Click to enlarge

Benjamin Bretz |
Date: 2009-04-13

I was a little leery of making this purchase. Normally, products that seem too simple for too reasonable of a price just never end up satisfying in the way you hope (e.g. The Dodge Neon, anything on Jack in the Box's value menu, my two years at DeVry). But this? Oh. Oh, my faith has been restored in cheap American products.

Because, you see, kids. This is a WELL ENGINEERED cheap American product. Yes, a rarity. I was worried that it would be difficult to assemble. I was worried that it wouldn't really hang from my door frame. I was worried that it would break under my underwhelming 155lbs. I was worried the Utah Jazz wouldn't be able to gear up and start winning road games as the playoffs grew nigh.

I mostly worried for naught.

I assembled the Iron Gym Extreme in about 15 minutes. Probably could have done so a lot more quickly, but I was distracted by Boston Legal on DVD, and by gunning my power ratchet wrench at my cat to stop her from playing in the packing materials.

(Note: You do NOT need your own tools to assemble this product. It comes with a little tool. But you can speed up the process with your own tools. You should have your own tools anyway, you know? Be a man.)

Once you assemble the Iron Gym Extreme, you'll need to pick a doorway. It seemed to fit all my doorways perfectly, but I have heard word of older houses having issues. You will need to insert a small metal wedge into the top of your doorjamb. This helps to secure the device and make sure it doesn't fall on anyone's head. It's not as scary as it sounds, you just kinda shove the thing behind the wood. Then you kinda wiggle it and say "Will that hold it?" Then a few minutes later you say "Gol-darn, it WILL hold it. Ain't that somethin'." Should any friends be standing nearby, this would be an excellent time to exchange high-fives.

I then chin-upped. Well, I tried. God as my witness I had no idea I was such a puss. I had like no upper-body strength. I'm pretty sure I heard my cat laughing at me somewhere down the hall behind me, but the blood was thumping in my ears so I can't be sure. But the bar sure worked!

I didn't give up and kept at the bar. Now, no, several weeks later I'm nowhere close to entering any Ultimate Fighting Competitions or anything, but I can do buttloads of reps now, and my cat has stopped mocking me.

This product has been excellent. Buy with confidence.

The Utah Jazz, however, appear to be headed towards a first-round sweep at the hands of the L.A. Lakers.

Crap.

James Berninghausen |
Date: 2009-02-06

I've used this with the P90X program for three weeks now and have had zero problems. I'm about 200 pounds and have never felt unsafe on it. No hardware needed to attach it, easy to assemble, sturdy materials, and comfortable grips. Definitely the best choice for me in Jan 09.

The only downside is a slight mark from the black foam on my white door frame. It's very slight but if you have a spouse that cares about that and is tall enough to notice it, you may need to wrap it with some fabric.

Jeff Kraus |
Date: 2009-04-09

I love this workout bar!

I unpacked the contents (which were very well packed, no chance of any damage in transit) and laid it all out on my living room couch. Sat down on the couch next to the pile of parts, and had it put together completely in 10 minutes. I'd recommend installing all of the bolts loosely at first, and once the entire thing is put together, tighten everything at once. This will minimize the likelihood of installing anything wrong and keep all the components straight.

The instructions show nothing more than an exploded diagram of the bar, but that's really all you need. All you're doing is bolting one bar to another bar, and most of the bolts are the same size, so there's absolutely no need for any more complicated instructions. It even comes with a wrench, so you won't need to search for one that's the right size.

So when you're done, you have the workout bar, and a little metal sliver that you slide onto the door frame as a safety piece - it would hold the workout bar on the frame if it were about to slide off. Which it won't do, by the way. At least not on my frame.

It's extremely solid once placed on the frame. No flex, no creaking wood or shifty metal parts. The workout bar and the door frame feel like they are now all part of the same single piece. But all you have to do is lift a couple of inches and the bar comes clean off the door frame. Nice.

I like having all of the hand position options. I don't feel like they left anything out. And I like using it for push-ups too. Sometimes my left wrist gets a little wonky and I can't keep it in that hand-perpendicular-to-the-arm position without some pretty serious pain, so this is great because I can just grip one of the bars with each hand instead of using the ground.

So far I haven't tried using it for anything else, so I'm not sure how it performs in those scenarios. I'll update the review if and when I try them out.

At any rate, if you're in the market for one of these workout bars, just splurge a little and get this one instead of the basic model. You'll get enough use out of the extra hand positions that it'll be worth it in the long run.

One last thing that may seem obvious but warrants a quick mention anyway -- of course, you won't be able to install this any old way. The bars can't be on the side of the frame that the door is hinged to, because the door will get in the way. It also won't fit if the door frame is really close to the corner of a wall. So keep that in mind when deciding where you'll want to put it. Turns out the designer of my home had a real knack for putting door frames in corners, so I ended up with only one feasible option out of nearly a dozen.

T White |
Date: 2009-01-27

I wanted to get the p90x dvd workout set that requires you also get a pull-up bar. the p90x bar is pretty expensive, so I was looking for a good substitute. the origional iron gym had lots of great reviews here on 24x7 Shopping Deal, but did not offer the extra grips that stick out like the p90x version. then i saw the iron gym xtreme, which seemed to be a new product because i couldn't find any reviews on it. so i ordered it, and wrote my own review along with some photos at http://ourfamilylikes.com/2009/02/review-of-iron-gym. bottom line - great product. it says it can hold 300 pounds, and though i'm not that heavy, i was still concerned about how this would treat my doorway. so far, so good.

M. Elkin |
Date: 2009-04-29

Just got for use with P90X. Assembled in a few minutes without issues. There is a small manual in the box, but I did not even notice it. It would be easier if you had a real wrench instead of the little one included. There is a single security hook that goes above the door to hold it, but no need for screws as with the p90X bar, I don't use the hook myself.
As far as the bar, the main bar ends up 36.5 inches long and about an inch on each side for the pads to hold the door gives you the maximum door size of 34 inches. In my case, it is just a hair too big as my doors are close together or near a wall, so it sits just a little off center into a closet. It is very stable either way. The vertical bar is 18 inches long and it plastic with padding, which I though would be too weak, but it seems to work fine and does not strain my door molding too much, especially at the top. Then again I am a rather light 5'8" 150 lb. The only thing is when I use the widest grip points, the pads and/or the door squeaks from the extra leverage. My doors are 5.75 inches wide which is about perfect for the bar. Also my door moldings could be 5 inches taller and it would still fit. (7-8 inch maximum molding thickness.)
After I ordered it, I did notice that it is available at Sports Authority for the same $40. You do pay taxes, but you don't need to wait for shipping.