The body weight pullup and chinup is one of the best compound lifting exercise for building back width, strength, grip strength, and overall upper body muscle mass. Look at all the tough bench pressers in your gym and guess how many of them can pull their body weight plus another hundred pounds for reps over the bar. Probably not many. Maybe none at all.
Pullup/Chinup madness below
The pullup/chinup is not exactly a very popular exercise, especially to those who have poor upper body strength (probably the same reason why many gym-goers avoid this exercise...they're no good at it). However, get good at the pullup or chinup and you'll undoubtedly build beef up your back/lats.
You’ll also build big biceps easily if you can manage to do multiple sets of 5-10 with 2 plates (two 45 lbs plates makes 90 lbs) attached to a weighted chinup/pullup belt. It's not easy to do (though achievable with consistent progress) and you'll have to start with your body weight but progression is the game here.
And further imagine being able to chin or pull with 150 lbs strapped to a weight belt for 5 reps or more? Think of the physical progress and outcomes. Would you have big biceps and a wide back then? You're never going to see a 120 lbs pencil armed guy do sets of 150 lbs with weighted pullups. Not physically possible...except for maybe the insanely super genetically-gifted powerlifting freak (but that's the exception and if you're reading this site, chances are you're not too genetically gifted to pull 100+ pounds on your first try).
A strength foundation is a powerful stimulus for bodybuilding, fat loss, and body re-composition goals. Strength is, after all, the foundation for all qualities of fitness. Pullups and chinups should be a staple of strength training routines and that's why you're going to learn how to do them in this short tutorial.
photo credit: Benimoto
3-step execution of a pullup and chinup:
1) Stand underneath the pullup bar. Grasp the bar shoulder-width apart with arms fully extended (you can vary the length of your grip as a method of variation). Use an overhand (pronated) or underhand (supinated) grip. With the overhand grip, your palms are facing away from you.
With an underhand grip, the palms are facing towards you, like the palm grip of a barbell/dumbbell curl. The pull up uses the overhand grip. The chinup uses an underhand grip. There's always confusion as to which grip uses which movement but that's the main difference between a pull up and chin up.
Flex your knees (this keeps the body from swinging excessively when you pull up and drop down). Don’t swing. Keep a straight body and slight arch in the lower back. Retract the shoulder blades. Look straight ahead and focus at a point in front of you. Let the body hang from the bar. This is the starting position.
2) As you hang from the bar at the starting position, arch your back, contract your glutes and buttocks. Pull your torso up until your chin clears the bar at least half an inch. This is a full contraction that should take you 1-2 seconds. Keep head looking forward while you pull up. Maintain a tight body.
3) Lower torso all the way down until arms are fully extended and locked again. This eccentric phase should be controlled lasting 2-3 seconds. Keep head looking forward throughout this phase and entire movement. This is one repetition.
The entire movement should be controlled and smooth in an up and down vertical motion. Avoid excessive swinging or bouncing on the bottom to generate momentum. Check out this videos of proper pull up and chin up execution below.
Pull up
Chin up
Pullups and Chinups have numerous variations:
The beauty of pull ups and chinups is that there are over a dozen variations of this basic movement. You'll never get bored with this exercise. Lots of fun.
- weighted chinups and pullup: wear a weight vest or weight belt for extra resistance for a more challenging workout
If you can do 12 or more reps of pull ups or chin ups with ease, then it's time to introduce some form or weighted progression into your routine. A 40-50 lbs weight vest or weighted belt with 45 lbs olympic weight plate will provide a much greater challenge to the movement. This also allows you to challenge your body with lower reps and work your way up to higher repetitions for greater gains in size. To put it simply, if body weight chinups and pullups become too easy, add weight and continue getting stronger. Remember, the body thrives on challenge through progression (weighted progressive overload).
Here's a weighted pullup with 50 lbs weight vest in action,
- different width grip placement; you can vary the grip used and this includes close grip, ultra wide grip, wide grip, shoulder width grip with supinated and pronated grips
- one arm pullup and one arm chinup; very difficult to do but it's all part of the progression scheme, try going for 20 body weight pullups, then move to rope assisted pullups, side-to-side pullups, frenchies, and weighted variations of chinups for low repetition sets, and over time you'll build up the skill and strength for one arm pullups and chinups, it takes time and consistent practice
- rope or towel pullup/chinup; sling an old shirt or towel over the pullup bar, this variation improves your grip and finger strength tremendously
- neutral grip pullup or chinup; if your gym has a neutral parallel bar, you can do this variation
- ring pullup; pullups on a set of rings with pronated, supinated, or neutral grip, you may buy a set of high grade gymnastics rings from RingTraining.com
Video demo of ring pullups in action
- assisted one arm pullup with towel or rope; great way to build up the strength, skill, and technique for the one-arm chinup and pullup
- pullups on parallel portable bar (use doorway bar)
- frenchies; pull to midway, 3/4 way, top position and hang for 5-8 seconds on each stop, this variation is great for improving grip strength as well
- side-to- side pullups and triangle variation; pull up to the left side, drop down, then pull back up to the right side, alternating each side for each repetition. You can also do a "triangle" variation (as shown in the first video above) where you pull or chin up to the left, then move to the right in the contracted position, and drop down to complete the repetition
- clapping pullups/chinups; do one rep and let hands loose to clap, land on bar and lower body to complete the repetition, this movement requires some practice
Start doing pullups and chinups if you want a well proportioned, strong, and functional back. Pulling strength balances pushing strength gained from pushups, bench press, and shoulder presses. The body works as a unit in multiple planes of motion. Don’t neglect training your back. Experiment with different variations from the list above, different repetition ranges (low reps at 3-6 reps, moderate number of reps at 8-12, and even high reps 12-20+). Train smart and train hard.
For more information on how to incorporate pullups and chinups in a bodyweight routine, check out the full tutorial for bodyweight exercise workouts: bodyweight training 101.
Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.
Visit the Starting Strength Wiki page for a comprehensive primer on tough, productive, and result-producing strength training for muscle and size
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