“What If You’re Doing Bodyweight Training At Home and You Don’t Have A Pull-Up or Chin-up Bar?”

Pull ups, done with both hands in an overhand (or prone) grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, prove to be the most difficult of the two…

The wide grip isolates your lats, taking away much of the emphasis from the biceps.

The underhand alternative chinups gets high praise as both a bicep- and back-builder.

Pull ups or chin ups are universally considered as one of the very best foundational exercises.

You’d want to include in any basic routine aimed at building overall muscle size and strength.

As long as you have access to a pull up bar of some sort…

I’d definitely recommend including a pull up or chin up exercise in your back training routine.

What if 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.

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 close-grip pull-ups.

 

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

Definitely.

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.

So if you train at home and have been looking for a pull-up solution…

Simply head over to the hardware store ASAP and go grab your C-clamps.

 

Hanging Leg/Knee Raises

You can also perform hanging leg raises and knee raises (as well as any other hanging exercise) with this clamp set-up.

For me, this is especially useful because the chin-up bar in my power rack isn’t tall enough that I can hang freely with straight legs. With the clamps, I can fully hang with a straight body with my feet off the ground.

Using Clamps to Attach Bands

You can also use those C-clamps to anchor training bands.

I use the clamps when I’m doing bench presses adding band resistance (great training explosiveness out of the bottom).

The rack I have doesn’t have posts for attaching bands so I put the clamps onto the bottom base rails and tie the bands onto those.

It’s quick and easy and works like a charm.

What muscles do pull ups work? 

Since pull-ups generally work the muscles in your back, rear shoulders, and arms…

It’s a good idea to combine pull-ups with pushing exercises to train muscles in opposition to back, rear shoulders and biceps.