There is no more basic piece of training-for-climbing home gym equipment than a pull-up bar. Regardless of whether or not you have a home wall, hangboard, or campus board, installing a sturdy pull-up bar in your home gym opens the door to a wide range of supplemental strength and endurance exercises.
For years I searched for a simple, easy-to-install, and bombproof pull-up bar to add to my home gym (all the while singing U2’s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”), until last year I finally found it: The Stud Bar! At a price of just $140, the solid steel Stud Bar is a real deal considering that a simple plastic hangboard can easily set you back $100 – $150. The Stud Bar is 4-feet wide and comes in three different sizes, to accommodate different ceiling heights. I’ve got the 14-inch unit, which works perfectly given my basement ceiling height of 8’6″ (see photos below).
While I won’t get into exercise details (follow T4C and you’ll learn many great pull-up bar exercises), I will list a few of the exercises that we regularly do on The Stud Bar: regular pull-ups (as a pre-climbing warm-up), weighted pull-ups (10 to 70+ pounds added), uneven-grip pull-ups, Frenchies, Typewriters, one-arm pull-ups….as well as a variety of core exercises, such as Windshield Wipers, knee lifts, and front levers. Sure, we also employ several different hangboards and a campus board for finger training, but a simple pull-up bar is the absolute best platform to perform the exercises described above.
- To purchase or learn more about The Stud Bar, visit www.StudBarPullUp.com.
Here are photos of just a few exercises we performance using The Stud Bar here in the Hörst Training facility. Our Stud Bar rig is the “small” configuration with the bar 14″ below the ceiling. (Click photos to enlarge.)
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| Uneven-Grip Pull-up….to train one-arm and lockoff strength. | Hypergravity (weighted) Pull-up…to train maximum strength and power. Here I’m wearing 76 pounds via weight vest & belt. | Windshield Wipers…a most excellent total core exercise! |
Here’s a photo of The Stud Bar “large” configuration (for ceilings over 10 feet high)–with the bar 39″ below the ceiling, you’ll be able to do muscles-up and kipping pull-ups.
- To purchase or learn more about The Stud Bar, visit www.StudBarPullUp.com.
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