Post: #1

There is no better exercise for developing a strong and proportional upper body than strict straight bar pull-ups done with perfect form. That is:

-- completely locked out at the bottom
-- going up as as high above the bar as you can
-- moving up and down in one plane instead of swinging your body for momentum

Almost no one does pull-ups this way because it's so hard -- watch guys do them in the gym and you'll see what I mean. But the rewards are disproportionate.

Pull-ups will break out your back and give your entire upper body a good V shape taper, while also engaging your arms, shoulders, core, and pretty much every upper body muscle. They are the squats of the upper body.

The other great things about pull-ups is that you can train them a lot, and even when you're working very hard they're unlikely to injure you. It's just a particularly good motion for the body.

Disgustingly, straight pull-up bars have been disappearing from gyms across the country. This is basically because women don't like them and find them hard on their wrists, so to satisfy them these bullshit curved handle bars are replacing straight bars everywhere. They suck.

For all these reasons, I think a lot of guys might benefit from having a straight pull-up bar at home. This way, you can practice pull-ups and keep getting stronger on them at any time, without having to depend on the gym (which might not even have a straight bar). And if you go through the expense of actually buying one of these things, you'll feel embarrassed if you never use it, so it will force you to do the single best upper body exercise there is.

I have this bar, which is great (IronMind products are almost always high quality). It can also be set up for dips and squats but I use it for pull-ups:

http://www.ironmind-store.com/NEW-ALight...info/1480/

It's pricey at $700 but it will last forever.

I've had this bar for about 8 months and have been using it regularly to do naked (meaning body weight) pull-ups, in addition to doing strapped pulls in the gym. I've become significantly stronger in almost every way as a result.

An added bonus about having a pull-up bar is that you can just hang from it. As I mentioned in another post this is a great thing to do at the end of your day: just hang from a bar for as long as you can. It stretches out and decompresses your spine.

Post: #2

No offense but spending $700 on that bar is a complete waste of money. You could buy an entire power rack for hundreds less than that which is a much more versatile piece of equipment.

If you want something cheaper or more portable, just buy the one's you hang in your doorway for $10-50 or pick up a piece of pipe from the hardware store and find somewhere to mount it.

Even though the strictly curved bars suck, it's nice to have the various grips afforded by the doorway models because they allow you to work different muscle groups.

Post: #3

(10-31-2013 04:17 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  http://www.ironmind-store.com/NEW-ALight...info/1480/

It's pricey at $700 but it will last forever.

Damn.

What is the profit on that thing? $695?

I need to get into the fitness product industry.

That being said, why not just go to the park and do pullups?

Post: #4

Well, IronMind makes extremely high quality products. They're not cheap but you get what you pay for. The cheap power racks that you can get for less than that have a lot of structural problems.

The bar I have is free-standing (not attached to a door or a wall) but it's very well designed so that I know it can handle my weight and a good deal more without keeling over and injuring me in the process. At the same time it can be assembled and disassembled in a few minutes which has its advantages.

In any case, you don't need to get the bar I have. Get any straight bar that works for you and that you can safely do pullups on. If you can build one, so much the better. Whatever gets you doing strict straight bar pullups regularly and at your convenience.

Of course going to the park to do pullups is fantastic, but not everyone lives close to a park where this is possible.

Post: #5

I don't want to hijack this thread but here's some of my input.

Cool thread though, the pullup is definitely overlooked and an unwisely set-aside movement in nearly all exercise routines. It baffles me to read that some people consider themselves "athletes" without being able to do one pullup. Thick lats are definitely aesthetic.

This one is 200 bucks for the basic model, is collapsible, and can be carried in a duffel bag.
http://trapezerigging.com/FreeStandingPo...PullupBar/

I own this one and it's pretty good, it wobbles a bit but that's OK. I hang some gymnastic rings off it and do front lever / back lever progressions along with chinups, bodyweight rows, and inverted curls (google this if you don't know, they are pretty awesome).

