For two weeks, I have been on the road and staying in hotels. While I had access to decent gyms, the experience reinforced for me the reason why Steelfit was born.
Pull up bars just don't make it into most typical gyms. When they do, what you find is typically a "too short" bar with abrasive surfaces built into a multi-purpose apparatus. Needless to say, everything but simple strict pull ups is a real challenge on the hands and the height will work for some athletes, but certainly not all; definitely limiting.
From "Why Steelfit", I wrote: " When the topic of conversation became the lame wall mounted pull up bar in our gym (too close to the wall to kip) or the only other options that were incorporated into a rack system, the mission seemed obvious. With a brother in the steel fabrication business (and the ability to build just about anything I could dream up), Steelfit was born"
I went on to say in that same post: "the ingenuity and creativity demonstrated by friend/trainer Blair Morrison and others like him is what inspired me to start Steelfit. There were more than one occasion when we would be working out in the early morning in Washington DC and I would be introduced to a new toy just acquired or proudly made by hand the day prior after a trip to the Home Depot."
The closing comment from that early post was "The only limit we have is our imagination !!!
So back to my experience from the past two weeks. The last part of my trip included some personal time off, making good on a Holiday Gift to my kids which included a visit to Walt Disney. Hence, the reference to Imagineers. These are the guys at Disney that let their imaginations run wild when creating attractions, rides, environments, sets, etc. No one is better then creating fantasy than Disney and the stuff they come up with can really be over the top. I definitely want some of what these guys are consuming!
If Blair
(www.crossfitmobile.blogspot.com) worked for Disney, he would surely be an imagineer. He's known these days as ANYWHEREFIT and is devoted to the creativity and imagination needed to stay fit under all circumstances and surroundings regardless of the facilities and resources that might be available. The picture I have included is some inspiration he sent to me in an effort to come up with the next great bar design. Needless to say, Anywherefit is a friend of Steelfit and we recommend adding his blog to your reading list. It's his and many other fitness enthusiasts' passion and ingenuity that inspire me.
My recent posts have been focused on pull up variations in an attempt to jump start my personal work outs with more variety and creativity. While my 2010 pull up challenge is alive and well, its time to devote some energy back to the BARS themselves. This blog is and has been about sharing and finding great ideas to incorporate into the bars and other products we are working on at Steelfit. The new line of wall mount bars we are about to introduce are really cool and will satisfy the thirst for great bars in just about all settings; home, garage, gyms, etc. Stay tuned!
It may have taken a little trip to Fantasyland, Tomorrow land and Future World to bring things back in focus, but the vision is now clear; its about creativity and IMAGINATION.
One can only dream of what the Disney Imagineers would come up with if challenged to build a better bar......
