Love the Body You are in with the Spri Body Bar
Written: Jun 04 '04 (Updated Feb 17 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Versatile, comfortable, easy to use, takes up little room.
Cons: More expensive than other brands.
The Bottom Line: This is a great addition to your exercise routine at home. You can work your whole body with one piece and it is comfortable.
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| jo.com's Full Review: SPRI Products Body Bar Twelve Pounds SPR0247 |
The Body Bar by Spri is a relatively new piece of equipment my gym bought. After using it in class and on my own I bought two to use with clients.
What is this?
The Body Bar is a solid steel weighted bar. I am reviewing the 12-pound bar but it comes in a variety of weights. I have found the 12-pound bar good for most of my women clients. In the gym I use different weights depending on what I am doing.
It has a lot of great qualities making this an essential piece for the home if you are using light weights. I will go out on a limb and say that the bar is geared for women because of its light weight. It has thick foam rubber padding around it. This makes the bar comfortable to use and gives me a secure grip. The bar is less than 2 inches in diameter. When I get into a few exercised you can use the Body Bar for you’ll see why this is so beneficial. I do not recommend this for children. It is too heavy for them to carry around and too easy to hurt another child either as a weapon or by accident!
The 12-pound bar is 4 feet long. Each bar is color coded at the ends with smooth rubber caps to make it easy to know what weight you are using. The 12-pound bar is color coded in blue. All the bars are black. However the Spri Body Bar has the weight written right on it so it is pretty hard not to know how much the bar weighs!
I love dumbbells. The Body Bar doesn’t replace them but it can be interchanged with many exercises you do with dumbbells. Another plus for those working out at home or the beginner is the fact the body bar gives you even weight distribution for stability. In plain English this is what I mean by that statement. When you use dumbbells each hand has to do its own work. That’s fantastic and one of the reasons we love dumbbells. However if you find that one arm is weak (a good reason to work with dumbbells but maybe you don’t feel ready) using a bar alleviates that weakness.
What happens is the other arm will compensate for the weak arm. If your goal is to get into fantastic shape and gain strength at some point you will want to add dumbbells to your routine to make that weak arm work. For now, though, let’s just stick with the body bar.
If you are working at home I would highly suggest you buy an instruction sheet or video. Although it looks easy to use and really is, you can get hurt using even the safest equipment if not done correctly.
It needs no storage room. You can just stand it up or lie it down in a corner. Since it is encases in rubber with no metal on it at all, you don’t have to worry about it scratching your floor or catching on your carpeting.
The 12-pound bar is the third lightest. I have found that to be a good beginner’s weight although there is a 9-pound bar as well.
Ok personal trainer, what should I do with this bar?
I am going to start with what I don’t want you do to. You may be surprised to hear me say this. I don’t want you to put the bar behind you and bend from side to side. You may naturally do this because we used to. You may think it will whittle away your waist. First of all you can’t spot reduce. Second of all some of us think that using weights when bending side to side may thicken your waist. You can stretch from side to side. You will do that in Yoga or Pilates or just to stretch out your muscles. It is only when you add weight to it that I have a concern. You can put the bar behind you and twist from right to left. That is fine. That works your oblique muscles (the muscles at the sides of your waist.)
I have a couple of favorite uses for the Spri Body Bar. You may want to do squats or lunges to work your quadriceps and hamstrings (from and back of your thighs). In the gym what is used is a long barbell which you can use alone or add plates to it for more weight. In order not to hurt your neck you will then put a pad on this bar. This is not terribly inconvenient but the use of the Body Bar eliminates the need for padding since it is padded. You can now do squats or lunges comfortably (if you want these exercises explained let me know.) holding the bar by the ends or closer in depending on your comfort and height. It will sit on your shoulders. This is a great bar with which to do walking lunges.
You can use this bar for any body part you would use dumbbells or a barbell. You can use it for your triceps (The area on your upper arm where the skin flaps in the wind!) in many ways. Standing you can lift it straight up making sure your elbows are pointed to the front. You can lie on a bench and bring it down toward your forehead again making sure elbows are facing forward. This is called a skullcrusher. The name comes from the fact that if you are using a metal barbell and it is heavy and you don’t have a spotter (big mistake) the bar can easily hit your forehead – Ouch! If the Body Bar hits your forehead, it is so heavily padded you shouldn’t crush your skull. In spite of my saying this, please don’t do this exercise alone with a weight that is at all too heavy for you to handle easily.
You can also be creative with the Spri Body Bar. If you have Spri Resistance Tube you can put each handle on the ends of the bar, step on the tube and do squats. This will give you more resistance, in effect, adding weight to the bar without having to own plates for a dumbbell.
Jo’s Final Thoughts:
I love this piece of equipment. I think it has filled a void that was empty. You can now essentially have a barbell in your home, which is comfortable to hold and not as heavy as a traditional metal barbell (25 pounds). It is versatile, takes up little space and though not portable in the sense that you can put it in your suitcase it can be carried from room to room.
I highly recommend this if you are looking for a piece of equipment that will do more than one body part safely. Please talk with your doctor before starting any exercise routine and make sure you know how to use this so you don’t get hurt.
The Spri Body Bar will run you close to $40. That is on the high end. You can find others that are $10 and even $20 less. I like the Spri brand. I have found their products durable and of good quality.
I have left links to some of my reviews in which you might be interested. Please feel free to leave me a comment, question or e-mail me privately.
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Cybex Pro+ Teadmill
Cybex Arc Trainer
Stamina AB Hyper Extension Bench
Cap Barbell Pull Down Rope
Phoenix Bench
World Gym
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Power House Gym
WAI Yoga Ball Kit 151
Precor StretchTrainer
Thane AB-DOer Pro
Precor EFX546 Elliptical Trainer
Concept II rower
Cybex 900T treadmill
Precor C846 Recumbent
NordicTrack Classic Pro skier
Recommended:
Yes
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