Rapid Fat Loss Diets

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pull Ups or Chin Ups - What Should You Focus On?

By Arthur Name

The Pull Up and Chin Up are two of the most popular bodyweight exercises in the world. You can do each of these exercises any time, with simple, basic equipment. What's the difference when comparing these two movements and which is the better one for you?

Both of these manoeuvres entail grasping an overhead bar and lifting yourself upward until your chin is higher than the bar. The difference is mainly in the direction you grip the bar. A Pull Up is accomplished with an overhand grip and your hands are placed shoulder width or greater apart. When you do a chin up, simply position your hands at shoulder width apart, in an underhand position.

Use different hand positioning and grips to direct your exercise to the muscles in various angles, but on the whole, this is the usual way these routines are performed.

There are, however, two essential distinctions between pull ups and chin ups:

1. When you do a pull up, you're working mostly the upper back muscles. You get support from your shoulders and biceps, but most of the work is being done by the back.

2. Chin ups are physically simpler to accomplish, since your biceps will be doing much of the work, taking the tension off of your back. This makes it easier for you to do more reps.

You should do either of these exercises ahead of any focused bicep routine as you want the biceps to be as fresh as they can be when you're going through these exercises to let you do more reps.

Which is the superior exercise?

Not one of these routines is better than the other. It simply comes down to how fit you are. Pull Ups are very difficult to do, especially for beginners, so you may choose to increase your strength progressively with chin ups. Many people who are fit opt for pull ups as they're the more challenging exercise, developing more strength and attacking the muscles more effectively. The best exercise for you all depends on what part of your body you want to target. If you want to work your back, then you'll want to use pull ups. If you're targeting your biceps, chin ups will help you with that.

Nevertheless, one of the keys to long term fitness progress is variation, so you should try to mix it up a bit, doing both Pull Ups and Chin Ups every now and then, at times even on the same workout. Both of these are tough and extremely effective back exercises. Each will help you increase strength and form muscle tissue fast. - 17273

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home