That means they're possibly the best upper-back exercise you can do, and far and away one of the most important movements for functional strength.

It’s hard to think of a trainee who shouldn’t be doing pull ups. They are easily the most effective vertical pulling exercise available, and they simply dominate movements like the lat pulldown or dumbbell pull-over in terms of their capacity to build size and strength.

Which muscles do they work?

They primarily work the latissimus dorsi (the lats). Other muscles worked in the upper back include the teres major, rear delts and rhomboids. The biceps are also involved to some extent.

Technique

Hang from a pull up bar with an overhand grip, with hands shoulder width apart or slightly wider. Hang down with arms fully extended, and knees bent with legs crossed behind you.

Even in the bottom position, maintain some tension underneath the shoulders – hanging completely relaxed can be harmful to your shoulders.

Steady any swinging before you lift yourself. Tense you’re abdominal core before you lift. In an ideal pull up, your body should hang perfectly still as your lats and biceps do the work.

Pull yourself up smoothly and raise your chin above the bar. If you feel like it, hold yourself at the top of the movement for a second for an extra squeeze in the lats. Lower yourself down under control, maintaining stiffness in the abs and lower body.

That’s one repetition.

Building up to the pull up

Pull ups can be notoriously hard to get started with, as many people aren’t strong enough to do them when they first start training, or can only do a couple. As a result, they’re put off by the movement and stick to the (relatively) useless lat pull-down.

Here’s a couple of tips for getting your pull up strength up to speed, so you can comfortably perform a set of 5-6 and start working them into your routine.

• Do them assisted. Use the assisted pull up machine in the gym and lower the counter-weight progressively each session, or even better, have a friend give you a boost under the legs. Ask them to help you just enough to complete a set of 5 on your own. Stop well before failure each set, and within a few weeks you’ll be cranking them out unassisted for reps.

• Do negatives. Stand on a chair to get yourself into the top position of the pull up, and lower yourself down smoothly on your own. Then get back on the chair to get to the top, and repeat for 5-6 reps. This is a good way to build pull-up strength, but it can be fairly taxing for your central nervous system, so don’t do negative pull-ups for longer than two to three weeks.

• Do chin-ups, with palms-facing your body. Chin-ups are easier than pull ups as they involve the biceps more. Once you’ve comfortably built up to sets of 10 with chin-ups, you should be able to do 4-5 pull-ups. At that point you can switch over to pull ups, and really hammer your lats on back day.

Adding Weight

At some point in your pull-up training, you may want to add extra weight. You can do this by holding a dumbbell between your legs, which works, but causes you to swing around a little bit.

The best way to add weight however, is by using a dip-belt. Weighted pull-ups are an extremely effective exercise, so if you can do 8-10 at bodyweight comfortably, it might be time to step it up – the potential gains are well worth it.



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