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The Ultimate Body Press Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar is designed for homes with 16 inch or 24 inch joists, and strong enough to support over 300 lbs.
The cambered bar supports multiple grip positions, allowing you to perform pull ups and chin ups, with a narrow or wide grip. Risers are also 2″ shorter than their Joist Mounted pull up bar, making it an excellent choice for garage gyms.
Hanging leg raises can also be performed to target your ab muscles, and the bar is an ideal anchor point for workout accessories like Ab Straps, Gymnastic Rings and Suspension Trainers.
But how does the Ultimate Body Press Ceiling Mounted version compare to their doorway pull up bars?
In this review, we’ll walk you through the features and installation process, to help you decide if this is the best pull up bar for your own home workouts.
Design Features
Ultimate Body Press produce some of the top rated pull up bars on the market, and their Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar is no exception.
The patented 14-inch reversible risers create a 20-inch parallel grip spacing. This neutral grip position is ideal for anyone that wants to avoid wide grip pull ups due to a pre-existing rotator cuff injury.
Because the risers are reversible, this is classed as a universal fit ceiling mount, suitable for 16 inch or 24 inch joists measured on-center.
Both the parallel bars and the full length pull up bar are coated with high-density foam grips. This helps to reduce the pressure on your hands and prevent them from slipping off the bar.
Ultimate Body Press vs. Gronk Fitness
There aren’t many other ceiling mounted pull up bars that support the neutral grip position. Most, like the designs from Stud Bar and Titan Fitness, provide you with a longer straight bar, which also requires more space and longer mounting plates.
Gronk Fitness has a monkey bar that’s ceiling mountable, with a wider choice of grip positions than the Ultimate Body Press design.
But at the time of writing this review, the Gronk Fitness bar cost $60 more, but it does claim to support up to 800 lbs.
UBP Ceiling Pull Up Bar – Product Summary
- Ceiling mounted pull up bar for homes with 16 inch or 24 inch joists measured ‘on-center’
- Includes ceiling mount pull up bar hardware, template and instructions for guaranteed easy mounting
- Patented 14 inch Reversible Risers set ideal 20″ parallel grip spacing and pull up bar height.
- Durable Powdercoat Finish.
- High density foam grips and three grip positions let you target more muscles over longer workouts
Assembly and Installation
Required Tools
All mounted bars include heavy duty hardware and complete mounting instructions specific to each bar. To complete your installation, you’ll need:
- Power Drill
- 5/16ths inch drill bit
- Socket adapter for the drill
- 17mm Socket
- 17mm Wrench
- Level, Pencil, and Tape
Installation Steps
Ultimate Body Press are excellent at providing clear assembly instructions for their pull up bars.
For their Ceiling Mounted version, most of the steps are tips for how to find and mark the pilot holes in the rafters. This includes using a 5/16 inch drill bit that’s at least 3 inches long to pre-drill the holes for a more secure installation.
There’s no exploded diagram showing how each part fits together, but ceiling and wall mounted bars are always easier than doorway trainers.
Click here to view the user manual and complete set of assembly instructions for the Ultimate Body Press Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar.
Exercise Options
The Ultimate Body Press Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar provides a wider range of exercise options than designs like the Stud Bar. That’s because you have parallel bars mounted on the risers, instead of a single, straight pull up bar.
Unfortunately, you still need to fix it to the ceiling, so you can’t perform push ups or dips from the floor.
Although the risers are reversible, the shape of them means the parallel bars remain 20″ apart in each configuration. This is often considered the optimal distance for neutral grip/hammer grip pull ups.
You can also perform wide or narrow grip pull ups and chin ups with a pronated or supinated grip (overhand or underhand). Hanging leg raises are an option if you have high ceilings.
But if you want to perform kipping pull ups, the Stud Bar could be a better option.
That’s because the risers are shorter on the UBP design, and the 20″ gap between risers may not be enough to perform the exercise comfortably.
So, while it may not be as versatile as a doorway pull up bar, you can still train your biceps, shoulders, abs, and back muscles. It’s also a better investment for the long-term, if strength is your goal and you have the space.
What Do Other 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 Ultimate Body Press Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar, based on direct customer feedback.
Pros:
- Comes with a guide to tape to the ceiling to make holes for drilling into the studs
- Quick and easy assembly and installation
- Sturdy fixings mean there’s no movement in the bar during pull ups
- Grips are comfortable and well padded
- Positioning of the parallel handles helps reduce the pressure on shoulders
- Riser height creates enough distance from the ceiling to perform full pull ups without hitting your head
- High quality welds and the 10.9 grade hex bolts provide added peace of mind
- Wider grip options available compared to doorway pull up bars
- Many customers report using the Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar successfully in the Insanity and P90X home workout programs
- Ultimate Body Press have an excellent customer service record, and quickly respond to emails or problems in Amazon reviews
Cons:
- Template for drilling the mounting holes is quite flimsy. To avoid drilling the holes too close together, some customers attached the guide to a solid piece of cardboard or wood before measuring.
At the time of writing, 87% of Amazon reviews rated the Ultimate Body Press Ceiling Pull Up Bar 4 stars or higher.
There were only a handful of negative reviews, some of which were due to occasional defects in manufacturing, which have since been resolved by the company.
Review Overview
Overall Review Rating
4.5 / 5
Ultimate Body Press are one of the biggest names in body weight fitness equipment. But is their Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar worth buying?
The ergonomic shape of the bar is a major advantage, as it positions your hands in a way that best targets the back muscles you’re targeting. The downward angle of the wide grip, for example, helps boost the contraction in your lats and middle back.
The neutral grip position is also excellent for anyone that suffers from rotator cuff problems during the wide grip pull ups.
In terms of value for money, yes it’s more expensive than a doorway pull up bar, but is about average when compared to other ceiling mounted bars.
The only slight downside is that the risers are a fixed height. This is compared to the Stud Bar, which is available in several variations to suit different ceiling heights (8-foot, 9-foot, and 10-foot).
But the Stud Bar is nearly twice the price of the Ultimate Body Press version, and doesn’t have the neutral grip.
Overall, this is a sturdy, versatile ceiling pull up bar that’s perfect for home and garage gyms. It’s also one of only a few to offer the neutral grip position (Gronk Fitness have a monkey bar, but it costs over $140).
Weight capacity: 300 lbsUSA Home Gym gives in-depth insights into gym equipment, supplements, and fitness training methods. The motivation behind USA Home Gym is to provide you with information that goes beyond what you can find in any user manual, customer review, or other online review sites.
We go to great lengths to ensure that our reviews are completely comprehensive, usually covering everything from the design features to the warranty coverage and exercise options. This is all to help guide you towards the home gym equipment that’s best suited to your goals and budget, whilst also being the highest quality option in your chosen price range.