Ultimate Body Press Joist Mounted Ergonomic Pull Up Bar Review

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The Ultimate Body Press Joist Pull Up Bar is an excellent choice for garage gyms, with a weight capacity of 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.

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 Joist Mounted version compare to their doorway pull up bars? Also, is there a difference between Joist Mounted and Ceiling Mounted 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 have two pull up bars you can mount to the ceiling: their Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar, and this Joist Mounted Pull Up Bar.

The main difference is that the Joist Mount bar requires an exposed joist. This can be useful for garage gyms, or where the ceiling joists aren’t 16 or 24 inches apart, as is required by their Ceiling Mounted bar.

One advantage is that the Joist Mount bar is much cheaper than the Ceiling Mounted version. Unfortunately, you have sacrifice the neutral grip position, and you don’t have the same high-density padding to protect your hands.

If a neutral grip is something you need, Ultimate Body Press have a second version of their Joist Mount Pull Up Bar, which has the neutral grips and padding.

But you can still perform chin ups, pull ups, and wide grip pulls using the ergonomic bar. Due to the ceiling clearance and lack of straight sections to hold onto, it’s not possible to perform muscle ups or kipping pull ups.

If these are exercises you want to include in your workouts, we recommend finding a ceiling mounted pull up bar with more riser height. Ultimate Body Press have their own version for 9ft ceilings, or the Stud Bar has proven extremely popular.

Back to the UBP Joist Mount Bar, and the heavy-duty steel construction is strong enough to act as an anchor point for ab slings and suspension trainers, such as TRX. The 16-inch risers are also short enough to not obstruct the space below.

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:

Straight Joist Mounted Bar Assembly Steps

1. Choose a location for your pull up bar.
2. Hold the left half of the pull up bar (part #1) against the joist and mark the location of the upper mounting hole. Pre-drill the hole using a 7/16″ bit.
3. Assemble the two halves of the Pull Up Bar using 2 short black bolts and 2 lock washers
4. Install the Handles using SHORT black bolts (part #4) on the front and LONG bolts (part #5) from the back. Include both flat and lock washers (parts #7, #9) in the order shown in the diagram.
5. Hang the the pull up bar from the predrilled hole using one long bolt (part #6). Hand tighten the lock nut (part #10) to the bolt to support the bar.
6. Make sure the pull up bar is level and mark the location of the 3 remaining mounting holes.
7. Remove the pull up bar and pre-drill the remaining holes.
8. Secure the pull up bar to the joist using the long bolts, washers and lock nuts (parts #6, #8, #10).
9. Tighten all bolts and carefully examine your installation to ensure that the pull up bar are securely fastened in place before attempting using the pull up bar

Exercise Options

As a single, straight pull up bar, the Ultimate Body Press Joist Mounted design supports fewer exercises than a doorway pull up bar.

Unfortunately, you don’t have the parallel bars, so there’s no neutral grip pull ups. It also requires fixing to the ceiling, so you can’t put it on the floor for push ups or dips.

But you can still perform hanging leg raises, and the angles in the bar create anchor points for suspension trainers and ab slings.

The 16″ risers are 2-inches longer than with their Ceiling Mounted Pull Up Bar, but it’s unlikely to be enough to perform kipping pull ups.

If this is something that’s important to your home workouts, you might want to consider the Stud Bar. The version for 10ft ceilings has a riser height of around 32″. This should be enough to perform the exercise safely.

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 ceiling height.

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 Joist Mounted Pull Up Bar, based on direct customer feedback.

Pros:

Cons: