Fit to FI: The Push Up Bars

You built up those forearms with the wrist strengthener, now it's time to crush those push ups!

Disclaimer-Captain DIY and DIYtoFI.blog highly recommend exercising extreme caution when attempting DIY projects. Not everybody can do everything, and some things should only be done by professionals. Keep your digits attached, and keep the insurance company off of your back. Do it right or call the right people!

Time for a fun project today. If you enjoyed starting your home gym with the wrist strengthener , now it’s time to start making some real functional strength-building machines.

One of the most popular, and most functional, exercises is the Push Up.It builds the chest, shoulders, triceps, core, ego, and the back. Sure, you can go and do push-ups on the floor like a neanderthal, but we’re better than that here. We have realized how much more you can get from a simple push-up with the addition of the Push Up Bars.

This is a simple project, requires simple tools, and does not require a ton of handyman skills. All you need is:

A Wooden Dowel around an inch to an inch and a half thick by roughly two feet long,

Some scrap 2×4 that you can cut down into four six to eight inch long chunks, and

Four big gnarly screws

The tools you’ll need, which if you read the Tools Every Homeowner Should Have you definitely have kicking around, are: a saw, a drill, a drill bit, and a driver for the screws. I also added a strip of electrical tape along the bottom of the boards for some added stickiness, but this is optional.

Start by cutting your dowel in half, and drill a hole just big enough for the screws to fit through it on the ends. Make sure the holes go in the same direction! Then cut the 2x4s into four six or eight inch pieces. I angled the edges for a cleaner look, but that is completely optional and unnecessary.

After all the pieces were cut and the dowels were drilled, I pre-drilled some holes in the 2x4s so they would line up with the holes in my dowels. All that was left after that was to get my big gnarly screws and screw the dowels onto the 2x4s.

Time to reap those gains! Set up as you would a regular push-up, only now you have the added depth of motion and wrist stability to do push-ups like the masters ! And just think, you could have gone to a sporting goods store and spent upwards of $10 on what you just made with scraps you had kicking around! By the way, if you don’t have dowels around you could always go find some strong straight sticks that feel comfortable and use those instead.

Have fun pumping up, and don’t forget to mention your old pal Captain DIY when you’re accepting the Mr. Olympia trophy!