Darko Longy Bar Review
David “Darko” Kerkes, the owner and operator of Darko Lifting, is a fellow garage gym junkie and enthusiast who has been making some fantastic and innovative new products such as the Barbell Anchor, Shorty Bar and the Longy Bar. Today, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at the Longy Bar!
The Darko Lifting Longy Bar has several impressive features that make it a top-tier choice for serious lifters. Its sturdy build, unique design, and versatility make it an excellent investment for those looking to elevate their training sessions.
Composed of 3/8” thick 304 stainless steel, this cable attachment is guaranteed to withstand anything and everything you can throw its way. Another great feature of the Longy Bar is the chamfering on the holes (yeah, I had to look that word up too), which provides a smooth bevel around each hole. This means that there are no sharp edges to potentially cut your fingers on or damage any other accessories you choose to attach to the bar.
With 16 different locations to attach other cable handles and accessories, the amount of uses the Darko Longy Bar has is immense.
Coming in at only 5lbs, this bar is also extremely light for its size. Don’t let that fool you though; it is more than strong enough to handle even your heaviest of exercises!
With a 2” center mounting hole lined with black acetal (similar material to UHMW), the Longy Bar can also be used for landmine work. Either use any of the aforementioned 16 mounting locations to attach multiple cable handles, or flip the bar over and use the single mounting hole to attach other various cable grips! The acetal lining works great to protect the sleeve of your barbell from damage when using the longy for landmine movements.
When paired with something like the Rep Fitness Ares system, the Longy Bar can open up even more possibilities for you to explore! The length of the bar, along with its various cable mounting holes, allows it to connect to any and every cable point on the Ares. This also includes the front sliding cable points! One big advantage of this is that it helps to solve a major issue of the Ares system, that being the low row cable positions. Many users, myself included, find the built in low row cables of the Ares to be too low to the ground to comfortably use. Now with the Longy, you can connect the sliding cable trolleys together to perform rows at any height you desire! Personally, this fact alone makes the Longy Bar worth the hefty price tag.
Now that we’ve covered some of the positives, let’s look at a couple of the negatives of the Longy Bar. First, and most likely the majority of people’s complaint, is going to be the price. At the time of writing this review, the Darko Lifting Longy Bar is currently priced at $240 USD with free shipping. When considering this price point, there are a few key things to keep in mind. David is not a large manufacturer such as Rogue, Rep, Titan, ect. The Longy Bar is also designed, manufactured and assembled in the USA. With all of that in mind, I think the price point is quite fair.
The other main negative I want to touch on, is with regards to using this attachment for lat pulldowns. This issue also applies to other cable accessory of this style, so it is not a direct knock on the Longy Bar, but rather this type of cable attachment in general. The largest issue I have experienced is a possible lack of range of motion when performing lat pulldowns. As you can see from the video below, in order to properly utilize the Longy bar with other various cable handles/attachments, you will have to have multiple carabiners connected between the handles, the bar and the machine. This is even further exaggerated when using the lat pulldown feature of the Ares system.
With the Ares in particular, you could improve the range of motion by simply replacing the included “banana clip” with the Longy Bar directly. However, in my experience, it can be very annoying and tedious to attach the Longy directly to the dual cable points. When it comes to other lat pulldown machines, you may be limited based on the height of the machine itself. This can cause you to lose a significant amount of range of motion if the machine isn’t tall enough.
From its sleek design and stellar looks, to its immeasurable versatility and functionality, the Darko Lifting Longy Bar is one of my favorite cable and landmine accessories I have used or owned. If you are on the fence about picking one up, I would encourage you to pull the trigger and get yours today!
Check out the full, detailed video review as well below!