A pull-up is an upper-body strength training exercise. It is a tried-and-true exercise that engages every major muscle group in your upper body from your lats (Latissimus dorsi) to your traps (Trapeziu) and to your abs (abdominal). You can use pull ups to train biceps, lats, scapular retractors, forearms and muscles of the core when performed correctly. Pull-ups are also a great indicator of overall strength since it’s just you pulling your body upwards against the force of gravity. There are many variants of pull-ups and In this article, we will explore 10 common types of pull-up that you can do to strengthen your body.
1. The Standard Pull-Up
The standard pull-up is an upper-body strength exercise involving raising your body and lifting your head above a horizontal bar. It is done with your palms facing away from you in an overhand grip or pronated position and is often done at a wide-grip or shoulder-width.
How to Do
- Grab the horizontal bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width, with your palms facing away from you.
- Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
2. The Chin-Up
The chin-up is an exercise with the aim to pull your body upwards and the chin brought over the top of the horizontal bar done with a supinated hand position with your palms facing towards you in an underhand grip on the horizontal bar. Chin-ups are usually done at shoulder-width or narrow-grip.
How to Do
- Put your hands on the horizontal bar with your palms facing your body
- Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
3. The Neutral Grip Pull-Up
The neutral grip pull-up is a form of pull-up with the aim to pull your body upwards and the chin brought over the top of the parallel bar in which the palms face each other similar to a hammer curl.
How to Do
- Put your hands on the bar with your palms facing each other on a set of parallel bars
- Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
4. The Behind the Neck Pull-up
The behind the neck pull-ups are basically a variation of the standard pull up exercise. The aim is still to pull your body upwards on the horizontal bar but instead of pulling on the bar in front of you, your focus is to have the hands towards your back when you pulled up. The behind the neck pull-ups focus on all the muscles that standard pull-ups do as well as providing greater emphasis to the upper back muscles.
How to Do
- Grasp the horizontal bar with an overhand grip that is wider than the shoulder-width
- Pull yourself up towards the bar while moving your head underneath until your neck touches the bar
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
5. The One Arm Pull-up
A one-arm pull up is one of the most difficult body weight exercises that requires a lot of strength to execute. It embodies both mental strength and extreme physical power requiring superior body control.
How to Do
- Grip the horizontal bar with one hand with palm facing toward you
- Hold the wrist of your lifting arm with your other arm to help support your lifting arm and give a little extra lifting power
- Lift your body off the ground and bend your arm at the elbow with legs crossing your ankles
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
6. The Around the World Pull-Up
The around-the-world pull-up is a more advanced version of the standard pull-up exercise with emphasis on individual arms or sides of the back. This exercise pulls your body up and over toward one hand, then across the bar to your other before coming back down to the starting position.
How to Do
- Grasp the horizontal bar with a grip well outside shoulder width and hang freely
- Raise your body to the top of the horizontal bar but move your torso at an angle up towards your left hand
- When your chin touches the horizontal bar, stay there but move your body towards your right hand
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
7. The Gorilla Pull-Up
The gorilla pull-up and crunch is a calisthenics and total body exercise that primarily targets the abs and hip flexors. Its an easy pull-up to learn and execute and give the image of a gorilla whilst crunching your knees towards your chest and pulling up.
How to Do
- Grip the bar with one hand in front and the other right behind it
- Pull yourself up while bringing your knees up until they are at chest level until your right shoulder touches the bar
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
8. The L-SIT Pull Up
The l-sit pull-up is a strict pull-up while remaining in a L-sit position. This exercise is a very challenging movement, requiring core strength, flexibility, upper body strength, and shoulder/scapular mobility to be able to properly pull oneself up to the bar/rings. The L-Sit Pull Up requires you to have a great amount of abdominal strength along with bicep and lat strength.
How to Do
- Assume a wide grip on a pull-up bar and hang so that your feet are not in contact with the ground.
- Raise your knees so that your thighs are roughly parallel with the ground and lock your knees and point your toes so that your legs are extended straight in front of you making an L-shape with your body
- Holding this shape, pull your body upwards until your chin is above the horizontal bar
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
9. The Kipping Pull-Up
The kipping pull-up uses body momentum to assist in lifting the body upwards. This exercise targets body muscles in a more muscular endurance way rather than for maximal strength. It also engages many of the same muscle groups as most pull-up variations.
How to Do
- Grab onto the bar with your hands shoulder-width apart.
- Push your chest out to bring your body forward.
- Pull your shoulders backward to reverse the curve of your body.
- Pull yourself up after swinging 2-3 times till your chin is above the bar
- Hold for a slight pause and push yourself at least 2–3 inches away from the bar.
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
10. The Archer Pull-Up
The Archer pull-up is a calisthenics exercise that primarily targets the lats. The pull-up is executed by keeping one arm straight while relying primarily on the opposite arm to do the bulk of the pulling. It’s a great pull-up exercise for developing the single arm pulling strength
How to Do
- Grasp pull-up horizontal bar with overhand grip that is wider than shoulder-width.
- Pull yourself upwards and towards the left arm, extend your right arm straight and horizontal with the ground at the top of the pull-up
- Hold for a slight pause
- Lower yourself all the way back down and repeat
Pull-ups are universal and you need little or no equipment to perform almost anywhere. There are many ways to do pull-ups. When doing pull-ups, the only burden you experience is between that of your own bodyweight, the bar, and the coordinated muscular effort of your upper-body muscles lifting you up. The complex movement targets several muscles at the same time resulting in a much higher energy requirement that can also support fat burning and stimulate the afterburn effect. Besides the many benefits pull-ups offers, it also provides you a high level of motivation for your workouts making them always fun to do.
Thank You for reading.
Health and Fitness Warrior 