Pull-ups: How far down do you go?

Pull-ups are among the most valuable exercises for the upper back, abs, and grip strength; they can even help improve your cardiovascular fitness.

However, what they are best known for is building huge biceps and, in fact, they are the only exercise comparable to biceps curls in terms of functionality.

However, curls are smaller, single-joint exercises and cannot be considered compound exercises, as pull-ups are.

Every day at MASmusculo.Fit, we meet many friends who ask how to combine compound exercises to build muscle, so we have developed these strategies, which should be incorporated into a bulking routine to gain more strength and muscle mass.

In this article, we will cover:

• How to build your arms, back, and abs with pull-ups.
• The grip as the main training variation.
• How to assess weaknesses and then correct them.
• The best assistance lifts for improving your strength when doing pull-ups.
• How to use accessory exercises, such as biceps curls and rows.

Pull-ups: what are they?

Although both are often called pull-ups, the difference between a chin-up and a pull-up lies in the grip. A chin-up is performed with a pronated or neutral grip (the palms facing one another), whereas a pull-up is performed with a supinated grip, as follows:

Pull-ups, or chin-ups, are compound exercise variations that work the upper back and biceps. They are performed by hanging from a bar with an underhand grip and then pulling your chin over the bar… hence the name…

The term “chin-up” is often used interchangeably with “pull-up,” but most experts use the different names to refer to two different lifts.

Chin-ups are performed with a supinated grip (hands facing the body), whereas pull-ups are performed with a pronated grip (hands facing the bar).

We will discuss the differences between these pull-ups shortly, but first you should bear in mind that the chin-up variation is a great compound exercise, whereas the pull-up is a much more limited lift.

Depending on your goals, you can do them in different ways, using an angled bar or gymnastic rings, which are more comfortable for the elbow joints.

Likewise, you can do them with your body weight, performing as many repetitions as possible, or you can add weight and do heavy sets, while always eating properly to protect your joints.

Pull-ups: Which muscles do they work?

As we explained, pull-ups are phenomenal for strengthening the back and biceps, but they can also work the other forearm flexors, both in the upper arms (brachialis) and in the forearms (brachioradialis).

They will also work your grip, upper chest, rear deltoids, and even your abs. In fact, they are one of the best abdominal exercises, outperforming other benchmark ab exercises and becoming the most complete upper-body exercise.

Even so, pull-ups still are not a complete back exercise because they will not work your upper traps or spinal erectors with superior efficiency—two large and important muscles for overall strength as well as aesthetics.

In this case, exercises such as deadlifts and barbell rows come into play, complementing pull-ups.

If you do it this way, you will build a truly monumental back, and if you add weight or work with a partner who adds resistance, you will take it to the next level.

Pull-ups: What about the triceps?

YES, pull-ups work the triceps… you may have noticed that your triceps hurt when doing pull-ups, and that is completely normal…

Depending on how you grip the bar, they work the long head of the triceps similarly to how a cable pulldown works the long head of the triceps. However, that does not necessarily mean they will exercise your triceps hard enough to build much muscle there.

The long head of the triceps is a biarticular muscle that crosses both the elbow and shoulder joints. In this scenario, when you do pull-ups, your triceps pull your elbows toward your torso, which helps, but they also spread your arms, which hurts.

As a result, you cannot fully activate your triceps because they interfere with your biceps. Therefore, the long head of the triceps will be activated, but it may not be activated enough to stimulate muscle growth.

If you want to increase the size of the long head of your triceps, pull-ups can help, but presses and extensions are better options.

On the other hand, if you have already increased the volume of your triceps, pull-ups will be more than enough to maintain or gain a little size. To do so, remember to use targeted supplementation to maintain performance and strength.

Pull-ups: chin-up or pull-up?

The difference between a chin-up and a pull-up is simply the grip, as we mentioned above. However, changing the grip changes the dynamics of the lift to a surprising extent.

Chin-ups are compound exercises that work many different muscles at once, whereas pull-ups are useful for assistance and better for the lats.

There are a couple of reasons why the chin-up is a much more complete exercise:

• First, the supinated grip (with the palms facing toward the body) allows the biceps to contribute much more to the exercise, which means lifting additional weight.
• And secondly, it uses a wider range of motion.

If we look at good research on both types of pull-ups, we can see the differences in muscle activation (1).

Muscle activation with a bodyweight chin-up

• Biceps: 43 average, 100 peak
• Lats: 81 average, 133 peak
• Middle trapezius: 32 average, 71 peak
• Lower trapezius: 45 average, 101 peak

These numbers come from the chin-up, but they are comparable to what is seen with neutral-grip pull-ups and gymnastic-ring pull-ups.

Muscle activation with a bodyweight pull-up

• Biceps: 28 average, 66 peak
• Lats: 86 average, 151 peak
• Middle trapezius: 28 average, 63 peak
• Lower trapezius: 33 average, 87 peak

So, what we are seeing here is that chin-ups are 52–54% better for stimulating the biceps, 16–36% better for the lower trapezius, and 13–14% better for the middle trapezius.

But when it comes to the lats, pull-ups come out ahead by 13% to 14%.

How both pull-ups work

It is worth noting that another study found that pull-ups were better at activating the lower trapezius, so based on the comparison of the research, we could say that both pull-ups work the upper and lower trapezius similarly (2).

In any case, we can see that chin-ups stimulate more muscle mass overall; it's just that pull-ups are better for the lats, right?.

