Homemade pullup bar for the Powertec P-PR Power Rack
Pull-ups are probably the best back exercise…period! Primary muscles used are the lats, with biceps, forearms shoulders and even a little bit of the chest involved as well.
There’s this great debate on some forums as to whether the pull-up handles on the Powertec P-PR Power Rack are ergonomically correct:
You can see what I use the existing handles for.
After researching this, I’m finding that the bar and the angle of your grip are very important.
You should use a straight bar and not a bar that is angled at the ends. Just because the bar is bent on the ends does not mean you should grab it there. Too wide of a grip increases stress on the fragile shoulder joint and also limits range of motion of the lat muscles.
Your grip on the bar should be only 6 to 8 inches wider than your shoulders. The wider the grip the less overload the lat muscles will get.
After reading the above paragraphs, I’m now wondering if doing pull-ups and pull downs with a wide grip because of an angled bar was the reason for my strained rotator cuff injury and not the bench-press like I thought.
On my setting up a home gym page, I mentioned a website that shows you how to make your own pull-up bar. If you notice on that page, the angled bar being used!
I thought, with a few modifications, I could make a straight bar homemade pullup bar out of pipe that would fit on my Powertec P-PR Power Rack.
Here’s what I came up with:
List of materials needed:
1 |
3/4" x 14" black pipe | $2 |
2 |
3/4" x 12" black pipe nipple | $7 |
2 |
3/4" black pipe tee | $4 |
4 |
3/4" x 2" black pipe nipple | $4 |
4 |
3/4" 45° black pipe fitting | $6 |
2 |
3/4" x 6" black pipe nipple | $4 |
4 |
3/4" black pipe cap | $5 |
Misc. |
primer and spray paint | $1? |
| Total | $33 |
Assembly is pretty straight forward, just follow the layout in this photo:
Tighten all connections as tight as you can, this assembly is supporting your weight.
You may have to adjust the angles of the 45° fittings so that the assembly is supported by the cross beam of the power rack.
Once you try this out you'll notice that the 45° fittings cut into the plastic grips on the existing pull-up handles. You may want to add some padding so this won't happen:
