The package arrived in just a few days, but the box that I received the item in was in terrible, terrible shape. I found myself taking pictures of it immediately to document any damage that may have occurred. The box is very big and heavy, and is intended to be lifted by two people. If you're planning on working out upstairs or downstairs, you'll likely find yourself taking pieces out of the box rather than moving the entire box. It will take a few trips, but it is just much easier that way.
The manual is easy to understand, but I really don't like the way that the hardware listing was handled. Instead of being at the very beginning of the manual, the listing is found at the end, but not on the back page, so you'll find yourself flipping through pages more often than you should have to. Also, for some reason, the listing is broken up into two separate pages, one with pictures that provides the name of each piece of hardware, and then the following page tells you the number of each piece you should have, but there are no pictures on the second page, so you'll find yourself going between two pages over and over again if you want to make sure that you have something. I don't see why they couldn't list the number of each piece beside the picture of picture of each piece. This is a very minor gripe, but I still found it to be a hassle.
There aren't a ton of pieces, and everything is fairly self explanatory. A couple of the bolts are very similar looking, but this is the case with many different things that you may assemble yourself. When I put things together, sometimes I'm guilty of rushing through the assembly only to find that I've put something on wrong and then I have to backtrack a few steps and redo things. Everything here is fairly obvious, so in order to mess up, you really have to try to put something on incorrectly or be completely oblivious to what the machine is intended for.
It does not take long to assemble everything; you can probably have the entire unit "together" without tightened bolts within 30-35 minutes. I am very much a stickler when it comes to tightening bolts; I need everything to be tight enough so that the machine is sturdy, but not so tight that bolts become either stuck or stripped because this thing will have to be taken apart when I move. One issue that I encountered was that I had to tilt the machine a great deal when attaching the that the back pad is bolted onto. This was probably the most difficult part of the assembly for me. You'll want to confirm that you have a tall enough ceiling in your room before you purchase this, as the machine is not adjustable in any way, and you could find yourself bumping your head with each pullup if you're too tall or your ceiling is too low.
My primary use for the machine is for pullups (I'm too chicken to try one of those door frame kits for fear of it falling or doing damage). Before I assembled and tested the apparatus, I thought it would be likely that I'd have to use something to weigh it down. Upon using it, I find that it is very sturdy and should be just fine on its own. I currently weigh around 195 pounds and although the machine moves slightly, it never feels unstable. I imagine that I could be quite a bit heavier and still feel safe. The grips on the machine are for wide grip pullups and nothing else, so if you want to do pullups with a close grip, you're going to be grabbing onto slippery metal. The grips feel like they are intended solely for the purpose of keeping your hands from slipping; they are not comfortable and will likely hurt your hands. If you're a short person, you'll probably have no problem at all with this machine, but if you're over 6 feet tall, you will have to bend your knees when pulling yourself up. When doing this, you might inadvertently tap your knees against the the higher center beam. Unless you're doing rapid fire pullups like a maniac, it isn't much of a bother.
If you're doing dips or leg raises, the machine is definitely sturdy enough. The padding is adequate, probably not as fluffy as what you'd find at the gym, but it isn't bad. If you are extremely overweight, you may find the machine to be cumbersome, but it is probably unlikely that someone who is extremely heavy would purchase a machine for wide grip pullups and dips. I don't think that any of my complaints are really major, especially when considering the price of the item. This was a very good purchase.
I give this machine an 8.5 out of 10 rating. I'm very excited about working out with it more in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment