With the best Portable Pull-Up Bars, you take your Calisthenics anywhere you go. The best Pull-up Bars are strong and stable, as they endure a lot of use (and abuse). Being lightweight enough to be portable can sometimes compromise durability and stability. In this article, I investigate the best Portable Pull-Up Bars. I examine options from different categories of Pull-Up Bars and select the best one. We have already reviewed all these products before, and I’ll leave a link to more in-depth reviews of each product and category. These are the best Portable Pull-Up Bars for travel, storage and transportation.
You can also watch my Best Portable Pull-Up Bars Review on YouTube:
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Best Gymnastic Rings
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Best Telescopic Pull-Up Bar
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Best Doorframe Pull-Up Handles
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Best Free-Standing Bar
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🔑Key Takeaways
- Portable Pull-Up Bars are lightweight and compact, yet they allow you to perform basic Pull-up exercises.
- The best Portable Pull-Up Bars are Gymnastic Rings. With these rings, you can do all your Pull-Up exercises, but also many other exercises by adjusting the height of the rings. Gymnastic Rings are also the most compact and lightweight of all the options. The best Gymnastic Rings are by Gorletic.
- Collapsing, telescopic Doorway Pull-Up Bars are also a compact and lightweight option for a Portable Pull-Up Bar that can be used wherever you have a door to install it. They are also relatively cheap but safe to use. The best Doorway Pull-Up Bar is the Pullup & Dip Telescopic Pull-Up Bar.
- Doorframe Pull-Up Bars can also be used as a Portable Pull-Up Bar. Larger doorframe designs, such as the Gornation Hook-It, offer a lot of versatility and will still fit in a car. Doorframe pull-up handles, such as the Duonamic Eleviia, are light, compact, and provide a mounting point for other equipment as well.
- Freestanding Pull-Up Bars typically make for poor Portable Pull-Up Bars due to their size and weight. The Gravity Fitness Pull-Up Rack stands out for its lightweight design, easy assembly, and affordable price. The Bullbar 2.0 Foldable Pull-Up Bar features a unique design that allows for easy folding, similar to a harmonica, but it is more expensive. Both these options would still require transport by car.
What Are Portable Pull-Up Bars?
The most important aspect of Portable Pull-Up Bars is that they are portable. Whether you take them travelling or just like to be mobile with your exercise, a Portable Pull-Up Bar needs to be light and compact. Another case might be that you don’t have the room for a permanent setup like with a Home Pull-Up Bar, and you need to be able to quickly install and remove (and store) a Pull-Up Bar that is as compact as can be. In all these cases, you still want a stable and safe bar that you can use for your exercises.
#1 Gymnastic Rings
The first and best option to use as a Portable Pull-Up Bar is not a Pull-Up Bar at all, but Gymnastic Rings. When it comes to portability, weight, size, strength and versatility, nothing beats Gymnastic Rings. You can do all your Pull-Ups, Chin-Ups, Leg Raises, and so on with Gymnastic Rings. The easy height adjustment also allows you to perform your levers, rollovers, dips, and push-ups. The rings can completely replace a static, portable or travel Pull-Up Bar and do even more. You only need to transport the rings and the straps, and that’s it.
The only downside of Gymnastic Rings in a travelling context is that they don’t come with their own mounting point. For this, you’ll need an anchor of some sort. My favourite solutions are the Duonamic Eleviia Pull-Up clamps as mounts, or to use a local Calisthenics Park.
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The best product in this category is the Gorletic Gymnastics Rings. Wooden rings are the best choice, and Gorletic is undefeated in making wooden Calisthenics products. The straps on the Gorletic Gymnastic Rings are also marked with clearly visible numbers.
#2 Doorway Pull-Up Bars
Doorway Pull-Up Bars don’t require any anchors and can be placed in a sturdy doorway. When used as Portable Pull-Up Bars, these Door Pull-Up Bars are the second-best option, after Gymnastic Rings, and they are a close second at that. You place the bar in a doorway and twist the handle until the bar sits snug. Modern Doorway Pull-Up Bars from reputable brands are very safe, and they are our favourite type of Door Pull-Up Bars.
You are still very versatile with your exercises. Like with Gymnastic Rings, you can easily adjust the height of the bar. You can use your Doorway Pull-Up Bar for your Pull-Ups, Chin-Ups, and Leg Raises, but you can also use it as a horizontal dip bar or a horizontal Push-Up Bar. The versatility of a Doorway Pull-Up Bar is only limited by the width of your door, and in most cases, this means no wide variant exercises.
The best-tested Doorway Pull-Up Bar is the Pullup & Dip Telescopic Pull-Up Bar. This bar is strong and safe and fits into a suitcase with ease. Gornation also introduced their own telescopic bar, called the Gornation Extend-It Door Pull-Up Bar. Both products are nearly identical, including the price.
#3 Doorframe Pull-Up Bars
A Doorframe Pull-Up Bar goes over the frame of a door and either clamps itself shut when you hang from it or hooks itself against the frame. There is a big difference between these two.
