my way. I thought I’d address what I get asked. It’s been several weeks, and yes, I feel much more comfortable using the iron gym in my house – no more worrying about whether or not my house will fall. There are still no damage marks on my wall. I’m not the best poster child for before/after photos, as since my son was born, my ability to exercise consistently went to zero pretty quickly. Your head can potentially extend above your door frame a couple of inches, so if you have a really low ceiling, this may not be for you. Also, the ab straps did not come with the iron gym – there is a mail-in slip that came with it but I threw that out. I think the conditions were you had to pay shipping. If there are any more questions, feel free to let me know!
Update (March 26, 2009) : I’ve also received more emails about the dimensions, so I’m including a photo to demonstrate that. For people who have wider doors than 32″, I see on amazon.com that there are some extension bars that can be attached to the Iron Gym, but they get unfavorable reviews, so buyer beward for that kind of thing.
