Check it: When I left for nursing school two years ago, I was in pretty good shape: 6' tall, 185 lbs. and noticeably a big, strong guy. I wasn't cut, but I was pretty damn big, and it was all from hitting weights for ~25 minutes on my 30 minutes breaks at the hospital I was working at at the time. I was very surprised and very happy with the results I had achieved with only dedicating not even 30 minutes worth of time into lifting. Flash forward two years to now: I've graduated from OU's nursing school and I'm now a Graduate Nurse (not an RN yet....that'll come after I pass my boards in a month or so). I'm 205 lbs. and in pretty rotten shape after two years of ridiculous amounts of stress, a crappy diet, virtually zero exercise, and being hunched over books for what seemed like two never-ending years. Anyway. I'm a sucker for those "Made for TV" aisles you see in various stores and I picked up the You Got a Door? You Got a Gym - Body by Jake Tower 200 thing at Bed Bath & Beyond. It was $175 and I used one of those 20%-off BB&B coupons, making it $150 and change. I figured it was cheaper than paying for a gym I'd never bother going to, and i really needed to do SOMETHING to get my weight down and get back in shape. The unit itself is a resistance band training system. It fits over the top and bottom of a door and offers 200 lbs of resistance (100 lbs/side) and comes with handles, ankle straps, and a workout DVD. The whole machine is solid and well-built, so no complaints there, and it comes with an exercise chart that demonstrates various exercises, and you can engage the pulleys from both the top and the bottom of the machine for a variety of different isolation exercises. It's over-the-door placement means that it's small and unobtrusive as well, and unless you looked, you wouldn't know it was there. That's pretty cool, too. As to the resistance bands, I've used resistance band training before when I was in physical therapy for my back. I saw positive results then, and I must say that I'm impressed with this machine. The DVD really kicked my ass, but I just checked that out once as I've been focusing on more isolation exercises in the two days I've had this contraption. Here's a video: Here if embedding doesn't work. Edit - Sorry....have to click the link. Can't get embedding to work. So obviously, this thing won't be much good for serious athletes or people who want to get huge, and of course you can get better results in a gym, but it's (so far) a good purchase if you're like me and want to incorporate some good cardio and strength training in an easy-to-use system.
Good stuff, was considering getting one for my mom who asked for a similar system. I mean the thing is clearly marketed towards men, do you think an older woman could get use out of it? Is that deal still available?
The resistance cords are in 25, 35, and 45 lbs, so yes, I would think so. I've moved back to Houston after graduation just a couple of weeks ago, and I'm staying at my moms. She's tried it out and is fairly impressed with it.
Does it leave marks on your door? I had iron gym but I didn't like how it would leave small indents on the trim where the pads sat.
From what I can tell re: marks on there door: no. The steel frame that fits over the top and bottom has a stiff rubber cushion at the contact points that seems to do the trick. And I asked BB&B about their return policy just in case and the lady said it's solid. Figured I couldn't lose at that point.
I don't think I could ever workout at home no matter what machine or machines I had or how nice they were. It's just not the same in terms of being able to get motivated, getting in the right mindset and going to the gym and getting a nice lift on. The extra space and plethora of machines helps as well. The average gym membership costs what $30-40 bucks per month? That's one investment I can't live without. More power to you though Lynus pun intended.
Squats and lunges with 2.5 gallon water jugs pushups dips wide grip and close grip pull ups leg raises /workout
I understand what you're saying, but if I know that I can knock out a reasonable workout in a short period of time and I can do it RIGHT NOW in my underwear while watching the news, and I don't have to change clothes, drive to the gym, etc., then I'm much more likely to do it. Also, when I'm done working a 12-hour ER shift, a few simple back exercises after I get home and before I collapse into bed does me a world of good. I'm not refuting anything you're saying, and nothing would ever replace a true gym, but I know I'm not the only one who would benefit from something like this.
It pretty much works the same as one of these machines you see at most gyms: Though it's a lot smaller and uses bands instead of weights, and it doesn't have the wide range of motion like you see with the adjustable arms. I'm pretty happy with this thing so far.
