Pull up is an upper-body strength exercise, refers to the hanging exercise that relies on one’s own strength to overcome one’s own weight and do work upwards. It could be done with the power tower at home, a simple home workout. It mainly tests the level of upper-body muscle strength, as well as arm strength, waist and abdomen strength. In the process of completing a pull up, many back skeletal muscles and upper-body skeletal muscles need to participate in the workout.
Pull-up with power tower is the most effective and basic way to develop the muscle strength and endurance of the back skeletal muscles. Pull up is a comprehensive expression of beauty and strength of human arm grip strength, upper body strength, back strength and waist & abdominal muscle strength, also is one of the important reference standards for measuring physique.
The space and equipment required for pull-ups are not complicated, no specific thing required. The practice space is diversified and easy to find for pull up, you only need to find some place for vertical hanging of the human body, like a power tower or dip station. It’s wonderful fitness for home gym.
Pull up movement itself is fit with the physiological functions of our upper-body; it is not easy to cause harm to the trainer. So when you work out alone in your home，you don’t need additional assistance from others. It is a safe, efficient, and simple home workout.
Pull up training steps
For the pull up training to be more standard, you can follow the following steps:
1. Starting position -Both hands hold the bar with a wide slightly wider than the shoulders (palms facing forward) , feet off the ground, and your arms naturally sag and straight，relax your body.
2. Take a deep breath, use your latissimus dorsi to contract and exert force, at the same time use your strength of your arms to lift your body up smoothly. When your chin goes over the bar, stop for a second.
3. Exhale, gradually relax the latissimus dorsi and let the body slowly descend until it returns to a naturally sag. Now you did a pull up.4. Repeat the movement
Precautions for Pull Up
- You can bend your knees and cross your calves backwards to better exercise your back muscles and control your body balane
- 3-4 groups, each group for 8~10 times, rest 1min.
- We know that for some beginners, even one Pull up could not be done. In this case, you can find a power tower or dip station, hold the bar with both hands, and let your body hang naturally. Hold for 20 seconds each time, each group for 5 times, rest 45-60 seconds, do 4~5 groups. Or you can follow our decomposition exercise down below to help improve your abilities in all aspects
- All physical exercises are inseparable from scientific and reasonable dietary nutrition supplements. The main purpose of practicing Pull ups is to enhance the strength and endurance of the skeletal muscles of the upper-body and back. In addition, protein, a more balanced nutritional supplement is required.
Because the main energy source of pull ups is glycogen, and the main component of glycogen is carbohydrates, it is also necessary to supplement a sufficient amount of carbohydrates. And fat intake is essential.In terms of nutrition, the ratio of energy supply value of carbohydrates, protein and fat should be 5:2.5:2.5. For protein, it is necessary to choose high-quality protein as much as possible, and animal protein should account for at least 60%, so as to maximize the effect of exercise.
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Decomposition training for Pull Up
- Finger grip strength training
When we do pull ups, the weight of the whole body is fixed on the bar by the grip of the arms, so the grip of the arms can indirectly affect the ability to do pull ups. The grip strength can be practiced through the gripper and push-ups. It varies from person to person. If the grip strength is relatively poor, you can try the gripper first to improve the strength, and then practice finger push-ups. I If the grip strength is strong you can start doing push-ups straight away. - Upper-body and back strength training
When we do pull ups, it mainly relies on the skeletal muscle of the upper-body and back to provide power, so it is very important to develop the skeletal muscle strength and muscular endurance of the upper-body and back.
At the same time, because the pull up is a compound movement involving multiple joints, it is not recommended to use single-joint movements to develop the strength and endurance of the skeletal muscles of the upper-body and back. We can try to do more forehand training with dumbbells and barbells. - Waist strength training
In the process of doing pull up, due to the body is suspended in the air, it is particularly important to maintain the stability of the body. The body swinging from physical instability will increase the difficulty, so it is necessary for us to stabilize the body by developing the strength of the waist and abdomen. Movement like plank is a good choice. - Rest and stretch
After each exercise, it is necessary to stretch and massage the practiced parts so that they can relax, get enough rest, speed up the efficiency of lactic acid metabolism, and promote the recovery of finely damaged skeletal muscles and the growth efficiency of skeletal muscles. While preventing DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), it can also prevent fatigue injuries to achieve better exercise results. 
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Different types of Pull up
Pull up is also subdivided into many different types, let us introduce briefly.
1.Pull up.
Do pull up with a palm-outward grip. This is the most “ordinary” pull up grip. This pose is a challenge for the deltoids. If you want to focus on exercising the deltoid muscles, you can increase the angle of opening your arms, which will make it more difficult.2.Chin up
Chin-up is done with palm-inward grip. It’s easier than the palm-outward grip because it engages the biceps. If you want to strengthen your biceps, try chin-ups. Moreover, you can bring your arms closer even let them touch together, which will put more pressure on the biceps.
3.Mixed grip pull up
Mixed grip pull up use both a forehand and an underhand grip. Doing so can increase the difficulty of the pull ups. When using this grip, the body will deflect to the side of the underhand grip, increasing the force on the side of the underhand grip. When training, you need to use the forehand and backhand alternately.4.Parallel grip pull up
It’s also named hammer grip pull up. If there are two horizontal bars, you can use this palm-to-palm grip, which can reduce the stress on the shoulders.
5.Weighted pull up
\No matter what kind of pull up you are doing, if you could do more than 15 in one group, you should consider increasing the difficulty. Adding weight is an easy way to increase the difficulty.
- Sternum pull up
For a normal pull up, simply let your chin, or at most your collarbone, across over the bar. And the sternum needs to go further. When the collarbone touches the bar, try to lean the body back so that the sternum touches the bar. The pull up in this position works the lats specifically. - Behind-the-neck pull up
Touch the bar with the back of your neck. This pose can fully exercise the muscles of the back, such as teres major and teres minor. - Towel pull ups
Wrapping a towel over the bar is a challenge for the forearms. The towel-wrapped bars add to the difficulty of the grip, which is initiated by the muscles of the forearm. - One-hand pull up
Grasp the bar with one hand and hold the wrist of the gripper with the other hand. - One-arm pull up (one-arm pull up)
Do pull ups entirely with one arm. - One-finger pull up.
Do pull ups entirely with one finger. Try four fingers at first and work your way down to one.
- Sternum pull up
- Finger grip strength training
