Pull Up
Hang from a bar with your palms facing away and pull your chin over it.
- Lats
- Bodyweight
- Reps
What it works
Lats primarily, with the upper back, rear shoulders and biceps assisting, and the trunk working to stop you swinging. The overhand grip puts slightly more of the load on the back and less on the arms than a chin up.
Setup
- Take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders. Much wider than that shortens the range and stresses the shoulders.
- Hang with your arms straight. This is the start and the finish of every rep.
- Squeeze your glutes and brace your abdominals so your body is one rigid line. Crossing your ankles behind you helps.
- Pull your shoulder blades down before you start pulling with your arms, so you are not hanging passively.
The movement
- From a dead hang, pull your shoulder blades down and back.
- Drive your elbows down towards your ribs and pull your chest towards the bar.
- Finish with your chin clearly over the bar. Do not crane your neck to fake it.
- Lower all the way back to straight arms under control.
- Keep your body still. If you are swinging, you have run out of reps.
Common mistakes
- Not going all the way down: a rep starts from straight arms. Stopping short is the most common way people inflate their numbers.
- Kipping unintentionally: swinging your legs to generate momentum is a different exercise. If it is creeping in, stop the set.
- Craning the neck over the bar: your chin passes the bar because your chest rose, not because your head tipped back.
- Gripping too wide: wide grips look impressive and give you a shorter, harder, more shoulder unfriendly rep.
- Only ever training reps you can already do: if you can do five, sets of five forever will not get you to ten. Add weight, add sets, or slow the descent.
The two things that work best are assisted pull ups on a machine or band, and slow lowering: jump or step to the top position and take five to eight seconds to lower yourself. Do that a few times a week alongside lat pulldowns and the first rep usually arrives within a couple of months.
Variations and alternatives
The chin up uses an underhand grip, involves the biceps more, and is easier for most people. The lat pulldown lets you pick any weight. Once bodyweight sets of ten are comfortable, add weight with a belt or a dumbbell between your feet rather than chasing higher rep counts.
If a movement causes pain rather than ordinary training effort, stop and speak to a qualified professional. Programming context for this lift is in how training programs are built.