Build your own pull-up bar

What is a pull up bar?

You can book an Chin Up is a versatile training device and very useful and actually essential for people who train at home and maybe even mainly only do body weight exercises.

Basically, a pull-up bar is just a bar placed slightly above head height that you can do a variety of strength exercises by hanging on and pulling up.

What exercises can I do?

There are, of course, all sorts of variations of things you can do on a pull-up bar. For example, to name a few, you can make these variations:

• Classic
• Tight pull-up
• Overhand pull-up
• Transferred to the upper hand
• Pure abdominal exercises
• With additional weight
• and much more.

In the calisthenics area, special strength exercises and variations can also be mentioned:

• Hanging leg raises
• Hanging knee raises
• muscle ups
• and much more.

As you can see, there are a few variations and that's not all. You may be familiar with some of the terms or you may have already done these exercises yourself.

Which muscle groups are trained?

Pull-ups are a great exercise and work a variety of muscle groups. In addition to the biceps, for example, we train our broad back muscles like no other strength exercise. This includes the movements of the upper arm backwards, lateral pulling and internal rotation.

Furthermore, the stabilization of the shoulder is also trained. The more the latissimus is contracted, the more we stabilize the shoulder. This means, for example, that you can press more weight overhead.

Why build a pull-up bar yourself?

If you are looking for a pull-up bar on the net, you will quickly find what you are looking for and you will find a large range of products. Basically, there are of course many good models that are stable on the market, but the choice should be considered.

Many variants from the net are not of sufficient quality and are not designed for a serious workout, especially in the low price segment. Most of the time there is not enough space for the right execution and effective training. It is particularly complicated, for example, with “Kipping Pull-Ups” or “Muscle-Ups”.

The variant of self-construction offers many advantages. Price-wise, of course, it's a lot cheaper for a reasonable product than you'll ever find online. Depending on the size and variant, you can get there for less than €30 - unimaginable for a finished product if you don't want to save on quality.

Some suppliers also manufacture individual products, but where is the challenge? Training is more fun on a specially made training device. Quite apart from the fact that these providers can also be paid high.

I don't want to withhold a certain disadvantage. Of course, the result of the self-build depends entirely on you and your manual skills and you have to plan and spend some time for it. Such projects often take longer than expected. But that way we have a direct challenge that we can face up to and that kind of spurs us on!

How can I build my pull-up bar myself?

The concept

Of course, you should prepare a small concept in advance and give some thought to it in advance:

• What should my pull-up bar actually look like?
• What materials do I need for this?
• What dimensions are required?

Attachment

There are many ways to attach your self-made pull-up bar. The variant between two walls is great and you have a larger selection at home for the space that is suitable.

Other variants would be on the ceiling, in the door frame, between wooden beams or in a corner. However, wall mounting offers a lot of freedom and can be easily integrated into the room.

Material, dimensions and procedure

Now we come to the materials and the dimensions for our pull-up bar.

The pole

A steel tube is suitable as the core. Steel pipes can be found on the market in all diameter and length variants and can be easily connected with sockets to achieve the desired length. The length of the pipe may also have to be adjusted with a flex. A conventional saw won't get you very far here, but such adjustments can often be made at the time of purchase.

A diameter of 3/4" or 1" is recommended. 1" is the norm for pull-up bars. If the pull-up bar is mainly used by women, the 3/4" variant is more suitable.

But of course you can simply test the different diameters when buying and decide on your personal favourite.

The height depends somewhat on your available ceiling height and your size. Ideally, you should be able to hang freely, i.e. reach the bar by jumping if that is possible. The norm in cross training is 2,10 or 2,40 meters.

The fortification

There are several variants for wall mounting. For example, you can use wooden blocks with a hole for storage. The advantage of this is that the pull-up bar can also be built to be removable, so you always have the option of removing the pull-up bar if you have to. However, the disadvantage is the lack of fixation, which has its advantages in some strength exercises. Therefore, this is the recommended variant.

The pieces of wood should be of a certain size and thickness to ensure stability. A thickness of at least 4 cm is recommended. The base should be of a certain size so that the force that is distributed as evenly as possible on the pipe and the risk of the wooden blocks tearing out of the wall is reduced.

We can also go to the hardware store for the wooden blocks and choose the piece we want and, if necessary, get advice if we are not sure which materials are particularly suitable.

You can get the hole with a hole saw. At this point you could make a recess a little higher in order to be able to optionally remove the pipe.

Each block of wood is attached with at least four screws with dowels. It is very important that these are placed in all four corners to ensure strength.

Such a screw should be as long and thick as possible. As a rule of thumb, 1/3 of the screw should be in the wood and 2/3 of the screw should be in the wall.

fixation of the rod

Now we come to the fixation. To keep the whole thing from turning, a screw is inserted through the block of wood and through the rod from above. This fixation is sufficient on one of the two sides. It is important that the screw really goes completely through the pipe, otherwise the fixation will not work.

Mounting

For the assembly we need a pencil, a cordless screwdriver and you have to be clear about how high the whole thing should be attached.

First we prepare the blocks of wood and insert the dowels.

You can use a spirit level to get the pull-up bar straight. First the first block of wood is attached. With a pencil, you can mark on the walls where each hole needs to be placed as you line up the block of wood.

With the first block of wood in place, we attach the spirit level to our pull-up bar. We guide them into the first block of wood and also place them in the still loose block of wood. Now we align it so that the spirit level shows that everything is straight. With the pencil we can again mark the position of the respective hole on the wall.

The costs

If you want to build such a pull-up bar yourself, the costs are really very low. The costs are around 30€, depending on the materials and length. Of course, you also have to consider the necessary tools. Usually you already have this at home or at least know someone who can help you out on this point. Thus, the price for such a great training device is really low.

Build a pull-up bar yourself - is it worth it?

In conclusion, it can be said that it is definitely worth building a pull-up bar yourself. There are of course many finished products on the web and also suppliers who make individual products - but it is never as cheap as your own construction.

Furthermore, you can adapt the pull-up bar to the conditions in the apartment or house. You learn a little more manual skill and have a little challenge.

For everyone who likes handicrafts and is looking for an inexpensive, yet high-quality and individual variant of the pull-up bar, this is definitely the right thing.

If you still want to be sure about the quality and really think you don't have the skills for it, you should go to the expert and buy a finished product. There are definitely a lot of great and good providers out there as well.