Well, I wanted to buy a real gravity strap system. Something that would be last longer than what I jimmy rigged up. I looked at all the systems available and decided to buy the rip 60 because of the ability to rotate and the handles could do both hands and feet without changing.
If you are planning on buying the rip 60 do not buy it online. The online price is $120 plus shipping. Meijer sells it for $100 reg price. Right now(at least last week) it is in a price drop for $80. I subscribe to Mperks and last week they had a 20% off any reg priced item so I bought it for about $65. Almost half the price of buying it online.
Upon opening the package my first thought was that it looked very tough. It looks like it will last and last. It comes with the straps, travel bag, exercise chart, 12 workout DVD's in a case, workout schedule, and a nutrition guide. A good assortment of stuff.
Lets start with the straps themselves. As I said before, they are good quality. Door hanging mechanism looks like it will work fine and it comes with a pad so the metal bracket won't damage your door. To use it optimally though I think it should be hung from a ceiling someplace with about 5 feet of free space each way from the middle. To do this you need a ceiling bracket with a metal loop. Rip 60 sells their own for $35. I'm sure I can find or make one for a lot less. The straps adjust easily and hold securely. One drawback to this system compared to some others is the straps connect only in the middle, which they had to do to get the rotation. This make the straps rub your shoulders when the anchor is behind you (push ups). In the end I think the rotation will be more of a benefit than a little discomfort. I'm trying to think of a way to make the straps go wider and keep the rotation. So this may not be a problem in the future.
The Exercise chart is decent. It has some basic strength moves along with ways to make it harder and some stretching moves for each muscle group. It's your basic shiny paper folded up. It would be nice if they would have it laminated and rolled up instead so I don't feel like I should iron it before I hang it.
Now onto the workout DVD's. I've only done the first DVD 2 times and it's tough. Definitely not for beginner strength training. It starts out with a joint warmup, then a cardio warm up with a ton of jumping jacks all in a row in various ways. It was hard to get the moves down. Then there was a lunge sequence in the warm up. A lunge is not a beginner move let alone going around the clock with them. The main workout was pretty good. It doesn't work all the muscles and there was too many calf exercises. My calves have been aching pretty good the days after the workouts. The end cool down has some weird stretches in it that could hurt you. I watched the second DVD and it's about the same, just some harder moves. So as far as the DVD's go I am going to watch them for information on how to do the moves, but as far as doing the work out from the DVD's I'm going to say no. They are not balanced enough and have the posibility of hurting you. As far as the workout schedule they tell you to do the workout every day for 5 days straight and then 2 days off the first week. Bad idea! You should have 1 to 2 days of rest in between strength workouts. In other words the schedule is useless.
Last thing in the box is the Nutrition guide. If your short and don't weigh much you might be able to follow it and not feel hungry all the time. It's based off of about 1500 calories. I eat between 2000 and 3000 calories depending on how much I'm exercising. It does have some good recipes and meal choice guide so it does have some use.
So to sum up the Rip60 system. The straps are good, Exercise Chart is decent, DVD's are somewhat informational but don't follow them, workout schedule is bad, and nutrition guide has some good recipes but will probably leave you feeling hungry if you follow it.
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