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high bar question

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:31 am
by Skyin' Brian
i am going to sink a high bar into the ground at my school and i want it to be pretty sturdy. i have all the materials including quick setting cement and a post hole digger(the manual kind, not the power kind). it is going to be made completely of steel. with 1.5" rigid conduit pipes as the supports.

my question is , for those of you who have done this before:
how deep into the ground would you reccommend going? the high bar itself is going to be 4' long and i want this thing sturdy enough to do giants and such on it.
so, how deep in the ground along with how high in the air are the suggestions that im looking for.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:51 am
by keulpv
First of all, you need to decide if you are putting in a HIGH bar or a PULLUP type bar because you can't just "make" a gymnastics high bar to do giants on. They are extremely strong and flexible steel and weigh about 50 lbs. I have a real one in my backyard that was salvaged from an old gym, but I dont suggest doing any real hardcore gymnastics on something you made yourself- believe me Ive tried! If you do have a REAL highbar, when you set it up, you must put in ground supports/cables set in concrete themselves. Otherwise, it will wobble and you wont even be able to kip. If you just want something to do pullups, bubkas and maybe hip circles on you can make it and set it in about 2 ft of concrete. make sure it is 8-9 ft high (its always easier to give someone a boost than to raise the bar).

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:07 pm
by Skyin' Brian
thanks for the info.
to clarify, this wont be a real full sized high bar it will only be a 4' long 1" pipe. it definately will not be flexable.
by doing giants i didnt mean i was going to crank them out. i just want to do like one.
it would mostly be used for bubkas, bullovers and hip circles. maybe the occasional dismount.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:23 pm
by Oldcoach
Just remember that if you weigh 200 lbs you will be putting 850 to 1000 lbs. of load on the center of that bar --depending on how tall you are and how fast you swing. You might want to hang some serious weight on it before you try something really wild.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:07 pm
by C-townvault
If your putting that kind of load then you better have one heck of a grip :dazed:

Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 1:24 am
by Kirk
I've never done this, but I've often thought about using a fibreglass pole as the high bar. The idea would be to use the flex of the pole just as a real high-bar bends - but maybe with some real kick!

It should be high enough so that a foam pit (maybe high-jump size or a single pv slab) can be put under it for safety.

The most popular drill to do on these would be hip-circle shoot to handstand. This would simulate the flex/recoil of the pole just as it does on a gym-quality high bar.

Better yet, you could also set up a bungee cord for a cross-bar that you attempt to clear - like the dismount of a high-bar routine.

I dunno if this would work, but I've often dreamed of how much fun it would be, and how closely it might simulate pole vaulting.