Eventually I hope to do dips but gymnastic rings take everything and ramp up the difficulty 20 times it seems - also you can't "rest" on your lats while dipping which increases difficulty almost exponentially. It really sucks ass to use rings.

What is smart is to do either the Armstrong Pullup Program or just train pullups three times a week, pick a large number (like 20 or 30) and do as many sets as required to complete it - for example ten sets of three pullups (if you can do six pullups at a time, of course). Take as much rest as you want starting out, over time cut the rest intervals shorter.

Every two months test a new PR - divide that in half to create a new "training set" - increase the volume of your big number if you want. Really it's not rocket science, many many sets of submaximal effort will grant you huge gains over time.

Once you get to twenty straight reps you're really wasting your time to increase the volume, find something more difficult to do (clapping pullups, weighted chins, front levers, etc).

I like your chinning bar, it doubles as a dip station and squat rack (up to 700 pounds?!) - impressive. Expensive but I'm sure it's worth it. The one I have can be a little frustrating - it helps to weight down the legs with sandbags.

Post: #6

(10-31-2013 06:37 PM)Enigma Wrote:  If you want something cheaper or more portable, just buy the one's you hang in your doorway for $10-50 or pick up a piece of pipe from the hardware store and find somewhere to mount it.

In-doorway pullup bars are cheap but they have a serious drawback - you can only do pullups in them. You need an outdoor pullup-bar with lots of space to do muscle ups and many other advanced exercises that can be done on pull-up bar once you can easily do 20+ basic pull-ups. Sadly even many gyms have low ceilings and you cannot do much more then standard pullups on their bars.

Luckily for me I have a a few pullup bars in forest near my home. For those of you who don't have one in your vicinity I suggest you go to your closest forest and install a metal bar between two wide trees. You will be doing a lot of good for yourself and your community. My own workouts consists of HIIT spring to the bar from my home, pullups, muscle ups, pushups and bodyweight squats and lunges all done in the fresh air of forest. It's not as intense as barbell squatting and dead lifting, but it's nearly that good and I get a workout in fresh air and natural sunlight and I don't have to pay a gym membership and finance the electronic treadmills of liberal sport-tourists.

In-door pull-up bars still can be used as a backup if If you live in a big urban center and there are no bars in your park and if there are no wild areas where no idiot will protest you "doing harm to the trees" or if there is a harsh winter and you cannot exercise outside.

Post: #7

(11-01-2013 12:16 AM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  Get any straight bar that works for you and that you can safely do pullups on.

I like a str8 bar much more than the apparatus I tend to see in most fitness/health clubs these days.

Post: #8

(11-01-2013 12:44 AM)Mage Wrote:  Luckily for me I have a a few pullup bars in forest near my home. For those of you who don't have one in your vicinity I suggest you go to your closest forest and install a metal bar between two wide trees.

I've never seen something like this, how is it installed?

I'm liking the idea of installing random pullup bars in my community, kind of like guerrilla gardening.

Post: #9

For $700 you can get a power cage which would allow you to do pullups, and way more.

Pullups are great, but pullups plus squats, presses, deadlifts and rows is even better.

I'd take the $700 and keep my eye on craigslist. I've seen solid cages on there with Olympic bars and weights for great prices.

But yea, pullups are an awesome exercise.

Post: #10

(11-01-2013 01:00 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

(11-01-2013 12:44 AM)Mage Wrote:  Luckily for me I have a a few pullup bars in forest near my home. For those of you who don't have one in your vicinity I suggest you go to your closest forest and install a metal bar between two wide trees.

I've never seen something like this, how is it installed?

I'm liking the idea of installing random pullup bars in my community, kind of like guerrilla gardening.

This is a sign that you live in a place somewhere too civilized.

I will take a photo and post it next time I go to workout in one of those places.

Post: #11

The places Mage is talking about are usually along maintained foot trails. They even had them in the DR.

   

I used to live around places like this and it was great for interval training. Run from station to station doing dips, situps, pullups, pushups, pussups, ect. Even back in the day when they let kids have monkey bars, I'd stop in the playground and use them for a workout. You can build your own station for well under $700. A solid pullup bar can be constructed with 2 4x4's, 1 pipe, 2 pipe caps, and a bag of Quickrete.

