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.