TECHNIQUE
- Grasp a horizontal bar with a pronated grip (palms facing away from the body) with your hands placed 7-10 inches wider than shoulder-width apart on each side.
- Relax your shoulder muscles to fully stretch your lats and to fully extend the arms and upper body.
- Inhale slightly more than usual and hold your breath as you begin the pull-up.
- Raise the shoulders first while holding the elbows out to the side and then concentrate on “pulling” the elbows down to raise the body.
- Keep pulling yourself upward until the chin is level with or slightly above the bar.
- Hold the uppermost position momentarily and then exhale and lower the body under control to the initial fully extended arm and shoulder position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
PERFORMANCE
- To most effectively work the upper latissimus dorsi muscles, which give you “wings” and widen the upper back, keep your grip as wide as is comfortably possible. The wider the grip greater the emphasis on the upper portion of the lats and the teres major. The closer the grip the more the lower portions of both the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi become involved.
- The first half of this movement is most important for developing mass of the upper latissimus dorsi. The key is to concentrate on first raising the shoulders and then the entire body. In fact, simply raising and lowering the shoulders is effective for this section of the muscle. But, to effectively raise and lower the shoulders, be sure that you completely extend the arms and relax the muscles to get the full stretch of the shoulders before beginning the pull-up movement.
- Because of the wider grip used in this exercise, it becomes extremely difficult to bring the chin up to or above the level of the bar while still keeping the elbows out to the sides. Thus, you should not be too concerned if you don’t raise the body all the way up as it is not most important in this exercise. But, you should still strive to go through as full a range of motion in the shoulder joints as possible.
- The biceps is not involved greatly in the pulling-up action, mainly because of the pronated grip. This action twists the tendon of the biceps so that it no longer has an effective line of pull. You will see it contract, but it is more for stabilization of elbow rather than raising the body. Emphasis should be on raising the body via shoulder elevation and shoulder joint adduction rather than elbow flexion.
- Bringing the back of the neck to the bar is not recommended because it greatly decreases the range of muscle involvement and you may open yourself up to injury, if you hit the 7th cervical vertebrae or if you lack shoulder flexibility. When you do the pull-up with the bar in front of the head, the arms remain in a neutral plane of movement that allows for safe shoulder movements and a greater range of motion.
- The rhomboid and pectoralis minor muscles, which rotate the scapula downward as you do the pull-up, are strongly developed in this exercise. In the initial position, these muscles are placed on stretch and undergo a strong contraction to rotate the scapula downward, which in turn allows the arm to move downward. Note that in the initial movement of raising the shoulders, you pull the scapula downward and begin their downward rotation. With this movement of the scapula and the synchronized arm action, you have a smooth movement with little chance of shoulder injury.
- Although the pull-up is a great exercise, it is often not practiced by many women because of the difficulty in raising the body weight (which can be quite great) on each repetition. Because of this the lat pull-down is often preferred or use of a machine in which a portion of your body weight is counterbalanced. However, in such cases, most of your development is not in the initial stages of the pull-down but in the latter.
- If you have difficulty doing full pull-ups for a sufficient number of repetitions you can use an apparatus such as the Back Stretch Strap, which allows your feet to stay in contact with the floor. You pull with the arm and shoulder muscles and at the same time give yourself an assist with the legs, if needed. As you gradually rely more on the arms, you will strengthen the muscles to a point where you can do full-range pull-ups on a horizontal bar.
PRIMARY MUSCLES INVOLVED In the shoulder joint, the primary muscles are the upper latissimus dorsi, lower pectoralis major and the teres major. These muscles are assisted by the corachobrachialis, subscapularis, short head of the biceps and long head of the triceps. The pectoralis major covers the entire chest as it runs from the whole length of the sternum and the cartilages of the first six ribs to the upper arm. The lower section, which is involved in this exercise, comprises most of the total mass and lies directly under most of the breasts. The latissimus dorsi covers a very wide area of the lower half and the upper sides of the back. The teres major is a round muscle on the outer surface of the scapula, located on the upper sides of the back. In the shoulder girdle the primary muscles involved are the rhomboid and pectoralis minor. The rhomboid lies beneath the middle of the trapezius, located in the middle of the upper back. The pectoralis minor is a small muscle on the front of the upper chest and is covered by the pectoralis major. MUSCLE/JOINT ACTIONS In the shoulder joint there is adduction in which the upper arms move in the side plane from an overhead position towards the sides of the body. This action is performed by the lower pectoralis major, upper latissimus dorsi and teres major. In the shoulder girdle there is downward rotation of the scapula performed by the rhomboid and pectoralis minor. In this action the right scapula rotates clockwise and the left scapula counterclockwise when viewed from the rear. The axis of rotation is through the middle of the scapula. There is also elevation of the scapulae which involves the upper trapezius and levator scapulae located in the back of the neck. SPORTS USES For bodybuilders and women involved in fitness training, the wide grip pull-up is a very important exercise for developing the upper back muscles, especially the upper portion of the latissimus dorsi which gives you “wings”. It helps greatly in giving you the appearance of having wider shoulders. The wide grip pull-up is very important in all climbing actions when grasping with a pronated (palms-away) grip or with a neutral (palms facing) grip and the elbows out to the sides. These actions are frequently used in rock and mountain climbing. Firemen and policemen need this exercise to help them climb fences, walls and ladders, as do military men when going over various obstacles. The pull-up develops the muscles needed in all forms of swimming, especially in the breaststroke and butterfly and gymnasts are benefited from doing pull-ups in all pulling-up actions on the uneven bars.