My Pull Up Bar

There are dozens of different ways to mount of pull up bar. It's a project that's really unique to your situation so there's no way to give a design that everyone can use. That's why I haven't done a project for it yet even though it's a very important piece of lifting equipment. But I finally decided to just shoot a quick video showing you what I did to install a pull up bar in my home gym.



Cost: $15
Project time: a few minutes
Difficulty: You can get the store to cut the pipe if you need to, so all you really have to do is drill out a hole in the wood and screw them into the wall. Very easy.

Tools Needed:

• Drill
• Hack saw (optional)
• Wood boring bit (the size of your pipe, probably 1 inch)

Materials Needed:

• Two 2x4 studs
• Long deck screws (probably 3 inch long)
• length of 1 inch (outer diameter) pipe (how long depends on where you're mounting it).

One thing I forgot to mention in the video is to make sure there is enough room between the wall (above the door) and the bar. If you mount it right in the corner like I did, and the bar is above the door there is not a lot of room. This isn't a big deal for PULL UPS, but if you intend to do CHIN UPS it can create a problem. My hands are small enough to do chin ups too but I can't put my homemade Fat Grips on there and do chin ups with those.

If this is a concern you should consider mounting it back away from the door a bit so you have plenty of room. I can't do that in this case because it's under the stairs so the cealing is angled and the farther away from the door the lower it gets. I have no desire to do fat bar chin ups so it's not an issue for me, but it's something to condise.

Remember this is just an idea. This is showing you what I did. Mounting a Pull Up bar is not a one size fits all project. Take these ideas and custom fit them into your space if you are interested.

- Carl

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DIY Neck Harness

The most well known commercial neck harness costs around $40. For what amounts to a few straps and carabiners that's quite a lot. I decided to try to make my own. I did it for less than $10. I use it mostly for strengthening the muscles to reinforce proper posture. There is another DIY design out there but I decided to try to make mine look a little more professional.


Cost: $10
Project time: depends on if you use a machine or sew by hand
Difficulty: You have sew. If you don't know how it's easy to learn.

Tools Needed:

• Sewing Needle or Sewing Machine

Materials Needed:

• Lashing Straps or Towing Straps
• Strong Thread like Upholstry thread
• Duct Tape (optional)
• 2 Carabiners
• Velcro hook and loop

- Carl

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How to Make Your Very Own DIY Pull Up Bar

Check out this great video on how to make your own DIY pull up bar.
You can't shy away from the fact that the pull up or chin is a very functional way to build strength and fitness.
Do it for a small amount of cash
Enjoy!

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Unilateralism

One of the greatest sins in my book is the disregard, and even contempt, that I see out there for any sort of exercises that are single-limbed in approach.  I know where it comes from too:  you just can't move the same amount of weight with one one limb that you can move with two.  In the world of weights where the most iron moved is the sole measure of value, a unilateral move is just shit. 

I take a different viewpoint.  As I've said before, weight is simply a means to increasing the difficulty of the movement.  If the movement needs a lot of weight to make it hard then isn't the movement itself a little too easy?  A movement that requires less weight to be considered very difficult is actually a more efficient use of the weight available to you. Those of you blessed with piles of iron obviously don't see the value in this.  In a way, you're kind of the strength training version of pampered house pets.  Welcome to the jungle!  Out here, we learn how to make the most of the least.  Unilateral work is the way we can do that. 

Ben Bruno wrote a pretty good article over at T-Nation where he described his year-long experiment with training his lower body, one leg at a time.  Apparently, he did this in response to a back injury.  The single-legged approach was more kind to his back.  I've heard this approach parroted by a couple of sports-based strength trainers.  I can't comment on it since I don't have an injured back and I haven't done a lot of the work he described but he obviously learned how to get some serious leg training within his limitations.  Iron junkies might balk at the notion but it still worked very well. 

This guy seemingly never takes the weighted vest off... allegedly not even for sex. 

My experience with unilateral leg training for the past few months has been pretty simple:  Pistols.  Honestly, I suck at them.  Granted I suck a lot less now than I sucked in January when I admitted to myself that the fact that I look like a fool while attempting these was simply unacceptable to a guy who runs a "bodyweight blog."  Still, I admitted it and I think that's a lot of people's problem with these:  they don't want to admit that they don't do these because they can't do these.  Pistols have a way of telling the mind a story of a trainee who spends too much time sitting down, getting tight and stiff and then spends their precious gym time lying to themselves that there's something wrong with muscles in and around the hips that don't impress girls too much.  So, they ignore them, throwing them into the trash heap of, "they're just a trick".  I decided to take a giant shit on this scenario and get my ass to the grass on one leg. 

When we move to single-limb, upstairs version, we come to one of my favorite ways to train the upper body, as well as another reason why unilateral work is so awesome:  it's a great, great way to strength train under time constraints.  Just simply blast one limb, doing a movement until you're exhausted.  All you've got to do is break long enough to catch your breath (a little) and then do the other side.  It's possible to get a lot of work in a very short period of time training like this. 

Oh, and training on one arm can be brutally difficult!

