What Makes the Best Pull Up Bar?
Posted by Brenda Wallace
There are lots of different pull up bars on the market today and a lot of designs for building your own pull up bar system at home. You may have wondered what makes a pull up bar the best pull up bar possible. After all, if you’re going to lay down money and time you want to get the best bang for your buck right? Here are some things to look for when you’re browsing through different pull up bars.
Sturdiness
Any pull up bar needs to support the weight of the person using the bar and then some. Stresses to the bar such as kipping can pull a bar right out of the wall. This is one of the major dangers of door-mounted pull up bars. You might be able to do a pull up, but kipping might pull the bar right off the frame and forget about doing any advanced pull up variations.
This is why Stud Bar was designed to mount directly into the studs of your home. This provides the sturdiness necessary to handle anything you can throw at it. The bolts that are used in our product are rated to hold 100 pounds each, and the system has been rated to hold 600 pounds total. If you look at this video, you can see three firefighters in their gear hanging off of one Stud Bar.
Rigidity
The next thing to look at is rigidity. If you’ve ever tried pull ups on a homemade bar, you might have ran into this problem. If the bar isn’t rigidly attached to the frame or isn’t made of rigid materials, it can really mess up your pull ups. Imagine trying to do muscle ups and having the bar suddenly bend under your weight, or worse break!
All of the metal used in our Stud Bars is 14 gauge steel, plus we weld triangular gussets on the frame to make it as rigid as possible. Properly installed, you will never feel the bar shake when you use it. That’s why we consider our bar to be the best pull up bar.
Clearance
One thing that might trick an unwary buyer is the amount of clearance they have to use the bar. An outdoor bar is the best for clearance, but then you lose the convenience of working out inside. Finding the right height for your bar can be a challenge indoors.
Plus, there’s the problem of wall clearance. Kip too hard with a bar mounted too close the wall and you could have drywall repair in your future! This is why Stud Bars come in three different sizes, each rated for different standard ceiling heights. Check our installations guides for more information on which size is best for you. Also, all of our bars are 48” wide, allowing you to grip the bar as wide as you like.
Bar Quality
One more thing to look at is the bar quality. There is a certain amount of personal preference here, with bar thickness and bar coating being the main factors. The bar must be thick enough to grab comfortably, but not too thick. A bar that goes too far in either direction adds unnecessary difficulty to your pull up, and thinner bars can present a safety danger. We have judged that a 1.25” diameter bar to be the bar diameter for the best pull up bar, and that’s what we use in our products. It fits most sizes of hands, even smaller female hands.
Bar coating is also a matter of preference. Most bars will come with some sort of coating to prevent rust, but different coatings have different levels of grip. If you’re an advanced pull up practitioner, you might have a preference. At Stud Bar, we use a powder coating that goes on smooth, but is easy to rough up a little bit with some sandpaper if you prefer a stickier grip.
Ease of Installation
Finally, the bar should be very easy to install while still maintaining the rigidity and sturdiness. It can’t be the best pull up bar if it takes hours to install! Stud Bar pull up bars install in as little as 15 minutes, and don’t require you to dig holes or pour concrete or mount a bar to an unstable surface.
Does your pull up bar match these requirements? Could your current bar be better? Take a look at our videos and judge for yourself. Stud Bar pull up bars are the best in the market.