The Cornerstone of Upper Body Strength: The Pullup

For those of you that are having trouble getting 1 pullup OR 1 chinup, and cannot buy resistance bands from a Sporting goods store. If you have a significant other help you, have them slightly assist you on the way up. Do 10 sets of 1 pullup this way until you build the strength up to do 1 by yourself. If you don't have a significant other, and ALL other methods are not going to work, THEN you can use the assisted pullup machine. I don't recommend using this though.

Does the strength or type of resistance band matter? I have some light weight ones... and a set that came with Billy Banks boot camp series...

The higher resistance the band has, the easier the pull ups.

Good post, but I have to disagree on the difference b/w pull-ups and chin-ups.

Pull-ups don't have anymore back involvement than chin-ups. Just think about where the muscles attach. They dont' attach to your forearm! The reason chin-ups are easier is b/c you have more biceps activation. So you're just using more muscles, which is why the chin-up is the real king of upper body exercises and has been proven to activate more upper-body muscles to exercise levels than any other upper body exercise.

You couldn't be more wrong.

I think the real variance between the two is that the chin-up (palms facing you) has more bicep engagement which is what gives you additional leverage in the movement. The Chin-Up based on an EMF (I think that's what it's called at least) study is the #1 most effective exercise for engaging the bicep, not curls.

5. Use hip drive.
I don't care what anyone says. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using momentum when starting out to build pullup strength. Granted you need to eventually do pullups without hip drive, but it will help with strength

My only comment on this is that I would recommend doing good form chins/pulls first and then as you fatigue incorporate a "kip".

Also, as you fatigue and can no longer do a full range of motion chin-up even with a kip, do partials until you completely fail.

I mean......................Opinions can vary on this. Chinups and Pullups are a mans exercise no doubt.
But for me to call it the best its hard to overlook things such as bench, squats, deads. Chinups/Pullups are right there though.
The information and quality of the post is there and many will learn from it so thats a gret job by you

But in the scenario below I will take the dealifter
And I will use PHRAK the guy who posted above

Phrak. Who can deadlift 800 lbs but onlyp ullup his wiehgt 4 times
vs
SUPER HUMAN 10000 PULLUP GUY

PHRAK=WINNER



FACT

Chinups/Pullups don't involve your legs. The biggest muscle on the human body
Squats/Deads/Bench do.

I haven't read the entire thread, but has someone pointed out to this guy yet that the thread is about UPPER BODY STRENGTH and so it intentionally leaves out leg workouts?

Good post.

I don't 100% agree with the degree that you're taking the avoidance of the assist machine, only in that I think people who are clearly nowhere NEAR being able to do a pullup would get good use from the assist machine. Once you get remotely close to being able to do 1 pullup, moving to the real bar with a spotter or resistance band would be a good plan.

Also curious Joe, you make mention of "number of pullups" being an indicator of upper body strength. I think at a certain point (a given rep range), training goals need to be factored in. For example, I can probably do somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 pullups at a guess, but to me it's not important as I'm adding more weight whenever I can hit 5 or 6 clean reps.

I'm sure you've got thoughts on the above topic, I just didn't see mention of it so I'm curious what you think on that.

Weighted 10-2's. Hmm, must try that.

Chin up - palms facing away from your face
Pull up - palms facing your face

Great info!! I've been researching how to work my way up to this. Will add to my list.

For those just starting out or struggling with pullups/chin ups ... place a chair in front of you with the seat facing away. Gently place your feet on the back of the chair as doing a pullup. When the chair begins to move or fall towards you stop ... that should signal that you form is going south as you are using too much leg strength to push you up. The chair should be as far away as you can get it and still perform pullups with good form.

See this image for setup ...
http://ninja-fitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/TonyHortonChairAssistedPullUps-300x227.jpg

Bump! Great info, thanks

A bit of advice with the doorframe bars. The one I got from Walmart (Gold's Gym brand) doesn't allow for a shoulder width chinup, the design only allows the hands to be placed closer together. I ended up with some wicked tendonitis in my elbows from all of the chinups in P90X. This bar does allow for decent wider grip pullups and parallell grip chins, and I have no pain doing these.

I have just recently started incorporating pull-ups into my routine, my upper body is seriously under-developed compared to my legs.

Thanks!

bump

Re-read later.

Great post! Friend request sent

I'm at 3 consecutive pull up working my way up to ten