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Want a Better Pull-Up? Install One of These

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When the Perfect Multi-Gym landed on our doorstep, my husband and I were skeptical. Actually, I was excited to try the pull-up bar — and my husband was the more skeptical party. Maybe because he knew he’d be the one in charge of installation and things never go as smoothly as you’d hope. But in the first of many pleasant surprises when it came to the Multi-Gym ($29.95), we were able to get it installed quickly and easily. No tools are required and it simply attaches to the doorway. But let’s back up a skosh.

First, we had to pick the best location for our Multi-Gym. In our whole house, there was only one obvious spot for it to go, which was in the doorway between our kitchen and dining room. Now, as far as decor goes, it’s not exactly subtle, and it doesn’t exactly blend in with the surroundings.

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But we also have kiddo art on our back windows, a dining room that is specifically a toy room, and our curtains hung up over the rods to keep them from getting pulled down because the kids like to “hide” behind them (aka yank them constantly), so decor isn’t exactly high on our priority list at the moment. We had to adjust it once to get it flush with our door, but now that it’s up there, we’re good to go. And by good to go, I mean we’re able to practice our pull-ups whenever we so please.

And we so please a lot.

When I first tried it, I’ll admit I was kind of pissed. I’m not known for my upper body strength, so it was no surprise to me that I was unable to do a single pull-up. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t even really budge myself. But you know how we say that if you want to be better at something you have to actually DO it? Well, I started trying regularly. On my way to the kitchen? Try. Heading to the bathroom? Might as well try. And wouldn’t you know it: within a couple of weeks I was actually pulling up. A standard wide pull-up was too difficult, but I started to be able to do several hammer pull-ups fairly easily. I honestly was flabbergasted. Totally surprised that I could improve that quickly. And my husband who could eke out a few pull-ups at first now does a set of 10 or 12 pretty much every time he walks by. The monkey bars on our kids’ swing set that were a challenge? He can fly through them, no problem.

Unfortunately, with my recently injured wrist, I’ve taken a break from pretty much anything that might put any sort of strain on it, so that means I’ve taken a pull-up break. But you better believe I’ll be back on the horse here shortly and back to improving. I’ve gotta make sure I nail those wide pull-ups and prove I can do it!

While installation is pretty quick and easy, it’s not something I want to do daily, so as far as taking it down to use it for other exercises it can be used for like sit-ups, push-ups and tricep dips? No thanks, I’ll just figure out some other way to do those. But as far as a pull-up bar goes? This thing does its intended job at a super affordable price and is surprisingly sturdy. As far as the looks go? I’ve gotten so used to it that I barely notice it unless I’m actually using it!

Have you ever seriously dedicated yourself to improving a skill?Erin

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