If you are trying to build some real muscle size, strength and power you HAVE to work with the chin up. However, if you can’t afford a gym membership it is often difficult to find a place to do your chins. In this post I’ll show you how to build your own homemade chin up bar.

How to build a homemade chin up bar

There are a few ways to do this. Depending on your financial resources there are a few options available to you.

The woodblock and pipe chin up bar

In high school my friend’s dad knocked us up one of these in about 10 minutes. We still have it to this day and use it on a regular basis.

Step One
First you need to get two thick pieces of wood about 30cm long, 15cm wide and about 5-10cm thick. Make sure it is a sturdy wood but also make sure you can drill through it.

Step Two
Find a thick pole that will support your weight. You can buy this from the hardware store or find it in your shed somewhere. It should be thick enough that you can wrap your hands around it and fit it into the wood blocks. You also need a pole that is long enough that you can attach it its final position as in step five.

Step Three
Once you have your pole and wood measure up how wide the pole it and drill a hole in the wood that will allow the pole to rest in there comfortably (nice tight fit). The hole should be positioned as in the image below.

Step Four
Push your chin up pole/pipe through the holes in both blocks so that the blocks are at either end. Add some glue to help keep the bar in place.

Step Five
The final step is to then bolt attach the top of both wood blocks to a stable and safe beam in your house, garage or car port as in the image below.

The simple rope chin up bar

If this is too hard for you or you don’t have enough cash to spend on wood and pipes then using a simple thick rope hung in a tree or from a beam is an amazing way to do your chin ups. Yes; it is harder to do. Yes; the rope hurts your hands. However, rope chin ups take your chin up training to a new level and really blast your forearms out of the water.

The dip and chin station

If you have a couple of hundred dollars the best thing you can do is buy a dip and chin station. These things are designed so well and give you a few added features that our homemade chin up bars won’t have. I bought one of these a few years ago and it has been well worth the money.

Conclusion
Remember, the chin up bar can be used for lots of things. You can do hanging leg raises for your abs, hang from it to build your forearms as well as the normal chins and pull ups. Building something like this is well worth the effort.

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