Ah–Pullups! The measure of a man, the maker of a woman, on of the overall best upper body exercises you’ll ever have the pleasure of enjoying!
Why You Needa Be Doin’ Pullups!
Even before the snazzy infomercial gadgets came out, it was a well known fact that the good old fashioned pullup is a heck of an exercise.
- It works virtually every muscle in your body — maybe not the ole legs, but from the “core” up!
- It’s a *useful* exercise – not like the other exercise some nimrods think is the measure of a man (bench press) because you might actually have to pull yourself over something.
- It’s convenient – because you can do them virtually anywhere (unlike mr. silly bench press).
“But Caleb! I Ain’t Got No Pullup Bar!”
The shame! The Agony! It’s ok. Take a deep breath, we’re gonna solve this dilemna right now!
1. Try a Tree!
Instead of a pullup bar, go find a tree with a branch that sticks out over your head! That’s sure to give you something to hang from. Then when you find that branch to hang from you could start doing pullups off it!
2. Get a Rope!
You could get a climbing rope, which besides being a fine exercise in its own right — is a great alternative to pullups. A few ups and downs the old rope will get the same muscles activated. Try it without your feet for a special feeling. I’ve not met a guy or gal who could climb ropes well and wasn’t strong.
3. Take it to the door!
If you have a sturdy door (like when you’re on vacation or otherwise traveling in hotels) you can just do straight up door pullups.
These are quite good as a functional exercise actually, as they mimic you finding a way to get yourself over a wall or something like that right nicely.
4. Use The Door Frame!
This is a favorite of mine, since I learned to start doing it back when I was doing more rock climbing with my buddies.
You’ll need to experiment to find the grip that works for your but generally you’ll only be able to get the pads of all four fingers on the door frame, then you take your thumb and wrap it over the top of your index finger for extra support and “whalla!” — your hand becomes a formiddable climbing grip instantly 
5. Do Inverted Rows
This is probably the option that’s going to appeal to most people because you could find a way to do it pretty much anywhere where you’d find a bench press and barbell.
You just simply stick the barbell in the rack like you would for a bench press, then move the bench, grab a hold of the bar and put your feet out in front of ya. Lower yourself back until you’re hanging from the bar with your back as parallel to the floor as possible.
From this position you can perform a nice rowing movement with no worries of not having a pullup bar.
6. Get One Of Them Portable Trainers!
There’s a couple different versions of this now, but they all basically have the same functions. They have handles, they’re made of tough straps and they have hooks or other “attachement devices”. Apparently these are popular with the “green guys” (army folk) because you can take them virtually anywhere and suspend them from virtually anything to do workouts on. Bonus: you can do other stuff with these neat little guys.
7. Lastly, Just Buy a Pullup Bar!
They’re really cheap, you have different options now with the new informercial ones and they even have a cool one with all the straps and goodies attached to it now along with the pullup bar so it’s a “for real” gym-in-a-box for your home.
Just stick that bad boy up in your doorframe to your bedroom — and hardly anyone will ever notice it — but it’ll be your little “secret weapon” for becoming a superman (or superlady as the case were!).
You can do a Pavel “Grease The Groove” method where you just bang out a set number of sub-maximal reps of the pullup every time you pass through your threshhold and you’ll be in great shape in no time. So try one of these pullup alternatives today!
