OYO Nova and Personal Gym: InTheWild

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We started using OYO’s Personal Gym (OPG) and their somewhat beefier NOVA when the COVID pandemic started, mostly because all the gyms and dojos had shuttered for the duration.

When things started re-opening, though, we kept with the OYOs because we liked how easy they are to use and the effectiveness of their exercises.

It didn’t hurt that we didn’t have to devote an entire room to house them either.

After two years of using the OYO devices twice almost every day, we got to know the units pretty well…maybe in more ways than OYO would have liked, because we managed to break every one of them (which may be because we got so much stronger because we used them twice a day almost every day…)

The “good” news for OYO is that we broke them each in different way. Each time they broke, though, OYO stepped up and quickly addressed the issue, not just in replacing the parts, but—in the case of the NOVA—actually addressing the root cause of the problem.

OYO Personal Gym (a.k.a. OPG)

The OPG was our first unit from OYO, and we used the shi… heck out of it until we noticed something off about it one day: the exercises felt a lot easier to do than the day before. We didn’t know why at first, but we knew we hadn’t got 87% stronger since the day before…

After the workout, we looked closeer at the unit, but still didn’t see anything amiss. It wasn’t until we took the SpiralFlex disc off and noticed that some of the bands had torn on a disc under the top disk.

Wanting to see if it was something we could repair (naturally), we took the disc apart.

Once disassembled, we could clearly see that the disc was “done.”

We sent quick note to OYO’s Customer Support and a new disc was dispatched forthwith.

We have had no issues with any OPG disc since the replacement, and we now know to check all the disks—not just the top one—if/when the OPG feels a bit “light.”

InTheWild Summary: Bigger is not better. Stronger is better!!!

The maximum SpiralFlex weight for the OPG is 25lbs. This is an excellent unit for strengthening without building bulk. We use it to do 40 to 50 slowwww reps of a particular exercise, which builds our grip strength, works the tendons, and enhances endurance.

OYO NOVA

When OYO released the NOVA, they changed the design of the metal hub so that SpiralFlex discs can only be used with a specific version of the OYO: the OPG disks have a gear-shaped center, the NOVA disks have an octagonal center.

Zinc version

The SpiralFlex discs of the first version of NOVA used cast-zinc metal centers.

We managed to fatigue one of them after six months. The flexible bands were all fine, but the disc was unusable as it would no longer stay secured to the device. We didn’t understand why this particular disk kept falling out until we realized the center had broken in two!

When we told OYO, they said “No problem, we’ll send you a replacement disc.” They had addressed the fatiguing problem and had switched to steel for the metal core, and sent us one of those. GREAT!!!

BUT—The center of the steel version, while still hexagonal, had a slightly different pin-offset for aligning the discs to each other and WOULD NOT MATE with the older SpiralFlex discs. We fully understood that it probably wasn’t good to mix discs, but what now?

After informing OYO of the “issue,” they sent us a completely new unit of the updated steel version of the OYO NOVA. Nice!

Steel version

Six months after using the steel version of the NOVA daily, we once again noticed that the 30-lb exercises were getting waaaay too easy to perform. While we were definitely getting stronger, we knew we weren’t HULK strong!

We took our standard closer look and saw two things:

1. The steel core had held up; and
2. Multiple bands on three of four discs had suffered some kind of failure.

The steel version of the OYO Nova SpiralFlex discs did not fatigue like the cast-zinc ones, but each disc had a different problem: the flexible rubber bands had ripped like those of the OPG.

Once we notified OYO Customer Support of the issue, they quickly sent out three replacement discs to us. By now, you might be thinking… “OK, how long IS the warranty on the disc?” The discs are warrantied for 3-years. The count starts again if they are replaced.

So NO WORRIES. Use them, break them, OYO will replace them!

InTheWild Summary:

The NOVA is physically bigger than the OPG. The biggest differences between the two are NOVA’s higher resistance limit (40 lb. vs 25 lbs.) and the grip. The T-handle of the NOVA is easier to hold securely than the ball-shaped-handle of the OPG.

We don’t normally take the discs on and off the OYO products, but we noticed that the steel discs were a LOT more difficult to attach and detach than the other, zinc-based versions. Not sure if it is because there is less “give” to steel than zinc, tighter tolerances, or just something particular to our unit.

Final Thoughts

Exercise equipment is useless if all you do with it is plunk it in a corner, shove it in a closet, or slide it under a bed.

The OYOs are the few pieces of fitness equipment that we actually use, every day. Yes they broke, but that was because we actually USED them…a lot.

As long as OYO keeps replacing our discs, we’ll keep using the OPG and the Nova!

What we didn’t use that came with the units were the door- and foot-straps. We may at some point, but we have no definitive date on that. We tried them in the beginning, but found them a lot more cumbersome than we expected. Happy to hear if others have had success with them.

Links to items mentioned:

• OYO Personal Gym
• OYO Nova