Go Beast Review

Go Beast

8

Pulling Exercises

9.5/10

Pushing Exercises

9.5/10

Stretching Exercises

9.5/10

Hurdling Exercises

6.5/10

Cardio

5.0/10

Pros

• Versatile
• Easy Assembly/Breakdown
• Substitutes Many Items of Equipment
• Affordable

Cons

• Wobbly
• Bar Height Might Not Be Suitable for al

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At the start of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, I, like many other people, began scouring the internet for home exercise equipment. But, unlike some, who were seeking traditional weights, treadmills, and stability balls, I sought a different and very specific piece of equipment. Something multi-functional that would enable me to perform hanging, swinging, pulling, and pushing upper- and lower-body exercises. I needed a sturdy bar tall enough for my toes not to touch the floor while dead-hanging and low enough for me to flip over it and not hit the ceiling. I could, in theory, visit a kid’s park and find such a bar, but, in practice, that’s inconvenient and unlikely to occur regularly. If there’s one major takeaway I learned from 19 years of fitness: good exercise and nutrition habits should be made convenient to support consistency. Jumping the fence to get into any of the local kid’s parks in my area is not convenient.

So, I searched. Fortunately, within one hour of playing with Google search terms, I saw my dream piece of equipment. Not only could I do pull-ups, gymnastic pullovers, dead-hangs, stretches, and attach Olympic rings for a variety of exercises, I could also do parallel bar movements from different heights – and on an incline or decline. The dream piece of equipment with all that versatility is called Go Beast. But – I soon learned I had to keep looking. Go Beast was sold out everywhere I looked. So, I bought a close runner-up to the Go Beast’s versatility: a yoga stand. It was another six months before I discovered the Go Beast was back in stock on Amazon and with other retailers. Before long, it was in my apartment.

In this review, I will focus on the features of the Go Beast, but I will also compare its structure and versatility to a generic yoga stand (often also called a yoga swing), like the one I purchased before the Go Beast was back in stock. Note: The image below is of a yoga stand on Amazon.com. I purchased my yoga stand from Ebay (not recommended).

Generic Yoga Stand vs Go Beast

Small screen? Tap and scroll right. 👉🏽

Yoga Stand	Go Beast
Yoga Stand via Amazon.com[/caption]

Prior to finally owning a Go Beast, I spent eight months working out with a yoga stand for much of my upper and lower body needs. While both pieces of equipment look almost drastically different, they both enable a similar variety of exercises and each have their own pros and cons.

Full Go Beast Review

Bar height options

Go beast offers two primary bar heights and at least two additional height options for the entire structure, if you’re creative. Through these options, different strength and flexibility exercises can be performed. Additionally, TRX, Olympic rings, resistance bands, and other equipment can be attached to the structure to add a plethora of other movements. It has a solid Structure for non-swinging exercises, although it can be rickety. A solution is to place a sandbag or weights on the base of the structure to prevent tipping during dynamic movements. Sandbag and/weights aside, some dynamic movements, like a gymnastic pullover, can be done without the stand tipping or wobbling, provided the stand is set at a low height and the pull-over starts from an L-sit position off the floor.

Pros

• Good rubber feet on all ends.
• Easy to put together and take apart.
• Doesn’t take up a large footprint, and the different height options of the bar make it usable in different-sized spaces.
• It can be used for cardio and warm-ups, believe it or not (e.g., fast feet, hurdling, toe taps at different heights, upper body plyometrics).

Cons

• Not very sturdy where sections of the structure are secured together (by metal clips). These areas are the sources of wobbling.
• Not sturdy in terms of swinging. Recommend putting a sandbag or heavyweight on both sides of the base of the stand, as needed.
• Finger-smashing is a given – and might occur frequently if you breakdown and reassemble the Go Beast often (e.g., if you’re a traveling personal trainer and setup/break it down for clients frequently). From the moment I began assembling the Go Beast and every workout since, I have snapped or snagged a finger either due to the spring design of the metal clips that secure each pipe of the stand or by attempting to align the metal clip through the holes of the pipes. It’s just the nature of the beast (no pun intended), I’m painfully learning.
• If you are tall, the highest bar setting won’t be high enough. I’m 5’2″ and the highest bar setting is still causing me to bend my knees a bit during dead-hang movements.
• Leaving rings and other equipment attached to it can be impractical because it is so versatile, and it’s intended to be flipped and rearranged to enable different exercises. As such, unlike with a largely static yoga stand, with the Go Beast, you will be spending some time setting up attachments from time to time, if you’d like to include one or more in your workout.

Generic Yoga Stand vs Go Beast

Small screen? Tap and scroll right. 👉🏽

Yoga Stand	Go Beast

Final Verdict

Although, the Go Beast is more flimsy than the yoga stand I purchased, I’m happier with it overall. While the yoga stand might meet some of my home fitness needs, the Go Beast meets more of them. But, this might not be the same conclusion for everyone, depending on their goals and exercise style. Additionally, both items of equipment also come with their own sets of pros and cons. As such, I give both the Go Beast and the yoga stand an 8 out of 10 rating.

I settled on the Go Beast because I can do more exercises with it. I also appreciate Go Beast’s small footprint and ease of disassembly/assembly, as advertised. The yoga stand, on the other hand, was so large and time consuming to setup that I never broke it down until I decided to trade it in for the Go Beast. The “easy assembly and disassembly” advertised for the yoga stand was such an issue that I ultimately gave the yoga stand a dedicated area in my home where it permanently hogged space. The Go Beast, by contrast was truly easy to take down and store away. But, there is a big trade off: I miss the stability of the yoga stand and extra bar space to add attachments without having to remove them based on the day’s workout. I also cannot safely perform some exercises on the Go Beast (e.g., a shoulder stand with Olympic rings). To practice those skills, I have to take out the yoga stand (not likely) or save them for the gym; else I’ll lose those hard-eared abilities. Yet, whereas the difficult setup and take down of the yoga stand could not be overlooked, my primary complaint of the Go Beast, its flimsiness, can easily be resolved by placing a sandbag or weights at its base and by lowering its height, creating a lower center of gravity. It’s these equal tradeoffs with both pieces of equipment that directed me to tie the Go Beast and the yoga stand’s overall ratings. But the Go Beast is a uniquely designed piece of equipment; it has no direct comparison that I’ve found on the market so far. The creators have made a strong effort to meet overall bodyweight exercise needs, and it meets that need; thus, I highly recommend it.

LLAFIT Senior Writer/Editor

As an athlete for over 21 years and a broke single mom for most of that time, I created brokesinglemomfitness.com, now LLAFIT.com, to aid anyone who believes the road to fitness requires a lot of cash or time. In reality, the way to fitness is paved with knowledge and firm principles; teaching readers how to master both is the goal of this site. LLAFIT – Lifelong Applied Fitness