Chinning Bars: Back, Biceps, and Beyond

Everyone should do pull-ups

Pull-ups, chin-ups, and similar movements are often neglected by casual trainees, but they are an essential part of a strength training program.

They balance pushing exercises like bench presses, and they provide functional strength that comes in handy during everyday activities.

Table of Contents

• Various types of chinning bars
• Additional equipment to aid your pullup workout
• Proper technique for pullups and chinups
• Range of motion for chins and pullups
• Grip variations for pull-ups and chin-ups
• Types of assisted pull-ups

Equipment needed for a chinning workout

A chinning bar is a must-have piece of exercise equipment.

The best chinning bars are gymnasts’ high-bars. These free-standing pull-up bars are wide enough so you can do every pull-up variation in existence, and they flex so they’re easy on the shoulder joints and elbows. Plus, they feature fully adjustable height.

Alternatives to a gymnast’s chinning bar

• Black-iron pipe (gas pipe) between two supports or hanging from chains. It’s thicker than the ideal pull-up bar, but it’ll do in a pinch.
• A set of rings.
• A barbell on the high pins of a power rack. Chin-ups are easier than pull-ups in this configuration.
• Doorway pull-up bar. Easy to install, and it doesn’t remain in place while not in use. Your body weight holds it in place.
• Doorway tension chinning bar. This type expands via an internal screw mechanism. It presses against the inside of the door jamb, holding itself in place. Don’t use it unless the door is set in masonry. Most of these tension pull-up bars come with brackets that serve to make them safer and semi-permanent, if you wish.
• Wall-mounted pull-up and chinning bar. These are a great alternative to doorway pull-up bars, but they require a dedicated workout space and installation by a knowledgeable handyman.
• A friendly tree with a sturdy, horizontal branch (or two).
• Playground equipment. Children’s playground equipment is perfect for working out on, but be sure the police don’t give you a hard time about hanging around the playground.
• Pull-ups from top of door or ledge. Swing a door out into the room and jam something under the bottom of the door to avoid putting uneven pressure on the hinges. Then, grab the top of the door with an overhand grip. With your elbows pressed against the door, do as many pull-ups as you want. Instead of a door, you can use anything that you can grab on top of.
• Resistance bands offer a decent, if imperfect, alternative to pull-ups and chin-ups. In fact, because you can get any number of different angles from a resistance band pull-up, it can offer a way to avoid specificity during your pull-up workouts.
• Barbell or dumbbell rows are the standard weight lifter’s alternative to pull-ups and chin-ups. Although they are different movements altogether, and most people who are dedicated to strength training believe that both rows and pullups belong in any comprehensive workout plan, rows are a good short-term alternative.
• 

  Inverted Rows are an easier alternative to traditional pull-ups.

  Inverted rows (sometimes called incline pull-ups) come close to duplicating the chinning movement. This is especially true if you can get your head appreciably higher than your feet. Try some inverted table rows: slide your body under a table and grab the edge of the table.

Supplemental equipment for a pull-up workout

• Weight lifting gloves reduce or prevent calluses during high-repetition kipping pullups.
• Weight lifting chalk improves grip.
• Weight lifting straps markedly improve grip.
• Resistance bands allow for assisted pullups, or in a pinch they can replace a chinning bar.
• Ab straps let you hang effortlessly from your chinning bar while you work on your abdominals.
• A weighted vest or a weighted backpack adds to the resistance, as does holding a weight plate or dumbbell between your knees.

Pull-ups and Chin-ups: proper technique

It takes time to adapt to a pull-up or chin-up workout. Until you are sufficiently flexible, pull-ups will result in soreness of the shoulder and/or elbow joints (not to mention the biceps and lats). Luckily, the best pull-up flexibility training is simple:

• Perform pull-ups and chin-ups regularly.
• Use shoulder-specific stretches like Yoga’s downward dog, bar hangs and weightlifter’s shoulder stretches.
• Remember that you are not fully flexible unless you can raise your arms straight over your head so someone can see your ears ahead of your arms when they view you from the side.

