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.
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