- The Best Free Standing Pull-Up Bars
- #1 Gravity Fitness (GF) Portable Bodyweight & Pull-up Rack
- #2 Macrofit! Home Gym
- #3 Pull-up Mate Free-Standing Pull-Up Bar
- #4 Zider Sport Free-Standing Pull-Up Bar With Dip Station
- #5 Sportroyals Power Tower Pull-Up Bar with Dip Station
- #6 Power Station with Pull-up Bar
- #7 Slavikosway 9010019 Pull-up Station
- #8 Sport-Thieme Bodyweight Gym
- #9 Pull-up Fitness Trainer Black
- #10 Pull-up Fitness Portable Pull-Up Bar
- Conclusion
- FAQ Free Standing Pull-Up Bar
A free-standing pull-up bar is an essential exercise tool in calisthenics. The benefit of a portable bar is that you can train anywhere you want. Portable pull-up stations consist of a bottom part, middle part and a top part. The bottom provides stability, in the middle you can adjust the height, and the top is the pull-up bar itself. Free-standing pull-up bars are not only for pull-ups but also for muscle-ups, front lever, back lever, push-ups, dips, leg raises and more. If you want to build a strong back with calisthenics, you’ll need some kind of pull-up bar. Portable pull-up station are really practical and versatile. But which one is best? Here is our list of the 10 best free standing pull-up bars for calisthenics.
The Best Free Standing Pull-Up Bars
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We collected all available information about every (portable) pull-up station and had our team member check out many of them. We looked at size, portability, durability, prices and more. Not all suppliers offer this information. The ratings are based on our experiences and available information about these free-standing pull-up bars.
#1 Gravity Fitness (GF) Portable Bodyweight & Pull-up Rack
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 120x116x120-192 cm
- Maximum user weight: 110 Kg
- Collapsible: Yes, within minutes
- Weight: 19 Kg
- Warranty: 3 years
- Price: 136.80 euro / 163 USD
In our opinion, this is the best portable pull-up station. It’s made of hard-wearing gauge steel. This makes the pull-up bar firm and steady, even on uneven surfaces. This is thanks to anti-slip matts on the outer sides of the H. It provides an excellent grip for both large and smaller hands. The best things is that this bar can be used for a great range of exercises like dips and push-ups. It is possible to adjust the height to 120 cm for all kinds of different exercises. Since the bottom base is long you can also hang gymnastic rings on it without being concerned about stability. It’s easy to set up the bar and even to carry it around with the bag that comes with it. You can train in the parc with friends, at home, in your garden or take it with you on vacation.
The distance between bars and the free available space is amazing. It allows for all kinds of more complex movements such as windshield wipers, archer pull-ups etc. The steel safety clips make it possible to feel safe during the more complex exercises. The price includes the free storage bag that you can put the bars in. This is ideal for travelling.
The only downside – for most pull-up bars on this list – is that there are no soft spots for your hands. This is easy to fix with gloves or chalk. In conclusion, this portable bar is totally worth your money both if for beginners as well as advanced athletes.
#2 Macrofit! Home Gym
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 115x60x190 cm
- Maximum user weight: 180 kg
- Collapsible: Yes, within 60 seconds
- Weight: The base weights 17 Kg, attachments and panels weigh 29 Kg
- Warranty: –
- Price: 335 euro / 399 USD
The Macrofit! Home Gym is very different from the Gravity Fitness pull-up bar. The device is almost an entire gym in one piece of equipment. The design is very nice and innovative. It allows you to assemble it in just a few minutes (it can be done in 60 seconds if you are in a hurry) and carry it anywhere. The bottom is made of metal-lined sockets where you click the parts in with a wooden plateau so it doesn’t get damaged. Just as with the Gravity Fitness pull-up rack you can do a lot of additional exercises on it, but unfortunately not with rings. If you purchase the additional resistance bands you can perform squats, deadlifts and much more. The bar comes with a free mobile app tha contains over 100 exercises for it. It also includes push-up parallettes for chest workouts.
After dissasembling, it even fits under your bed or in your car. So you can take it with you very easily. The bar is pretty small though, so you cannot do every kind of pull-up, such as the archer or advanced leg raises without running into some limitations.
It does come with a price and it’s only available in North America, Europe and Australia. Delivery takes 4 to 6 weeks. Still, it is worth the wait if you want to do some great calisthenics exercises.
#3 Pull-up Mate Free-Standing Pull-Up Bar
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 117x113x 130-200 cm
- Maximum user weight: 120 Kg
- Collapsible: Yes, within a few minutes
- Weight: –
- Warranty: 1 year
- Price: 116-128 euro / 138-152 USD
The Pull-Up Mate actually looks a lot like the Gravity Fitness portable pull-up station. There are some differences in colours and it’s a bit smaller but higher. Most importantly, the bottom part is built differently.
