Pull Ups – The Basics

August 29, 2012 by  
Filed under Pull Ups

You can do pull ups as an exercise to work your biceps and back muscles. You use an overhead bar and your own weight for resistance. You basically grab the bar above you with both of your hands and pull yourself up with your arms. You can do many different variations of this exercise by putting your hands in different places. These exercises can be extremely difficult, but they are highly effective for strengthening your upper body.

The basic exercise should be done with your hands just a bit more than shoulder width apart. Pull your body up from a heavy hang all the way until your chin is over the bar. Keep your control as you lower your body. This is how to do one pull up.

These are compound exercises. Additionally, they work multiple muscle groups. Your upper back is what does a good portion of the work. These exercises additionally work the deltoid muscles in the shoulder area as well as the neck and bicep muscles.

This exercise has many different variations. In its most basic form, it is done with the arms held up straight. The farther apart the hands are placed, the harder the back must work. The closer the hands are together, the more the muscles by the spine have to work. When you do this exercise using an underhanded grip, it becomes a chin up. These are much easier because the biceps are doing most of the work. You can also do the hybrid form, with one hand in and underhanded grip and the other over handed. You can also do these on parallel bars with your palms facing inward. This also works the biceps mostly.

These are very difficult exercises to do for most people. There are a lot of really strong people who are unable to do them because of their body weight in comparison to their upper body strength. There are even a lot of gyms that have machines to help people by lifting them with a counter weight. This can be really helpful for people who have issues performing this exercise. There are even people who have a lot of upper body strength in comparison to their body weight, and they have to find ways to add resistance so that pull ups will actually be a challenge in some way. They can sometimes wear a weight belt that is fitted to their body with weight plates in order to become heavier when doing these exercises.

Never kick around or swing your body when you are doing this exercise. Additionally, do not jump up to raise yourself or just do them halfway. This is not going to benefit you in any way, as it will not effectively work your biceps or your back muscles. The effectiveness of your workout is going to depend upon how much work you make your muscles do not how many reps you do. It is much better to do fewer reps with good form than more reps with bad form. Do each of your pull ups from a heavy hang, and be sure to pull yourself completely up until your chin comes up above the bar.

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