How To Do Pull Ups in Your Home

Pull ups are one of the most effective body weight exercises that one can perform. As simple as they are, they do, however, require a piece of equipment to perform them. There are many alternatives open to you when try to figure out what piece of equipment you are going to use.

Obviously, one of your options is to purchase a product that allows your to do pull ups in your home.  Some of these products are quite simple and inexpensive.  There are many options that involve using your existing door frames.  Some of these products are nothin more than an adjustable bar that fits on the inside of your door jamb.  There are usually a couple of brackets that the bar fits in to help provide stability. Normally you can find these for around $20.  

There are also a few products that attach to the outside of your door frame.  They do not have to be installed.  You merely hook it on your door jamb and then your body weight keeps it from sliding off.  These are much better than the straight bar that attaches on the inside of the frame. Pull up bars like this will usually run you anywhere from $30 - $70.  Iron Gym is one of the cheaper products like this.  Beach Body (P90X folks) also have a nice version that is a bit more pricey but also a bit more versatile. 

You can also purchase free standing pull up units but now you are beginning to talk about a little more money.  Many of these are also combined with a dip station and they will set you back anywhere from $120 - $200.

I on the other hand am rather cheap.  I would rather figure out a way to make my own pull up station.  The one I currently use is in my garage.  I simply found a piece of old pipe that was about four feet long and mounted it off of the ceiling supports in my garage.  If you don't have some old pipe laying around the house, you can make a visit to your local home improvement center and purchase a piece.  I would use a four foot piece of one inch black pipe.  You may be also able to stop by a scrap yard and pick up a piece rather cheaply.  I always have some scrap wood hanging around from past projects.  So all I did was attach a couple pieces of 2 x 6 lumber to the ceiling joists and then drill a 1" hole through each of them so that I can insert my pipe.  Voila, instant cheap and sturdy pull up bar. 

There are a number of other great homemade possibilities as well.  A great site that provides you numerous examples can be found here.  It provides many different options for home made pull up devices as well as many other pieces of equipment for you to perform body weight exercises on.  If you have the abilility to screw iron pipe together or can cut and glue pvc or are handy with a saw you can save yourself a lot of money.