Doorway Pull Up Bar – Review

When I started training at home I had no equipment and so I had to buy a pull up bar.

Since I was, at that time, a complete beginner, I had no clew on what pull up bar I should buy.

I mostly wanted a doorway pull up bar, and, as such, I was between two options:

Option #1:

Option #2:

I went for option #1 at the time.

Now I own both of these pull up bars and I’ve used them for several years.

In this post, you’ll find a review of both of these bars and a comparison between the two.

Why Should You Own A Home Pull Up Bar?

Are there any benefits to it?

Well…

Here are some of them:

#1. Train Effectively At Your Own Home

Owing a pull up bar is the very first step at being able to train effectively at your home.

If you don’t have a pull up bar available, you’ll have to go to the gym or a park to train your pull ups (or any other pulling exercise).

#2. Increase Your Pull Ups

If you want to increase your pull ups, then owning a pull up bar is very helpful because you’ll be able to train your pull ups multiple times per day.

Door Pull Up Bar #1: Review

I’ve been using this pull up bar (not the exact model) for around 7 years.

Overall, the bar has been very useful for my training and I still use it on a regular basis.

The Pros

1. Easily Removable

This is probably the easiest bar to remove.

You can just put the bar on the door, do your workout and then take it off.

This is very convenient as you can easily take the bar with you and train wherever there is a door available.

2. Relatively Cheap

The average price of such a pull up bar is 20-30$.

20-30$ isn’t that much, if you compare it to other training equipment.

3. Easy To Pack

Apart from being easily removable, this pull up bar can be also disassembled quite easily.

This makes very easy to pack the bar and take it with you.

4. Resilient

I’ve been using my pull up bar for around 7 years.

There is little to no ware down of the equipment despite 7 years of constant use.

The only thing that disintegrated are the pads on the sides and the handles.

5. Lots of grip options

With this pull up bar you can train your pull ups with all the 3 different hand positions:

• Overhand
• Underhand
• Neutral

The Cons

1. Damages The Door Frame

This pull up bar is going to damage your door frame over time.

It’s a slow process, but it happens.

Depending on how aware you are of the issue, you can probable ease some of the damage from being done.

I didn’t know that this bar was going to damage the door and so I used it without any caution.

If I’d taken the necessary cautions, the damage may have not been done after all.

2. Your Legs Will Touch The Ground

Your legs will most likely touch the ground when hanging from a door pull up bar.

Of course there are exceptions – ie. if the door is high relatively to your own height or if you use on doorway pull up bar with elevated bar.

3. Can’t perform Certain Movements

There are some movements that you won’t be able to perform with a doorway pull up bar.

Eg. Muscle up or explosive movements

It’s nearly impossible to perform a muscle up in a door frame, as there’s very little space to do the movement.

Also, you can perform explosive movements, but I wouldn’t suggest it as it can be quite dangerous.

4. Doesn’t Fit To All Door Frames

The last issue with this pull up bar, is that it doesn’t fit to all the door frames.

A frame may be wider than the pull up bar structure.

So, before buying such a bar, you have to make sure that it’s suitable to at least one doorway in your home.

Door Pull Up Bar #2: Review

A friend of mine gave me this pull up bar when he no longer needed it.

I haven’t used it as much, because I have the other one.

Overall, this pull up bar has been used for more than 10 years with no issues.

I still use this bar during the summer when I’m at my village.

The Pros

1. Easily Removable

You can easily remove the pull up bar from the door.

2. Cheapest Option

Costing around 10-15 bucks this is one of the cheapest equipment options available.

3. Very Suitable

This bar fits to almost all doors.

4. Put Between Walls

A great benefit of this pull up bar is that it can be put between walls as well.

This will help you:

• Perform more movements – because of the clear space above the bar
• Your legs won’t touch the ground

5. Resilient

No signs of wearing out despite many years of use.

The Cons

1. Damages the door/walls right away

This pull up bar damages the place it’s been put on right away.

This makes it hard to use the bar in multiple of doors/walls as you’ll be actually damaging them.

2. Your legs will touch the ground if put on a door

As with option #1, this depends on the height of the door.

3. Can’t perform certain movements if put on a door

Such a movement is the muscle up.

Comparison

Pros/ Cons	Doorway Pull Up Bar #1	Doorway Pull Up Bar #2
Transferability	5/5	4.5/5
Grip Options	3	2
Durability	Good	Good
Placement	Certain Doorways	Most Doorways Between Walls
Removability	5/5	4/5
Door Damage	Slow - Over Time	Immediate
Legs Touch The Ground	Yes - Regular Bar No - Modified Bar	Yes - On Doorway No - Between Walls
Price	20-30$	10-15$

What Would I Buy If I Were You?

Based on the above chart and my current experience…

What would I buy If I had to choose between the two?

Well…

I’d first look at my house and look at the different options I have.

So, if there are two available walls for option #2, I’d always choose #2 – because I’d be able to perform more exercises and my legs wouldn’t touch the ground.

If there weren’t any walls available for option #2, I’d check my doors and see if they are suitable for the both options. If they are, I’d go with option #1, as I could easily remove it when I want to and take it with me. It also doesn’t damage the doors right away and I could put it on different doorways.

Other Pull Up Equipment Options

Are these doorway pull up bars the only pull up equipment options?

Of course, not.

If you don’t want to damage a door of yours, there are some other equipment options to help you train with pull ups at home.

Some of them are:

• Wall mounted pull up bar
• Ceiling mounted pull up bar
• Stationary pull up bar
• Joist mounted pull up bar
• Gymnastics rings
• Doorway pull up handles

~Nick