Contents
Eight types of pull-ups and how to do them right
Fitness
Assisted, supine, on the chest … there is a dominated one for each person and the personal trainer Miguel Ángel Peinado explains each one of them so that you can introduce them, little by little, in your workouts
There is no doubt that if you want to work your upper body, nothing like doing dominated. The problem is that it is a somewhat expensive exercise that requires strength, so much as to be able to lift our own weight.
As the personal trainer Miguel Ángel Peinado (@ miguel.trainer), chin-ups are a basic exercise in any type of training: «the degree of difficulty and the high muscular work required cause a great muscular development, mainly in the dorsal area but also in the biceps and other muscle groups, in addition to allowing variants that modify the work zones ”.
Benefits
- It allows to develop muscular strength and strengthens the shoulder and wrist joints
- Stabilizes the trunk, defines the abdomen and improves posture
- Reduces back pain
- Tones the body
Errors to avoid
- Not fully stretching the elbows causes less range of motion
- Contracting the shoulders too much, overloading the trapezius
- Using body momentum, jumping, and rocking works other parts of the body than the back and arm muscles
- Counting non-complete reps is detrimental. It is better to do 3 repetitions well done than 10 badly done
Do a chin up right
The different types of pull-ups will give us great strength, muscular endurance, agility and even some types of chin-ups they will give us cardiovascular resistance. “There is no excuse to try these excellent exercises for body strength,” says Miguel Ángel Peinado, who is able to differentiate up to nine types of pull-ups.
However, to start making variations it is essential to control the basic pull-up. “Hanging” from the bar and trying to raise your body in any way is a beginner’s mistake that can have unintended consequences. Fixing your starting posture is the first step in proper chin-up technique. Therefore, you have to adopt a good posture to do pull-ups:
— Have a powerful grip. It is your hands that are going to pull all your weight, so preparing your joints, wrists included, for this purpose is essential. Before starting chin-ups, do specific exercises to strengthen your arms and hands.
– Choose the grip type with which you feel most comfortable, always taking into account the muscles you want to work more thoroughly. “Choose between a prone or supine grip (palms down or up respectively), both are equally effective,” he says. It also determines the range of grip (distance between the two hands). To start doing pull-ups, the ideal is to place them at shoulder height or with a little more opening: “It is important that you grip the bar comfortably, supporting your thumbs on it to have a wider and firmer support.”
– Keep your Straight back or slightly concave, the chest upright and your abdomen always contracted (essential to maintain balance and protect your lower back).
– Choose if you want to do the chin-ups with legs straight or knees slightly bent (This last case is only recommended in the case of touching the ground with your legs).
Expert advice
Once your starting position is defined, it is time to perform the first lift. The best technique to do the chin-ups is the one that allows you to maintain a constant rhythm throughout the exercise and the one that focuses the effort on the muscles of your back (lats) and not on your biceps, which of course, intervene in a fundamental way, but They are not to become the focus of your effort.
1. “When starting the climb, the body should not be totally straight, but slightly oblique because you have to keep your head a few centimeters away from the bar,” he says.
2. «Bend your arms trying not to separate your elbows from your sides. Contract your biceps trying to lift yourself up without straining your neck, “he recommends.
3. La breathing it is also important. Remember to expel the air on the rise and inhale, through the nose or mouth, on the descent and in the transitional second between two pull-ups.
4. Good chin-up technique should make your chin exceed the bar. “While performing the movement, try not to throw your shoulders forward, keep your leg muscles relaxed and, instead, contract those of the abdomen and buttocks”, explains Miguel Ángel Peinado.
5. “To gain strength and power in your muscles, pull-ups are a perfect exercise and with the proper technique, you will achieve the best results,” concludes the coach.
Now, these are the different pull-ups you can do:
— Strict pull-ups. They are the most basic type of pull-up. They are those that come to mind when they ask us what a dominated is. The trainer reminds us that we must bear in mind that “we cannot move our hips or legs an iota”, only the arms will be able to move during their execution. «As a reminder, we will have to start the movement from the starting area. We will do it with our arms fully extended and we will not finish lifting until we get the knob over the chin bar, ”says the Better Naked Club coach (@betternakedclub).
— Supine chin-ups. The supine chin up or “chin up” are those that involve the biceps more in the execution of the movement. Like the pronating chin-ups, the supines can be performed tight, with kipping and even raising us towards the chest.
— Dominated with kipping. The dominated with kipping, are those that are performed with the help of the impulse of our body to perform them. More than trying to increase muscle mass, it seeks to optimize body functionality. Aiming to get more number of pull-ups than to widen the back muscles.
— Dominated to the chest. They are a version of the chin-up with kipping in a somewhat more complex version, because to perform it properly, we will have to play with our chest on the chin-up bar. For this, we will need to push ourselves powerfully with our arms and hips in order to raise our body until it reaches the chest. It is not an easy exercise to perform, not recommended for neonates in the matter.
— Assisted chin-ups. Like partial chin-ups or even kipping chin-ups, assisted chin-ups are those that are performed “when we are unable to perform strict chin-ups.” To do this, we use an assisted machine or an elastic band that helps us raise our body.
— Open chin-ups. Open chin-ups are exactly the same as conventional chin-ups, simply by changing the position of your hands. The hands are opened more in order to work the dorsal muscles more and can be performed, with a supine grip and a pronator grip.
— Partial chin-ups. Partial chin-ups are the version chosen by people who don’t have enough expertise to pull off full chin-ups. «They are excellent, because apart from helping us work the muscles Participating in chin-ups help us to acquire the correct dynamics of movement, making the effort much less when we try to do the common chin-ups again, ”says Miguel Ángel Peinado.
To execute them, the range of movement will be adjustable, “being able to set a limit on the rise or enhance them to the maximum that we can, marking it according to our specific needs.” For example, someone who has never exercised and has a high body weight, the range of motion will be small. However, another person who wants to focus on working the point of stagnation, the route will be predictably greater.
— Isometric pull-ups. Isometric chin-ups are those in which we must hold out as long as possible in a certain position of the movement. We can choose the degree where to perform the pull-ups to gain strength in the chosen area. This allows us to constantly vary the exercise, adding or removing difficulty. «It is a recommended chin-up for beginners since the level of physical strength that we will need to have to be able to do it is much lower. Perfect for achieving complete pull-ups, ”he advises.