Since I sell both the GTX Suspension Gym and the Elite Cords Resistance Bands, one of the most common questions I receive sounds something like this:

What is better, the GTX or the Elite Cords? Which piece of equipment will allow me to have more effective home workouts?

That’s a tough question to answer because they’re both awesome products that will allow you to have effective home workouts.

If you’re stuck deciding between the two, and price is an important detail to you, then you should probably consider leaning more towards the Elite Cords because the Elite Cords cost only about a third as much as the GTX.

If price is a non-issue and you’re just looking for the most effective piece of home exercise equipment, then you need to consider the differences between the two products.

The GTX is an inelastic workout strap system that uses your own bodyweight as resistance.

The Elite Cords are made with rubber tubing, which provides elastic resistance as you stretch out the exercise tubes.

Both products allow you to perform the same types of exercises. Rows, chest presses, squats, lunges, biceps curls, triceps extensions, etc. All of the best exercises can be performed on both the GTX and the Elite Cords.

With that said, the GTX excels at rowing and pressing movements, and the Elite Cords excel at shoulder exercises, fly exercises, and hybrid exercises where you combine a squat or a lunge with a row or a press.

Ideally, you’d have both the GTX and the Elite Cords, and use both pieces of equipment during your workouts. That’s why we’ve created the Vega Home Gym as a bundle that includes both the GTX and the Elite Cords. But if you’re only going to pickup one piece of equipment, use the following handy guide to help you decide which one to buy.

If price is extremely important, get the Elite Cords.

If you’re into bodyweight exercise, get the GTX.

If you’re into more traditional resistance training, get the Elite Cords.

If rowing and pressing exercises are a big focus for you, get the GTX.

If shoulder exercises, flys, and hybrid exercises are a big focus for you, get the Elite Cords.

If you have it in your budget to pickup both pieces of equipment, get the Vega Home Gym.

In much of the marketing for the GTX Suspension Gym, I sing the praises of the dual-anchor design of the GTX compared to the single-anchor design of the TRX. The dual-anchor GTX design provides more versatility in the amount of exercises you can perform, and it also makes performing many other exercises significantly more comfortable as compared performing them on a single-anchor suspension gym such as the TRX.

It should also be noted that the GTX has the capability of being configured in single-anchor mode, which is useful for when you need to mount your GTX somewhere that only provides a single anchoring point, such as a post or a tree. So the GTX is actually a hybrid anchor suspension gym that supports dual-anchor and single-anchor configurations, compared to the outdated TRX that’s just a single-anchor suspension gym.

With that said, the single-anchor TRX is a great product and if you buy it, I’m sure you’ll love it. I used to promote and recommend the TRX, and back then the single-anchor design never bothered me too much, and it still doesn’t. If you don’t care about being able to do dips, pullups, hanging leg raises, and other challenging dual-anchor suspension gym exercises, then the main drawback from buying a TRX instead of the GTX is that you’ll find the single-anchor TRX straps rub against your head, neck, and shoulders when performing chest and triceps exercises. That doesn’t happen with the dual-anchor GTX because the separate anchors provide more clearance for the straps and prevents them from rubbing on your head, neck, and shoulders.

So if you’re trying to decide between a GTX or a TRX, and you’re stuck on the dual-anchor vs. single-anchor issue, here’s a handy guide to hopefully help make your decision a bit easier.

If you want the most versatility of exercises, get a GTX.

If you want to perform dips, pullups, hanging leg raises, and other advanced exercises, get a GTX.

If you want to be able to more comfortably perform chest and triceps exercises without the straps rubbing on your head, neck, and shoulders, get a GTX.

If you want the highest quality and most effective time-efficient fat-burning workouts, get a GTX.

If you want the best value, get a GTX.

If you want to pay 33% more for less versatility; no ability to perform dips, pullups, or hanging leg raises; the straps rubbing on your head, neck, and shoulders when performing chest and triceps exercises; less effective workouts; and overall less value for your money, get a TRX.

Vega Fitness is a company I founded last summer to produce my own line of home exercise equipment. There isn’t an extensive background about the company on the Vega Fitness website, so I figured I’d share some additional info about the company here.

Vega Fitness is an incorporated company that I own 50% of. The other half of the company belongs to partners that I found to help me make the highest quality fitness equipment.

