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Pull-ups are one of the best bodyweight exercises. With these 6 best doorway pull-up bars worries about the right place to do them are gone.
List of the 6 best doorway pull-up bars:
Here are the 6 best doorway pull-up bars compiled in a short list:
- Best Overall: Perfect Fitness Multi-Gym Doorway Pull Up Bar
- Best Premium Option: Ultimate Body Press XL Doorway Pull Up Bar
- Best Budget: ProsourceFit Multi-Grip Lite Pull Up Bar
- Least Wear Marks: IRON AGE Pull Up Bar for Doorway
- Best Door Mount: Garren Fitness Maximiza Pull Up Bar
- Best For Heavier Weight: Iron Age Smart Hook Pull Up Bar Doorway
Is a doorway pull-up bar worth it?
Pull-ups are one of the most well-known, and greatest, bodyweight exercises for goals like building muscle, losing weight, and looking more fit.
Your back muscles are arguably one of the hardest to train at home if you don’t have any equipment. That’s one of the reasons a pull-up bar is such a great investment.
The three main categories of pull-up bars are mounted, which means attaching the bar to a wall, a standalone, which usually takes in a lot of place, and lastly doorway pull-up bars. Each category has its advantages and disadvantages.
Some of the advantages of a doorway pull-up bar include less work installing, no annoyed landlords or spouses because of drill holes, and easy to bring with you and use wherever you want to go. This makes them a very good investment for many people.
You do have to keep in mind that there are some doorway requirements. The conditions are not that strict but you have to keep in mind that some unstable doorways won’t be able to support your doorway pull-up bar.
If you don’t swing around too much doorway pull-up bars are mostly safe. Keeping your body, except for your arms, still will also benefit your training. That being said, it is always smart to be extra careful the first few times you use your pull-up bar.
A doorway pull-up bar can be a great investment in your physique. Only a few minutes of pull-ups can benefit you so much and with a pull-up bar this becomes so much easier to do even if you don’t have a lot of room and a big budget.
Best doorway pull-up bars
Discover the 6 best doorway pull-up bars to buy so you can get in a time-efficient workout in the comfort of your own home.
Best Overall: Perfect Fitness Multi-Gym Doorway Pull Up Bar
This doorway pull-up bar is the best overall option if you’re looking for a great combination of quality versus price. Both for beginners and more experienced exercisers alike.
The Perfect Fitness Multi-Gym Doorway Pull Up Bar includes padding to protect your door frame. It has three grip options that allow you to focus on different muscle groups. On top of that, you can easily take this doorway pull-up bar to the ground for situps, dips, and pushups.
You will have to put in a small amount of assembly effort but the tools to do so are included.
Details
- Appropriate Door Size: Door frames 27 to 33 inches wide and up to 6 inches deep
- Maximum User Weight: 300 lbs (136 kg)
- Additional Uses: situps, pushups, and dips
- Wall/Frame Protection Padding: Both upper and lower contact points
- Number Of Grips: 3, normal grip, wide grip, and hammer grip pullups
- Warranty: One year manufacturer’s warranty
Best Premium Option: Ultimate Body Press XL Doorway Pull Up Bar
While you can get far with the basics, sometimes some extra features come in handy.
First of all this Ultimate Body Press XL Doorway Pull Up Bar has the three grips you expect from any quality pull-up bar.
The structure of this doorway pull-up bar also allows you to hang higher. This allows most users to do the pull-ups fully, or mostly, extended.
Besides hanging higher the bar also extends 10″ (25 cm) from the doorway which again leaves you with more hanging room to do your workout without having to hold back as much.
Details
- Appropriate Door Size: Door frames 24 to 36 inches wide, doorways with molding up to 3.5″ wide, and doorway up to 6 inches deep
- Maximum User Weight: 300 lbs (136 kg)
- Additional Uses: situps, pushups, and dips
- Wall/Frame Protection Padding: Only included for lower 2 contact points
- Number Of Grips: 3, normal grip, wide grip, and hammer grip pullups
- Warranty: 10 years against manufacturer’s defects
Best Budget: ProsourceFit Multi-Grip Lite Pull Up Bar
One of the beauties of doorway pull-up bars is that they only require a small investment for a big upside. This is especially the case with this budget option.
The ProsourceFit Multi-Grip Lite Pull Up Bar still has three grip options and a user weight capacity up to 300 pounds.
The main hiccups are the marks you can expect if you don’t pad this pull-up bar yourself and the more complicated and less sturdy design.
Details
- Appropriate Door Size: Fits on any “standard doorway” 24″ to 32″
- Maximum User Weight: 300 lbs (136 kg)
- Additional Uses: situps, pushups, and dips
- Wall/Frame Protection Padding: Only included for lower 2 contact points
- Number Of Grips: 3, normal grip, wide grip, and hammer grip pullups
- Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
Least Wear Marks: IRON AGE Pull Up Bar for Doorway
A lot of doorway pull-up marks leave marks after extended use unless you pad them yourself.
This is a lot less the case with the IRON AGE Pull Up Bar for Doorway compared to many other pull-up bars due to its great in-built padding.
On top of the possibility to choose between a wide and a close grip, this workout device is also convenient to store thanks to its foldable design.
