You might think that pull up mate is only for pull ups. That’d make sense, right? Wrong.
This is a pretty reasonable mistake to make – it’s really a mobile, complete calisthenics workout partner. It’s a system for every single movement type that you could expect in calisthenics and bodyweight training. It’s a system for pushing, pulling, and core work that is often underrated. We’re going to look at why the pull up mate is so much more than just a way of doing pull ups at home!
1.GETTING A BETTER PUSH UP WORKOUT
This is one of the things you need to work on if you’re going to achieve a well-rounded and well-developed upper body. Whatever your goals, the push-up is one of the most fundamental and important movements in bodyweight training.
“how one performs a push-up is indicative of that individual’s athletic foundation, and possibly more importantly, how committed one is to excellence in movement and performance. Sloppy push-ups suggest to me a superficial interest in athleticism and a degree of laziness.” – Greg Everett, Catalyst Athletics. The point is a simple one: good push-ups are one of the first steps to amazing bodyweight strength and performance. Doing them right is key and practicing them well is a foundation for good movement!
With pull up mate, you can perform a wide variety of great push-up variations, as well as key accessory exercises. The bars of a pull up mate allow for incline and decline push ups, with easy adjustments to height and a great support for neutral wrist position. Accessory exercises like the bodyweight skullcrusher and others are also possible with the bars of the pull up mate. This is a great way of targeting the triceps to build bigger arms with bodyweight training and improve your calisthenics.
2.CORE
The core options with the pull up mate are excellent. We’ve covered how to train your core with a pull up mate in the past, which you can read for a full guide, but the benefits are clear. Hanging core work is a key way of improving your calisthenics-specific strength.
Exercises like the hanging leg raise, knee tuck, oblique crunches, L-sit, and (strict) toes-to-bar all allow for amazing core and ab building. On top of this, the incline and decline exercises possible with the bars of a pull up mate, like a decline plank or incline, neutral-grip long plank are amazing.
Adding these small tweaks to your core workouts can add a serious benefit to your strength, stability, and build a core that can do amazing things!
3.DIPS
Love building your chest, shoulders, and triceps, but push ups alone aren’t enough for you?
GRAVITY FITNESS PULL UP BAR
Portable, versatile, home fitness
- Highly versatile- suitable for a full range of exercises including pull ups, dips, leg raises, incline press ups and front and back levers
- Extended height: 192cm
- Compact position height: 120cm
- 3-year warranty against manufacturer defects
- Carry bag included
ONLY £139.95 £109.95
That’s fine, the pull up mate and pull up mate 2 are designed to support dips for maximal upper body pushing strength. This also builds massive support-strength and develops key positions for both gymnastics and advanced calisthenics training. If you want to get better at anything on – or above – a bar, dips are a great place to work. There are dozens of dip exercises that you can perform with the pull up mate:
- – Regular, full-range dips
- – Close-grip dips (with the dip adapter kit)
- – Straight bar dips
- – Korean dips
- – “Bench” dips (at any incline)
- …and more
The point is that dips are an awesome exercise that are central to performance and well-rounded upper body strength in calisthenics. They’re going to build bigger, stronger muscles and ensure that you’re getting strong in more than just the pulling movements!
Obviously, if you want to take your dip workouts to the next level you can work with the pull up mate parallel bars which offer opportunities for single bar dips, Korean dips, Russian dips, and a whole variety of others along the way.
4.INVERTED ROWS
The inverted row is one of the most important and underrated exercises that you should be doing more of.
The pull up mate and its adjustable bar heights allow for a variety of inverted row heights. This makes this otherwise-tricky exercise a breeze at home. The inverted row is one of the most important exercises for improving your pull ups and we discuss it as a central part of our guide to getting your first pull up. It’s so important that we recommend this exercise to everyone who hasn’t got enough pull ups to train them with repetitions! In simple terms, the inverted row is the pull up for people who can’t pull up. It’s one of the best exercises for building a stronger upper back and you should be doing it – either as an accessory to your pull ups, or because you can’t do them yet!
On top of this, the increased focus of a rowing movement on the muscles of the rhomboids and scapular retractors (the muscles that add the most ‘thickness’ to the back) love rows.
Even if you’re working your way through your pull ups confidently, there’s a lot of value to improving these key muscles and movement patterns!
5.PULL UP MATE 2: ADVANCED BODYWEIGHT TRAINING
With pull up mate 2, the options for training and performance are even greater. The increased stability and reliability of the design is about taking it past pull ups and training advanced calisthenics at home.
With a pull up mate 2, you’re going to be able to perform muscle ups and other movements in your own home.
Obviously, watch your ceiling!
This is a great way of progressing past the pull up itself and developing movements that are key to gymnastics for CrossFit, training advanced street calisthenics, or just challenging yourself to some tough calisthenics training!
If you’re able to train past the regular gymnastic, bodyweight strength training exercises that most people struggle with, it’s time to get serious about your training and performance.
6.PULL UP
Duh!
While it’s about more than the pull up, you can’t ignore this key movement and everything it can bring to your training.
Pull ups, chin ups, and other overhead pulling movements are key to the way that your training develops, and they balance out the shoulder joint. Not only do they improve the health of your shoulders and upper back, but their strength, appearance, and performance!
The pull up mate isn’t a one-trick pony, but it does provide amazing ways to train the pull up and other key exercises at home. This means taking home a key tool for improving your training, health, and fitness! When it comes to pull ups, there’s no better training tool than consistent, frequent training. You can make this possible by getting your own complete, in-home calisthenics workout solution. The Pull Up Mate – and Pull Up Mate 2 – are comprehensive pull up bars for any home that offer a wide variety of bodyweight training options.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We build the pull up mate because we wanted to make high-quality calisthenics training available for everyone at home. A good home bodyweight workout with the pull up mate covers everything from basic health and movement to advanced calisthenics. You don’t need to be able to do a pull up to make the most of pull up mate and home calisthenics workouts: you just need the will to work towards your own fitness goals.
Whatever workouts you’re looking for (and pull up mate X is a system to offer guidance on training and nutrition), a pull up mate is the best training partner!
