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Fattening up the chin-up bar
by Scott Bird | August 20, 2006
Filed in DIY
, Equipment
, workouts
| 2 comments
The chin-up bar that forms part of the rack - as much as I love it - was just too thin. At a diameter of around 2.5cm/1”, it was one of the thinnest bars I use.
Fattening it up a little was a relatively simple (and cheap) process, involving nothing more complex than a length of pipe insulation (just rubber tubing), some super glue and a little cloth tape. If you’ve never used the tape, think of duct tape with fibres embedded to strengthen it a bit.
The final bar is now a little under 5cm/2” in diameter (not quite as large as I’d like, but much better than it was), and presents just a little more of a grip challenge.
Quick workout to test out the fattened up bar :
chin-up 5@bw/bent row 10@40/88 (superset, very short rest breaks) 3
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Is the grip squishy? An inch certainly does not feel sufficient. Two inches might be okay. My guess is that 2.5 or so is the limit.
Yep, it’s a bit squishy (quite comfortable) and certainly better than it was. I might bump it up in the future - if I can find a larger sleeve - to about 3” (I’ve got large hands).