The bottom provides less stability. The Gravity Fitness bar fully touches the ground in the shape of an “H”. The Pull-Up Mate does not. On uneven surfaces this is a disadvantage. It also makes the Pull-Up Mate less compatible with tricks. You can do the same exercises as with the Gravity Fitness bar. Because of the higher “H-bottom” you can perform push-ups on more easily, which is a plus. The Pull-Up Mate does come with anti-slip matts.
It is fully collapsible and you can build it up within minutes. There are different expansion packs to the pull-up mate such as the Pull-Up Mate II, which gives you 2 extra vertical bars for more stability and to practice the human flag on. The upgrade costs more, of course. Other extensions are for increased height, dips and hang. A storage bag can also be purchased. The upgrades make it more expensive, of course. But it will give you a more complete training experience in return.
#4 Zider Sport Free-Standing Pull-Up Bar With Dip Station
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 120x92x135-245 cm
- Maximum user weight: 300 Kg
- Collapsible: No
- Weight: 25 Kg
- Warranty: –
- Price: 180 euro / 214 USD
- Get in on Amazon
The Zider Pull-up Station is a bit different from the first three. It is not made to be collapsible. This provides more stability compared to the other ones. But obviously you cannot train everywhere you want. This station is made for pull-ups, dips, leg raises, front/back lever, etc. It is steady as a rock (300 kg maximum user weight) to perform tricks like 360 muscle-ups on. It’s also incredible for tall people over 190 cm since the maximum height is 245 cm. With most pull-up bars tall people need to bend their knees and with this bar you don’t have to. If you’re more into tricks or/and are tall we recommend this station, especially if you always want to train inside. It also comes with anti-slip matts.
#5 Sportroyals Power Tower Pull-Up Bar with Dip Station
- Dimensions (LxWxH): 110x104x165-225 cm
- Maximum user weight: 150 Kg
- Collapsible: No
- Weight: –
- Warranty: 3 years on Amazon
- Price: 288 euro / 344 USD
- Get it on amazon
The Sportsroyal Power Tower is a multifunctional station for pull-ups, dips, leg raises and push-ups. It has a long design to make it more stable and the arm support has a light tilt. They created it this way so that hands don’t slip away while doing your exercises. It’s also the first free standing pull-up bar with soft handgrips on all bars. For leg raises you have back support, which can be nice. It is one of the more stable stations and comes with anti-slip matts. The height can be adjusted to 225 cm which – again – is good for tall people. Unfortunately, it’s not collapsible and takes some time to build up.
#6 Power Station with Pull-up Bar
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 76x68x180-190 cm
- Maximum user weight: 150 Kg
- Collapsible: No
- Weight: 13 Kg
- Warranty: –
- Price: 100 euro / 119 USD
- Get it on Amazon
This is a simple pull-up station and the cheapest on our list. It’s very small and light to replace on the same level. However, it is not collapsible. On this station you can do pull-ups, chin ups, leg raises and dips. What makes the Sportsroyal Tower better than this power station is the stability it provides.
The power station has a small H frame which causes less stability (even with its anti slip matts) and is not suitable for tricks. If you want a cheap pull-up station you can buy this one, but the GF and pull-up mate offer you way more for just 20-30 euro / 25-35 USD extra.
#7 Slavikosway 9010019 Pull-up Station
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 114x101x191 cm
- Maximum user weight: –
- Collapsible: Yes
- Weight: –
- Warranty: –
- Price: 109 euro/ 129 USD
- Get it on Amazon
The Slavikosway looks exactly like the Pull-Up Mate. It also has the same colours which is very remarkable. You can do the same exercises on it as on the pull-up mate, but there are 2 major differences. The Slavikosway pull-up station is a bit smaller so provides less stability and it doesn’t get the upgrade perks you get with the Pull-Up Mate. To be honest, it looks like a cheaper replica of the Pull-Up Mate. But it is actually not much cheaper. It is collapsible but doesn’t come with a storage bag like is the case with Gravity Fitness and can be purchased additionally with the Pull-Up Mate. Still, it’s a well-functioning portable pull-up bar.
#8 Sport-Thieme Bodyweight Gym
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 80-120x77x125,5-195,5 cm
- Maximum user weight: 100 Kg
- Collapsible: Partly
- Weight: 19 Kg
- Warranty: –
- Price: 205 euro / 243 USD
- Get it on Sport-Thieme.nl
The Sport-Thieme Bodyweight Gym provides a unique system. The minimum size is 80 x 77 x125,5 cm and looks like a parallettes bar. However, for pull-ups you can increase the height and length with 10 cm until you reach 120 x 77 x 195,5 cm. This gives you more opportunities for functional exercises like Australian pull-ups with your legs resting high on the bar for extra difficulty. This comes with a small price. In its regular form for pull-ups the stability is great, but if you flip it on the non-extendable side the stability is not so great. This only matters in more difficult exercises. Another stability downside is that is does not have anti slip-matts.
