JOE continues with its weekly exercise tips to help you tone up and drive towards your ideal physique. This week we focus on chin-ups.
The chin-up is a multi-joint compound exercise that involves multiple muscle groups. It is better than common gym exercises for people who train with health and fitness in mind and don’t want to become bodybuilding champions. It saves time and creates functional strength applicable to other physical activities – work or other sports.
The benefits you will get from performing regular chin-ups include:
- Functional strength increase
- Posture improvements
- Back pain alleviation
- A better looking physique
The supinated chin-up
The most basic chin-up is the supinated chin-up which targets the lats and upper arms. This type of chin-up has by far the greatest range of movement and is ideal for those new to the chin-up bar. The starting position begins with a bar grasp in a supinated or palms up position. The hands should be held at shoulder width or slightly narrower.
The arms should be straightened in a fully extended position with the torso in line with the upper arms. To begin the ascent, the relatively strong upper back and elbow flexor muscles will be used, as the elbows are drawn down and back.
The ascent should continue until the chin clears the bar. It’s important to remember that before initiating the ascent, the athlete should inhale. During the ascent, the pulling action and leaning back action must be done simultaneously. Upon descent, exhaling begins and the trunk should come back to an upright position. As the descent is completed, the arms should be fully extended and the shoulder blade should be elevated.
To complete the range of motion, the upper arms and scapulae adductors must be stretched on every repetition. The legs should stay in line with the torso as much as possible. There should be no flexion of the hips, as this will lower the quality of the exercise.
Unlike free-weights, your bodyweight is fixed so start off by working up to between eight and 10 reps. Once you’ve got there, you can increase the number of sets you do during each workout.
This exercise should get you started with chin-ups, but for a look at what the ultimate chin-up workout looks like check out this dude:
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