Pull-up range of motion

There are two schools of thought on the proper range of motion for pull-ups and chins.

Strict pull-ups and chin-ups

People who view pull-ups as a form of competition – members of the military, for instance – insist on a full range of motion. Their reps don’t count unless they start from a dead hang and finish with the chin over the chinning bar.

This can be problematic for casual fitness buffs. A dead hang puts pressure on the rotator cuff and on the connective tissue of the shoulders and elbows. It is best to forgo the dead hang pull-up until you are properly fit. If there is excessive discomfort at the bottom of your pull-up reps, stop your descent just before you reach a dead hang. Hold your body weight with your lats rather than your rotator cuff.

Fitness-style pull-ups and chin-ups

Fitness enthusiasts are more forgiving when it comes to proper pull-up form. Anything goes, as long as the workout is effective. The various flavors of assisted pull-ups are perfectly acceptable to fitness buffs, even though others might scoff.

Kipping pull-ups

Kipping pull-ups add a cardio twist to the pulling motion. With this technique, you get higher reps, a stronger grip, and a greater focus on functional muscular endurance. Max strength is discounted in favor of athleticism.

Kipping pull-ups change the exercise from strictly an upper-body back and biceps move to a callus-inducing full-body exercise. Try kipping pull-ups; they’re fun.

Proper grip for pull-ups or chin-ups

One of the defining characteristics of chins and pull-ups is that it’s easy to vary the technique and prevent premature adaptation to the exercise.

The overhand grip reduces the range of motion of the elbow joint and focuses on the muscles of the back. The underhand chin-up grip shifts emphasis to the biceps and the brachioradialis muscles of the forearms. Most people seem to find the underhand chin-up grip easier at first. However, overhand-grip pull-ups – especially wide-grip pull-ups – are important, functional, and instinctual, and they shouldn’t be neglected.

Some bodybuilders claim that wide-grip pull-ups stimulate the outer latissimus dorsi, resulting in a wider “wingspan”. Likewise, they claim that close-grip pull-ups (and bent-over rows) stimulate thickness of the mid-back, closer to the body’s center line. Whether these claims are true is probably immaterial: we should use both exercise variations to avoid specificity and avoid creating weak spots in our musculature. Make sure your chinning bar is wide enough so you can perform all the variations.

Pull-ups too hard to do: problem solved

Several good alternatives exist for folks who can’t do a full set of pull-ups or chin-ups because of injury or a lack of strength.

Chair-assisted pull-ups or chin-ups

Using a chair, virtually anyone can get a full range of motion and a decent number of repetitions.

Either support a substantial amount of your weight on the chair, or just use a toe to push yourself past any sticking points. Either way, a chair gives you the opportunity to enjoy a pull-up workout while still getting the intensity level and overload that you need for proper exercise progression.

Band-assisted pull-ups and chin-ups

Resistance bands can lighten your load considerably. Use them to make pull-ups and chin-ups easier without altering your basic pull-up technique.

Band-assisted pull-ups and chin-ups

Using long, flat resistance bands of the type popularized by proponents of Pilates, you can perform full range of motion pull-ups with help from the elastic band. This style of pull-up emphasizes the top of the movement, since the resistance band offers the least amount of help at that point.

Resistance band pull-ups or chin-ups

Pull-ups with a resistance band are the best alternative to pull-ups and chin-ups. You can dispense with the chinning bar altogether and stick with resistance band pull-ups. In this exercise, the resistance bands replace the chinning bar. Since the resistance varies along the path of the pulling motion, it’s not an ideal alternative to actual pull-ups, but it’s certainly a good exercise nonetheless.

Remember to orient your upper-body so you’re pulling straight down towards your shoulders. Simulate as much as possible the pull-up movement.

Jumping pull-ups and chin-ups

If you’re already able to do a few chin-ups or pull-ups, you can break through a plateau and add some more reps to your totals by including jumping pull-ups in your workout program.

Since the resistance varies through the range of motion, they don’t build very much maximum strength. However, they work wonders for your muscular endurance.