I would have loved to keep 100% of the company to myself, but for this company to produce the best in class products that I demanded in order to put my name and reputation behind them, I needed partners who had experience manufacturing exercise equipment, so I sought out some partners who had the specific fitness equipment manufacturing experience I was looking for in order to ensure Vega Fitness makes the highest quality products possible, and those partners own 50% of the company.

The Vega Fitness company was originally going to be called GTX Fitness, and the only product GTX Fitness was going to sell was the GTX Suspension Gym. But early on in the development of the GTX, we decide to call the company Vega Fitness in order to keep the door open to manufacture and sell other fitness equipment products besides just the GTX.

While working on the design and manufacturing of the GTX, and dealing with several unexpected delays with that product, we decided to add a set of resistance bands to the Vega Fitness product line, which we called Elite Cords. We also added a jump rope to the product line, which we called the Elite Jump Rope. Those three products — GTX, Elite Cords, and Elite Jump Rope — make up the current Vega Fitness product lineup.

Besides the current lineup of exercise equipment, Vega Fitness will offer a variety of workout DVDs designed for time-efficient fat-burning. We might even add some muscle-building DVDs to our product lineup in the future.

Visit our Vega Fitness website for the most current info about our complete lineup of exercise equipment and workout DVDs.

The GTX Suspension Gym comes bundled with everything needed to anchor your GTX to an overhead support or sturdy door frame.

If you’re outdoors, you can anchor your GTX to supports such as beams, posts, trees, fences, soccer goals, field goal posts, playground equipment, etc.

If you’re indoors, you can use the GTX door anchors to anchor your GTX to any sturdy door frame.

Some people exercising indoors may wish to install mounting brackets in their home so that they have an overhead anchoring point and can therefore perform dips, pullups, and other advanced GTX exercises not possible when the GTX is anchored to a door frame.

We were originally going to produce GTX Mounting Brackets but we decided not to make them during the initial production run of the GTX because at this time there isn’t enough demand to warrant production of this accessory.

We might still produce this GTX accessory sometime in the future, but for now, if you want to install overhead mounting brackets in your home, you’ll need to buy mounting brackets at your local hardware store.

This is what our GTX Mounting Brackets look like:

I’ve included the picture of the GTX mounting brackets to give you an idea of what to look for when you to go your local hardware store. I suggest you print off a picture of the GTX mounting brackets and take it with you to the hardware store and ask one of the sales reps to help you find something similar.

Also, if you choose to install ceiling mounting brackets in your home, I very strongly encourage you to hire a professional to install them.

It didn’t take very long for the first GTX knockoff product to hit the market. We only launched the GTX pre-order sale about a month ago, and we’re not even shipping the GTX until next month, and there’s already a GTX knockoff on the market in China, complete with sales copy lifted directly from our website.

I also found a new TRX-like product (i.e. single-anchor) on the market called the EXR Suspension Gym, and they only registered that domain a couple of weeks ago, so they’re clearly trying to jump on board the “suspension gym” gravy train that we’ve started.

I predict that a year from now, “suspension gym” will be the standard term used to describe any suspension exercise strap system, including the TRX, and Fitness Anywhere’s “Suspension Training/Trainer” trademark is going to be rendered completely irrelevant.

There are many drawbacks to the single-anchor design of the TRX. The straps rub on your head, neck, and shoulders. It’s impossible to do dips, pull-ups, or full range chest presses and chest flys. Even triceps exercises and shoulder fly exercises are awkward with a single-anchor configuration. It’s impossible to perform challenging core exercises such as the support position, or a variety of leg raise exercises from the support position. But one of the most frustrating drawbacks of the single-anchor design of the TRX is what Fitness Anywhere calls “single-handle mode”.

A few screenshots for posterity:

In the video, Fraser Quelch from Fitness Anywhere describes how to put the TRX into “single-handle mode”:

Now in order to configure the TRX into single-handle mode, simply hold one handle over top of the other, and pass the bottom handle through the top. Now be sure to switch hands, and take this bottom handle again, passing it through the top, and locking it down tight so you create a bit of a mustache out of the webbing.

Say what?

