If your only interaction with the pull up bar is a few cursory reps here and there, you’re missing a trick. It may be a simple and unforgiving bit of kit, but with a bit of technical know-how, the pull up bar can become one of the most adaptable and effective tools in your training arsenal.

With the help of a little thing called gravity, the pull up bar works a vast range of muscle groups in ways that are near impossible to replicate on regular gym equipment. As for which ones are targeted – well, that all comes down to your hand placement.

When you grip the bar with your palms facing away from you, you’re doing a pull up. The emphasis here is on working your triceps. Switch to an underhand grip with your palms facing you and it’s a chin up, which largely recruits your biceps. A wider grip will place more emphasis on your outer lats, while a narrower grip concentrates your lower lats.

The fact that you are hanging freely means that every move engages your core in order to stabilise your body. And the mixture of static muscle contractions (the pause at the top) with regular flexion and extension movements (upwards and downward aspects of the move) hits your muscle fibres from all angles. In short, there’s almost nothing it can't do.