A hooking Doorframe Pull-Up Bar is far larger and won’t fit in most suitcases. However, transportation by car is still very easy. The best product in this category is the Gornation Hook-It Doorframe Pull-Up Bar. This bar can be folded very flat for easier travel. When mounted on a doorframe, you get a wider grip than with a doorway design. The Gornation also has two horizontal bars. The thinner top bar is used for Pull-Ups, Chin-Ups and Toe Touches, while the thicker lower bar is nice for lever-based exercises. Another advantage is that the Gornation Hook-It is quite wide, allowing for Wide Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups.
A completely different take on the doorframe design is Pull-Up Handles. These handles surround the doorframe, and their design allows them to grip tighter when pulled. The Duonamic Eleviia Pull-Up Handles are the best product in this category. Duonamic is the original Pull-Up Handles design, delivering the highest quality. The drawback of Duonamic is its price.
#4 Freestanding Pull-Up Bars
A Freestanding Pull-up Bar offers the most height and the convenience of free movement around the bar. Their size does not make them the most obvious choice as a Portable Pull-Up Bar. However, two products do stand out for being more easily transported.
The Gravity Fitness Pull-Up Rack took first place in our review of the Best Freestanding Pull-Up Bars. It features a lightweight yet stable design with an excellent grip. It also offers versatility for your exercises and can double as a Static Bar and a Push-Up Bar. It is large, but also lightweight for a full-sized design, and quick to assemble and disassemble. In addition to its qualities, it is also the most affordable Freestanding Pull-Up Bar. It’s probably too large to be transported by aeroplane, but if you’re travelling by car, the Gravity Fitness Pull-Up Rack is undoubtedly an option.
Another option for a full-sized Portable Pull-Up Bar is the Bullbar Folding Pull-Up Bar. The Bullbar loses out to the Gravity Fitness in almost every way. It is more expensive, it’s shorter and much more expensive. However, the Bullbar Folding Pull-Up Bar has one advantage over the Gravity Fitness Pull-Up Rack in terms of portability. The Bullbar Folding Pull-Up Bar can be folded up like a harmonica. Deploying and disassembling the Bullbar is very quick, and in the time it takes you to apply a telescoping Doorway Pull-Up Bar, you could also set up the Bullbar.
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Conclusions About the Best Portable Pull-Up Bars
The best Portable Pull-Up Bar is the one you can afford and actually transport from A to B. That last criterion probably eliminates Freestanding Pull-Up Bars in most cases, unless you’re travelling by car and have space to spare in the trunk or on the backseat. Doorframe Pull-Up Bars are also likely too large to be portable as a travel Pull-Up Bar, unless you’re willing to fork out the money for the Duonamic Eleviia handles.
When I think of portable, I think of travel. Plane, train, car, bike or even on foot. Wherever you go, you take your Portable Pull-Up Bar with you. That means you should be able to comfortably carry your Pull-Up Bar by hand. A telescoping Doorway Pull-Up Bar fits that bill. Light, small and easily installable wherever you are in the world. They don’t cost the world, either.
Gymnastic Rings have my ultimate preference, since they are great all-around for Calisthenics, and they are lightweight and compact. You just need to plan a little ahead to determine where you can hang them at your destination. Whether that destination has a Calisthenics Park or you bring a set of doorframe handles, Gymnastic Rings give you the same versatility in exercise you had at home.
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Best Gymnastic Rings
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Best Telescopic Pull-Up Bar
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Best Doorframe Pull-Up Handles
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Best Free-Standing Bar
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Frequently Asked Questions About Portable Pull-Up Bars
I found a couple more frequently asked questions about Portable Pull-Up Bars and Travel Pull-Up Bars:
How can I do pull-ups while travelling?
The simplest way is by bringing a compact, lightweight Portable Pull-Up Bar. These are easily installed and don’t take too much room in your luggage. Alternatively, you can use the door itself by pulling yourself up from the top of the door while it is open. To provide some comfort, drape a towel over the top of the door but make sure the door is sturdy enough to hold your weight.
Can I travel with a Pull-Up Bar?
That depends on the travel. If you travel by car, you could feasibly take any Pull-Up Bar with you as long as it fits inside the car. If you’re travelling by plane, you’ll be limited to luggage weight and the number of bags you can bring. In that case, the Portable Pull-Up Bar will have to fit within those constraints.
How to do a pull-up in a hotel?
The simplest answer would be to make use of the hotel’s amenities, should they possess a fitness room. If they don’t then the second-best option (but which is usually the reality) is to bring your own Portable Pull-Up Bar. Finally, if you’re completely left out of options, you can simply pull up on the door itself.
What is the best travel Pull-Up Bar according to Amazon?
The Duonamic Eleviia is the most popular Portable Pull-Up Bar on Amazon at the moment. Although not the cheapest option, verified buyers are lauding it for its simplicity, strength, small dimensions and weight and the versatility of exercises you can do with them.
How do you make a Pull-Up Bar with a towel?
You don’t. The stand-in for the Pull-Up Bar is an opened door from which you do your pull-ups. The towel you can drape over the door to provide a modicum of comfort to your hands.
How can I do Pull-Ups without a bar?
Your options here are to visit a gym which has a Pull-Up Bar, visit a Calisthenics Park or even a playground with a monkey rack, use a thick tree branch or the upper side of an opened door.