Imagine having to do this tedious process countless times during your workout as you put the TRX into, and take it out of, single-handle mode. When you consider how much of a pain in the ass it is dealing with the single-handle mode on the TRX, it becomes rather amusing that Fitness Anywhere markets their product as being superior to dual-anchor suspension gyms because supposedly (according to the cult leaders at Fitness Anywhere) the TRX is significantly quicker and easier to adjust than the much more versatile dual-anchor suspension gyms.

Note that on the dual-anchor GTX Suspension Gym, you never have to fiddle around with “single-handle mode” because each strap on the GTX has it’s own anchor point, so either strap is always ready to be used independently of the other for unilateral exercises.

The “single-handle mode” drawback is just one of the many short-comings of the TRX design that makes it vastly inferior to the much more comfortable and versatile GTX Suspension Gym.

The problem with the TRX isn’t so much the limitations of the single-anchor design, or the low-quality straight-set meathead workouts offered by Fitness Anywhere (granted their workouts have improved significantly over the past couple of years). Yes, those are two areas where the TRX comes up short in comparison to the GTX Suspension Gym, but there’s a much bigger problem with the TRX. The problem can best be described simply by me saying “don’t drink the Kool-Aid”.

What I mean by that is that Fitness Anywhere (makers of the TRX) promote a philosophy that their TRX product is the only piece of exercise equipment that you need to have complete total-body workouts week in and week out. That’s simply not true because with the TRX (and GTX, and any other suspension exercise product), it’s impossible to effectively exercise all of your shoulder muscles. But good luck trying to get the cult leaders at Fitness Anywhere to admit that.

If you bring up the lack of TRX shoulder exercises to anyone at Fitness Anywhere, you’ll likely hear a lot of humming and hawing from them as they dance around the issue and try to get you to drink more of their tasty Kool-Aid.

If you ask me about the lack of  GTX shoulder exercises, I will openly admit that shoulder exercises are almost non-existent on the GTX, and I will encourage you to add a few additional important pieces of equipment to your home gym to ensure that you’re getting the most complete and effective total-body workouts possible.

This is the most important difference between the GTX and the TRX. With the GTX, you’ll be dealing with a company that’s 100% honest and upfront about the strengths, limitations, and capabilities of their product; and with the TRX you’ll be dealing with company that markets their product as some kind of miracle device while they encourage you to enjoy another glass of their delicious Kool-Aid.

Here are some photos of the GTX Suspension Gym. The photos are of a prototype GTX, and there will be some subtle differences between the prototype and the production version of the GTX (for example, the production GTXs will have improved stitching on the adjustment markers). But these photos will give you a very good idea of what the production version of the GTX will look like.

For more information or to place your order, visit our GTX Suspension Gym website.

With the GTX Suspension Gym about to go into production and start shipping in September, and a steady stream of pre-orders already coming in, I figured I’d tell the complete story of how the GTX product actually came to be.

Although I’ve written about how the GTX has been in development for about a year and a half (we’ve been seriously working on the product for about a year), the complete roots of the GTX can actually be traced back to early 2008, to my introduction to suspended bodyweight exercise.

My first foray into suspended bodyweight exercise came in early 2008 when I stumbled across some message boards where fitness enthusiasts were singing the praises of exercising with gymnastics rings. I was immediately fascinated by this type of exercise, so I started to research various products before I decided which one to buy. At the time I saw the TRX, but I just laughed it off as an overpriced gimmick product, and I ended up buying a set of gymnastics rings called Xtreme Rings.

I was very happy with my set of Xtreme Rings, although they didn’t come with any information on what exercises could be performed with them, so I only really ended up using them for three exercises: dips, chest presses, and rows. Still, I was quite satisfied with the Xtreme Rings, and for a couple of months I used my set of rings in my personal workouts and also with my one-on-one personal training clients.

In May 2008 I launched my outdoor boot camp program, and I bought three more sets of Xtreme Rings for my boot camp.

The rings worked pretty well at my boot camp, but the straps took a while to setup and adjust, and the rings themselves were very heavy and cumbersome to carry to and from the park for my boot camp workouts. Also, the rings were not ideal for various new exercises that I was learning (exercises that require you to put your feet in the rings), so I decided to look elsewhere and try to find a product more suited for my needs.

