Proper Pullups

Pullups or chinups? We suggest pullups

Both techniques, grip and reverse-grip, give your arm and back muscles and intensive workout.. The difference between them is that chinups develop mostly biceps and pull ups develop your back muscles.

For most people reverse-grip (chinups) is easier in the beginning, because we usually have better biceps than back muscles. But standard grip gives much better results because it develops your muscles more evenly.

If you seriously thinking about training and you want to develop your back muscles, you should do pullups instead of chinups. If you are used to chinups, pullups may seem uncomfortable to you in the beginning, but you will soon get used to them and start to like them.

Body position while hanging

Put hands on the pullup bar slightly broader than width of you shoulders. Place 4 fingers on the bar and wrap your thumbs under it. It is very important to grab the bar this way because it gives you safety during exercises.

W straighten your arms completely while hanging.

Pull-ups

1. Hang on completely straight arms. Look straight.
2. Do the pull-up with one, smooth move.
   1. Try to be still during the exercise - do not dangle
   2. Your body should be as close to the horizontal bar as possible.
   3. The pull up begins with with arms straighten and it finishes with chin above the bar.
3. After that we straighten your arms again and descend.

Only your arms should work during pullups. The rest of the body should just hang still. Swinging your legs and pulling them up during the exercise is only disturbing the training and making it less effective – your weight is then not evenly distributed on your arms.

Bending your legs behind you doesn't interrupt the training

When you train, you usually have to bend legs in your knees to avoid touching the ground with your feet. One of the most commonly asked questions is: "Does it interrupt the training?"
It doesn't. When you get used to having your legs bend during the training you will soon stop noticing this and have the same results as when training with straight legs.

Other types of pullups

Pullups with pullup bar behind the head

This exercise is best for developing back muscles, especially for latissimus muscle of back. Unfortunately you can do this exercise only on a bar attached to a wall or a ceiling (you cannot do it on a horizontal bar in the  door frame, because you would scrap your elbows).

Hanging leg raise

It is an exercise for developing you ABS. You hang straight on the bar and raise your legs bend in knees to your chin, then straighten them and lower them back to the ground.

If you are fit  enough, you can try doing the whole exercise with legs straight.