Pull-ups, or chin-ups, are one of the key exercises of CrossFit® and bodybuilding; Who has never tried to hang from the bar and pull themselves up hoping that their chin clears the bar? Well it's not as easy as it seems, on the contrary!
It takes many months of training and above all you need to know how to do different movements and preparatory exercises to perfection in order to get to the perfect strict pull-up; Let's discover these exercises together!
Index
Strict pull-up: a premise
Pull-ups can be practiced anywhere and strengthen the upper body, improving posture and developing arms; to perform this exercise you only need a bar from which you have to hang with your palms facing outwards and your hands slightly wider than your shoulders, bend your elbows while exhaling and pull your chin up to the bar or just above.
After a second pause, you can straighten your arms and return to the starting position. Among the variations of pull-ups, we have the strict pull-up, which involves a linear movement in which you don't have to swing; the focus is more on the muscles that lift the body, rather than on the movement. Now let's see the preparatory exercises aimed precisely at this version of pull-ups.
Negative strict pull-up
This exercise is simple, but essential for a good result pull-up; you have to jump from the ground or from an aid box and hang on to the bar with your chin already above it and then, as slowly as possible, descend to the suspended position, i.e. arms locked down and feet off the ground; in short, a traction in reverse.
This lowering phase helps build the same muscles that are used to pull yourself up at the beginning of a pull-up; the slower you descend, the more beneficial the exercise is.
Chin catch over the bar
As with the previous preparatory exercise, you have to start with the chin already above the bar; now, however, you don't lower yourself, but you stay high, concentrating your attention and strength on keeping your chin above or at the height of the bar. The longer you can hold this position, the better.
Negative segmented strict pull up
This preparatory exercise is a mix of the previous two; same starting position, then with the chin over the bar, then lower yourself by a few centimetres, maintaining the suspended position, then lower yourself a little more and stop for a few seconds and so on.
Just before the suspension phase, another short break is taken; this exercise helps to understand that some phases of the negative are much more difficult than others.
We need to focus on the phases in which we struggle the most and concentrate on those to improve them; as time goes by it will increase force in each section and you will be able to take all the breaks without problems while maintaining the position well
Lat pulldowns
Scapular pull-ups
And you, have you ever done these preparatory exercises? Let us know in the comments and remember to follow us on our telegram channel
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