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The Ultimate Body Press XL Doorway Pull Up Bar is one of the most popular doorway pull up bars on Amazon, with a 300 lb weight capacity.
Its multiple grip positions allow you to perform neutral grip pull ups, chin ups, push ups, and wide grip pull ups. This allows you to target a wide range of muscle groups, including biceps, back, shoulders, and chest.
But how does the Ultimate Body Press XL compare to straight 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
The most obvious feature of the Ultimate Body Press XL is the elevated pull up position. There are only a handful of elevated pull up bars on the market, which includes the XL, and the GoFit Elevated Chin Up Station.
At the time of writing this review, the XL had a higher average rating on Amazon, but cost around $8 more than the GoFit bar.
In our opinion, the Ultimate Body Press XL has the better design, with an ergonomic bar shape that supports chin ups and dips, in addition to most types of pull up.
The solid construction means it can support up to 300 lbs, and it fits all residential doorways from 24″ to 36″ wide, with molding up to 3.5″ wide.
This is one of the only downsides, that the XL elevated pull up bar can only be fitted to doors with relatively thin molding. To put this in perspective, the Perfect Fitness Multi-Gym can fit to 6-inch molding.
However, the bestselling Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar also only fits door moldings up to 3 ½ inches wide. We recommend double checking the molding width on the door you intend to use it on before making a final buying decision.
Ultimate Body Press XL – Product Summary
- Pull up workouts that build muscle across the chest, arms, back, and core
- Exercises include pull-ups, push-ups, body weight rows, dips, and sit ups
- Elevated Bar with premium construction
- Supports up to 300 pounds
- Expandable bar ends fit all residential doorways 24″ to 36″ wide, with molding up to 3.5″ wide
- ABS couplers secure a tight and rigid frame
- High density foam grips reduce strain for better workouts
- Quickly switch between doorway and floor exercises
- Use as part of a full body gym with suspension trainers, ab straps and gymnastic rings
Assembly and Installation
Quick and easy assembly is one of the main benefits to buying a doorway pull up bar, which is true of the Ultimate Body Press XL.
With ceiling and wall-mounted pull up bars, you need a stud detector to find the studs, check the pilot hole distance with a tape measure, drill pilot holes, etc.
Fortunately, this elevated doorway pull up bar requires no power tools, measuring tape, or level. Ultimate Body Press simply supply you with instructions and a diagram showing how everything fits together.
A socket wrench makes tightening the bolts easier, but you’ll want to wait until they’re lined up and all the bars are joined before tightening them fully.
Exercise Options
The Ultimate Body Press XL Bar supports a complete upper body workout, using only your body weight for resistance.
There are 6 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.
What’s important about this design is the angles at the end of the bar. Most doorway pull up bars are straight, but if you ever use a freestanding power tower or wide grip lat pulldown machine, you’ll notice they have the same feature.
This allows you to use a much wider grip and get a better squeeze through your shoulder blades to target the inner back. The elevated position means the wide grip position can also be used for hanging leg raises more easily than with bars like the Sportneer Multi-Grip.
Chin ups can also 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.
What do the Ultimate Body Press XL 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 XL, based on direct customer feedback.
Pros:
- Supports the full range of pull up positions – wide grip, narrow grip, and hammer grip
- Elevated bar positions enable taller users to achieve a full range of motion during pull ups and chin ups
- Supplied with extension bars to cater for wider doorways
- Easy assembly and quick install for when you need a fast home workout
- Sturdy and safe to use as part of a body weight workout program
- Excellent customer service, with any parts issues quickly rectified in the reviews we read
- Requires less space than a power tower
- No permanent fixings required, so no screw holes in your door frame – ideal for rented or student accommodation
- Supports chest and tricep exercises, in addition to back and bicep training
- Backed by one of the most trusted names in body weight fitness equipment – Ultimate Body Press
Cons:
- Not as affordable as a straight pull up bar or conventional (non-elevated) doorway pull up bar
- Heavier than most doorway pull up bars, with relatively thin padding on the contact points with the door frame
- A number of negative reviews were due to the bar not fitting their doorway. Please double check measurements before buying, including moulding height and door width
- A small number of manufactured defects in the hole positions meant the metal bars weren’t parallel. In the reviews we found, Ultimate Body Press responded directly and offered a replacement or refund via Amazon or their own dedicated customer service center
Review Overview
Overall Review Rating
4 / 5
So, is the Ultimate Body Press XL Doorway Pull Up Bar worth buying?
Usually retailing for just under $60 makes it the most expensive doorway pull up bar on the market. That’s about 20% more expensive than the Elevated Chin Up Station from GoFit.
We certainly agree that it’s better than the GoFit version, and the fact there are only a couple of elevated pull up bars on the market makes it difficult to make a fair comparison.
No other leverage doorway pull up bar fits a wider range of door frames, from 24” to 36” in width. The Sportneer bar has a slightly higher weight capacity, but 300 lbs is still impressive.
There’s also no patented doorway protection, as you get with the Perfect Fitness Multi-Gym pull up bars.
Unless you need the extra clearance height from the floor (over 6ft tall), we don’t see why the price should be more than twice that of the ProSource Multi-Grip.
Weight capacity: 300 lbs
USA 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.
