A gymnastics bar is a very important part of learning gymnastics at home, especially if you are training yourself at home without the aid of an actual coach. The bar can be one of the more challenging of the gymnastics events, and for that reason even if you are taking gymnastics lessons it can be good to have one at home in order to get plenty of extra practice in on it.
Gymnastics bars can cost anywhere between $70.00 all the way up to over $4,000.00 for a professional grade setup which includes the mat that goes underneath two uneven bars. However, most good gymnastics bars for home use cost a few hundred dollars or so.
While this is a huge range in prices, there are a few factors that affect the price. Knowing what these are can also help you to know what you are look for in a gymnastics bar. There are also certain places that you can get a gymnastics bar from, which is what I will touch on first.
Where Can You Get Gymnastics Bars From?
While Amazon is quite possibly the most convenient place that you can get a gymnastics bar from, it is often far better to get a gymnastics bar directly from the equipment manufacturer. This not only usually gives you better quality bars, but it also often comes with a warranty should anything be wrong with it when you get it or if something breaks on it when you have only had it a short amount of time.
Plus, if you have any trouble with setting it up, you can always call them and they can usually help walk you through the process. The places that you want to look for are stores or websites that sell different pieces of gymnastics equipment or even equipment for different sports, and you should consider what other gymnastics things that you might want in future so that you can pick one place that has it all.
While you can get discounts sometimes on gymnastics bars, you should always be careful of getting something that is too cheap even if it sounds great – especially if it is not coming with a warranty. It may be simply on sale because there is a defect of some kind in it and the manufacturer is basically trying to get rid of it.
For this reason, a gymnastics bar that seems to be of great quality and yet is priced the exact same as a cheaply made gymnastics bar should always be looked on with suspicion. Sometimes these can be legitimate and they may be on sale simply because the maker has a newer model that they are trying to make room for.
If you are in doubt, look up the specific gymnastics bar that you have in mind and read some reviews written by other people who have bought and used the gymnastics bar to see what they have to say about it. Starting with the one star reviews and seeing if there is any common problem is a great way to do this.
Different Factors To Think About That Affect The Price Of Gymnastics Bars
There are a lot of different factors that you should think about when you are choosing a gymnastics bar, each of which affect the price that you can expect to pay for one. Knowing what these factors are can be a huge help sometimes in knowing what you are looking at when you are shopping for one.
Accessories
There are a number of different factors that can affect the price of gymnastics bars. The first one is what it comes with. Some bars come with their own gymnastics mat that goes underneath it while others do not come with this. It only stands to reason that a gymnastics bar that does have this with it will cost more in general than one that does not have this with it.
One benefit of getting them together is that the mat is sure to fit underneath the bars, whereas if you get them separately the mat may not fit underneath the bars do to being too wide to fit between the side supports. It will also have to be bought separately, which can sometimes be more expensive than buying it with the bars.
While most people get a setup that has only one bar to it for practicing at home, there is also the option to get a setup that has two bars to it. While the single bar is certainly a lot cheaper and it comes in a variety of options that you can choose from, you cannot practice things like bar changes etc. unless you have two bars that you are practicing with.
However, a gymnast does not learn any bar changes during the first few levels of gymnastics, so a single bar is usually quite sufficient for a beginner. An uneven bar setup will not only cost a lot more, but very few people have the space needed to place one of these setups.
There are also such things as combo sets which can include other gymnastics equipment such as your balance beam. These combo sets can be cheaper than buying each piece individually, however you should know that these sets are often cheaply made.
Therefore, this last part often boils down some to a matter of personal preference. If your child is quite young and will outgrow the set anyway after a few years, then you can safely get the combo set which will likely last as long as you need it to.
Height And Weight
Also, there is the height of the bars as well. A small child will need a bar that is not too high up off on the ground so that they can easily reach it. A taller child or a teen will need a bar that is higher up off of the ground. The taller it needs to be, the more metal will have to go into the frame, and the more expensive and heavier the gymnastics bar setup will be.
Along with this is the fact that a small kid will weigh also weigh less. This means that these bars can be made out of metals that might be of a lesser quality and that do not have to have as much in the way of supports, making them all around cheaper.
A teen or a young adult, on the other hand, will need a bar that can support their weight. These bars will need to have a lot more support on the ground and be made out of metals that are extra strong, making these not only much heavier but also much more expensive as well.
Support And Frame
Part of this, and another factor that affects the price of gymnastics bars, is just how much support that the frame offers which translates into how much weight that they can safely hold. Sometimes even gymnastics bars that are made for small kids can hold a lot of weight – much more than a small kid would weigh – due to how much support the bars have.
This support can come in a variety of different forms, one of the most common of which is a bar running along the floor underneath the gymnastics bar that is used for practicing on. Other common supports include bars on the floor going out to the sides in either a direction that is parallel to the bars, or at an L angle to them, or there may even be both supports.
