My wife bought me one of these more than a year ago. I kid you not, this is the single most useful, worth-every-penny piece of equipment I ever owned in my life. Basically, it’s a pull-up bar which you can latch onto just about any doorway. I’m a hardcore believer of this specific single piece of equipment, which I think can benefit guys like us who can’t go to the gym everyday. One of the most popular manufacturers for it call it the “Iron Gym”, but I guess a more generic term would be a doorway pull-up bar, but it doesn’t seem to have a name that is used across the board. I’ll stick to calling it the most wickedly simple ingenious contraption:
You’re absolutely free not to buy anything you are sure about. Believe me, the last thing you or I need is another bit of fancy junk lying around, but after thinking about it twice, then thinking about it thrice, consider getting something which will put pull-ups in your daily routine. Pull-ups are the king of upper body exercises.
It has a downside, it will damage the paint on your doorframe in the spots where contraption meets the door, but geez, for a bit of damaged paint in two spots on your door frame versus doing pull-ups daily, health and vastly improved strength, choice should be easy.
I do fifteen pull ups before taking a shower every morning, fifteen pull-ups before eating lunch if and when I get to go home during lunch break (I live 15 minutes away from work), and fifteen pull-ups when I get home right before I sit down for dinner.
I’ll post edit this post and add some pictures of my own overused iron gym I use at home sometime down the line, but in the meantime I’ll just post this first.
Setting it up is super easy lemon squeezy. It takes about ten minutes or less to figure out and assemble it. And latching it on and off your doorway is as easy as just putting it up and locking it in position. No disassembling ever. It uses gravity to stay securely latched on top your doorway. as I said it’s the most wickedly simple ingenious contraption ever. The only way it will fall off is if the wall around your doorway gives, or the steel bars it’s made of rip into two.
Do pull-ups everyday. Its benefits to your upper body strength are tremendous.
Here are some tips on using this wickedly simple contraption. I call this the “doorway unlocking method” for putting pull-ups into your routine.
1. Identify one essential daily activity you do at home you cannot escape.
For example, taking a shower in the morning, or before eating dinner at home in the evening after a full day’s work.
2. Identify a doorway which you will pass by it everyday to get to that activity.
It has be somewhere where you are forced to pass by everyday, such as your bedroom door or bathroom door.
3. Latch on this wickedly simple ingenious contraption in the doorway leading to the place where this activity happens.
For example, if I take shower every morning before going to work I place the wickedly simple contraption at the bathroom door. If you can find a doorway where you don’t have to close the door, so you will never have to take it down, this is better, but if not, it’s really necessary, just keep the wickedly simple contraption nearby. (Yes, I take my showers with the bathroom door open most of the time).
4. Do not do your identified activity without doing one set of pull-ups first.
I never take a shower without first doing one set of pull-ups. It may sound silly, but imagine that before you pass through the doorway where you latched the wickedly simple contraption you have to do your one set of pull-ups to “unlock the doorway”.
As much as we all think we are jedi masters, the subconscious human mind takes training to consistent do as you will everyday. I recommend you plan just one set of pull-ups a day and a set specific number you will do, for example when you reach three pull-ups that’s it. Remember just one set a day at first, in fact I think one set of pull ups a day is plenty for most of us (I do three sets because I’m just crazy about pull-ups, but later in my life I only plan to lessen the sets of pull-ups to one a day). Or if you aren’t strong enough do pull-ups yet, just hang on the bar for a set time, such as hanging on the bar for one minute straight. Only when it becomes easy should you increase the number of pull-ups or lengthen the time you hang on every set.
If this wickedly simple ingenious contraption interests you, learn more about it on Amazon: Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar
(This link, and the picture of it above, is an affiliate link, so if ever you buy one of these most wickedly simple ingenious contraptions after clicking this link, I’ll probably get something like a few cents. But I tell you man, this contraption, if you actually use it, will be one of the best things you ever spend your money on.
Ah, the smell of pull-ups in the morning.
(Update: Now, I only do one set of about pull-ups every weekday on days I go the office, provided I’m not late for work.)
I love your blog!