Best Pull-Up Bars For A Home Gym

The pull-up is one of the most essential movements along with things like squats or bench press. This exercise is great for working your back muscles (especially the lats), shoulders, and biceps.

However, pull-ups are fairly challenging for many people, and this exercise needs some good amount of work before you can confidently do, say, 10 reps.

Well, what better place to train pull-ups than at home? If you just so happen to be looking for the best pull-up bar for home use, then you are in the right place!

Things To Consider In A Pull-Up Bar For Your Home Gym

Before moving on to our reviews of the best pull-up bars for home gym use, let’s talk about what you should be looking for when shopping for a pull-up bar.

Mounting

First and foremost, pay attention to how the pull-up bar is intended to be mounted.

Most typically, pull-up bars are designed to be joist-mounted. Such pull-up bars may actually be mounted anywhere as long as you have the space, but not every area of your house is going to be strong enough.

There also are a few pull-up bars that can be mounted without any tools, screws, or drilling. These can be easily moved around, but they aren’t as tough as joist-mounted units.

If a pull-up bar is intended to be mounted on a doorway, be sure to check the doorway dimensions that the bar is designed for. If your doorway is too wide or too narrow, you won’t be able to use the pull-up bar.

Weight capacity

Manufacturers also sometimes indicate the weight capacities of their pull-up bars. This isn’t too important since any decent pull-up bar shouldn’t have any issues with supporting even heavier individuals.

However, if you are big and heavy or want to pull up with additional weight strapped on to you, you may want to pay attention to the weight capacity of the desired pull-up bar.

Keep in mind that the strength of any bar will ultimately depend on the strength of the wall or joist it is mounted to. Besides, badly mounted pull-up bars also won’t be durable.

Knurling vs foam grips

Some pull-up bars come with knurled handles, while others have foam grips.

Which one should you go for?

Generally, knurled handles provide better grip. However, knurling may hurt some people’s hands, not to mention that you’ll probably be getting calluses from the workout.

On the other hand, foam grips are much easier on your hands, but they aren’t too durable and will wear down eventually.

Which style of grip to choose will depend on your preferences. However, remember that you could always wear gloves if you feel that the knurling of your pull-up bar is too rough.

Grips

Finally, consider what kind of grips the pull-up bar comes with exactly.

You will at least have the traditional neutral grip. In fancier bars, you will also get parallel grips, as well as maybe angled grips. Some of the most feature-rich pull-up bars may even come with dip bars, and not only!

Needless to say, you would want to choose a pull-up bar that’s equipped sufficiently for your needs, preferences, and expectations.

5 Best Pull-up Bars For A Home Gym

KLB Sport Heavy Duty Wall Mount Pull Up Bar

You’ll be able to work out more muscles for longer periods of time thanks to the four grip positions and superior high density foam.

Backs, shoulders, chest, arms, triceps, biceps, lats, and the front of your abs may all be worked out with this piece of equipment. The bar has a number of grip configurations, allowing you to do a wide range of upper-body workouts. To work on different parts of your body, you’ll need to experiment with your grips. Back, shoulder, and chest exercises are a must! As are triceps, biceps, lats, and your front abs!

Heavy-duty steel pull-up bar, intended for stud spacing of 21 inches. You may place your order with confidence and look forward to getting greater workouts every day.

Shamrock Triple Gym Triple Door Gym Ultimate Pull-Up Bar

This one is a unique pull-up bar by Shamrock Triple Gym. If you have little space and want to make as much as possible out of it, then this pull bar could be the right option.

The key feature of this pull-up bar is its tool-less installation. It relies on its own weight, as well as on your weight to stay in place.

The tool-less design is thanks to the two supports mounted on the pull-up bar – one in the front and the other in the rear. The rear support rests above the doorframe, while the front support rests right at it. Under its own weight, the bar as if pinches the door frame and stays mounted.

And to help you avoid doorframe damage, Shamrock Triple Gym includes foam blocks that are to be installed between the doorframe and the front support bar.

Aside from the main pull-up bar, Shamrock Triple Gym also includes a dip bar that’s supposed to be hung from the main bar. What this means is that this bar set allows you to perform various pulling and pushing exercises.

The grip areas here are covered with foam handles that should provide traction and protect your hands. However, they appear to be quite delicate, so be careful with them if you decide to buy this pull-up bar.

And before buying this thing, make sure that it’s going to work with your doorframe. According to Shamrock Triple Gym, it should work with any doorway that’s from 24 to 36 inches wide.

Pros:

• Requires no tools for installation.
• Easy to set up and move around.
• Comes with a dip bar.

Cons:

• Delicate foam grips.

Ultimate Body Press Pull-Up Bar

This is a fairly simplistic but quite convenient pull-up bar. Its main feature is the angled grip areas that should make exercising a little bit more convenient for you. The angle of the bar is 15 degrees, and it alternates along the bar to make narrow- and wide-grip pull-ups more convenient.

The build-in Ultimate Body Press pull-up bar seems to be pretty sturdy. This thing features an all-welded steel construction that should be able to withstand anything as long as it’s mounted properly.

The not-so-good thing about this pull-up bar is that it has no knurling. This pull-up bar will thus lack traction, though you could compensate for this by using gym chalk.

Pros:

• Rigid construction.
• Angled shaft for a more comfortable grip.

Cons:

• Has no knurling.

Iron Core Athletics Pull-Up Bar

This joist-mounted pull-up bar by Iron Core Athletics is fairly similar to the MS Sports pull-up bar we’ve reviewed at the very beginning.

However, there is one difference – this pull-up bar comes with padded grips to make working out less painful. This is a great feature, but do keep in mind that padded grips generally tend to be quite delicate, and they also may not provide you with a good grip as knurled metal.

Other than the grips, the two joist-mounted pull-up bars are fairly similar. Both employ a comparably sturdy welded steel build, and both have neutral and parallel grips for a higher variety of exercises.

Pros:

• Durable steel build.
• Parallel and neutral grip handles.
• Padded hand grips.

Cons:

• The grip padding will wear out sooner or later.
• Comes with longer screws than necessary.

TDS Chin Up Bar

Finally, if you don’t really care about the features in your pull-up bar, then this pull-up bar by TDS may be the right option. This thing is heavy-duty and is very highly-rated, so it’s very likely to satisfy your needs.

Now, this bar is a little weird – it is available in black or white and with grips or knurling, but you can’t really choose which one will be shipped to you. What you will get will depend on availability. This is bizarre, but if you don’t really care and just want a decent pull-up bar, then this one may be the right option.

Also, keep in mind that this thing will only be suitable for neutral-grip pull-ups since it doesn’t come with any parallel grips. Regular pull-ups work pretty well for back and lat training though, so this may not be a big problem for you.

Pros:

• Heavy-duty.
• Comes with grips or knurling.
• Black or white finish.

Cons:

• Only neutral grip.
• The bar variations are shipped depending on what is in stock.

Final Words

Pull-up bars are great for upper body workouts, but they can work even better with gymnastic rings. If you already have gymnastic rings, then you will have access to a much wider assortment of exercises.

No matter which pull-up bar you choose, remember that proper setup and mounting is important. Pick an area in your house that is sturdy enough, make sure to follow the setup instructions included with the bar, and you should be able to work out on just one bar for the years to come.