I just came across something humorous written by LifelineUSA on their Facebook page:

Wondering why the LifelineUSA Jungle Gym XT is the world’s foremost suspension system?

Surely the people at LifelineUSA don’t actually believe that their product is “the world’s foremost suspension system”. That undisputed title, of course, belongs to the TRX Suspension Trainer.

The Jungle Gym XT is a decent product being offered at a very good price, but for LifelineUSA to claim that it’s the world’s foremost suspension system is shameless.

Sorry, LifelineUSA, but writing that the Jungle Gym XT is the world foremost suspension system does not make it true.

If you’re looking for a dip station that’s ultra portable, then you’re looking for the Lebert Equalizer. There is no other dip station on the market that even comes close to matching the portability of the Lebert Equalizer.

Back when I used to run my boot camps (before I got my Lebert Equalizer), I tried bringing another brand of dip station to and from those workouts, and it was a gigantic pain in the ass. The process went like this:

1. Disassemble dip station.
2. Awkwardly carry pieces of dip station to my car.
3. Flip the back seats down in my car to get the pieces to fit in the trunk.
4. Awkwardly carry pieces of dip station to the workout location.
5. Reassemble dip station.

Huge, gigantic, royal, pain in the ass.

Also, keep in mind that taking that dip station home from the workout was the same pain in the ass process, only in reverse. Needless to say, after lugging that dip station to a few workouts, I ultimately decided it was too much of a hassle and stopped bringing it to my boot camp workouts.

The Lebert Equalizer is a breeze to transport to and from workouts. Today I did a private personal training session with a longtime client (I don’t offer private personal training anymore, but I still train this client whenever she’s in town and wants to train with me). I brought the Lebert Equalizer to this morning’s workout, and not only was it a big hit with my client, it was extremely simple to take to and from the workout.

The killer feature of the Lebert Equalizer is that it is ultra portable without the need to be taken apart and reassembled. The bars are stackable, so not only can I fit two of them in my trunk without needing to flip down my back seats to make room, I could probably easily fit six to eight (or more) Equalizer bars in my trunk, and still have room for the rest of my workout gear.

Also, I’ve recently taken my Lebert Equalizer to a workout that I had to walk about eight blocks in downtown Vancouver to get to. Since I was taking the Equalizer, I debated driving to the workout, but I had a feeling the Equalizer would be no problem to carry eight blocks to and from the workout, and I was correct. No problem at all. My gym bag was actually heavier then the Equalizer bars.

So if you’re researching brands of dip stations, and portability is an important feature on your list, you should end your research right now and just choose the Lebert Equalizer. Not only is the Equalizer the most versatile and robust dip station on the market, but it’s also the only dip station on the market that’s ultra portable and that can be easily taken to and from workouts without any need to disassemble and reassemble the bars.

My favourite gymnastics rings are the Again Faster 1.1″ Wood Rings, but the diameter of those rings (1.1″) might be a bit uncomfortable for people with particularly big hands. If that’s you, and you’re looking for a set of gymnastics rings that are better suited for big hands, I suggest you choose the Again Faster 1.25″ Wood Rings:

The atrociously bad “workout” DVD bundled with the GoFit Gravity Straps includes some awful advice about how to setup the Gravity Straps.

My initial reaction when watching the DVD for the first time (besides noticing how unbelievably bad it was) was to wonder why the hell Bob Harper had both straps setup in the centre of the door. The Gravity Straps are a dual-anchor suspension gym, and thus ideally should be setup to take advantage of that feature by separating the anchors so that they’re approximately shoulder width apart. The only caveat is if you’re using a door that opens towards you. In that case, the anchors should be setup together on the hinge side of the door.

But in the instructional video bundled with the Gravity Straps, Bob has the straps setup together in the middle of the door on a door that appears to open away from them, but even if the door opens towards them, there’s still no reason to have both straps centred in the door. Absolutely no logic whatsoever for why the Gravity Straps should be setup that way.

As Bob is explaining how to setup the straps, he reveals that he has absolutely no clue about suspension exercise when he points out that the Gravity Straps are “setup on a pulley system”. The Gravity Straps are positively NOT a pulley system, and in no way, shape, or form should they be described as such. Good one, Bob.

Regarding the anchor placement, at no point while he is explaining how to setup the Gravity Straps does Bob mention how far apart the anchors should be. He doesn’t mention anything about that until over eleven minutes into the DVD, when he says:

“When you hook your Gravity Straps up to the door, make sure that they are centred about 16 inches from the outside of the door. It’s going to be much more secure the more centred you are. Notice that we are just directly down the dead centre of our door.”

That’s probably the dumbest piece of suspension exercise advice I’ve ever heard. There’s absolutely no point whatsoever to setup both anchors of a dual-anchor suspension gym in the centre of a door. The best way to setup the GoFit Gravity Straps, or any other dual-anchor suspension gym, is to setup the anchors about shoulder width apart if you have a door that opens away from you. If you have a door that opens towards you, the most secure way to setup the straps is to setup both straps on the hinge side of the door.

Also, it goes without saying, but since Bob Harper clearly hasn’t got any experience or knowledge about suspension gym training, he shouldn’t be making suspension gym training DVDs. Now I know how people in the kettlebell community feel when inept trainers like Bob (who also clearly has no clue about kettlebell training) make kettlebell workout DVDs.

