Lat Science: Exploring the Pull-Up
By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems
http://www.staleytraining.com/ecm8/ezGaffurl.php?offer=xxxxx&pid=1
I have to admit, I love pull-ups. All versions actually—chins, pull-ups, parallel grip… low reps, high reps, weights strapped to my waist, you name it. I’ve done a lot of experimentation with this exercise too—much of which involved stupid-level high-tension stunts involving heavy eccentrics, plyometric loads, all sorts of stuff.
My affection for this exercise probably stems from the fact that I’m pretty good at it (I can do 12-13 reps weighing 215 at age 49—like I said, pretty good—nothing to write a press release about, but you get my point).
Aside from my own modest success with this exercise, there are plenty of more objective reasons to take a second (or third) look at doing more pull-ups:
Same But Different
Like all good exercises, the pull-up is almost infinitely modifiable: you can use both arms, one arm (maybe), supinated, pronated, or neutral grips—in fact, you can even use a thumbless grip.
Pull-ups allow you to use less than bodyweight (I’ll show you how later), bodyweight, or additional loads… you can use all sorts of bar options—thick, thin, towels, gymnastic rings…
Infinite variability is important, because it allows you to perform an exercise year after year, without burning out your mind or your connective tissue. So variability allows you to safely do what’s important—all the time, not just one week out of four, which means you never make any progress.
Muscular Topography
The pull-up quickly adds visual impact to your physique—it thickens and widens the lattisimus dorsi, which also makes your waist look smaller by comparison. Pull-ups also rapidly hypertrophy the biceps, forearms, traps, rhomboids and all sorts of "under the hood" musculature that typically goes unnoticed - until poor training habits lead to imbalance, or (possibly) injury.
Athletic Functionality
In terms of movement pattern classification, pull-ups fall under the category of “vertical pulling” exercises. Vertical pulling is one of eight categories of movement patterns that we recognize at Staley Training Systems (the other seven: horizontal pulling, vertical and horizontal pushing, trunk rotation and flexion, squatting, and lunging). If you wish to have a “complete” physique and/or complete functionality, you simply must incorporate vertical pulling drills into your training strategy.
Before we move on however, just a quick clarification on the concept of completeness: many guys in particular, have an almost genetically coded and obsessive preference toward training the anterior muscles of the upper body, often to the complete exclusion of everything else. I’m specifically referring to pecs, biceps and abs.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with training these muscles, but when their posterior counterparts don’t receive equal opportunity, your shoulders will start bitching at you from the moment you wake up till the time you go to bed. And maybe even while you sleep.
In fact, during the recent seminar Strength Seminar I taught with Pavel Tsatsouline here in Phoenix, the Evil Russian asked everyone who’d experienced shoulder injuries to raise their hands. About 75% of the room complied, upon which Pavel remarked “For those of you who didn’t raise your hand, it’s because you couldn’t.”
The ability to do a given number of pull-ups also speaks volumes about another aspect of functionality — your relative strength (or “strength to weight ratio.”) My colleague Martin Rooney of the Parisi Speed School once remarked to me that he’s noticed a direct correlation between pull-up strength and 40-yard dash times. This correlation (if it exists) becomes intuitively obvious when you consider than both events benefit from low bodyfat and high strength levels.
There are many additional, less-obvious examples of the lat’s role in balanced athletic functionality. For example, since the lattisimus dorsi is the only muscle that directly connects the humerus to the spine, its participation in all pulling movements (such as Olympic lifts and deadlifting) is absolutely critical.
Fun
I know training’s supposed to be a miserable experience (or at least you’d think so by the way most people conduct themselves in gyms), but for me at least, if it’s not fun, I wouldn’t do it. Now granted, I probably have a warped definition of the word “fun,” but the point is, training should instill a sense of accomplishment in you—a sense of pride in your own physicality.
I recently spoke with a colleague of mine about the subject of pull-ups, and he told me:
“Coming from someone who used to be VERY over fat and couldn't do a pullup to save my life all through middle and high school. I had very good pressing and lower body strength but couldn't do a chin. After losing weight, it was very empowering to be able to do a pull-up—it feels AWESOME. It’s a great feat of strength and when people seeing you doing chins or pull-ups, they have a certain respect for you.”
These sentiments are almost universal among those who spend any kind of time in the weight room. It’s possible to bench or squat with light weights and you’re still benching or squatting, but the smallest weight increment with pullups is you—your own bodyweight. The exercise becomes a visceral metaphor for personal accomplishment: after all, you’re “pulling your own weight.”
If You’re Not Convinced Yet, Sorry—I Did My Best
Let’s move on to a more practical discussion of the pull-up—what it is, how to do one, and how to incorporate it into your own training strategy.
The most prevalent point of confusion involves nomenclature—what’s a pullup, and what’s a chin-up? Simply, a chin-up involves supinated hands (meaning, your palms face you during the exercise). Pull-ups are the opposite of that. Other variants, such as neutral-grip pull-ups, are a bit fuzzier, and definitions vary from coach to coach.
As we move on to performance-related issues, I’d like to share an observation with you that may enhance your understanding of the movement from a biomechanical perspective. Imagine yourself standing under a chinning bar, ready to do a chin-up. You reach up with a supinated grip, and grasp the bar.
Just for the purposes of this (mental) exercise, imagine that somehow your hands are attached to the bar so you don’t need to grip it. I’m not sure if that involved duct tape, superglue, or whatever. I also want you to imagine that your biceps are de-innervated (meaning, they don’t work).
Still with me? OK, from here, ask yourself this question: what happens if you just activate your lats, maximally without doing anything else?
The answer is, you’ll do a chin-up, despite no biceps activation. If you maximally activate your lats, your elbows will be drawn down to your ribs, which means you did a chin.
My point is this: while everyone always talks about chins being one of the best biceps exercises, I don’t want you to think of a chin-up as a biceps exercise, because that thought will prevent you from maximally recruiting your lats during the exercise.
And since your lats are the big bullies among the chinning muscles, that’d be counter-productive at best. In the same way that you use your posterior chain to generate force in a snatch or a clean, you should use your lats as the prime mover when you perform any pull-up variation.
Another way to reinforce this concept is through cueing—the thought or visualization you have in your head as you perform the exercise. The prevailing wisdom among most coaches is to “squeeze the bar as hard as you can.” And while I appreciate the rationale behind this thinking, I disagree with it. Many coaches prompt their clients to “squeeze the bar as hard as possible” because it’s a good way to generate more force through a principle known as “hyperirradiation;” tension generated in the forearm muscles tends to promote more force in neighboring muscles (the elbow flexors in this case), which promotes
greater overall force production.
My problem with this cue for pull-ups is that I want to discourage biceps involvement in favor of lat-focused power generation. If you’re not convinced despite my earlier mental exercise, think of it this way: if you load your bodyweight onto a bar, how many times can you curl it? I’m guessing 0.
A better cue, which helps to recruit the bigger, more powerful lats, is to think about driving your elbows down to your ribcage. Not only does this cue encourage lat contraction, it’s also less daunting to imagine driving your elbows down, than it is to imagine pulling yourself up.
I’m so convinced of the value of this strategy that I almost try to deliberately de-emphasize my grip when I do pull-ups. One way of doing this is to use straps incidentally. Another option: a false grip, and/or chalk—anything that makes the grip easier will work. Now if your guns are sub-par, don’t worry:
your biceps are likely to participate no matter how you perform your chins or pull-ups.
A Few Other Technical Tips…
I’ve got a few remaining thoughts and tips for you, in no particular order:
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If you find yourself swinging during a set of pull-ups, ensure that you’re not flexing your hips.
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Some people are satisfied to simply touch their chin to the bar, as opposed to actually clearing the bar with the chin. I’d opt for the latter tactic however, and here’s why: if you fail to clear the bar with your chin, you’ll most likely miss out on the opportunity to depress your scapula with your lower trap fibers, which is required to go from a “chin touching” to a “chin clearing” position. The ability to meaningfully depress your scaps is essential for good overall shoulder health, so avoid the temptation to simply touch the bar with your chin.
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There are many myths and misunderstandings regarding hand spacing, most of which focus on the incorrect premise that a wider spacing makes the lats wider, and a narrower spacing makes the lats thicker. A better recommendation is to simply use a natural spacing, which affords you the most comfort and freedom of movement. One way to find this position for yourself is to simply reach up (or, if you have a chinning bar that requires this, to jump up) with either a supinated or pronated grip. Your intuitive choice of hand spacing will tend to be correct, if you haven’t over-thought it. Done this way, your hand spacing with a supinated grip will tend to be slightly inside of shoulder width, such that at the top, the front of your shoulders will brush your hands. Your pronated grip will tend to be a touch wider than your supinated grip.
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This next point is something I’ve learned from experience, and it’s not something I could ever prove to you, but if you try it, you’ll prove it to yourself: leave more reps “in the tank” with chins and pullups than you would on most other exercises. I like to leave at least 2 reps to spare on every set, save for the occasional max-reps test. On every rep, you want to instill a feeling of confidence and mastery—not humiliation and agony.
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What if you’re close, but can’t yet perform a chin-up? Ahh, lucky for you, I’ve left the best tip for last: muscles are significantly stronger when they contract immediately following a pre-stretch (called the “stretch-shortening cycle.”) This is why you crouch immediately before you jump, and it’s also why you quickly coil your arm back before you throw a ball. So if you’ve never done a chin, but you’re real close, try standing on a box or a chair, and lower yourself first, then pull yourself up to the bar. Then (if you want) write me back telling me what an awesome coach I am!
NOW You’re Pulling Your Weight!
Feels good doesn’t it?