How To Do Pull-Ups At Home When You Don’t Have a Pull-Up Bar

Article by Nick Nilsson

So you’re training at home and you don’t have a place to put a chin-up bar. Or you don’t have a power rack with a chin-up bar on it.

No problem!

I’ve got a couple of simple items that are going to totally change the way you look at hardware stores…

What are those items?

C-clamps…

Your basic woodworking C-clamps, available at any hardware store in the world.

All you have to do is clamp those onto something solid in your house (or outside) and you’ve got yourself a couple of chin-up handles! I have two clamps (the size I use is 4 inch – it gives you the perfect size handle for gripping on) attached to a rafter in my basement.

It’s a simple matter of clamping those on somewhere high up then doing pull-ups on them! Of course, just be absolutely sure that the rafters you’re clamping onto are very solid.

If you’re worried about damaging the surface with the clamps, just slide a couple of smaller pieces of wood in between the clamping surfaces to spread out the load.

This setup is not only cheap and easy but very versatile. Because you can clamp on anywhere you like, you can change the grip width very easily. You can start with close grip chins then move a clamp out further and do neutral-grip wide-grip pull-ups.

You can set the clamps on two different rafters and do regular wide-grip pull-ups. Heck, you can shift the clamps around to almost any position and do a HUGE variety of mixed-grip pull-ups. The options are many.

At this point, I’m sure you’re thinking “sounds great, but are they solid?”

The are definitely solid and can hold up a substantial amount of weight, as long as they’re clamped on tight.

I weigh about 200 lbs and once solidly clamped on, mine did not budge the slightest bit. And this was with me TRYING to pull them loose. I even did pull-ups on just ONE clamp and it didn’t budge.

You could very easily do weight pull-ups with a set-up like that as well…you would need either a dumbell or a dip belt in order to add that extra weight, though.

I also highly recommend a solid bench or chair to stand on when getting into position so that you don’t have to jump up to grab the clamps. This will make it a lot easier to get into position, especially when doing weight pull-ups.

So if you train at home and have been looking for a pull-up solution, head over to the hardware store a.s.a.p. and go grab your C-clamps!

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