A question I occasionally get asked is whether the Lebert Equalizer is suitable for tall people. I’ll answer that question in a moment, but I should also point out that for several years I avoided purchasing a Lebert Equalizer because I thought the height of the bars (28.5″) was too low to allow a tall person like myself (6’2″) to perform full range of motion dips and rows. Turns out I was wrong. When I finally picked up a Lebert Equalizer, I discovered that the height of the bars feels perfect, and doesn’t restrict the range of motion on any of the exercises that I perform on it.

So if you’re a tall person and are considering buying a Lebert Equalizer, unless you’re a gangly freak of nature that needs to buy custom clothing because no off-the-shelf clothes will fit your carnival sideshow body, I can confidently tell you that the Lebert Equalizer will work perfectly for you.

Lifeline USA recently released a product that appears to have infuriated many of their customers due to the very steep price tag. Meet the Monkey Tree:

The consensus on Lifeline’s Facebook page and YouTube channel seems to be that the Monkey Tree is ridiculously overpriced, and I tend to agree. $1199.99 will buy you the Monkey Tree pictured above, or you can buy the following training rack from CrossCore for $995:

The CrossCore rack is vastly superior in every way, and it’s 20% less expensive. Considering the rack that a thousand bucks will buy you from CrossCore, I think the price of the Monkey Tree would need to be dropped below $500 before there would be a very compelling reason to buy it.

If you’re looking for the best pushups handles, I’ve got the answer for you, and it’s actually not pushups handles at all, it’s parallettes:

The reason paralletes are the best pushups handles is their versatility. With a regular set of pushups handles, pushups are the only exercise you can do with them (the benefit of using pushups handles is being able to perform them with neutral wrist alignment). With parallettes, you can perform pushups with neutral wrist alignment, plus an entire catalog of awesome gymnastics exercises that are super fun and extremely effective.

So if you’re in the market for a set of pushups handles to take better care of your wrists, I suggest you pick up a set of parallettes instead (I recommend American Gymnast Parallettes). Parallettes provide the same benefit of regular pushups handles (neutral wrist alignment for pushups), plus the ability perform all kinds of killer bodyweight exercises not possible with regular pushup handles.

I just discovered a pretty cool looking piece of exercise equipment called the Gymstick Functional Trainer:

I found it via the following YouTube video:

Looks like a great product, but my first impression was to wonder how they could sell that product in North America because it looks like it violates at least a couple of American and Canadian TRX Suspension Trainer patents.

Turns out that Gymstick International is based out of Finland, and I get the feeling that the Gymstick Functional Trainer is not being sold in North America, so it’s probably just being sold in countries where TRX doesn’t have patents.

But I’m still somewhat confused about what’s going on with the Gymstick Functional Trainer because other their PDF catalogs, I can’t find it for sale, or even mentioned, anywhere on the Gymstick website.

On the Gymstick website, I found the Functional Trainer mentioned in their 2011 catalog (page 26):

And I also found it mentioned in their 2012 catalog (page 30):

But although the product listed in their 2011 and 2012 catalogs, I’ve looked high and low but I haven’t been able to find the product anywhere on their website. The only place I’ve been able to find it for sale is in Australia. So I’m quite curious to figure out what’s going on with that product.

Anyway, I assume patent issues explains the lack of availability to purchase the Gymstick Functional Trainer in North America. I’ll be keeping my eye on the Gymstick website to see if the product ever becomes available here. Looks like a great product at an outstanding price, so I hope it does eventually make its way across the pond.

Over the past few days I’ve been finishing up work on a series of outdoor boot camp workout routines that I plan to release soon for my Rush Boot Camp website. The workouts will use continuous loop resistance bands and suspension straps.

When designing workouts that use suspension straps, one of the factors to consider is adjustment of the straps, or more specifically, ensuring that the flow of the workout is smooth and not negatively impacted by frequently needing to lengthen and shorten the straps.

Since my boot camp workouts are not designed for any suspension gym system in particular, I had to think about strap adjustment time when designing the workouts. If I had been designing those workouts specifically for the Human Trainer, strap adjustment time would be irrelevant.

The Human Trainer features a clever design that allows you to attach multiple handles to multiple spots on the straps, eliminating the need to bother lengthening and shortening the straps during the workout. No other suspension gym system on the market offers that feature.

The two most common heights to have your handles setup on a suspension gym is mid-calf height and waist height. Mid-calf height is where you’d want the handles for most pushing movements and suspended leg movements, and waist height is where you’d want the handles for most pulling movements.

So normally when I design suspension gym workouts, I try not to go back and forth from pushing and pulling movements because lengthening and shortening the straps after every set can be a huge pain in the ass. The beauty of the Human Trainer is that you can setup handles at both heights and focus purely on having a great workout, and never have to bother with tedious strap adjustment.

If you’re in the market for a suspension gym, and ultra simple setup and adjustment is an important factor in your decision on which system to buy, I strongly recommend that you take a good look at the Human Trainer. It’s buy far the best suspension gym on the market to use for circuit training workouts where you move from exercise to exercise with little or no rest between exercises.

Flex Workout Gear features in-depth reviews and product comparisons for a variety of portable and home exercise equipment that you can use to perform effective total-body workouts that produce maximum results in minimum time spent exercising.

The two best types of home exercise gear are resistance bands (bands, not tubing) and suspension gyms (single-anchor or dual-anchor), so you will see various brands of resistance bands and suspension gyms mentioned on this website regularly.

Other great home exercise tools include dip stations, gymnastics rings, and parallettes, so you’ll see lots of reviews in those product categories as well.

If you’re not already convinced that you can have incredible workouts right at home using minimal inexpensive equipment, stay tuned to this website and I’ll show you all of the best equipment to get in shape while saving time and money exercising at home.