Details
- Appropriate Door Size: Fits a door width of 22.83″ – 36.22″(58-92 cm) and depth of 8.27″(21 cm); Acceptable trim height up to 3.54″(9 cm)
- Maximum User Weight: 400 lbs (181 kg)
- Additional Uses: Bonus suspension straps included for additional workouts
- Wall/Frame Protection Padding: Made for minimum wear marks
- Number Of Grips: 2, shoulder-width grip, and close grip
- Warranty: Not mentioned
Best Door Mount: Garren Fitness Maximiza Pull Up Bar
Besides doorway pull-up bars that mostly rely on the upper door frame, there are also door mounts. Pull-up bars you install with screws inside of the door frame.
The disadvantages of this kind of pull-up bar are that they require slightly more install effort and that the widest grip possible might not be that wide. The upsides are that door-mounted bars are slightly more swing resistant and that you can close the door with the bar still in place.
If you decide a mounted doorway pull-up bar is for you this Garren Fitness Maximiza Pull Up Bar is what you are looking for.
This bar also comes with different door mounts with varying weight capabilities, the strongest one allowing a user weight up to 300 lbs. You can even use it without mounts for sit-up foot support.
Details
- Appropriate Door Size: Doorways between 26 and 39 inches
- Maximum User Weight: Heavy-duty door mounts: 300 lbs (136 kg)
- Additional Uses: Situp foot support
- Wall/Frame Protection Padding: Does not apply
- Number Of Grips: Range from wide to close grip
- Warranty: “Satisfaction Guarantee”
Best For Heavier Weight: Iron Age Smart Hook Pull Up Bar Doorway
Some people want a pull-up bar with some extra weight capacity. Most quality doorway pull-up bars allow up to 300 pounds but when you are looking at 300+ or 350+ pounds the options diminish.
Luckily there is the Iron Age Smart Hook Pull Up Bar Doorway which supports up to 440 pounds (199 kg).
This pull-up bar is also great for taller people. A nice bonus is that this device also comes practically fully assembled. All you have to do is put on 2 plastic sleeves that protect the door.
Details
- Appropriate Door Size: 27.56 inch to 36.22 inch (excluding the thickness of your door), depth of 8.27″ (21 cm). Acceptable trim height up to 3.54″(9 cm)
- Maximum User Weight: 440 lbs (199 kg)
- Additional Uses: push-up and situps
- Wall/Frame Protection Both upper and lower contact points
- Number Of Grips: Range from wide to close grip
- Warranty: Not mentioned
Benefits of having your own pull-up bar
Working out your muscles is a great idea for basically every health-related goal you can think of. Losing weight, looking more in shape, longevity, more energy,… Some people think this requires a lot of time but that is not the case.
A simple exercise like a pull-up can benefit you so much for so little time. It is hard to describe in words just how time-efficient this exercise is.
Due to the possibility of different grip positions you can also focus on slightly different muscle groups. Some of the muscle groups you can expect to train with pull-ups are upper back, arms, chest, and shoulders.
With your own pull-up bar you are not dependent on the outside world. It’s raining outside? No problem. There is snow and ice outside? No problem. No time to drive to the gym? No problem. All the workout equipment is occupied? (Probably) not happening. Living in an area with a lot of traffic? Problem solved.
By getting your own pull-up bar you won’t have to spend money on a gym membership, spend time driving to the gym, finding a parking spot,… The pull-up bar will probably not be occupied (unless your family is really into it). And you don’t have to exercise in front of other people.
Working out at home with your pull-up bar can also just make the whole workout experience more enjoyable.
You basically get all these amazing benefits for such a small investment. If you are somewhat serious about getting in shape at home a doorway pull-up bar is basically a no-brainer investment.
Doorway pull-up bar FAQ
Will a pull-up bar mess up my doorway?
It depends. If your doorway frame is not in good shape it is likely not smart to put extra pressure on it with a doorway pull-up bar.
Besides in that situation, there is mostly no real “damage”. What you can have is wear marks from the pull-up bar on your doorway frame.
You can avoid these wear marks in 2 ways. The first one is choosing a doorway pull-up bar with sufficient padding instead of one where steel directly touches your door frame. The second way to avoid wear marks is some DIY padding.
In any case it might be smart to use the pull-up bar only on a doorway you don’t care about as much when it comes to visuals.
Pull-up bar wall padding DIY
You can create the required padding yourself too. This basically comes down to attaching soft materials to the points where the pull-up bar would make contact with your doorframe.
Some examples of soft materials you can use include old tshirts and old socks.
Are doorway pull-up bars safe?
Like with basically any activity people do, there are some cases in which someone got hurt using a doorway pull-up bar. This does not mean that these pull-up bars are unsafe.
In general doorway pull-up bars used in the right way, and keeping the maximum user weight and manufacturer guidelines into account, are safe. Doorway pull-up bars are made for downward pressure so you want to avoid swinging around.
In any case, you want to use common sense and thoroughly read the user manual. Check every once in a while if the screws are tight. You can even put some pillows below you if you want to play it safe.
How much weight can a doorway pull up bar hold?
The weight a pull-up bar can hold varies from model to model. That being said most quality doorway pull-up bars can hold up to 300 pounds (136 kg).
For weights over 300 pounds up to 440 pounds (199 kg) check out this Iron Age Smart Hook Pull Up Bar Doorway.