We began with the wonders of unilateral training's ability to make great training with a limited amount of weight to move.  A deeper exploration reveals that there is a lot of other benefits to this approach to progressive strength training.  They than work around injury to get stronger and expose weaknesses in need of strengthening just as well as they can serve as a means to make what's strong even stronger.  That kind of approach deserves more recognition than it's currently getting.  Don't make the same error of not realizing a good thing when you see it. 

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"Modern" Gyms Stink...like third world countries

I've got an interesting question for my readers:  how many times to you hear about something pathetically wrong often but never actually see it for yourself?  Then, when you see it, you're still shocked in spite of knowing it was like that all along?  I'm talking about that feeling you get when you hear that third world countries can be real shitholes that make you appreciate what you have but it never really sinks in until you're actually there to see and smell how bad it really sucks.   Wow, it really was true all along!  Learning about it doesn't replace the shock of actually seeing it, does it? 

On a much less serious level, I've had that kind of shock that I still can't get over when I step into the local fitness club to take my son for infant swimming lessons.  I've been to this place before and I know that they're all a sad excuse for a place to get fit.  Up until this point, it's been a long, long time.    I've spent far more of my time tearing through all kinds of weird BW variations, sandbag work, and truck pushing in countless sewer plants, parking lots, hotel rooms, truck stops, farmers fields and my own basement.  So, when I arrive to get my son accustomed to swimming, I pretty much feel like I've landed on Mars.

As I watch the people waddle around in clothing of various levels of... FUCKING-GROSS-TIGHT... It strikes me like a Halloween party.  It's a place where everyone shows up, dresses up like athletes, and play-pretends that they're getting in shape. 

Let's pretend we're punching!  What bullshit!  Punches need to be thrown with extreme violence, even if it's just at the air!



 This isn't a criticism of playing or using a little bit of imagination when training.  I think that the way lots of people train is boring as hell and could use a little creative thought.  Put that into how you get into shape, not into pretending that you're getting there. 

As I continue to try to breathe some artificial respiration into the oxygen-starved brain of the modern fitness industrial complex, I can't understand how so many shaved apes never notice how bad their overall posture sucks.  Considering that most of these places have enough mirrors to start a fun house, and that most of the people going to the gyms spend way too much time walking around naked, I'm struck that they never notice that their bodies are starting to look like the a weeping pine tree.

The people in the cycling classes seem to be the worst culprits, for obvious reasons.  The people who use the weight room aren't far behind. These people are easy to spot:  rounded shoulders, perfect pecs and abs, and skinny legs.  I might be dipping my toes in the dirty pond of broscience but I'm of the opinion that the mark of a good workout should result in you naturally standing and walking with good posture.  Too many people wreck their bodies by sitting slouched over.  That shouldn't be replicated in any place devoted to health. 


Why is it  ALWAYS the people you NEVER want to see naked in the gym the ones you end up seeing?

As my cranial pressure-release valve slowly begins to sputter rather than roar, I now realize that I'm probably telling everyone about things that they already know... and despise.  I appreciate you bearing with me.  If you're not one of those people then I urge you to take a really objective look around your McFitness make-believe health club.  These places have everything backwards.  Instead of doing body/soul-challenging,  interesting and inventive work that gets results, most everyone there is engaged in a bad fantasy world of doing unimaginative, brain-dead motion that doesn't do jack-shit towards moving anyone closer to great health, strength, or even a half-decent looking body.  You've smelled the stink of this pile of trash. 

It's time to move on. 

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Supersetting Pyramids

Between bouncing around various welfare-ravaged shithole towns in New Hampshire, raising a child, keeping a wife happy, and desperately trying to make more money than I shell out in both work and life I've realized something: 

I haven't posted here in over two months. 

Thank you for hanging around.  As I've darted around the Northeast United States, I've managed to keep some semblance of training going.  Necessity of trying to put together something that satisfies my urge for intense muscle-grinding burn in a unique manner is still alive and well.  Recently, it manifested itself in a quick routine that worked so well that I thought I'd share it with the masses.

I love supersetting with the upper body.  I've made that clear in the past.  I've a few other ways to organize a workout in the past, including pyramids.  I didn't like those so much.  I know it's not right but I feel like excessive rest when training is procrastinating.  Then, it hit me:  why not combine supersetting with pyramids? 

So, here's my idea:  I picked an upper body push and an upper body pull exercise and do a superset, adding a rep to each new set until I got to the point where I couldn't add another rep of either the push or the pull.  Then, I just worked my way back down.  Since I didn't have much time to work out, I selected Diamond Handstand Push-ups and Thick-bar, Close-Grip Chin-ups, knowing that the rep count on these two wouldn't go very high. 

I managed to get to 8 reps before my triceps just couldn't grind anymore. 

So, that worked out to 64 reps of each movement, 128 reps in roughly 15 minutes.  That certainly qualifies as good work in a limited amount of time in my book! 

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How to Convert 1 Inch Weights for use on 2 Inch Olympic Bar

I quite often find myself requiring just a few small plates to add to my olympic bar to up the weight, but with a lack of 2" diameter plates available and a pile of 1" diameter plates just sat there.

Problem solved!

This is a great idea for converting 1 inch diameter plates to be usable on a 2 Inch diameter olympic bar

I found this great idea on Instructables.com

Another great idea for adding weight to bars and other metallic lifting items is this DIY platemate idea

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