But this is what everyone forgets: because chin-ups involve more muscle mass, people are usually much stronger at them.

So, to make a fair comparison, we need to compare weighted chin-ups and weighted pull-ups, each of the weighted pull-ups with the same percentage of a person's one-repetition maximum.

If we now analyze the study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2), we see that:.

• Chin-ups use 8% more range of motion at the elbows compared with pull-ups, making them even better for the biceps.
• Additionally, chin-ups are initiated with more assistance from the chest than pull-ups.

So it is clear that chin-ups are the greater compound exercise, inducing greater muscle growth, even in the lats.

However, it is true that pull-ups will force your lats to work proportionally harder than your other muscles.

As a result, if you have trouble growing your lats, pull-ups may help you target them better.

There are other reasons why you might also choose pull-ups pull-ups

• Perhaps the supinated grip causes elbow pain, while the pronated grip does not.
• Although in this case, an angled or neutral grip would normally be recommended instead of an overhand grip.

The range of motion in pull-ups

To perform a pull-up, start by hanging from the bar with your arms fully extended, from what is called a dead hang. Then explode from the bottom, pull yourself up with all your strength, and bring your chest to the bar.

It is not a small isolation movement in which you focus on maintaining tension or a burn in the muscles. It is like a deadlift for the upper body, where you reset at the bottom, gather your energy, and use every ounce of strength you can to pull yourself up.

The purpose of starting from a dead stop and bringing your chest to the bar is to take advantage of the greatest range of motion you can handle.

As a general rule, use a wider range of motion:

• It will improve your mobility and posture,
• It will develop a more versatile type of strength,
• It will stimulate greater muscle growth.

Finally, performing pull-ups through the greatest possible range of motion won’t necessarily benefit only your lats or biceps, since you’ll work dozens of muscles as you move, both on the way up and on the way down.

The strength curve of pull-ups

The strength curve determines how challenging different parts of the range of motion are, and this matters because muscles only grow when they’re challenged.

If you don’t use enough force during some parts of the range of motion, pull-ups won’t stimulate muscle growth.

Most barbell exercises have a fairly similar strength curve (bell-shaped), but pulling or rowing movements fall into their own unique category.

When you train your back, you may notice that it’s relatively easy to move the weight, but then the last few inches become very difficult.

This is especially true of pull-ups and barbell rows, although it also applies to chin-ups.

This isn’t because you have a strength imbalance that needs to be fixed, but rather because of two factors:

• First, the point at which the arms in most pulling exercises are longest is at the top of the exercise rather than in the middle (as in the front squat) or at the bottom (as in the bench press).
• Second, muscles can contract much more forcefully at the bottom of the exercise (in the stretched position) than at the top (as you approach full contraction).

Something else is happening here too, because the lats, the primary muscle you use when pulling, can’t bring your arms behind your body.

This means that the need to use different muscles during a single exercise allows you to work through a wide range of motion with a broad group of muscles.

How to focus while training

At the bottom of the exercise, when your lats and biceps are stretched and you begin pulling yourself up, you’ll stimulate most of the muscle growth.

Of all pulling movements, chin-ups have one of the best strength curves, but it’s still normal to struggle to bring your chest to the bar, and you don’t necessarily need to stop your sets when that happens.

After all, this is a pull-up, not a bench press.

As long as our chin clears the bar, it counts. (The same is true when testing our one-rep max. If our chin passes the bar, we’re all good.)

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with bringing your chest to the bar, and for most reps, that’s a great goal.

In fact, if you leave a couple of repetitions in reserve, you may stop your sets when you can no longer touch the bar with your chest.

You should simply understand that not being able to bring your chest to the bar does not yet count as reaching failure.

You should try to bring your chest to the bar when doing pull-ups, but you should not use this high standard to determine whether you have reached failure, which occurs when you can no longer bring your chin to the bar.

Training variations

There are different ways to grip the bar when doing pull-ups. We have already distinguished chin-ups (using a supinated or neutral grip) from pull-ups (using a pronated grip).

And we have already explained why chin-ups tend to be better for building muscle, although occasionally supplementing them with pull-ups has some advantages.

However, there are several different variations of chin-ups, each with its pros and cons.

With a supinated grip, the traditional method:

• A straight bar is used, with a grip approximately shoulder-width apart.
• It allows for a large range of motion, working and stimulating all the back and biceps muscles, stretching them and improving arm hypertrophy.
• In contrast, the elbow flexors—the brachioradialis and brachialis—contribute much less to the exercise.

With a neutral grip

• The palms face each other, using a special bar.
• The elbow flexors (biceps, brachialis, and brachioradialis) help place emphasis solely on the biceps; however, they are not stretched as much.
• The shoulders remain in a neutral position, which is not the safest (although pull-ups are quite safe), but they can help when you have shoulder problems.
• It allows you to lift more weight because the activated elbow flexors and the shoulders in a comfortably neutral position encourage this, which definitely promotes hypertrophy.

With an angled grip

• It is an intermediate between both types of pull-ups, chin-ups; it can be done with an EZ curl bar, for example.
• It allows you to use a lot of weight and heavily engages the biceps, although less so the shoulders, making it a good alternative to include from time to time.

You can also use rotating gymnastic rings, which allow freedom of movement for the hands' natural motion.

References

• T-Nation Research – 2010: Inside the muscles: best back and biceps exercises
• Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research – 2010: Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise