What's the best way to workout at home to lose weight and feel great?

I love the most generic of questions people ask me about their fitness...what's the best way to workout at home for keeping in great shape?

In a simple answer, the solution is "any way that you will do consistently".

Why is consistency the focus of success with your fitness program and weight loss goals?  Because whatever you are doing for your fun fitness or exercise programs, if you don't do it consistently enough, then it really won't do you any good.  So when you are looking for the best exercises to do at home for building muscle, losing weight, developing a lean sexy beach body, whatever your goals, you have to start with what you enjoy.

What if you don't really enjoy exercise or working out?  Well, then you have to find a way to make it fun, because you still need to do it if you are going to keep fit.  If working out at home is your choice because of convenience and time restrictions, or just not enjoying the shared gym type environment, then you also need to look at what will work well for you.

There are a number of fitness equipment options that will help to support your fitness journey and home workouts exercises and training.  There are traditional weight benches, and home gym solutions such as Bowflex, and more popular these days is the growing interest in bodyweight training tools such as TRX and resistance bands, to more efficiently workout at home and customise to your own personal fitness levels and goals .

There are some companies that offering really specialised solutions for simple no fuss home workouts systems, that focus on the best method of resistance training which is bodyweight exercise in my opinion, and allow you to do all of the essential exercises that allow you to work your entire body, engaging and toning all of your muscles to speed up weight loss, and continue to burn calories after you are done your workout.

The best home gym equipment system in my opinion is offered by SoloStrength Lifestyle Products.  Their website review of home gym equipment has a complete home gym solution of both the adjustable bar system for simple progressions and adjustments of exercises and difficulty for your exercises, as well as complete exercise training videos and programs to get you started and keep you advancing - no matter if you are a beginner or very advanced in your fitness levels.



I really like the free standing pullup bar systems and they have a ultra compact door frame mounted home gym system that is second to none for versatility.    You can get a glimpse of the systems here but checkout their website for more details on their home and studio gym systems.

NEW Suspension Training Exercises with TRX and pull up bar

ARE you a TRX fan and love bodyweight exercise but wondering how to expand your exercises you can do with TRX using your home gym?

With the development of a new segment of exercise equipment that focuses on bodyeight based resistance training, there are many opportunities for exciting and challenging fusion exercise programs that can be done by combining these awesome exercises and sometimes the home gym equipment, together.

The adjustable bar system offered by SoloStrength, is one awesome example of a system that can be combined with another bodyweight training apparatus (in this case TRX trainer) to make an even more robust and complete home gym system.   There are things you can do with both systems that are unique to them, but combined the fusion of the home gym exercise equipment is awesome in both versatility and functionality.  Due to the many requests I've had for elaborating on this topic,we will focus on this fusion exercise of equipment and training techniques, throughout the next few blog entries.  If you have some fusion equipment ideas please comment below and share your experiences.  

Enjoy bodyweight training at home with our fusion exercise ideas!

For more information on TRX visit www.fitnessanywhere.com and for more information on the SoloStrength Home gym workout system visit this link. 

Fast exercise for weight loss at home using equipment

Usually clients of mine are most interested in two things... the first is weight loss, the second is tightening the muscles after weight loss.   So what is the best way to tighten and tone your body after weight loss, and are there exercises that you can do that accomplish both these goals at the same time?

YES absolutely there are more efficient ways of toning and tightening muscles while losing extra weight you'd rather you didn't have.   While you may feel that merely keeping a cardio program  (walking, running, treadmill type of activity) you will be able to perhaps lose the weight you wish to, but you are missing the essential component of resistance training that helps to develop the lean and strong shapely muscles that look and feel great.   

HOW CAN I GET THE RESISTANCE EXERCISE?

There are onbly so many ways to really strengthen and tone all the bodies muscles, and they all have to deal with some type of weight resistance or pushing/pulling and pressing a weight to create resistance, or what is preferred by trainers and most athletes these days, using your own bodyweight as resistance and leverage it against a bar or bands, or as is the case with TRX and their suspension training techniques, pivoting against a leverage point to only use your own bodyweight to do full body exercising.  

Is there any doubt that weight loss and muscle toning can be accomplished by bodyweight based exercise?  We need only to look at the ultra fit refinement and development of gymnasts and athletes that train with this methodology, and the offer some of the most fit, strong and lean body development  of anyone.  

It's odd that the best exercises are often overlooked in the arena of bodyweight training.  Pull ups of all sorts, provide exceptional exercise and strength results, which inevitably yield amazing upper body development and lean muscle, but few people can do even one pull up with their own bodyweight and that is why there are some awesome options available these days with products such as the speedfit gyms offered by SoloStrength Lifestyle Products.   These products offer a beautifully designed home and studio gym equipment, with a frame and base mat with a easy to adjust bar that you can set in different vertical heights, to play with for full body exercises that can be done by all strength and fitness levels.  A very user friendly home gym system that is fast and simple to use, and can start you off as a beginner with weight you want to lose, and build your strength while very efficiently losing weight, and toning your muscles at the same time.  You can progress the challenges of your programs so that you can continue to do more difficult exercises as you improve and keep your body strength improving and keeping your body toned and lean after losing the desired weight.

We are going to be doing some videos on our experience with the solostrength home and studio gym systems soon, and I'll be offering them to my clients as well.  I think it's an awesome home gym system solution and would be what I recommend to anyone looking to both lose weight and tone their muscles at the same time from home.

Commercial Gym Equipment for Simple Exercise at Office

I recently posted an article on how you can use simple exercise equipment in an office or workplace, including home office, for quick, effective exercise and energy boosting.

Most of us are so pressed for time we need to really make the most of the breaks we take. I've seen some really good office and home office gym set-ups to do quick exercises on that really help to shorten the time required to get exercise.

When you are looking for gym equipment for different types of exercises in your office or work environment, there are quite a few considerations that become clear.

1. It has to be simple to use so everyone can get value from it. 
2. The equipment should be versatile enough to adapt to a wide range of fitness levels. 
3. Likely you will be dealing with limited space and size considerations will be important to measure.
4. Safety.  The last thing you want to deal with is insurance or injuries from things that are meant to make us more productive.
5. Rather than simple cardio machines which duplicate to a lesser quality, the thing we can do by going for a walk outside, resistance exercise should be part of the equipment consideration. 

So what type of options does that leave for you to consider?  There are large cable and weight based machines that can work your entire body, but will likely intimidate many within your workplace environment.  

There are some bodyweight based exercise machines that I have found that I can recommend and that do address the 5 points and considerations above.  

This Company SoloStrength Lifestyle Products,  builds a high quality, simple to use, and very versatile adjustable bar gym that not only can appeal to the very fit, but is about the least intimidating piece of exercise workout equipment I've ever seen.   

Because of the versatility and features of this system, many personal trainers and health professionals are starting to include and build their training studio environments with this piece and I can see why.  Simple and fast way to work your clients through full body exercises and work with them.  For these reasons I'd recommend this piece for consideration for your workplace or home office gym or training studio.   You can see some of their training videos to get a better idea of how this system works. 

sexual health and fitness - how pull up exercises can help you

One of the most common concerns my clients male, and female, have is lower back pain, and weakness in their abdominal region or what people commonly refer to as the core.   Not surprisingly, the two matters are not unrelated.

I recently posted an article on how to use a  pull up bar equipment for abdominal exercises.   These were mostly relating to how to hang from the bar and do lower leg lifts and reverse crunches.   These exercises are awesome for strengthening and stretching the lower back as well.

However, I have always been very pleased and impressed with the results of building up strength in the entire upper body, including abs and back, by completing close grip and wide grip pullups.  The pull ups or chins exercises really do build strength through the whole upper body, and if you do a 2x reverse or negative count (on the way down from the bar), your exercise benefits increase greatly from the exercise, as well as in my opinion working the arms, shoulders, and core more effectively.  

So the next time you are feeling the concern over your strength and conditioning for sexual performance, think about the chin up bar, make it part of your home gym system, and do your pull ups.   It will not only tighten the abs which look great and appealing to most every partner, but it will keep your back strong, and flexible for less chance of "throwing out your back" during the heat and intensity of the moment.  

Anyone who follows my blog regularly knows that I'm a big fan of bodyweight based exercise and functional training programs, and a big supporter of the SoloStrength Bodyweight Trainer Home Gym system.  In my opinion, for simplicity, simplicity and long term value, not to mention the awesome fast adjust ability of the pull up and press bar for doing progressive weight exercise, it's a good value for your home gym dollar.

How to lose weight fast at home with bodyweight exercise

I recently did a post on adjustable pull up bars for bodyweight exercise and for use with popular home fitness workout programs like beachbody's P90X and Insanity workouts.

Maybe you are into these more intense workouts, but they can be very time consuming and doing them regularly is hard on your body, so what if you are the type of person that just wants to find ways to lose weight fast, with home workout exercises?  Maybe you aren't the "insanity" type?

Well the best way to accomplish this in my experience, is by doing the same things I do with my clients.  Nutrition is at the foundation of all successful weight loss programs.  We simply can't lose weight in a healthy way, without replenishing the body with a solid nutritional base and feeding the building blocks to our system that will help us sustain and maintain, this ongoing exercise and activity.

One awesome suggestion, I find works REALLY well with clients is incorporating ISAGENIX 30 day nutritional cleanse program, which starts off all weight loss goals on a really strong foot.  Most of my clients have just had the most incredible results.  However in your weight loss journey, and lifestyle changes, exercise then becomes the glue that holds it all together, but not for the reasons you might think.

Exercise isn't only to tighten and tone your body, it's absolutely critical to keep your muscles strong,.to keep your mind and body working together in a mechanically sound and responsive way, and help your body and thoughts send better signals to each other for moderating healthy food choices, and portions.  These natural signals become quite confused and lost when we become disconnected from our healthier selves, and our choices and impulses, don't work in our support as well as they can.  Make no mistake, we naturally want to feed ourselves well, and do the activity we require each day, but the habits begin to make the decisions for us, if we let them.

The good news is that habits can change quite easily, over time.  The rule of thumb on creating new habits is that it takes approximately 21 days to form new behaviour and anchor it into our psyche.

So a good 30 day weight loss and exercise program, whether from home or studio based, is a great place to start.   If you would like more information on Isagenix, or some of the new home gym equipment recommended for weight loss mentioned in this article, please leave a comment below.

The bottom line is to remember that we all can live healthier, with very little efforts and weight loss can be successfully achieved in today's world with the proper support of nutrition and exercises.  

A better P90x chin up bar - Try and adjustable pull up bar as option

If you are a fan of how Beachbody fitness and the p90x and insanity programs use bodyweight exercise to really push you to your maximum fitness levels, then you just might love what I came across today.

I add the P90x program to my exercise routine from time to time.  I honestly don't have the time to really do the program too regularly, but I find that I like variety a lot more in my type of exercise.  Too much of a good thing sometimes...

But one thing I absolutely do agree with about the program, is how it integrates and centres around bodyweight based resistance.  The less fuss and muss with plate or cable weight machines and equipment, the better as far as I'm concerned, and I know  a lot of my clients feel the same.

So the topic of pull up bars and home gym equipment came up recently at an event I was hosting, and I was asked about the pull up bars on the market, which pull up bars were the best for home and commercial environments, and what I thought of the P90X chin up bar quality.  Was it really safe?  Was the main question and concern.  I found a photo to include here to give you an idea of how it attaches to the door frame.

Now I don't know if you have ever tried or used one of these door frame mounted pull up bars before, but to say they feel anything but safe would be a more accurate description than any other I could offer, and frankly, my safety is worth more to me than the risk that I personally feel comes along with these type of pull up bar options for chin ups and wide grip pullups.

If you have a space you can certainly avoid the safety concern by solidly anchoring a fixed pull up bar, but then you are usually restricted in one form or another by the height option you have to deal with, and having a willing partner to allow you to put holes in the ceiling, wall, wherever you are anchoring it.

There is also the matter of self spotting to progressively build strength on your pull ups and chins exercises.  One set of thinking will have you use a chair or some other prop to use a leg to raise yourself up, but I don't like this at all, it's awkward, and hard to really focus on the movements and keep your alignment correct while self assisting for the pull up movement.

A much better pull up bar option that I found that addresses both a safer door frame mounted pull up home gym system, and total height adjust ability to more easily self assist your progressive strength improvements, is the SoloStrength FRAME door mounted adjustable pull up bar home gym system.


I have not yet had the opportunity to really get into this product for an equipment review which I love to do, so I'll try and contact the company and get a first hand account but from what I see I really like that it addresses all the main interests I would have for an awesome all in one home gym product that gives you the versatility to not only do full body exercise programs, but great stretching and flexibility support, and from some of their training videos I was just looking at, using other exercise accessories like BOSU and exercise balls, TRX even and resistance bands, this thing has a virtually compacted an entire gym full of exercise equipment in less than 5" of space off the door frame.  It doesn't look to restrict any door function, and the bar they say sits above the door frame, so pretty much hides away when you don't need it.  That sounds convenient to me, and I'm really excited to take it for a test drive.

I think this would also be an ideal piece for suggesting as I did, on my post about doing abs exercises with pull up bars.  This is an exciting new piece of exercise equipment for home and commercial gyms and I think you will hear a lot more about this product line in the coming months.

Beginner Home Exercise Workouts Using Pull Up Bars and Bodyweight Training

Today's post is really on one of my favourite topics, bodyweight training using pull up bar and various bodyweight training equipment.

This will be a short entry covering some of the basics in bodyweight training programs, that you can do in home gym or your personal training studio.  I'll be breaking these posts up into quick reads to help direct you to some of the best sources of home gym exercise programs I can find, and also to help you choose the best  equipment that can help you achieve your fitness goals while training at home.    You will find no doubt some very sexy videos and photos of different people online training from home with very little or no equipment, but don't be fooled into thinking that this is easy or possible for many people.  Most of the movements that these trainers try and do, often require a great deal of fitness to achieve already.  What I want to focus on here is how the majority of us, can accomplish full body workouts from home, and what equipment available for sale can help us get there either more easily, or more conveniently provide the ability to do all the exercises we are interested in.  The name of the game for us, is fast, effective exercises, that anyone can do, to build up there strength, flexibility, and overall fitness conditioning.

For today's homework, I found a sweet little page that has both instructional pictures and video showing how we can all use adjustable pull up bar exercise home gym equipment for total body exercises that are fast, and really effective for toning all muscles, and keeping our metabolism charged up, energy high, and strength to enjoy life to the max!

Comparing Home Gym Equipment That You Can Use For Pull Ups Exercises

Last entry I shared some of the key exercises you can do with a pull up bar, especially how you can do abs exercises with a pull up bar.

Today I'd like to look at some of the features you should consider for selecting a best home gym machine for your home, or personal training studio.

First of all...and the most obvious question, is what are your needs?  Are you looking for basic fundamental exercises to keep your baseline fitness level high?  Are you looking for highly specialised sport conditioning training?  Or if you are a trainer, what are the main interests of your clientèle?

Secondly, how much space to you ave to work with?  Space is usually one of the biggest concerns, for optimising your training environment whether home or studio.  You really need to make sure you are going to get multiple uses to maximize value on the space you are allotting for your fitness and exercise machines.

Thirdly, and not least important, is quality.  The last thing any of us need is an injury from poorly made equipment that breaks down or puts us out of enjoying life, with an injury.

A well laid out space should be accessible, easy to use and get to the equipment you need without tripping on anything, and with enough free space to use for open movement.

Review of home gym equipment can take many focuses but I'll stick with the basic categories to start your research.  For full body exercise equipment, there are the old standards of free weights and bench systems, dumbbells and now adding thinks like kettlebells.    This approach to strength training and resistance exercise is effective, but can often be dangerous for many people, and not the most family friendly approach to loading up your home gym environment.   Many injuries are caused by free weights, but used safely, provides the resistance exercise you need for total body fitness.

Next in line, are large cable weight based systems, which are typically very space consuming and though effective for progressive resistance exercise, can require a lot a adjustments to work your entire body.  Typically these systems are in excess of $2,000.00 and take a full day to assemble and get setup.

The above two options are following the methodologies of training developed during the bodybuilding era of the fitness boom, and really focus on time consuming muscle isolation type of exercises that are primarily targeted to building muscle mass and size.   The activity typically leaves out the interest in total body mobility, functional movement or agility.  So what happens if  you are interested more in overall fitness and a more holistic approach to fitness and lifestyle?  If your concern is more balancing your overall health and wellness, lean muscle and strength development, and not spending all day in the gym to achieve it?

For a more simple approach and more aligned with today's focus on the benefits of bodyweight based exercise (the style used for conditioning us humans since the dawn of time, and favoured by the military), are a number of options available that are well worth your consideration.  Using your body as the machine, and tools to support the challenge or safety of the exercises, seems to be the growing trend all around both by individuals and trainers for their exercise equipment.   The amazing physical conditioning that can be achieved solely by using your own bodyweight are all around us to see, and the awesome lean muscle development of gymnasts and fitness professionals shows it's undeniable superiority to overall wellness and balanced fitness.   So if the gym isn't for you, if your time is pressed and you want convenience and accessibility to your training equipment within moments, if you have a home office and the only training time you get is during your "coffee break", then some of the following options may be best for you.

Heading off this category are resistance bands,  balance accessories such as BOSU, and the well entrenched stability ball.   These are great accessories to use with your bodyweight training programs, but are far from being total body exercise tools.   If you add a well secured pull up bar for doing chins, wide grip pullups, stretching and abs exercises, you are starting to buildup a more complete training system.  There are also some straps that can be mounted to leverage your bodyweight for exercise that are becoming very popular with the military crowd.  The TRX system is essentially handles at the end of straps that you need to anchor into your ceiling or on your door, to leverage your body to achieve a good variety of challenging exercises.  I like using this system from time to time in addition to my main exercises.    Probably the best all around home gym equipment and studio machine (they have a commercial model), is the SoloStrength SpeedFit Pro Models.  This is a self standing frame and base, that very simply functions as an all in one gym that you can use all the above mentioned accessories to really have the best complete home gym system I can imagine.  The user can simply and quickly adjust the bar height, to do the essential core exercises with only using the bar, and their own body.  I really like how you can adjust the bar height

Another great opportunity with this solostrength machine, is that because it is securely anchored and high quality, you can use the bar as an adjustable anchor point for adding your resistance bands, or TRX system, to have virtually unlimited exercise variations that you can do with this one, simple exercise equipment.  The versatility, compact space use, and simplicity make this system the top of the list for my home gym and studio training equipment recommendation.  If you haven't tried it yet, find one at a gym near you or ask your friends, and give it a try...and let me know what you think.   I've seen this company demonstrating at several fitness industry and health shows so you might get lucky to try one there as well.   For now I believe you can only find the solostrength home gym online, but they have a free trial period so you can try it for yourself at no risk.

HOW TO DO ABS EXERCISES WITH A PULL UP BAR

Last post I wrote about why pull up exercises are important for fitness, and the equipment that is available today to help people learn how to build progressive strength do a full body pull up and include it in part of their regular exercise workouts.  Today's post will cover how to use a pull up bar for doing a variety of abdominal exercises, and bring out the abs we all like to see on ourselves as a sign of strength, fitness and power.

The classic abs exercise with a pull up bar involves holding the bar and hanging our legs straight down or knees bent.   In a slow and controlled movement, tighten the core muscles, and slowly raise the legs up, into a vertical crunch position.   I'd suggest starting with knees bent, and tucking the bent knees to the chest.  Displayed below is a straight leg lift, with full range taking the legs to the bar above.  For some of you ,this will be something to work towards, both for strength, and flexibility.

One of the way that we can demonstrate the total body exercise value of a pull up bar, is showing one of the main questions people have in their fitness quest...how to get abs using a pull up bar for exercise?  I found an article on ehow that demonstrates some of the basic, and some advanced exercises that use a fixed pull up bar.

Again I will mention that I like to address the progressive aspects of fitness.  Not just showing how someone who is already fit and strong, but for those of you that might be out of shape, not feeling strong, or lack the conditioning to accomplish these exercises.  Have faith that  we all can build up the strength to achieve our 10 pull up full bodyweight goals, and the way to get there, is with a progressive approach, starting where we can, and gently building up our strength and challenge until we reach our goals.

Looking above, some of us will struggle to even have the strength to be able to hold ourselves onto the bar without letting go, let along lifting our legs up.  So where can we start?

Again I'll reference one of my favourite pieces of equipment the solostrength speedfit systems.  These adjustable bodyweight chin up bars, are actually great for all essential exercise movements, but let me focus for now on how they can be used for progressive bodyweight exercise to build up your strength from where you are now, to the point of being able to accomplish these very effective abs exercises you see demonstrated above.

First, whether you are using a solostrength system as I'd recommend (safety, stable, speed, versatility it's really ideal for home or professional studio gyms and they offer a door frame mounted  pull up bar model now too), you can find Smith press machines or squat racks in commercial gyms that you can set a bar height that will work for your for these exercises also, and begin progressive movements to build up your chin up strength.

To build up your pull up strength to start, do self spotted pull ups, using your legs to spot your movements as you pull your body up.  Close grip, wide grip, practise and play with all types for strengthening and toning your entire back, arms, shoulders and abs.   As your pull up strength improves, you can progress by increasing the bar height.  I haven't found any photos of reverse leg lifts you can do on your back , but found a video here that demonstrates, it, along with the progressive movements for pull ups as well.



Let me know how you are doing , and good luck on your way to total body fitness and mastering your pull up goals!

Why Pull Up Exercises are important and equipment that helps you

I recently reviewed some strategies for assisted pull ups to help you achieve your pull up goals, but for some of you, the question may remain, "why do I need to do pullups in the first place?"

Well the answer is most likely individual to each of us, but the most common reason people desire to achieve the pullup, is as a personal challenge and to feel strong!  It's an elusive thing to those that can't do them, but for those of us that already can, we already know the undeniable sense of empowerment and feeling of strength that comes along with 10 or more strong full body pullups...but is there more to it?

The Pull up is arguably, the single best upper body exercise that one can perform.  The full body pullup engages more than 100 muscles to complete, and to do them in good clean and controlled form, takes engagement of the entire body.  When you are strong enough to do full body pullups, you can add modified movements to further challenge and use muscle confusion techniques, to continue stimulating the muscles and maximize your bodies fitness benefits from the simple, bodyweight exercise.  Many companies have alternative bodyweight training equipment with adjustable bands and straps such as TRX, and they can be great for leveraging your bodyweight to exercise, but they still lack the ability to do the most beneficial of bodyweight exercises, the pull up or chin ups.  A fixed bar is the most common way to do the chinup, but with the new fitness equipment machines that allow for adjustable pull up bars, even beginners can start easily with spotting themselves, and progressively increase the resistance by increasing the bar height, to eventually achieve the full body pull ups that you are seeking.     I found a pretty cool review on this blog - they seem to really keep the fun in the fitness training, focusing on essential core bodyweight exercises and offering free workout exercise videos to train people.  It seems that while many people want to focus on why we don't need any equipment to exercise, this company delivers high quality functional training equipment that delivers the ability to accomplish the full body exercises in a more complete, safer, faster way.   Certainly a good option if you are a busy family or rushed lifestyle but still want to get total body workouts in the shortest time.

As a bonus, this company seems to be able to integrate the TRX training tools onto their adjustable bar system, so you can use the speedfit gym of your choice as a foundational piece and then modify your programs to include some TRX training as well.  Looks like a winner match to me, that I have a hard time not recommending.  Checkout www.solostrength.com when you get a chance.

Adjustable Bars for Pull Up and Bodyweight Exercise Review

Today I am going to review the benefits of a multi-height adjustable pull up bar for doing chin ups and bodyweight based functional fitness exercise.  I wrote yesterday on Self Spotting Pull Up Equipment, and reviewed some of the commercial machines available for personal trainers studios and gym environments.

What may not be obvious on the first glance, is just how many exercises you can do with an adjustable bar.  In fact you can do virtually any core exercise with the ability to leverage your bodyweight on a bar set at different heights, to achieve very effective bodyweight exercise and total body fitness.   You can see bars used in action in any gym environment, either on smith press machines similar to the photo here, or setting squat rack support heights to lock in the bar at which height you desire.  This company SoloStrength, seems to have carved out a niche for themselves by building a very good looking structure to achieve a fast, safe and easy way to lock in a support bar at many different heights.  You can find more information on the multi-height adjustable bodyweight exercise bar machine and fitness equipment to see for yourself.

