J Bryant Fitness Resistance Band Exercise Bar with Handles Large Hook Heavy Duty Short Bar Squats Full Body Strength Training Portable Home Workout Equipment

This is a review for the upgraded version with protective casing over the metal hooks to address customer complaints that the metal cut through bands over time. I would recommend these over the older version.I think this set of a bar and two handles is an excellent choice for use with flat resistance bands, which lie flat against the hooks. The metal bar and handles are nicely finished and knurled. The fine mountain or volcano knurling on the handles makes them stick to your hands without the knurling feeling too aggressive. I'm less fond of the coarser mountain knurling on the bar but it works fine. The bar has a 30mm (1.2") diameter and the contoured handles have a central diameter of 35mm that tapers to 29mm at the edges. The finish of the bar and handles is very nice and is rounded on the inside to prevent chafing against the straps. There was a tiny area on one of the hooks that was sharp and I may file the area down.The band hooks have a soft protective casing (if that's the right word) that seems to be a synthetic rubber like silicone. It's nicely rounded to prevent chafing against the hooks. The hooks are thick 4.75mm steel attached to sturdy 1.7mm-thick nylon straps with robust stitching, so I expect them to be durable. Changing bands is really quick--you just slip them over the hooks--and they stay on well during exercise. Having hooks on the ends of the bar allow the bands to stretch to the sides of your body, allowing you to do back squats and chest presses facing away from the band anchor point, which you couldn't do with a bar that has a central carabiner attachment point. Having the bands attach to hooks at the end stabilizes the bar and gives a slightly different feeling than a typical bar with a central attachment point for a carabiner. Whether one feels better than the other is a matter of personal preference and I'm fine with either.I thought the price for the three-item package was reasonable given the quality, especially since there don't seem to be a lot of similar bars and handles with hooks specifically designed for flat bands. I recommend them highly. I also sometimes use a triangle carabiner when I want to use flat bands with handles that have a central attachment hook for carabiners. Those handles take longer to change, especially if I'm using locking-gate carabiners with a screw lock. I think there is a slight difference in the feel of hook-type handles compared to handles for attaching carabiners because the handles are open at one end, meaning that the force is slightly off center. I don't mind this and it's not an issue with the resistance I use, but it's something you might want to consider if you use very heavy resistance. I find that the contour and thickness of the handles also make them excellent for isometric grip-strength training.

The bar is effective and well designed. The E hooks make this easy to use and switch between bands with no concern of the bands slipping off while under tension.The minor issue is the strap length inside the bar. It makes the hooks drop below the bar, having an effect on the overall max on resistance bands and cannot be adjusted like the segmented version.To remedy this I twisted the strap by the hooks until the slack was removed.The handles make a great addition for exercises that cannot be done with the barCompared to the cost of the X3 system, this is as effective, costs far less and lighter from my understanding.

Improved since they updated the hooks. Mine came with the hooks fully covered, the whole hook, not just the half covered in the picture. Looks like the company is really trying to meet customer requests. This new update I think should keep the fabric that holds the hook from fraying. But if in the slim chance that should still happen, I hit on a modification idea to really make this bar industructable. If the fabric ever tears, don't throw out the bar. Take the bar measurements (about 21.5 inches) and go to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy a strong chain (the staff will cut it for you) that is maybe an inch or two longer on both sides than the bar. Make sure the chain width can fit through the bar hole. Cut the damaged fabric out of the bar and thread the chain through the bar. Add your choice of carabineers. That will give you a truly badass bar with no need to ever worry about fraying fabric for a fraction of the price of an X3 bar.*Edited for spelling

This is good kit for the money. Solid steel, unbreakable nylon straps. I've pulled hundreds of points on these for over a year now.

If You are using standard 41 inch bands. This will not work well because it makes the band too long to get a full range of resistance that you would get without using the handles. I am 6 feet tall and it makes the exercises much too easy because it doesn’t provide enough resistance with the extra length. Product itself is well made..

Haven't thoroughly used them yet but pleased so far. I was very pleased to see the protective covering goes over the hook and strap connection point, and not merely over the hook part itself. Large enough to fit the #5 serious steel 37 in. gray resistance band three times over, but no more. As long as they're taken care of I don't see the protection over the hooks deteriorating for a few years. Not sure about the straps, but the way the straps are designed I think they could be replaced if needed. The handle is less long than I'd like at 21.5 in. but it should be fine with the exercises and footplate I'm using. Quite happy overall.

I Purchased, this bar for the ability to do shoulder presses. In using it, I found out that the bar is too short and puts a heavy strain on my shoulders. The bar needs to be wider for shoulder, presses to be done for other exercises it probably would work fine.