The One Piece of Gym Equipment to Buy

If the room is there and you needed to add just one piece of equipment and only one, I would opt for the dip and pull up tower.

Of course you could conserve space by going for a fold away pull up bar but you will not get the flexibility of a tower. What you get then is not just the chin ups and pull ups but also a place where you can do dips as well. 

Further more the hanging leg raise exercises can also be done on these. Ah! you might say - but all you need for this is a place to hang from and a pull up bar therefore does the job True but only for experienced calisthenics practitioners. Most of us don't have the grip to last long enough to work the abs. 

As I develop my range I start by hanging as long as possible in each set (and aim to strengthen my grip) and then switch over to use the back seat and arm rest. BUT and here is the but - I don't really like this arrangement as it seems to put your back in the wrong position. So I have developed tweak. Instead of gripping the vertical bar I simply rest my arms on the armrests and keep my back (rounded not arched)  only merely touching the back rest rather than have any weight against it. 

This makes your abs work harder and protects your back in the process.

So all of this leads back to the fact that the tower is one of the best pieces of equipment available. They mostly retail for around £100 so a fairly modest cost for the number of exercises you can do. best of all there's no messing up your door frames.

I simply pop in my garage (once warmed up!!) and do the dips and chin ups etc to complete my bodyweight routine.

There's no set up time - simply straight into the exercise.

Andy at Fitter Future