Again I looked at the TRX, but again I laughed it off as an overpriced gimmick. It just looked like one of those flashy but useless products that you see advertised on TV at 2 o’clock in the morning, so I passed on the TRX, and bought what I felt was a superior product at a small fraction of the price of the TRX. I bought a product called Vegas Pro Straps.

The Vegas Pro Straps looked awful (no logos, crooked stitching, loose threads, cheap handles, paint bubbling and chipping off the cam buckles, etc), but they functioned ok, so I was happy with them. I ended up buying 15 sets of VPS to use at my boot camp program.

I started having various problems with the Vegas Pro Straps because they’re a dual-anchor suspension strap system that isn’t designed to be setup to a single-anchor attachment. Whenever I attached two VPS straps to a tree or post, I found that one strap would hit the other strap which could release one of the cam buckles while the user was exercising with it. Very dangerous and we had a couple of close calls before I realized the problem and got rid of the Vegas Pro Straps.

Again, I went back to looking at the TRX, and I spoke to a sales rep at Fitness Anywhere (makers of the TRX) who educated me on the benefits of their product, and ended up buying 15 TRXs for my boot camp.

This was back in August of 2008, and the TRX worked very well at my boot camp. The single-anchor TRX design definitely has limitations and for many exercises is nowhere near as comfortable as a dual-anchor suspension gym, but in general I thought (and continue to think) that the TRX is a very good product.

When I bought all the TRXs for my boot camp, I also registered for the TRX Suspension Training course. The TRX course was pretty cool, and I learned a lot of good info at the course, but the All Body Xpress workout they put us through at the course was one of the worst workouts I’ve ever experienced, and that was a common theme in my experience with TRX workouts made by Fitness Anywhere, and played a crucial role in the eventual creation of the GTX Suspension Gym.

Because later in ’08 when I started getting into affiliate marketing, I wanted to promote the TRX on my YouTube channel, but I did NOT (and do NOT) believe that Fitness Anywhere offers quality workout programming with the TRX, so I wanted to develop and release my own suspension gym workout videos and DVDs using the TRX. That never panned out for far too many reasons than I’ll go into here, and I began searching for an alternative product to use in conjunction with my own suspension gym workouts.

This was in early 2009, and at the time I went back to the Vegas Pro Straps guys and tried to work with them to improve their design and craftsmanship of the VPS. I had a number of ideas on how to improve the VPS so that it was a product I was proud to promote and sell alongside my own suspension gym workouts. That never panned out because I was unable to get the VPS product to a design that I was comfortable promoting and selling, and I proceeded to spin my wheels for a while trying to find a company who could manufacturer a suspension gym product to my exact specifications (specs that I felt would be a superior product to the TRX).

After spinning my wheels on this venture for a few months, around the middle of 2009 I found a group of partners with extensive experience producing quality exercise equipment, and we officially started developing the GTX Suspension Gym.

Over a year later, we’re starting production on the GTX, and it will be released in September. It’s been a long journey to get to this point, but if it had happened any other way I probably wouldn’t have acquired the knowledge and experience about these types of products that’s necessary to ensure that the GTX will be a huge success right out of the gate.

Because of this experience, I know exactly about the benefits and limitations of the single-anchor design vs. the dual-anchor design, and I was therefore able to develop a suspension gym that has all of the benefits of single and dual-anchor workout strap systems, and none of the drawbacks. This is the reason why the GTX Suspension Gym is better than any single or dual-anchor bodyweight workout strap system on the market, and this is why the GTX Suspension Gym is the most versatile and effective piece of exercise equipment ever created.

Here’s a common question I’ve been receiving about the GTX Suspension Gym:

Would you say that all of the exercises that are doable on a TRX system can also be done on the GTX?

The answer is yes, absolutely. Any exercise you can perform on the TRX can also be done on the GTX, and with the GTX you can also perform a bunch of exercises that are impossible to perform on the TRX (e.g. dips, pullups, muscle-ups, hanging leg raises).

When comparing the GTX Suspension Gym to the TRX Suspension Trainer, there’s no question about which product is superior. The GTX does everything the TRX does, plus a bunch of things that TRX can’t do.

If you’re looking for the best suspension gym on the market, don’t waste your money on a TRX. Instead choose the far more versatile and effective GTX Suspension Gym.