Rather than try and describe full body exercise programs using bodyweight exercise and adjustable bars here, I found a video that demonstrates a lot of the essential exercises we all need for balanced strength fitness, and I believe there are more videos on their exercise workout video channel as well.

Self Spotting Pull Up Equipment Machines

Following my last post on comparison and review of pull up bars for home, where I discussed the benefits of adjustable pull up bars for learning how to do chin ups and increasing your strength using your own bodyweight, I wanted to share with you some of the commercial products on the market that demonstrate how you can vary your bodyweight resistance, to make it possible to start without being able to do a pull up at all, and progress your resistance as your strength and fitness improve. It doesn't matter if you can do a pull up when you begin, following the progressive and simple exercise workouts that allow you to naturally build your strength, will allow you to do a pull up, and eventually achieve your goal of 10 real full body pull ups, in a very reasonable period of time.

In a commercial environment, such as a chain of gyms or recreation facility, you may find large weight assisted machines that counterbalance your bodyweight, to reduce your pull up weight.   A good example of a machine like this, is  the Gravitron, as viewed above.     I have found these to be useful to the extent that they do allow a person who can't normally do a full pull up to spot themselves with this machine, but the downside is that with this, and all free cable weight machines, it's challenging to really know where an optimal setting on the weight is for each person, and when to adjust it.  Also the movements lack a really natural, fluid flow.  It's not uncommon for people to remark that it feels like you are going for a ride on this platform...and not really in control of the movement.   Unfortunately you won't see these in every gym because of their price.  Many gyms will leave you to a fixed pull up bar or cable free weight equipment to accomplish your pull ups.

SoloStrength SpeedFit Pro-Studio Bodyweight Exercise Gym

SoloStrength Bodyweight Training Exercise Equipment, who I referenced in my last article with their door frame mounted pull up bar, also have a taller version of their Pro model specifically for use in commercial gym environments.    Not only is this system extremely simple to use and mega fast to adjust, it's ideal for a gym environment because the quick adjust-ability allows for multiple clients to use the system intermittently , and self spot themselves to build their strength.   More details on this self spotting pull up and total fitness equipment machine can be found here.   I personally like the elegant designer equipment and when you take a closer look at the versatility of this adjustable bodyweight bar exercise machine, not just for pull up exercises but also for spotting all different type of exercises for full body workouts they include on their website with free exercise workout videos, I find it hard not to recommend this item as the piece of choice to seek out to train with and build up your progressive strength for achieving your pull up goals.

Comparison Of Pull Up Bars...-The Tools You Need

My last post was addressing the question of why you should consider pull-ups for your balanced total body fitness.  Beyond being an undeniably empowering experience and feeling, the pullup is arguably the best single exercise for upper body development.   Engaging more than 100 muscles, being able to accomplish pulling your own bodyweight, will not only bring with it the confidence and pride of knowing you can, but also toning and building strength in your back, improving your posture, and working to burn calories (as is a benefit of any strength training workout) and greatly decreasing your probability of suffering from so many back issues that plague far too many people today.   Beyond all the wellness benefits of good health, take a look at anyone who can achieve 10 solid pullups of their full bodyweight.  It's undeniable that you will need to be in a very desirable overall physical condition to complete this goal, so let's get started...


Today's post is going to look a little more at what tools you will need accomplish your chin ups, or wide grip pullups.

We all know of the fixed chin up bar.  It's usually attached or anchored/bolted in the ceiling or wall, and set very often...too high to reach.   So you go and find a chair or box or something to drag over, or hop up to reach it, once you are grabbing the bar...it's all you.   This is where most people fail.  They try one, or a few, with legs flailing, and with usually less than good form, and that's as far as it gets.

