The pull-up bar and dipping station combo is one of the most fundamental fitness products there is. Surprisingly, I know of no place or no one that actually sells and installs them.
Until now.
Although most of the materials can be sourced locally at lumber yards and retail locations, you want to make sure you get the right materials and install it properly, especially if you’re going to be doing advanced exercise beyond pull ups and dips, which may require you to be upside down or inverted.
If you or your child’s bodyweight will be on this, you don’t want to compromise on the strength of the bar, the thickness of the wood posts, or the depth of the post settings.
We use 11-gauge steel for the bars, which is thicker than the bars you will get at hardware and lumber stores; we use 6″X6′ posts rather than 4″X4″ posts; and we set ALL FIVE POSTS a minimum of 36″ deep.
The other important aspect of this install, which seems clear to an installer, is to make sure the five posts are square with one another. You don’t want to cement the posts and find out you have an isosceles rectangle. (It’s not square.)
The other aspect of this set up that we love is the fact that the posts are wood which means you can, essentially, have an adjustable-height pull-up bar. Why would you need an adjustable-height pull-up bar?
I am 6-5″. I first built this pull-up bar at home because I was tired of doing pull ups with my knees bent and my toes dragging on the ground. I wanted full body extension, not just for my pull ups but also to just dead hang and stretch my shoulders.
Yet, at the same time, my daughters want to play on the pull-up bar too. So rather than me having to lift them up to the bar at my height, (Which also scared my wife because the kids were 9′ off the ground), I can change the bar height and let them play on their own.
To steal from an old amateur wrestling poster I remember as a child, HWT Bruce Baumgartner with Lightweight Tim Vanni stood side-by-side under the slogan “Anybody can wrestle”. With an adjustable height pull-up bar, “Any body can do pull ups”.
As popularized by places and people like Crossfit, Joe Rogan, and Dr Steve Kirsch’s book Shoulder Pain, pull ups and dead hangs are becoming more and more popular. Although they’re all correct and we should welcome their reintroduction to an old staple, it’s a case of “history repeating itself” meets “the more things change the more they stay the same”.
We all, subconsciously, know pull-ups are the best bodyweight exercise to determine pure bodyweight strength. So I say, your basement gym isn’t bad, nor is the pull-up bar on the door but let’s go for the real deal.
If you’re into bodyweight calisthenics or your kids are athletes and into sports, having a pull-up bar and dipping station is a must have.
Made of:
6″X6″ Pressure-treated wood posts
11-gauge steel bars
1.25″ regulation diameter bars
6′ Wide Posts
10′ Foot Tall Bar
Multiple Bar Heights
Benefits:
Pull ups for every body type
Exercises for all ability levels
More targeted training
Regulation Marine Corps Obstacle Heights
Monkey Bar Add-ons
