By Michael Krueger
The chin-up or pull-up is a very intense full-body exercise. Very few people include it in their training regimen because it’s so difficult to do. I happen to be one of those people who do.
Just to be upfront, I’m talking about standard pronated, supinated, or parallel grip chin-ups. I don’t differentiate between them simply because it seems like a silly argument to me, taking up time and energy that could be used elsewhere.
I’m also not including “Kipping Pull-Ups,” which are used in Cross-fit competitions. I’m not disparaging them, but they seem to me to be more of a competitions skill than something one would use to gain strength.
So, let’s talk chin-ups.
Defined
A chin-up is a really simple movement. You grab an overhead bar and you pull yourself up until your chest touches the bar (or at least until your chin clears it) and then repeat. It requires a good amount of strength, and obviously the heavier you are the harder it’s going to be.
The primary movers in the pull-up are the back, upper chest, and biceps. It does depend somewhat on hand position as to the degree that these muscle groups are used. But really, the difference is minimal for the average person. If you are a bodybuilder it would matter more, but since your major goal is to build strength it just doesn’t matter all that much.
Aside from the previously mentioned muscle groups, many people don’t realize how core intensive the movement is. I had heard that, and it seemed to make sense, but my major real-world experience with just how much the abs are involved came after returning to training from having had hernia surgery. Just hanging from the bar was enlightening, and tensing up for the pull drove the point home.
The width of your hand placement is important as well. Too narrow, and it can be very tough on the shoulders, elbows, and wrists aside from impeding your range of motion. If you are positioned too wide, it’s difficult to adequately recruit the muscles in your back. For most people, shoulder width to slightly wider is the sweet spot. You will find that the direction your hands face will also help determine what is most comfortable and effective for you.
If you choose to use a parallel grip, it can be more difficult to find a good spacing simply because you need to find two bars that are just the right distance apart. The basic rule of shoulder width still holds, and that can be difficult to find. In my experience, I’ve found that a set of rings on movable straps that I could slide into position solved that problem. I did find that chinning on the rings was more difficult than on a static bar. Not that more difficult is a bad thing, it’s just something to be aware of.
Occasionally, you will see someone doing chin-ups behind their head. They dip their head forward and try to touch the back of their neck to the bar. Contrary to what they believe, it’s not more effective and it can cause damage to your neck and shoulders. My advice on that variation is simple, “Don’t do it.”
Here are a couple of other caveats when doing pull-ups. Avoid really wide spacing between your hands. You may have seen photographs of really big bodybuilders doing very wide chins. The primary reason they do these extremely wide grip chins is that they can’t get their massive arms close enough together to do them at shoulder width. If that is an issue for you, then by all means do them wide. For the rest of us, stick with that shoulder width rule.
When doing chin-ups, gravity is not your friend, so avoid dropping into the bottom position. Always maintain a controlled descent. Coming down too fast is the most common cause of injury from chin-ups. Always keep your shoulder blades pulled down and together, keep your chin up, but don’t throw your head back either. A good arch in your back will help maintain that chin-up posture and, as always, remember to breathe.
“… but I can’t do a pull-up”
The norms and averages for doing pull-ups are based on age and weight. Without going into specific age and weight norms, let’s just say that a fit man should be able to do between six and ten and a fit woman between two and six. Most men and women I have worked with couldn’t do any, and those who could often struggled to get even a couple. This is due mostly to simply being way too heavy in proportion to their strength. It’s possible that more than a few could’ve done pull-ups if they had lost weight, since their strength was quite good.
That being said, I’ve had clients, both men and women, who could perform chins well enough that I included them in their normal workout routine. I had two female clients who could do ten good pull-ups in a row. They had arm and back strength that anyone would be happy to have, and they looked great too. I’ve had a few men who I trained with chin-ups as well, but very few. Their issue was that they weighed too much, not that they weren’t strong.
If you can’t quite do a chin-up, and it’s because your strength rather than your weight is holding you back, you might be able to do negative chins. To do these, get a little ladder, climb up to where you can grasp the bar with it touching your chest, and step off the ladder. The idea, of course, is to struggle mightily–not to plummet to the bottom. If you can’t control the downward movement, don’t do them. If you can come slowly down a couple of times, then I would say they might be a good exercise for you. Do as many as you can, and soon you will be able to do a chin-up, and then two, and then three, and then you will be on your way.
If you can’t do a chin-up or a negative chin-up, then your next best option is to do lat pull-downs. Obviously, the best thing about pull-downs is that you can easily adjust the weight so that you can get your desired repetitions. The downside is that you need a machine to do pull-downs.
The difference of how the movement feels between the two exercises is rather substantial. The muscles involved are mostly the same, though their recruitment does vary. The strength gained does transfer, but not quite exactly. If you can progress on the lat pull to where you are doing five pounds over your body weight, you should be able to do a pull-up.
If you have one available, there is also the option of using an assisted pull-up/dip machine. I trained people in a corporate gym that had one of these contraptions. It had a counter weight that can be set to offset a percentage of your body weight. In theory they are a good idea, but in practice they leave a bit to be desired. The main issue is that it requires the trainee to figure out the amount of weight to counter, and that is more difficult that it seems. The other thing I found is that it is very easy, especially on a pull-up, to generate a lot of momentum on the pull and cause the counter weight to repeatedly crash at the bottom on every rep. The generated momentum also has a very negative effect on the overall strength progression. While I’m sure that some people have used these machines to their advantage, I’ve never seen it happen.
The Coolness Factor
Chin-ups in any form, besides building massive strength and muscle, add a lot of versatility to your workout. There are many possible variations and combinations with other movements (think chin-up/push-up/burpee repeats) that can add variety and fun to your training. They can be done anywhere you can find something to hang from and as often throughout the day as you choose. If you have a child who wants to play at the park, you can always find a spot to knock out a few sets of chins; people are always impressed.
So, consider adding them to your workout not only because they work…
…but because you look cool doing them, too.
Michael Krueger is an NSCA-certified personal trainer. He got his start in fitness training while serving in the United States Coast Guard. He works with firefighters and others in and around Madison, Wisconsin. He is available to fire departments, civic organizations, and athletic teams for training, consulting, and speaking engagements. He has published numerous articles on fitness, health, and the mind-body connection and was a featured speaker at the IAFC’s FRI 2009 Health Day in Dallas, Texas. E-mail him at MKPTLLC@gmail.
