For some time now I have been on frequent travel. You know what this means – quick meals from the drive-through window, not enough “good for you” foods and drinks, exposure to lots of other people on the run and sometimes sick with a cold or flu, lack of a good night’s sleep, and a difficulty in getting enough exercise. While pushups are great, and can be done anywhere, I also wanted a little something more than a pushup or situp.

I thought about bringing around some kettlebells, but those aren’t very portable, and I didn’t want them flying around the car in case there was an accident. But after looking around for a bit, I took a chance on an inexpensive and portable chin-up / pull-up bar, called the Creative Fitness Door Gym.

After a quick assembly, I was actually quite impressed. It rests on the frame of a door – no nails or screws or glue needed – it takes about one second to remove it from the door, leaving no marks. Yet it is very sturdy and allows for as many chin-ups as you could ever possibly want to do. With it you can do pull-ups using multiple grips – with your palms facing away from you, palms facing towards you, and palms facing each other. Moreover, the bar also can be placed on the floor, allowing you to do deep pushups. When I am done and have to hit the road, I throw it in the back of the car.

Note that the image on Amazon does not do the product justice – here it is on a door frame:

pullup bar

Creative Fitness Door Gym

Available from Amazon

Additional Chin-up Bar Options

Also, in case you want to see a few more pullup / chinup bar options, here are five additional chinup bars you might want to investigate. Compared to the one I reviewed above, many of these have extensions that allow for wider and/or more varied grips. The Creative Fitness Door Gym above works well for me, because I did not need the wider grip–the Creative pullup bar is wide enough for me.

Pull-up Exercises

Owning a pull-up bar is not enough—you have to actually use it! In case you’d like a good pullup routine to go with your new chinup bar, here are a few routines to get you going.

A Complete Inexpensive Home Gym

Finally, if you’d like to supplement your pull-up bar with the tools necessary to provide a complete workout—for not much money—check out this article on what you need for a complete inexpensive home gym.