build your own chin up bar help

[JoshDunn]

Just saw a door chin up bar so picked it up, but its only load rated to 100kg and the bar looks pretty good but the little cup like things that you screw into the door look pretty cheap and crappy.

Wondering how or what I'd use to build a more hardcore chin up setup (not on a door but using the bar if possible).

Thinking steel brackets and bolting them to the roof and somehow putting the bar into this contraption.

Was thinking cementing two wooden poles into the ground and attaching the bar but thats alittle perminant for my liking.

Any tips on what others with home gyms have done would be great.

Cheers

[BjsAust]

I bought a chinup/dip station myself, but one idea I heard which I liked, was to use chains to hang the bar. Less stable obviously, but then you get the whole stabalising yourself thing added to your workout. If you had exposed beams you could easily use them to hang them, otherwise maybe bolt some hooks up into your ceiling beams.

[JoshDunn]

My god your a genius. Have chains sitting under my desk actually. Keep kicking them, this will give them a reason to live. Thanks ben.

[Milko Georgiev]

Find someone to build a bar like this

[brooklyn11]

On the rare occasions bands make their way onto the chin-up stage it’s usual to have them helping out in some way. Whether looped around the bar or simply helping to offset your bodyweight, they’re usually somewhere near the top of the rack/chinning bar.


Switching things around - affixing them to the rack’s base or low pins - feels quite strange at first, as your path is suddenly controlled. I’ve never learnt to be an acrobat, but I imagine it’s a similar feeling stepping into the training harness for the first time.



After a bit of experimentation I ended up with Iron woody blue bands. This involved two bands which were looped around low pins in the rack. The other end of each band was looped over a weight belt, which held things in place nice and firmly. This provided around 12”-14” of motion; easily adjusted by moving the pins to a higher or lower setting.



Surprisingly, this is reasonably fast to set up. It’s certainly simpler than repeatedly donning a chin/dip belt, as there isn’t much tension in the bands in the bottom position.


For the first session I kept things to the recent pattern of heavy triples; I’ll adjust this once I see how things feel tomorrow.
A similar setup would probably work just as well for hanging leg and hanging knee raises. They’re up next.

[AFI82]

At 1 house we drilled a couple of holes in the overhead beams in the basement, then just slid a pipe into them.

At another house I hung some rope over the beams supporting the back porch and tied them to a pipe.

Now though, I'm in an apartment and don't think I can do any major remodeling. So I'm thinking about getting this:
WEIDER VKR STATION
I was in the store yesterday and checked it out for a few minutes. It was a little wobbly at the base, but I think it was just how they had the bolts tightened. For $80 it's not bad.

They also had one of these:
Sports Authority - Proform 21.1 T Assisted Power Tower
It was $180 but currently 30% off, so about $130 total.

Can anyone see a reason why it's worth paying $50 more for the assisted station? I bet that I could attach a band to the standard station and get the same assisted movements if I wanted them.

[twoolf]

Originally Posted by AFI82

Now though, I'm in an apartment and don't think I can do any major remodeling. So I'm thinking about getting this:
WEIDER VKR STATION
I was in the store yesterday and checked it out for a few minutes. It was a little wobbly at the base, but I think it was just how they had the bolts tightened. For $80 it's not bad.

I used to have a chin/dip/vkr station similar to that one (different brand). One thing to be careful of: I found that, in order to do weighted chins, I had to put weight plates over the legs on the opposite side of the unit. Otherwise it would tip over. And I'm not a huge guy. Some units might be more stable than others, and once I weighted the opposite side it worked fine.

[BjsAust]

I use a similar piece of equipment to that VKR station, works a treat for me. Can be a little wobbly, but has never been in danger of falling over. Simple physics, as long as your mass stays over the ground supports you wont tip.

[MindPower]

Originally Posted by JoshDunn

Just saw a door chin up bar so picked it up, but its only load rated to 100kg and the bar looks pretty good but the little cup like things that you screw into the door look pretty cheap and crappy.

Wondering how or what I'd use to build a more hardcore chin up setup (not on a door but using the bar if possible).

Thinking steel brackets and bolting them to the roof and somehow putting the bar into this contraption.

Was thinking cementing two wooden poles into the ground and attaching the bar but thats alittle perminant for my liking.

Any tips on what others with home gyms have done would be great.

Cheers

Sounds like the bar I have, (Weider? brand) . I have it attached to my timber carport with the cheap crappy looking cups. The opening is ~1.2m so the bar is stretched out as far as it can go, so its not as strong as it could be. It does have a pretty impressive bend in it and I dont think I have had over 100kg on it (maybe).

I guess what i'm trying to say is it would probably handle a decent weight >100kg if it was only spanning the width of a door (~700-800mm)