Pulling Your Weight
Saturday, 25 July 2009 02:23 | 
Written by Elijah Klay | 
Working out at a gym is probably one of the most effective ways to get in shape, but the allure of working out at home is undeniable. You don't have to pay for an expensive gym membership, take time out of your day to drive there, fight the crowds, or be constantly shown up by the gym rats. And let's face it: if your goal is to get into shape, not necessarily to look like hulk hogan, most muscle groups can be worked using body weight exercises, without the need to buy too much fancy equipment. There's tons of variations on the pushup which will take care of your chest, shoulders, and triceps for the most part. A simple pair of dumbbells, or even just one, can be used for biceps curls, as well as various shoulder and triceps exercises, and gallon jugs of water can even be used in a pinch. Abs can be covered by a plethora of sit-ups and crunches, and legs by squats, lunges, and calf raises.
So what's missing? "Push" exercises are easy, since you can simply push off the floor. It's the "pull" exercises that are usually lacking from an at-home exercise program. Some may think that pull-ups and other back exercises are not really that important; I certainly thought that way when i was younger. It's all about big arms, bulging pecs, and ripped abs, right? I barely worked my back at all until I injured my shoulder, and began physical therapy. The personal trainers there taught me a lot about the importance of those back exercises, and now it is one of my favorite muscles to work out.
So how do you solve the pull-up dilemma? Personally, I began by searching my house for any low beams I might be able to use. Finding none, I began using the front edge of my roof. You could probably imagine the problems inherent with this short-lived idea: the roofing was none too kind on my fingers, and I'd have to imagine that I looked like a crazy person hanging from the front of my house. I had a friend with a similar dilemma, and we even went so far as to buy 4x4's, some metal pipe, and concrete, and install a pull-up bar in his backyard. Of course that costed about $40 and an hour or so of labor.
But then I saw television commercials for these pull-up bars that install directly onto any doorframe, and can be put up or taken down in a matter of seconds. Not only that, but it can be used to achieve deeper pushups, secure your feet for sit-ups, and even be used for dips. Being the impulsive consumer that I am, I ordered one immediately. My suggestion: do some research before buying anything like this. Of course, if you are reading this now, then you've already decided to scope it out before buying.
There are now several of these style of pull-up bars to choose from, but the one I bought was the Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar. Being an engineer, I can certainly appreciate this product. It is a great idea, leveraging the shape of the door frame to avoid any drilling, bolting, or other modification to your home. Once you've got it assembled, it feels very sturdy, and although I was wary at first, I am fully confident that it can indeed hold the 300 lb to which it is rated.
Of course, nothing really ever works exactly as you'd expect it to. First of all, it did not occur to me that my house was built in the 50's, and that the door frames were not exactly standard. The doorways that had moldings were either too wide, or too deep, such that the bar could not hook on properly. The majority of the rest of the doorways in my house did not have moldings. So I was limited to using a door which was a recent addition to the house, and opened out onto the porch. This is not necessarily ideal, but at least it works as advertised.
It also turns out the the product is not entirely hardware free: there is a small bracket which wedges in between the door frame and the wall, as a safety measure. It seems as though it would be difficult to get the pull-up bar to fall down without this safety bracket, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right?
So, hanging from the doorway, this product works great for pull-ups. It also works fairly well for sit-ups, although I rarely use it for that purpose. If you don't already use some sort of riser for your pushups, this bar works great for that as well. The added height allows you to get your pushups down deeper just enough that you can definitely tell the difference. This of course, could have been accomplished by using chairs, books, or if you are feeling like buying some more home gym equipment, the Perfect Pushups.
One complaint about the advertised uses of this bar concerns the dips. The dip handles are not more than a foot or so off the ground, which is essentially useless when it comes to dips. This is a simple case of the makers of this product trying to squeeze in one extra function to make it sound better. You can absolutely get a better range of motion by simply doing your dips on the edge of a chair.
All-in-all, though, I was quite pleased with the purchase. My recommendation would be that you double-check your doorways before picking up one of these; one size does not fit all.
As far as competitor's prices, I believe that they only go up from here. The Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar runs about $30. For another $10-15 you can get the Iron Gym Extreme Edition which adds additional hand-holds, but for the average at-home workout, the Iron Gym's work just fine.
