Creative Fitness Door Gym

I've been on the fence wanting to get a pullup bar for about 2 years now, but the door-way mounted ones seemed like a big step (to drill into a door way, making the door effectively unusable).

I was looking at a real pullup cage for a bit, but the floor space needed for that was a non-starter for me in my house. I looked at the "Perfect Pullup" quite a bit as well, just to see that almost every reviewed cited the following problems:

* Cheap plastic parts, especially the pieces that should have been metal
* Cheap mounting hardware that most people replaced with their own stuff from Home Depot.

I was really surprised how many people complained about the second one.

I finally found this and given the price and rating I figured "what the heck, let's get it and see how it works".

The box showed up, it was in like 4 pieces... I pushed them together, put in the 4 bolts, walked over to the door and "hung" it... and did some pullups.

I could not believe how ridiculously easy that was given how complex some of these other door-pullup installations are. The "swing" design of this redirects all the pressure from you to that front padded bar that pushes horizontally into the door frame, so you don't have to worry about "ripping" the trim off the door.

I weigh about 225 lbs (no, I can't do that many pullups either ;) and I didn't even hear a creek out of my door when I do pullups, it's really an awesomely simple design.

Also when you want to use the door, just push up on the bar to get the red-bar across the back to lift away from the trim, twist, and take it out of the door frame. It's honestly like a closet hanger or something.

The *one* suggestion I might make though, is that the default instructions on how to put the bar together has you mount the long cross-bar (that you grab to do pullups AND that rests against the door frame) *under* (on the bottom side of) the "J" shaped pieces. This means that as you do pullups, the bolts themselves are what are holding you up off the ground.

I noticed another reviewer mentioned this, so I tried it... here is my tip to you:

1. Look at the picture on Amazon of this pullup bar
2. See that long bar that runs across the bottom? See how it's mounted under the "J" shaped bars?
3. Unbolt the bolts and put the long bar *ontop* of the "J" shaped bars instead, and re-bolt them.

That way when you are doing pullups, the pressure is distributed across the J bars and not exclusively held up by the bolts.

I would totally recommend this to anyone else wanting to get into pullups. This also doubles as a push-up bar sort of like the "Perfect Pushup" devices in that it keeps you elevated off the ground so you can get a deeper push up... I actually have the Perfect Pushups so I don't use that feature, but it's a nice touch.

Overall just a really smartly designed and simple piece of equipment.

It is based on a very simple concept and easily transforms most of the doorways in your home into a pull-up/sit-up support structure. The product is good quality and assembly was a piece of cake. I think more attention needs to be paid on the doorframe and the impact of your weight on the frame, rather than the product itself. I consider the quality of construction in my house to be more than average and yet I can hear a creak at times when pulling up my own weight (just 130 pounds). The bar allows up to 300 pounds, so take necessary precaution to make sure your doorframes can support that load. Another reviewer said that the padding on the product left dark marks on the door frame. It has not happened to me, but is very much possible, so you may want to "glove" that portion with a cloth or tape if necessary. I highly recommend this product, particularly if you love doing pull/sit-ups in the comfort of your own home!

I first ordered the Creative Fitness Door Gym, then decided that the Iron Gym looked the same and was $10 less, so I tried to cancel the Door Gym and ordered the Iron Gym. Turns out you often can't cancel after ordering, so I ended up getting them both. I had intended to keep the Iron Gym and send this one back, but after looking at the two, I changed my mind and did the reverse.

The two products are essentially the same, but there is one difference that to me makes the Door Gym worth the additional cost: the crossbar is a single piece. On the Iron Gym, the crossbar comes in two pieces that slip together. While both products are supposed to hold 300 lb, if you're at all mechanically inclined, you know that setups like this eventually always weaken or loosen at the joint. If I'm hanging on it, I don't want to take a chance with that.

Easy set up and very sturdy. My boyfriend is also able to use it with no probs. Love being able to move it around.

Pull-Ups are a MUST to a strong, sexy, and stable body. They are the best exercises for your upper body strength, especially your back, lats, and biceps.

There are so many variations of pull-ups you can do, from chin ups to pull-ups, from narrow grip to wide grip, and from middle to side.

If you live near a park, just use those natural hanging surfaces to do your pull-ups. If you don't have access to anything sturdy that you can hang onto, then invest in a pull-up bar.

Go to a fitness store and test out the different brands of pull-ups. See which one works for you, and buy that one.

If you don't feel the burn after 10 repetitions, you are doing the exercise wrong. In all exercises, it is the eccentric portion of the exercise that builds muscle. Do the exercise in a smooth, controlled fashion with a 3 concentric and 6 eccentric count. Squeeze at the peak of the motion to get that extra pump.

As in all exercises, make sure to keep your wrists straight and check your posture with these seven vital points: feet hips-width apart and pointed straight ahead; knees slightly bent; pelvis at perfect middle, as if you are sitting at a bar stool; stomach tight, but not flexed; chest straight and aligned on top of ribs; shoulders parallel to ribs; and neck straight on top of body.