Pull-up
Chin-up
Works
Also works
Equipment
How to do it
- Hang from the bar with a supinated grip, hands at shoulder width.
- Pull your shoulder blades down and back to engage your back.
- Pull your body up, thinking about driving your elbows toward your ribs.
- Rise until your chin clears the top of the bar.
- Lower under control until your arms fully extend.
- Keep your core tight to avoid swinging.
Common mistakes
- Using only the biceps and forgetting the back
- Swinging to gain momentum
- Not completing arm extension at the bottom
What the evidence says
Grip changes the distribution, not the total: across pronated, supinated and Perfect-Pullup variations, biceps brachii and pectoralis major were more active in the chin-up, and lower trapezius was more active in the pull-up.
Youdas JW, Amundson CL, Cicero KS, Hahn JJ, Harezlak DT, Hollman JH. «Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise». Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2010;24(12):3404-3414. View the study
In 19 trained men comparing supinated, pronated, neutral and rope pull-ups, overall shoulder-arm-forearm activation was comparable across hand orientations: no version recruits "more muscle" than the others.
Dickie JA, Faulkner JA, Barnes MJ, Lark SD. «Electromyographic analysis of muscle activation during pull-up variations». Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 2017;32:30-36. View the study
The chin-up isn't just a pulldown by another name: compared with the cable lat pulldown, it produced greater biceps brachii and erector spinae activation during the concentric phase. If your biceps gives out before your back does, the pulldown lets you push further.
Doma K, Deakin GB, Ness KF. «Kinematic and electromyographic comparisons between chin-ups and lat-pull down exercises». Sports Biomechanics, 2013;12(3):302-313. View the study
What isn't settled: Every grip comparison is activation measured in a single session: there are no multi-week trials measuring how much each muscle grows with pronated, supinated or neutral pull-ups. And for assisted pull-ups — band or machine — there's no literature comparing them with the unassisted version.
Other variations
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