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May 9 2010

How To Make Your Own Pull Up Bar

Posted by Zuzana - BodyRock.Tv | In Featured Articles, Fitness Tips

Hi everyone,

Here is another cool article from my friend Chris. This time he will teach you how you can build your own custom pull up bar – one of the most useful pieces of exercise equipment for bodyweight training that anyone can have at home. Enjoy and a big thanks to Chris for taking the time to share with all of us less handy people :)

Zuzana.

Ps: My workout from today plus grocery haul and overview of the food that we buy is going to be up tomorrow.

How to Make A Custom Made Home Pull-up Bar

by CL Vancil

You might ask why make your own Pull-up bar? The type Zuzana and Frederick have isn’t very expensive and is readily available here. Well, some of us find the commercially made Pull-up bars just don’t fit our home architecture. Either the molding is too thick or to tall or even the doorway available is to wide. And again some of us just can’t buy one or don’t want to. For me the reason is as I’ve stated before, I get some satisfaction from making something like this myself. Also I will describe a way to modify some of the commercially made Pull-up bars so they can possibly be used in wider doorways.

I had quite a lot of PVC materials left over from making a custom Dip Station and thought it might be fun to tackle a Pull-up bar design which can be made custom for almost any doorway and is easy to put up and take down for when you are having friends over and don’t require a pull up from them as they pass thru the doorway. :)

So I will provide you with pictures and a parts list here with some simple tips for customizing it to other doorways.

First, just because I used PVC doesn’t mean you have to as well. It could be made out of Galvanized pipe. The basic principles are the same. It’s just a little harder to customize predetermined pipe lengths to any single doorway. But, then Galvanized pipe will takes heavier loads compared to a similar diameter piece of PVC pipe and can be taken apart for tighter storage. I did test my design with a backpack with 45 pounds of weights in it which made my weight more than 200 pounds and though PVC has some flex to it, but I didn’t have a problem with it breaking

Okay what I made was based on a doorway at a friend’s house where they have typical Architrave molding around the doors. The header is about 8 inches high and sticks out quite a bit further than most modern trim. So how do you determine your own doorway dimensions to make a custom bar? There are three basic measurements to take, but there maybe others or barriers to consider when making your own bar. The first measurement is the width of the doorway opening, the next is the thickness of the door opening including the header which you will hang from and last the height of the header.

My example’s doorway has a 29 inches wide opening, 8 inch depth and a height to the top of the Lintel (header) of 10 inches. There where limits to one side as the adjoining structure was only 4 inches away.  For this doorway I made the “arms” only 3.5 inches. I didn’t glue in these short “arms” so I could use longer pieces at other doorways.

Here is the basic parts list for 1.25 inch PVC pipe:

4- End Caps

4-Tees

4- 90 Degree Elbows

6- 2 inch long pieces of pipe (connect between the Tees, Elbows and a couple of the End Caps)

2- 3.5 inch long pieces of pipe (little “arms” that connect to the front Tees and the actual Pull-up bar)

2- 8 inch long pieces of pipe (connect thru the doorway)

2- 10 inch long pieces of pipe (connect the 8 inch pieces to the back hanger)

1- 14 inch long pieces of pipe (back hanger spacer)

1- 22 inch long pieces of pipe (the Pull-up bar)

A cutting tool for PVC and a small bottle of PVC Pipe Cement.


When assembling it really doesn’t matter to much which parts are put together first.  Just make sure you have the parts in the right position when the glue sets.  I often dry fit and use a pencil to mark important pieces with a line on both parts to aid in lining them up as I glue.

To make it to fit other doorways you need only measure the three key dimensions and cut the parts to fit them, but it never hurts to dry fit the parts together before gluing and cut a bit longer as you can always cut a little off easier than add a little bit. ;)

Okay, what if you have a commercially made Pull-up bars already and it almost fits!  If only there were a couple inches more wood for it to “grab” on the sides of the doorway and it would work. You could just add that extra molding to the doorway if it’s your own home and the spouse won’t kill you for doing it. Or you can pop the rubber end cap off one end the Pull-up bar and try slipping a short piece of pipe in to the opening. I found a piece of 1 inch by 6 inches long PVC slipped over the bar I had. Unfortunately this pushes the foam covering it into a pile which I straightened out with some trouble. But, this added several inches to the length of the bar enabling someone with a doorway 36 inches wide to use this Pull-up bar as the bar itself is only 36 inches long.