It is light-weight so you can take it with you everywhere, whether you work out at home or in a calisthenics parc on walking distance. Traveling by car will be more difficult with small cars. The big minus for this bar is that its only available in Europe.
#9 Pull-up Fitness Trainer Black
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- Dimensions (LxWxH) 120x101x140-220 cm
- Maximum user weight: 150Kg
- Collapsible: No
- Weight: –
- Warranty: unknown
- Price: 150 euro / 178 USD
- Get it on Amazon
This station is different from the other ones. You can perform pull-ups, chin-ups and leg raises on it, but no dips or push-ups. Not so great for calisthenics, however with a barbell and weights you’re able to do bench presses, squats and deadlifts. It’s not worth to buy for the sole purpose of calisthenics, but worth buying if you like fitness as well. A barbell with a set of weights usually costs around 300 euro / 356 USD depending on the weights you want. You will need a bench too. A big pro is that you can train your legs properly, which can be more difficult in calisthenics, and have some kind of home gym. It’s not portable. It does have anti-slip matts. You will need some space for the barbell if you want to do pull-ups.
So if you want to invest into a complete gym with a bench, weights and a barbell this is a solid choice. The price will increase accordingly.
#10 Pull-up Fitness Portable Pull-Up Bar
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- Dimensions (LxWxH): 110-180x120x140-250 cm
- Maximum user weight: 150 Kg
- Collapsible: Partly, within minutes
- Weight: –
- Warranty: –
- Price: 175 euro / 207 USD
- Get it on Amazon
This pull-up system is also different from the rest. It’s made for pull-ups, chin-ups and leg raises. The system can be folded so you can put it away whenever you don’t want it in the room or need space. With its length and width, it is suitable for tricks in vertical range and rings for push and dip exercises. Since it looks like a swing set for children you can hang anything on it like swing chairs for example on a birthday. It’s so low on our list since there are far better options for less money.
Conclusion
After considering and trying out so many different free-standing pull up bars our team got together to choose a favourite. It was easier than we though. We all still favour the Portable Bodyweight & Pull-up Rack by Gravity Fitness (GF). It’s make-up, materials, shape, adjustability and great diversity in use really make it stand out from other available equipment. The range of exercises it allows you to do is awesome. It’s easy to set up and carry around with the bag that comes with it. It was really created to allow you to use it anywhere you want. And you can even use it in combination with gymnastic rings, which we really enjoy too. So if you want the best, stable and most diverse rack for the best available price, we highly recommend you to get the Portable Bodyweight & Pull-up Rack by Gravity Fitness (GF).
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FAQ Free Standing Pull-Up Bar
What is a Free Standing Pull-Up Bar?
A free standing pull-up bar is an excellent choice if you’re not satisfied with a wall-mounted pull-up bar or other pull-up stations. With free standing pull-up bars there is no limit to the space you have to take into consideration. You can train inside and outside whenever you want. Free standing pull-up bars are usually very versatile since you can adjust them in height for all kinds of exercises. The only downside can be their stability in comparison with a wall-mounted pull-up bar.
Which Exercises are Safe on a Free Standing Pull-up Bar?
Free standing pull-up bars may be less stable than wall-mounted ones bu they are still stable enough for exercising. Their shape makes sure the centre of gravity is right for you. That way, they provide the stability you need for your pull-ups, push-ups, dips, leg raises, etc. And you can even perform your front/back levers on it. You can hang rings on some of them to perform low exercises such as a chest fly. But it gets tricky with stuff like a 360 muscle up. When you have a solid ground that the bar can stand on and you begin from a dead hang it should be possible. But if you jump in on it the force could swipe you over. For those kind of tricks, a wall-mounted pull-bar provides more safety. In conclusion, you can safely perform about 80% of all exercises on a free-standing bar. Just be careful with explosive tricks.
How Do I Install a Free Standing pull-up Bar?
Free standing pull-up bars are easy to install. They come with instructions, of course. They are basically steel pipes that are put over each other and locked with the locks that come with them. So no worries. The construction will not collapse while you are training.
Where Can I Use a Free Standing Pull-Up Bar?
You can use them anywhere you want, as long as you have a square of 120 cm by 120 cm. If you’re inside and a low ceiling, bars are often adjustable. In Summer, you can easily train in your garden or a parc nearby. And in Winter, you set it up somewhere in your house.
