Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Pull Up Bar

GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station Review

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The GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station is one of the best examples of a portable doorway pull up bar, with padded grips to increase comfort and reduce fatigue.

Its lightweight design means it can be placed in any standard doorway, from 32″ to 34″ in width. Leverage on the door frame means there’s no need for mounting brackets, yet you still benefit from a weight capacity of 300 lbs.

But how does the GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station compare to straight doorway pull up bars, like the GoFit Chin Up Bar?

In this review, we’ll walk you through the design features and installation process, to help you decide if this is the best pull up bar for your own home workouts.

Design Features

GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station Fitted to Doorway

As the premium doorway pull up bar from GoFit, we hoped the Elevated Chin Up Station had a design that rivalled the Ultimate Body Press XL. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

GoFit also have a straight doorway pull up bar, called the Chin Up Bar, which has hundreds of positive reviews on Amazon, and is reasonably priced.

The Elevated Chin Up Station costs over $50, which is similar to the elevated bar from Ultimate Body Press, but with a few significant differences.

Firstly, it’s designed to fit doorways from 32 to 34 inches wide. That’s much more restrictive than the 24 to 36-inch doorway width supported by the UBP version.

Also, while the wide pull up bar features an ergonomic grip design, there’s no straight section to hold onto. The UBP XL Doorway Pull Up Bar has the angled end sections, but also retains the straight bar, to suit your preferred grip.

In terms of weight capacity, they both support up to 300 lbs. They can also both be removed from the door frame to perform sit ups, crunches, and push ups, in addition to the pull up variations.

We were disappointed with the lack of padded grip on the low bar of the GoFit Elevated. While most of your chin ups will be performed from the elevated position, having the padded grip would give you another grip position. This is what Ultimate Body Press have achieved with their XL Doorway Pull Up Bar.

Why Buy an Elevated Pull Up Bar?

The main goal of the elevated pull up position is to give you more clearance from the floor, for taller users to achieve the full range of motion during your workout. This is something both bars do well, and the leverage is sturdy enough to hold the bar securely in place.

GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station

GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station – Product Summary

  • Instantly and easily mounts in a standard doorway with no screws, using leverage and gravity
  • Multi-use Chin Up Station elevates you above the door frame giving more clearance and a full range of motion for a better workout
  • Fits most standard doorways (32 to 34 inches)
  • Padded handles for various grips
  • Use for chin-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, dips, abdominals, and more
  • Includes 1 Elevated Chin Up Station with all assembly hardware, laminated exercise flip book, parts and assembly instructions
  • Weight capacity: 300 lbs

Assembly and Installation

GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station Assembly Instructions

Safe Pull Up Workouts

Doorway pull up bars that rely on leverage pressure to hold them in place are very safe to use.

But GoFit have still included a Metal Wedge to prevent any movement when it’s mounted on the door moulding.

This is a simple piece of metal that’s designed to slide between the door frame and the moulding. There’s no need for any screws or permanent fixings, which is something that’s required to secure the Iron Gym Extreme Pull Up Bar.

How to Assemble

The exploded diagram showing how each part fits together is probably all you need to assemble the bar.

But GoFit have also included detailed assembly instructions in a step-by-step guide, complete with written explanations and photos.

Click here to view the complete GoFit Elevated user manual. This includes exploded assembly diagrams, parts lists, instructions, and how to mount and remove the bar from your door frame.

Exercise Options

The GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station supports a complete upper body workout, using only your body weight for resistance.

There are 5 grip positions to choose from, including pronated and supinated (overhand and underhand) pull ups. You can also use a neutral/hammer grip to target the forearms and brachialis. This makes it one of the most effective exercises for training your back and bicep muscles.

Chin ups can be performed with the bar at the top of the door frame, or move it to the base of the frame for sit ups and ab crunches.

Because of its lightweight design, and fact that it requires no permanent fixings, you can also perform exercises away from the door. From the floor, you can perform push ups and tricep dips, to train your chest, tricep, and shoulder muscles.

GoFit Elevated vs. Ultimate Body Press XL

These are currently two of the most popular elevated pull up bars on Amazon, with the GoFit design being the cheaper of the two.

One big difference is the level of grip support on the bar that rests against the door frame. With GoFit Elevated, you don’t have any padded sections to improve your grip during chin ups.

This means chin ups will have to be done with your grip at an angle. Wide grip pull ups must also be performed the same way, as the GoFit Elevated has no straight section to hold onto.

That’s why our personal preference would be for the Ultimate Body Press XL. Although the range of exercises is the same, you’re getting a much better choice of grip positions, and better padding on the handles.

What do other GoFit Elevated reviews say?

An important part of any pull up bar review is to look at the feedback from other people who have bought and used the bar in their home workouts.

How easy was it to fit? Did they have a good experience with customer service? Was the bar strong enough, and were the grips comfortable to hold?

But reading through hundreds or even thousands of reviews can be time consuming. That’s why we did the leg work for you, and created a summary of the pros and cons for the GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station, based on direct customer feedback.

Pros:

  • Elevated position supports the full range of motion for taller users (6ft+) performing pull ups
  • Multiple hand positions for different pull up/chin up variations
  • Portable and easy to use
  • Grips improve the level of comfort on your hands
  • Wipes clean with a damp cloth
  • Quick and easy installation and assembly
  • Having the push up position means you don’t need to buy push up stands separately
  • Clear instructions
  • Protective packaging keeps the parts free from damage before unboxing
  • Suitable for a range of home workout programs, including P90X
  • You can perform leg raises for ab training, thanks to the elevated position

Cons:

  • Mixed feedback for the quality of the screws, nuts, bolts, and locking washers. Some reviews report they’re poor quality, so the customer replaced with sets from a hardware store
  • Not initially clear about what tools to use. Most customers found two adjustable wrenches were sufficient, one to hold the bolt, and one to rotate the locking nut
  • Rubber pads that come into contact with the door frame are quite thin. This means the padding has worn out for some customers, but it can easily be replaced with pipe insulation or padding.
Pull Up Bar Buying Guide

Review Overview

Overall Review Rating

3.5 / 5

So, is the GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station worth buying?

We would only ever recommend an elevated chin up station if you need the extra clearance to achieve full range of motion during pull ups. This is usually only for anyone that’s over 6ft tall.

They’re more expensive than standard doorway pull up bars, and offer no additional grip positions or weight capacity.

The GoFit version is slightly cheaper than the Ultimate Body Press XL doorway pull up bar, but has fewer padded grips. It also doesn’t fit as many door frames (32” to 34” compared to 24” to 36”).

Both work equally well as an anchor point for suspension trainers and ab straps, if you want to expand the range of exercise options.

If you’re looking for an elevated pull up bar for your home workouts, choose the Ultimate Body Press version rather than the GoFit Chin Up Station.

Weight capacity: 300 lbs