This kind of doorway bar unscrews to get wider and wider until it fits very tight in between the doorway. At the ends are rubber so the bar fits really tight. I now have a doorway in my basement that's 39.5" wide. It has been very hard finding a bar with this kind of design to stretch out and fit this wide doorway. I emailed J/Fit directly regarding the size of the bar. They said:
"Thank you for the inquiry. The gym bar will fit in your door, the more important question is your weight. Because of the extra length you are putting more pressure on the middle of the bar. It is a very strong bar and it should be screwed into the side door mounts so the pressure is really the issue that you will have to decide."
I was able to mount this in my doorway without the recommended side door mounts that were included with the bar. I weigh 200 lbs now and I have done about 40 pull-ups on the bar. Overall, I say great product. I also appreciate the grips that are preinstalled on the bar. They are not movable or adjustable, but it doesn't matter, they work and I like them. I do attempt to retighten the bar each time I use it just to be on the safe side. It seems to keep its tension and if I can tighten it down more its minimal. J Fit Deluxe Doorway Pull Up Bar
I bought this bar over the other bars available here for two reasons: the review above said it could be held in place simply by friction and this bar can fit many doorways.
Of course, mounting brackets are provided, but do not seem necessary (then again, I'm not even close to 200 pounds.)
This bar feels quite solid. You spin it, and it telescopes into place. It takes many revolutions to extend even a small distance, so you can secure it pretty well into the doorway (good mechanical advantage! As in physics/engineering mechanical advantage.)
There are foam grips that are quite comfortable. They are sized perfectly for my hands. I suppose if you have small hands, you might not find these grips ideal, but they did a pretty good job of sizing this quite universally. The bar only extends from one end, though, so the grips will be off to the side. But what does that matter? You're not going to hit the door. Just do your pull ups and chin ups.
There might be some fancier models out there that will assist you with your push ups and sit ups (this one won't help you with push ups), but are you really going to take that thing down to do your sit ups and put it back up afterward?
I have recently had a spate of bad luck with the fitness equipment I have ordered off of Amazon. This product arrived broken; it does not unscrew/extend and one of the rubber end caps fell out of the bar the moment I picked it up.
I've recently moved to a transitional apartment while I look for a new home. Said apartment has no doorway mouldings so a leverage based door gym would not work. There was no room for my Powertec cage with the built in chin up bar. A bar such as this was the cheapest/best short term option. That's what I thought anyway. The positive reviews from other users helped decide me on this particular version.
This bar is complete and utter crap. The quality of construction is so poor I was actually surprised any company would attach their name to it. Money wasted.
The bar came with a single sheet of poorly photocopied 'instructions'; weight capacity is listed at 250 pounds, not the over 300 listed in the item description here.
It is possible j-fit is outsourcing to a different company than they did earlier; maybe that's why I got a lemon. Regardless I will not be purchasing anything else from J-fit now or ever.
Buyer beware.
This is the first review that I have ever written with Amazon and I am doing so because I am so impressed with the doorway chin up bar that I felt compelled to write a review. This is the third bar that I have purchased for my son, who is religious with his P90X workouts. The first bar was so cheap that it bent under his weight within the first two weeks and the second bar purchased, fell right out of the door., with my son attached! I decided to purchase the jfit bar because the reviews above indicated it was a strong bar and you do not have to use the brackets to hold the bar in place.
I called jfit and they indicated that yes, this bar can be placed in the doorway without the brackets, but they did not recommend it for safety purposes. I decided to install the brackets as there are only 3 tiny screws that hold it in place and can be easily patched when we decide to take it down. We have used the bar for over a month now and it is by far the best quality of any pull up bar we have found.
Another reason this bar deserves a 5 start review is that it comes with two little red buttons that can be screwed into the bottom of your doorway and you can place the ends of the bar into the red buttons and use it as a secure sit up bar. My son has also used it in this position as a push up bar, although it was never mentioned in the instructions of use! - Pull Ups - Exercise - P90x - Chin Up Bar'
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