Once again if you make a Pull-up bar using my ideas and actually use it for exercises and not the piece of art I designed it as it’s clearly your own fault! :)


  • Antonia

    Wow your friend chris is one smart guy!

  • Diana Y.

    I LIKE TO USE DIFFERENT SIZES AND WEIGHTS OF EXERCISE TUBING WITH HANDLES THEY ARE PRETT CHEAP TO MIMIC GYM EQUIPMENT FOR DIFFERENT BODY PARTS I USE A CHEAP SKATEBOARD AGAINST A STURDY WALL FOR SQUATS VARING FOOT POSITIONS TO GET QUADS AND BUTT WITH OR WITHOUT WEIGHT

  • Audra

    Nice work! See people, no excuses!

  • Monifah

    Cool!!

  • Marketa.Fry

    Hi Zuzana,

    my step-father is just going to make a pull-up bar for me. Not like the one on the picture, mine is not going to be in the door. As soon as it will be done, I’ll try to send you a picture of that. But I have one question about that. How high should be the bar for doing an effective pull-ups (or I should rather say “to TRY doing the pull-ups”, because I’m not able to do even one pull-up without some support yet).

    Also I wanted to thank you a lot, because you just saved me 2000 CZK/month, as I already cancelled my membership in Brumlovka (maybe you know that). And it’s all because of your amazing workouts :) Unfortunately I have to pay for that until the end of June, but it doesn’t matter :)

    Thanks a lot and have a nice day :)

    Marketa

  • http://www.bodyrock.tv Mandy M.M

    Great! Thanks for helping us Zuzana :)

  • T.S

    hi zuzana,
    M from india and this is my first time and i have been followin your workouts religiously.It all started when i stumbled upon ur workout on youtube.You inspired me to start my workout again and that losing weight is possible.You see i had tried a lot of things bt it never seemed to last bt nw m seeing results that hav lead me to believe that it possible.Thank you so much.
    I wanted to ask you is weight gain possible even if ur losin flab becuz wen i measured my weight it had increased bt it ws nt showin on me.
    P.S you look really wonderful.big fan of yours.
    hope u reply n my name is tina and m 19yrs old

    plzzz reply

  • Lauri Watkins

    Hi Zuzana,

    I have already made my own pull up bar that is basically the same Idea because my doorways are too wide for any of the commercially sold. I used one inch steel pipe and pipe insulation for cushioning against the wall, because it will leave marks if you don’t use something. I just wanted to mention it because it will hold more weight and it works great for me!
    I also had a question- how to prevent overeating at night or with family? I do great at home during the day (stay at home mom/ college student) but as soon as my husband gets home or i go out with family I ruin it. I am trying to get flat abs for the summer but i keep screwing up my progress every few days, like last night when my entire family met at a buffet for dinner. I ate a salad but then when it came time for dessert I was a pig!
    Thanks- Lauri

  • http://www.kcdta.blogspot.com Kamee

    hi Zuzana,
    how r u ,,,………u look always nice bt anyways nice summer dress………..
    take care
    love kamee

  • sara

    hi there so pleased you have put on how to mske your own pull up bar got one for my birthday last week but it doesnt fit in the door way so going to get my dad to help me make this one as he is good at doing this kind of stuff. thanks again.

  • http://www.crosstrainers.co.uk Christy

    Nice idea to save you a little money and as all doors are different you may want a custom pull up bar, but would it hold the weight of an average man, say 90kgs?

    Thanks,

    Christy

  • krazyhorse

    I will try this! I have good news, I am down to 211 lbs thanks to you! My goal is 195 lbs. Your great LOVE the work outs!

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Antonia,

    I hope that was written with some sarcasm as I’m pretty average. Anyone who can cut plastic without a lot of blood and can glue PVC without glue everywhere but the parts can make this bar. 8-)

    –Chris

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Sara,

    How does it not fit? I mean is it not wide enough, to wide or does it have some similar trim problem to mine?

    The reason I ask is we can modify your exist bar to fit your door and save you the expense of making one.

    –Chris

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Christy,

    I added 45 pounds to my own 160 pounds and tried it out and it worked fine. PVC does flex so it will move more than a metal bar would. If you have doubts about this design it would be just as easy to make a Galvanized pipe version using the same princaples of measuring. You would want some padding on the points that touch the walls or trim with a metal bar and maybe with the PVC if you feel it will rub paint off.

    –Chris

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Marketa,

    That’s a good question! If you are making a free standing bar most people make them just where you have to be on your toe tips to grab the bar. But, you could make it taller and jump to grab the bar or shorter and bend your knees to do a pull up. It’s all based on a personal preference not so much a specific design requirement. If someone else like your boy friend or husband will be using the bar as well you might work with there highest reach as well. The one thing I would think you don’t want is your knees hitting the ground while working out.

    Good luck,
    –Chris

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi krazyhorse,

    I think you might opted for a steel pipe version of the bar. Gordon last time directed us to this website: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/Bodyweight.html They have some bars there that could be made cheaply. Would hold much more weight and allow for other uses beyond just pull ups.

    –Chris

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Zuzana and Frederick,

    You guys are so awesome! Thank you!

    I just wanted to remind people this is DIY which means thinking and adapting. If you weight 250 pounds don’t make a light weight PVC bar expecting it to work without failure! This can be made out of 1/2″ to 1″ diameter steel pipe which would give you years of service. You could even make a hybrid version where the bar itself is the PVC. I like the feel of the smooth plastic over rougher Galvanized pipe.

    Anyway, thank you again and everyone take care,
    –Chris

  • http://www.bodyworkout101.com/item_266278_how-to-make-your-own-pull-bup-b-bar-fitness-advice-workout-videos-b-b Body Workout 101

    How To Make Your Own Pull Up Bar | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos ……

    I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…

  • rebel

    hey tina,
    sorry i’m not zuzana … but i think i know the answer to your weight gain question … yes weight gain is possible and it is quite common. the number on the scale is not important as long as you are seeing changes in your body.
    this is because muscle is heavier than fat, but takes up much less space. for example … if you lose 5 lbs of fat, you may gain 6 lbs of muscle … but instead of being flabby you will be strong and toned.
    congrats on your success, enjoy your new body!

  • Raheem

    This is my first time ever watching your workouts and they look really good. I think I’m going to give them a try, me and my husband were doing P90X but he broke his wrist a month ago in a fluke accident so I haven’t been inspired to work out with out him. I love to challenge my myself and I think your work out will be great. But what do your meals consist of? I want to lose weight and I know you need to balance both exercise and nutrition.

  • Frédie

    Hi! this pull up bars issue have been a problem for me. First because me and my husband are tall and the door frames are not high and wide enough for us.
    Second, even if we did it on our knees the moldings are really wide and come far from the wall, I could probably arrange it but I’m not sure how stable it would be.
    Still looking for another solution.
    Thanks for you ideas,

    Frédie

  • Kristina

    Thank you! I was going to make a dip station first, but this looks a little less complicated for a gurl:). I just hope I won’t glue myself to it hahaha!

  • Marketa.Fry

    Thank you Chris :)
    Actually I’m not so familiar with pull-up technique yet :) Does that mean that when I start to do one, my arms should be straight, not bent?
    Thanks again, this really helps a lot :)

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Marketa,

    To get the full benefit of the exercise your arms should be close to straight I would think. But, a beginner might find it easier to start out with bent arms or one foot on a chair (taking up part of your weight).

    –Chris

  • MC

    That’s great tips to make homemade pull up bar!!

    I’m looking for it for long time!

    Thank you ! ^_^

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Fredie,

    You could make a free standing Pull-up bar like what is shown in the middle of the page here: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/Bodyweight.html

    Or if you look at my link again you will find more doorway Pull-up bar variations.

    –Chris

  • Ashley Jackson

    Wow! I stumbled on to zuzana on an accident two days ago. I was taking a friend with back troubles to the gym to strengthen his core. I was looking up ideas for him and voila I found your site. I am extremely inspired by your motivation. No need to spent time with beginners any longer. I can workout with you and you push hard. This was exactly what I have been looking for…My prayer was answered. I feel blessed.

    Sincerely, Ashley in Taylor,MI

  • http://bettersoccerplayers.com/better-soccer-players/?page_id=16&category=6&product_id=13 player better at soccer

    well done, really nice website!

  • Ryan

    for what its worth, i got my pull up bar from walmart for $14. really easy to install. its the kind that you twist and it expands to fit any sized door.

  • http://bodyrock.tv richard

    hi
    awesome site and great video’s to watch and learn.
    I like the homemade pull-up bars for over doors and would make one if it was usefull to me. the problem is all our doors are inside the walls, so nothing to hang the bar on. cris do you have an idea for this, I don’t have a garden where I can place a standing version.
    thanks and keep up the good work
    richard

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Ryan,

    My only worries with the compression type you have is the possibility of damaging the door frame or it not being able to support a person’s weight. But clearly it’s working for you and kudos to you for getting it at such a low price!