Then there are the doorway, door frame pullup bars.  These are usually anchored into the side of the doorway frame, or loop around the top of the header.  These are often quite cheap and safety can be a major concern. There are more than a few "epic fail" video's posted online showing the classic pull up bar breaking, and resulting crush to the ground of the poor soul who entrusted their safety to these devices.    As a result, I can't recommend them, as nobody's fitness improves if they are recovering from potentially debilitating injuries.  While Zuzana from Bodyrock.tv show's again the incredible form one can achieve from having mastered the bodyweight pull up, there are better options I've found to recommend with very little searching online.

One of the top quality pull up bar products I wouldn't hesitate to recommend is the SpeedFit FRAME product by SoloStrength.  This company has seemed to understand that it's extremely valuable to have something like a smith press machine, adjustable bar through a vertical and strong frame, to accomplish not only full bodyweight pull ups, but by adjusting the bar to a lower height, being able to easily spot yourself, and progressively increase the bar height, and resistance, as your strength improves until you can accomplish the fully bodyweight pullup.   Another advantage of this system, is that it works in the negative movements as well.  So after you can achieve a full bodyweight pullup, you can then drop the bar, and continue your reps with the self spotted version of the exercise.  This is a very effective way of working up to, and increasing your strength to this end.  I found this photo online of their FRAME model.   What I liked about this system is that the bar sits up above the door frame, completely out of the way when you aren't using it, and set to maximum height is about as high as you can fit into most home settings, and it seems very securely attached and very well built.  The look of it I thought was pretty cool, and effectively combines the versatility of their stand alone models, into what they claim is about 5" of space.  Pretty awesome.   One final bonus for this option, is that the door functionality isn't restricted, and that effectively makes this FRAME about as ideal a choice for very space limited locations, that I have found.  It does come at a price however, but for what it offers, seems like a high value if you can afford it.

Finally, the lesser expensive models that try to accomplish some adjust-ability using the door frame.  The best known model is the The perfect pullup.   Despite the name...I have not had good experience with this item for the following reasons.
1.   It has limited width, too limited, for the grips I prefer.
2.   The height isn't high enough.\
3.   The adjust-ability is limited to two settings and didn't leave me feeling comfortable and confident that the anchor system was going to be safe.
4.  It makes a mess of the door frame.
5.  On more than one installation if the door frame wasn't perfectly square (and I guess many times they aren't with shifting etc), it didn't want to swing down and adjust smoothly.  I hazard a guess that I'm not the only one that has experienced this.  For that reason I feel safer recommending fixed bars, over this option, but my favourite is the SoloStrength option above.

Hopefully this helps you to understand more about some of the options in exercise pullup equipment for your home environment or home gym.    My next post will take a look at some of the commercial equipment options that can help assist you to achieve your pullup goals.

If you have any suggestions to add please comment below.

New Years Resolutions: I want to learn how to do 10 pullups!

If you are like many people, you are fascinated, in a fearful kind of way, at the thought of trying to accomplish one of the single most important ways to determine one's overall "fitness"...achieve a single, pullup.   Not the kind of pull up (or chin up as some people refer to it), that has your legs kicking and flailing around in a fit of painful exertion, but a STRONG and powerful, controlled, drive to the bar.  You stand in envy of those you see almost effortlessly raise themselves to the air, seemingly as easy as walking....THAT's what you secretly want you say to yourself, but HOW CAN I LEARN HOW TO DO THAT PULL UP!?

I've been coaching and training people for over 10 years, and the most success I've had with clients building them to their 10 pull up goal, is to integrate progressive bodyweight resistance.  What does that mean?  It means no weights, we only use their natural bodyweight to build strength and condition them to ultimately do their own full bodyweight pull ups.   Not only awesome exercise, it's an incredible way to develop lean muscle and help posture and avoid back pain.

How can you achieve progressive resistance bodyweight pullups?  There are a number of ways.  If you have a secured pullup bar, you can use a chair, or a partner, but this can be difficult to balance properly and keep the movements smooth.   The better way is to use an adjustable bar (such as the super adjustable adjustable bodyweight bar system offered by SoloStrength Lifestyle Products ).  It's awesome for full body training and an alternative home gym equipment machine.   The reason this works so well, is that your feet can rest on floor and balanced support to reduce resistance and self-spot for for achieving pull ups.

I'll write more on this post tomorrow...hope to see you there on your way to achieving pull up success!