Bars.....for Hanging

This weeks post was inspired by the devastation I brought to my hands last week on the way to 200 pulls in a scheduled work out. By 130, my hands were shredded; really bad shape for whatever reason.

Needless to say, kipping pull ups were out of the question for the balance of the week, considering my palms. By mid-week they were clearly on the mend, but still could not stand up to major pull up work.

So to combat my withdrawl from the bar, instead of pulling, I just HUNG from it....and....HUNG....and.....HUNG!

Bar hangs or Pull up holds are a perfect exercise to help you work on your grip strength and to work on the scapular muscles in your back. Many of us have weak spots in our grips and our scapular, the latter which stablizes the shoulder blades and provides the foundation for so many other upper body exercises. Weakness in this area can limit your ability to perform at maximum levels with outher upper body lifts like a simple bench press.

For a simple bar hang, all you have to do is grab onto a pull-up bar, like you're going to do some pull-ups, and just hang for as long as you can. Don't re-grip, just hold on as long as you can with your initial grip. This will work your hands, fingers and will torch your forearms. Grip strength, of course, will provide for better results in many other activities, lifts and sports.

To get your back into the act, pull your chest up to the bar and hold for 20 to 30 seconds. When this becomes routine, add weight by using a vest or a dumbbell.

Several lessons learned this week. 200 pulls was pushing too hard and I need to embrace my own advice and not push to failure/maximum too often. Second, as always the case, with a little creativity, something good came out of my banged up palms.....a hanging contest in this case.

Pull Ups Across the Pond #3

With the time running out on my buddy Blair (Anywherefit) who is set to return home from his 9 month stay in Europe, we agreed on installment #3 of our coordinated work outs across the ocean. Keeping with tradition, the intention is for the work to be pull up "centric" and for this edition, we were not lacking in that department.

Run 1 Mile
200 Pull Ups (2 pulls, then One Burpee x 100)
100 Burpees
Run 1 Mile

The work out was modeled after CrossFit's GI Jane. I was calling it GI Jane and her sister (since we were to double the pull ups and do 200 in lieu of the 100 in the original). After texting a few buddies the idea, I quickly got a note back suggesting we call it GI Jane and her "bloody"" sister........my friend had no idea how true that would be in the end. Graham from Balance Gym wrote, "This was a little like Murph - the CrossFit workout that tests all athletes".

So I enlisted a few a few friends and we all gave it a try. Common theme among all of us: REALLY Banged up hands. At 130 pulls for me and somewhere in the same neighborhood for Ed, hands tore; making the last third a real challenge. Graham had a similar story and ended up modifying the sequence a bit. He said " so the first 20 rounds were fine, but then I started getting blisters. I brought tape, but not chalk. I got to round 30 before my grip started to fail me. I moved on to jumping pull ups: 10 jumping pull ups to 5 burpees for the remaining sets to get to 200 pull ups/100 burpees".

The Damage was as follows:

Graham: 52:10
Ed: 39;20
Eric: 35:25
Frank 35:30
Blair ?? (yet to be revealed)

It started out innocently enough, but lesson learned on the high volume pulls. We all agreed that chalk would have helped mitigate the ripped up hands a bit (but none of us used it). For Graham, a little baking soda might have been helpful; somewhere around 70 burpees in, he dropped to the ground and got stung by a bee.

Bee stings, torn hands and bruised egos. Makes me glad Blair is on his way home from Europe. Pull Ups Across the Pond is a wrap!

Bars.....Forever

Well, the questions just keep coming so I will stick with it for another week. First, it was about the ideal thickness of a bar, then the finish and now lots of comments and inquires about strength and durability. I have had several guys quiz me on whether or not a bar would collapse or bend under the weight and abuse one would expect in most gym settings.

I gotta tell you, I can't even fathom what kind of bars these guys may have bought or made based on the stories they tell....ouch!

Now, this certainly isn't a new topic for Steelfit to address. After all, Steel is the main attraction in the products we advocate; "Steel for Strength" is our mantra for good reason afterall.

Steel itself is an iron alloy and iron alloys are mixtures of iron with other elements. In the case of most common steel, iron is mixed with carbon which gives it its strength and durability, making it the perfect match for our challenge of strong and durable pull up bars.

With that said, many of the wall mount pull up bars you see for home gyms, doorway types and other commercially available models may be made of steel(and many are not), but that does not make them all equal. You want to look out for those that use light weight wall pipe versus structural grade standard or extra strong steel pipe. If you come across a bar made of another material....aluminum, etc., then run. Also, check out the fabrication which is just as critical when assessing whether the bar will hold a 300 pound guy kipping away at top speed. Are there a lot of bolts that hold the brackets, bars and other components together? Welded joints are ideal, limiting the number of parts that show up in a bag for you to assemble and increase strength, durability and overall quality.

Often the culprit behind those sagging, bending or otherwise ineffective bars is not the bar at all but the quality of the install or the integrity of the surface it ishanging on. If hung hastily or without the proper hardware or expertise, even the most durable of bars won't do much for you in the long run. Don't rush the install and take the extra time to seek some help if you are unsure of the integrity of your install location and best method to ensure success.

Good bars are made with structural grade steel piping. While hanging the bars correctly and on a wall that can handle the load is key,attention to detail, hand welding and minimal bolts for assembly will ensure that your bars will last......forever.