There are also gymnastics bars that are narrow and ones that are wider. Narrow gymnastics bars will not need as much base support, they will not take as much space, and they will be cheaper for these reasons, but there are less things that you can do on a narrow bar.
Gymnastics bars can also be adjustable in terms of the height of the frame. This can allow you to get a gymnastics bar that has a short setting that will work for your young gymnast and can allow you to raise the bar up as they grow and get taller.
On the other hand, there are also bars that cannot be adjusted. These tend to be cheaper, but they also mean that you will have to buy one that is just the right size and that you will have to buy a new one when your gymnast gets taller.
However, if your gymnast is already a teen and about as tall as they are likely to get, then this can be a better option since these tend to be more stable to practice on. Part of this is that the design can be simpler and will have fewer pieces to it. Fewer pieces is also a benefit in that the fewer that there are, then the less things there are that can be misplaced, and the less there is that can potentially break.
Bars
Then you have to get to what the actual bar itself is made out of, which also affects the price. Sometimes these can be made out of metal, or they can be made out of wood that is encased in metal or steel. However, there are also such things as fiberglass bars and bars that are simply made out of wood.
There are a variety of different kinds of wood that can be used for making the gymnastics bar. Some of these woods can last a long time, while others are still nice but far less long-lasting. Maple in particular is a great wood to have a gymnastics bar made of.
However, as you might imagine, this wood is also pretty expensive. Beech is a lesser option, as are woods from the spruce and pine family. If it does not say anywhere exactly what kind of wood that the bar is made out of, then the odds are that it is one of the cheaper woods.
When it comes to the bar, there is also the stability of the bar to think about. Narrow gymnastics bars tend to be more stable, but a good a sturdy frame should be able to prevent any movement of the bar even if it is wider.
Some of this has to do with the weight of the child that is on the bars. As mentioned, a bar that can hold more weight will tend to cost more; however, if a gymnast is near the maximum weight limit that a bar can hold then there is going to be a lot more movement which can interfere with their practicing on the bars.
Ease Of Setup
Finally, a last thing that you should consider is how easy or complicated it is to set up and to take down the gymnastics bar. If you are already trying to figure out where you could possibly put it, then you will more than likely need to take it apart sometimes to have room for other things.
Unfortunately, if it is easy to take down and put up then it is sometimes not as durable as it otherwise would be and will be more likely to have some amount of swaying to it. For this reason, this is something to think long and hard about before you decide what exactly you want in this area.
Can You Build Your Own Gymnastics Bar?
While this is technically possible if you have the right skills, this may not be a whole lot cheaper than simply buying a new gymnastics bar from a store. This is because you are going to not only have to buy some very specific things in order to try to make it, but you are also going to have to put it together just right and quite possibly have to buy another part if you mess up.
Plus you also are not going to have a warranty of any kind on something that you made yourself, and if you try and find that you can’t do it then you will have spent money on parts for nothing and will still have to buy a gymnastics bar.
As mentioned, it is possible, it is just very rare to have all of the skills needed to make this. If you are going with a metal frame then you will need to be able to weld the different metal pieces together to and to get these pieces just right so that there is no fear of them coming apart where you welded them, even as your gymnast swings back on forth with all of her weight on the bars.
You will also need to have some idea of woodworking if you are using a wooden bar, since you probably should not consider trying to use a fiberglass bar. While you could use a metal bar if you preferred, whichever bar you choose to go with should meet the exact diameter measurements that gymnastics bars are supposed to have.
What most people go with when they choose to make their own gymnastics bars is that they make the frame and supports out of 2”x4” beams of wood with a metal or wooden bar that can even be moved further up by simply drilling holes further up the side supports and attaching it there.
However, though wood can be a lot easier to work with in many ways, keep in mind that wood can split and crack. This is especially true of the areas around the screws that are attaching it together. For this reason it should never be used for any of the complete circles or any of the gymnastics skills that would really put strain on the bar, and it should be inspected before each practice on it to check for any small splits or cracks that might warn that it is trying to break in a spot.
Conclusion
When deciding what you do and do not want in your gymnastics bar it is vital that you pick one that will meet your needs. This is not only true when it comes to the size and the age of your gymnast, but it is also true in terms of the space that you have that you can set aside for a gymnastics bar.
As mentioned, it is highly unlikely that you will have the large amount of space needed in order to set up a two-bar gymnastics bar, and more likely than not you will not even need something quite that big to start off with. If you are buying for a young child who will soon outgrow it, then having something that is durable is not nearly as much of a consideration that you have to worry about.
However, another thing that you should take into consideration is if you will have any younger children learning to do gymnastics. In this case you will probably want to invest in a piece of equipment that can last through however many young gymnasts that you will need it to.