In the ME we build our on stations next to the work areas to grab workouts during lunch, or at least some pullups during breaks.

Post: #12

(11-01-2013 06:13 AM)Aliblahba Wrote:  The places Mage is talking about are usually along maintained foot trails.

If you have a place like this near you then are well set.

But if you don't have then you can install one between trees.

Google returned very poor results on this, this is best picture I could found:

   

This picture however doesn't give a clear view how it is attached. I will take a few pictures of the several pullup bars I have in forests around my home and post them when I get a chance. Basically they are attached by huge nails and bent bars. This one in picture seems to be drilled in or attached like a doorway bar, but I am not sure how to do it.

However when goggling I also found this picture that shows how to construct a portable version of a tree pullup bar. Good if you have only small trees available, like in your garden. However I am not sure that this contraption is stable and well balanced and doesn't swing too easily, but maybe it just adds extra resistance and is as good as a static bar.

   

Post: #13

There's no reason to go to a gym if you have are afforded a little room. It only takes a bit of ingenuity to build your own station and get 10x the workout. For apartment dwellers this is a good start:


   

<$120 at Wal-Mart. Sandbag it down and use as an anchor point for resistant band training. Use the sandbags themselves also.

To elevate your squat bar:


   

$24.99 @ Sears.


Used tires, rims, can be found for free.

Bricks/blocks won't break the bank at Home depot. If they are too big break them in half with a hammer.


   


Don't use gloves and bloody up your hands.

Drive around until you see lineman/contractors in bucket trucks, and offer a few bucks for a 4-6 piece of telephone pole. <$20. Learn to manhandle it.


All this for <$200.


   


This means you used some creativity, learned to build something, and are well on your way to obtaining functional strength.

Post: #14

For $700 I could get laid with the same babes who'd bang me from looking pull-up fit.

Post: #15

I agree with the value of pull-ups. I bought one of these (https://www.perfectonline.com/product/pullup) on eBay for $20 and installed it in my bathroom doorway to do the pull-up sequence in Convict Conditioning. I'll worry about more sophisticated equipment when I'm doing one-armed pull-ups.

Post: #16

Do you respect $700?

Post: #17

Double post

Post: #18

(11-01-2013 09:42 AM)XYZ Wrote:  Do you respect $700?

   

Post: #19

(11-01-2013 12:16 AM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  Of course going to the park to do pullups is fantastic, but not everyone lives close to a park where this is possible.

Yeah, but everyone has access to a tree:



I do all my pullups on this one tree in Montreal in the summer.

Dips you can do on bicycle racks.



Use your environment and be creative.

The outdoors and the city are one big gym.

When you start looking at the world like that, there are endless possibilities.

Post: #20

(10-31-2013 04:17 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  http://www.ironmind-store.com/NEW-ALight...info/1480/

It's pricey at $700 but it will last forever.

I could go to home depot and by some metal pipes that would do the same thing for significantly less money.

Post: #21

I've got one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Iron-Total-Upper...ds=pull+up



I used the ladder program outlined here to supercharge my pull-up ability:

http://www.strengthvillain.com/?p=295

Before I started, I could barely do 5 chins straight. 6 months later, I could bang out 20 consecutive Pull-ups, which are significantly harder than chinups.

Currently, I bang out 5 sets of 10 pull-ups every morning when I first wake up and do weighted chins in the gym.

2nd only to learning how to squat correctly with a linear progression program, adding daily chins has been the biggest game changer for me. My back looks thick and and wide, and its really helped me in BJJ, which involves a lot of pulling.

Post: #22

Wear ankle weights or a weighted vest to make the pull ups more difficult.

I bought one of these for 25 bucks:



Or, I go to the park and use the "jungle gym"

Post: #23

This looks like spam.

Post: #24

/delete

Post: #25

I spent $700 on a pull up bar.

What does that mean? Do you respect $700? I know I did wrong, but where?