    I think as some have said there really is no excuse for not doing Pull ups… 8-)

    Hey, I’ve used a ladder when I saw Zuzana was doing Chin ups and Pull ups! I just leaned it against a wall in front of a doorway and pulled up from a rung. It kind of hurt the hands and was not the best solution, but I got by for a while with it.

    take care,
    –Chris

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi richard,

    I’ve one more article/project I was planning on suggesting to Zuzana that would cover this problem.

    But, I think it should wait till they’re less busy and can look at it.

    Anyway try looking at my Flickr photostream there might be something there to help.

    –Chris

  • Wagner

    If it helps someone, i´ve once made a simple, low cost, yet durable and effective doorway pull up bar using two pieces of wood in the vertical position to hold the bar in place. You cut the steel tube/bar one or two milimeters shorter than the internal doorway width. Surprisingly low cost steel bars and tubes can be easily found in places where they sell used steel and pieces of wrecked cars and various steel parts of all kinds for recycle. If you find for example, a car axle that fits your hand grip, cars axles are a good heavy duty pull up bar because they´re made of hardened steel, but “holy sh*t handle bars” from busses, and other materials also can be used. The wood must have something like 1×2 inches and it´s length is the height you want the bar to be in. You just have to cut the upper tips of the wood as a U shape, easy to do with a cup saw one or two milimeters wider than the bar´s diameter, for the bar to sit inside the U cut. But if you don´t have a cup saw or can´t use it, you can cut the wood square instead of maaking the U cut, and cut 4 small square or rectangular wood pieces to screw on the sides of the bar, so the bar sit upon the quare face of the vertical piece and it´s locked in place by the small ones. It won´t go anywhere. The vertical wood pieces are screwed/bolt on inside the doorway with their lower tips touching the ground, so the weight is supported by the wood, not by the bolts/screws. Any 3 or 4 screws with something around 2×1/8 inch are sufficient for each side. Errrr…. i´m not english speaking, so forgive me for any spelling atrocity =P
    A hug from Brasil for all of you =]

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Wagner,

    This sounds like a great solution especially for larger folks as it could be made to take a considerable weight. If you have an image of the setup that would be great.

    –Chris

  • http://www.myspace.com/whitestead ‘Rion

    I have flimsy trim on my doorways; I don’t think a manufactured or homemade fixture will be effective. What must I do to be saved? ~ :(

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi Rion,

    The way this type of bar installs it doesn’t have much of a downward load. So the over head trim should support it. But, some trim is made of a urethane foam and could be crushed when pressed. A simple test is to take a broom or something of similar diameter at least 6 inches long and find a spot you can press hard against that wont show much. You’re pretending the broom’s handle is one side of the Pull-up bar, but anywhere on the side trim should do so behind a door and near the floor would be okay. If it starts crushing maybe you should look for some other option.

    It’s inevitable that some people’s homes don’t have the right doorways. I have plans for another article on a combination Dip and Pull-up Station, but haven’t heard anything from Zuzana or Frederick about the idea. They I imagine are very busy and I don’t want to pester them.

    –Chris

  • http://bodyrock.tv richard

    thx chris
    I do like the dip/pull-up station, wish I had the space for that. I’ll be looking forward on your idea for doorways that can’t hold a bar. right now I’m trying to convince my wife to allow me to make one non-removeable, or one suggested by wagner, hope the home owner doesn’t notice, but we are not moving soon.
    greetings, richard

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/41740772@N06/?saved=1 Chris L

    Hi richard,

    Manufactures make quite a few wall or joist attaching Pull-up bars. The wall type just require maybe four holes in the wall. Which when it comes time to move you just treat as you would from any pictures or hanging shelving units you remove. Spackle and a little paint and they would never know it was there.

    The article was going to be on the free standing Pull-up Dip Station and this design would take up about as much room as four chairs in a square or an smallish kitchen table. It would have a footprint of about 2 by 2 feet and be about 6 feet tall.

    It could be made taller or shorter by substituting different lengths of pipe on the vertical members above the Dip base. Or for that matter the foot print could be made smaller by using 18 inches as the base number for the pipe lengths in the Dip’s horizontal members.

    To start a design all I ever do is make a drawing on a piece of graft paper some times in several different views of the assemble (like above a side or two) and count the squares used in the drawing. Sometime this won’t workout right as pipe comes in standard lengths, but usually it does.

    And, I wholeheartedly agree with Zuzana about the basic Pull-up Bar when she says, “…one of the most useful pieces of exercise equipment for bodyweight training that anyone can have at home.”

    –Chris

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