Sportastisch Doorframe Pull-Up Bars Review

Recently, I found myself on the receiving end of two Sportastisch pull-up bars after the team got in touch with me and asked me to review a couple of their pull-up bars.

They sent me the Sportastisch “Powerful” Door Frame Chin Up Bar and the Sportastisch “Get Strong” Multi Grip Chin Up Bar to review, and considering I’ve still got my old (but basic) York Chinning Bar at home, you can imagine my delight at the thought of testing something ‘a little more 2018’ here.

Let’s start by talking about the names because just writing that sentence got me confused…

Both pull-up bars are designed to be fixed to a door frame, both with and without screws/fixings.

The first bar we have here is the Sportastisch “Powerful” Door Frame Chin Up Bar which is a typical screw-type bar. We will continue to refer to this as the “Powerful” pull-up bar.

The second bar we have here is the Sportastisch “Get Strong” Multi Grip Chin Up Bar which is the type of bar that hooks over the door frame. We will continue to refer to this as the “Get Strong” pull-up bar.

Unboxing and Assembly

I’ve taken a few photos to show the unboxing of the items below.

The delivered boxes really weren’t that heavy at all and the boxes were also much flatter than I was expecting. Which was great, as I was in the middle of a hectic week when they arrived and was glad to pack them out of site for a few days until I had a clear schedule (and room!) to unpack and assemble the bars in!

The packaged pull-up bars on arrival.

 

The “Powerful” pull-up bar ready to assemble.

 

The assembled “Get Strong” pull-up bar.

 

Review: The Sportastisch “Powerful” Door Frame Chin Up Bar

I remember thinking two things when I first unpacked the “Powerful” pull-up bar:

1. I don’t know why I’ve ever had a vendetta against pull-up bars with soft grip material. The grip feels fantastic and instantly gives the bar a high quality feel to it.
2. There were no instructions (at least with mine there weren’t) – but I’m a typical masculine bloke, so who needs them right?

Regardless of the lack of instructions, putting up the bar was a quick task as it took no more than 10 minutes to screw the circular fixings to each side of the door frame.

I managed to put the bar in use straight away with some pull-ups, and the bar felt absolutely rock solid in the frame. I’m only 75kg, but I would have no issue trusting the bar with much more weight.

Now hears where I things get confusing…

I wanted to check out just how much the bar would hold, so I went to view the Amazon listing to see if there were any further details on the listing, since I had no instructions.

That’s where I found this:

“EASY INSTALLATION WITHOUT SCREWS: You simply need a door frame which measures between 63 and 100 cm […] If you use the installation kit, the pull-up bar supports up to 150 kilograms. Without the installation kit, it supports up to 150 kilograms…”

Wait… Without screws!?

It turns out the softer gel pads on the end of the bar that I thought only to protect the end of the bar in the fixing, are in fact suction pads that are used to grip on to the door frame WITHOUT the fixings.

Also to note that the above figures are no mistake – Amazon states a supporting weight of 150kg both with and without the fixings. I don’t know what the correct figures are, but I can tell you that the bar easily supports my weight of 75kg without fixings.

So there you go. A fantastic, sturdy, and comfortable pull-up bar, which also managed to blow my mind at how it can support my weight so well without the use of screws or fixings.

Review: The Sportastisch “Get Strong” Multi Grip Chin Up Bar

The “Get Strong” pull up bar, on the other hand, took a little bit longer to put together. Unlike the “Powerful” bar which can be assembled without a simple screw, the “Get Strong” bar will require a screwdriver and around 20 – 30 minutes to put together.

One thing to note is that the bolts that attach to the screws have quite sharp edges. Avoid assembling the bar on a wooden table or any other delicate surface, as the bolts will quickly leave scratches as you are moving and rotating the bar around during assembly.

The “Get Strong” bar is much more versatile than the other Sportastisch bar, with the different grips allowing the user to carry out different types of pull-ups, such as overhand, wide grip, chin-ups, or commando pull-ups for example.

The problem I found with this bar, however, is it is much more reliant on a quality door frame than the “Powerful” bar. Grab the top of your door frame (or any of the outer skirting) and give it a gentle pull – if the frame is old and you can feel movement then you may not want to risk using the “Get Strong” bar on the frame.

I also found that any movement on the frame is multiplied when using the outer grips of the bar. Putting my weight on the outer grips acted like a lever and made the bar move at least an inch.

Of course, the pull-up bar is extremely robust and the high quality is obvious once the bar is unboxed and assembled. It’s just the fact that it is so reliant on the door frame that means you risk either loving or hating the bar (for the wrong reasons!).

Summary and Links

To summarise, both the bars are fantastic and I’m glad that Sportastisch gave me the chance to review two different types of pull-up bars.

I can’t wait to keep using the “Powerful” bar and the fact that it doesn’t need any fixings to support my weight will mean I’ll likely be using it many different doorframes within my house.

Unfortunately, I think I’ll have to keep the “Get Strong” bar stored away for now, at least until I move into a new house with much more sturdy and modern door frames (the house is an old Victorian style terrace house to be fair!).

Get the Sportastisch “Powerful” Door Frame Chin Up Bar on Amazon here

Get the Sportastisch “Get Strong” Multi Grip Chin Up Bar on Amazon here