What It Is
Chin-ups are an upper body suspended exercise that require a vertical pull movement with an underhand grip on a bar.
Why It’s Important
Overcome Upper Body Imbalances
A lot of emphasis over the years has been placed on how much you can push to measure the strength of an individual that sometimes pull movements have been overlooked. Skipping pull exercises can lead to imbalances in strength with your upper body muscles. Chin-ups target your biceps, trapezius, and lats as well as involve a number of other stabilizer muscles. By adding chin-ups to your workout you can include a bodyweight pull exercise to balance out your push-up routine.
Turn The Impossible Into The Possible
The principle of overload deals with working the body with a greater load than normal in order to increase physical fitness. The ability to pull you own bodyweight is a difficult task and takes a lot of time and effort to train to do. However, by applying the principle of overload and the determination to succeed you can gradually increase the amount of weight you pull until you can finally lift your own bodyweight. Making a once impossible daunting tasks a normal part of reality.
How To Do It
To perform a chin-up you need a high bar with good support in order to suspend your bodyweight. Keep core braced and maintain proper posture with chest up, chin up, and shoulders back.
Grab overhead bar with an underhand grip; hold shoulder width or slightly outside shoulder width; pick feet up and hang from bar without swinging. Pull yourself up by driving elbows back and down as you utilize and squeeze your lats. Maintain control as you lower yourself back to start position.
Modify It
Use a resistance band, a chair, or a partner holding your legs to decrease the weight you are pulling up with the exercise. As your body plateaus throughout your training program you should be able to perform a chin-up with more and more of you own bodyweight.
Power It Up
If you have already mastered the chin-up then power up the exercise with a pull-up, combat pull-up, or an over-under grip pull-up. All of these variations will decrease your bicep activation and place more emphasis on the muscles of your back, which will make for a more difficult exercise.
Chin-up Infographic:
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Sole Shaping Blog is written by a nationally certified personal trainer, however, the topics and information given might not be specific for your health and wellness needs. The blog is intended for informational purposes only and not direct health advice. Consult with a doctor before beginning an exercise program or changing your nutritional diet. The blog is accurate and true to the best of my knowledge, but omissions, errors or mistakes may occur.
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