Related Blackridge blogs: humble row (upper back), helms row (lats), pronated pulldown (lats), neutral grip pulldown (lats), V bar pulldown (lats), 5 dumbbell pullover alternatives (lats + chest), chest supported row
Quick links – Skip to what you’re interested in:
- What muscles do pull ups work?
- Benefits of pull ups
- How to do a pull up correctly
- Incorporating pull ups into your routine
- The difference between a pull up and a chin up
- What muscles do chin ups work?
- Additional pull up resources
Pull ups are a must-have in your routine, period. They provide a huge range of benefits that go far beyond building your back muscles. The movement is also incredibly functional, which is why it’s been used to determine upper body strength and endurance in militaries across the world. We’ll be covering what muscles do pull ups work, the benefits, how to do a pull up correctly (most people don’t) and pull ups vs chin ups.
What muscles do pull ups work?
Whilst there are many muscles involved when performing a pull up, here’s a list of the primary muscles used during the action:
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Lats (latissimus dorsi)
The Lats are the widest muscle on the body, and cover the majority of the back, except for the areas around the traps. In the image above, the lats also cover the area where the teres major is.
Function: The Lats belong to the muscles of scapula motion, moving the scapula in different directions to help move the arm. In the context of a pull up, the lats adduct (pulls down) your humerus, the bone in your arm closest to the shoulder joint.
Traps (Trapezius)
The Trapezius, named for its trapezoid-like shape, covers a wide area at the top of the back. It’s also the back muscle that lies closest to the skin.
Function: Whilst the Trapezius performs a wide range of functions, during a pull up, the traps ensure our scapula (shoulder blades) remains stable.
Rhomboids (Rhomboideus major and minor)
The rhomboids comprise of 2 small muscles that sit in between your shoulder blades.
Function: The primary function, especially during a pull up, is to retract the scapula and rotate the shoulder socket (Glenoid cavity).
Posterior deltoid
The posterior deltoid is part of the large triangular muscle surrounding your shoulder joint (the deltoid). The posterior deltoid refers to the muscles fibres situated closest to the back.
Function: the deltoid abducts the humerus (top bone of your arm), and in the case of the posterior fibres, they pull the humerus towards the back.
Biceps (Biceps brachii)
One of the most recognisable muscles of the body, the bicep can be found on the front-facing side of the humerus.
Function: during a pull up, the main function of the bicep is elbow flexion, reducing the angle of the elbow joint, moving the forearm and bicep closer together.
Teres Major
The teres major attaches from the scapula to the shaft of the humerus.
Function: To provide stability for the shoulder joint, rotate the arm, and most importantly for pull up, adduct (pulls down) the arm. This final function is why the Teres major is sometimes called the Lat Little Helper.
If you would like a full list of all of the muscles activated in the movement, you can find them here.
Related Blackridge blogs: humble row (upper back), helms row (lats), pronated pulldown (lats), neutral grip pulldown (lats), V bar pulldown (lats), 5 dumbbell pullover alternatives (lats + chest), chest supported row
Benefits of pull ups
Pull ups are a compound movement
As you can see above, the exercise incorporates multiple muscle groups at one time, opening itself up for the many benefits of compound movements such as:
- Increased muscle growth – as all of the above muscles are getting a workout at once, rather than isolation exercises targeting one muscle at a time. You will gain more muscle performing compound lifts than you will do with isolation exercises.
- Increased testosterone release – Pull ups are one of several exercises that significantly increase testosterone release in the body (see the other exercises here). Testosterone helps you build more muscle mass, lose fat and improve mood.
- Improved cardiovascular fitness – Because compound movements require a lot of oxygen, your heart is also getting a workout.
- Compound movements burn more calories – Once again, because of the requirement on the body, compound movements burn more calories than isolation exercises.
Functional Strength
Any kind of pulling motion with your hands will require activation of your back muscles. Whilst pull ups will make you a stronger climber/rower/swimmer, you’ll be using your back muscles when picking up/carrying bags and opening doors for example. This means that the gains achieved through pull ups will help you throughout your life.
Improved Grip Strength
You guessed it! As you’re hanging for the entirety of the exercise, your forearms are under significant load, improving grip strength. Not only is grip strength useful in everyday life, it can also help your other compound exercises like the deadlift and barbell row.
Pull ups are convenient!
For the amount of weight you’re moving (your entire body), all you require to perform this brilliant compound exercise is a bar. This means that compared to other big lifts where you require a barbell and plenty of weights, you can just find a bar to hang from and get a great workout. Alternatively, you can find doorframe pull up bars for as little as £15 on Amazon.
How to do a pull up correctly
Grip width
Gripping too wide hinders back growth because of a limited range of motion and also increases your risk of a shoulder injury and wrist pain. Gripping too narrow can cause your back muscles to not activate completely and can lead to too much focus on your forearm muscles. The perfect grip length is just outside your shoulders.
Engage your core
You’re less stable if you don’t engage your core during a pullup. This leads to less lat activation and therefore less muscle growth. Make sure you keep your legs straight (engage quads and glutes) and engage your core throughout the entire exercise to get the most benefit.
Keep your shoulder blades back and down
This helps to protect your shoulders and enables stable, as well as mobile, scapular upward rotation.
Look at the bar & attack it with your chest
Once again, this protects your shoulders and ensures the scapular can work effectively.
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Incorporating pull ups into your routine
Can’t do pull ups? Here’s where to start
The vast majority of people can’t do pull ups straight away. You can use variations of a pull up, as well as other exercises that exercise the same muscles. Once you’ve increased your strength and understand of the technique (see above) you can get started on the real thing. Here’s a list for you to try:
- Pronated lat pulldown (see guide), neutral grip pulldown (see guide), v bar lat pulldown (see guide)
- Assisted pull up (machine)
- Assisted pull up (bands)
- Eccentric pull up (lowering yourself down)
Pull up sets and reps
If you can do a pull up, but struggle to complete multiple sets and reps, focus on increasing set volume first, allowing yourself to rest between sets. For example, performing 10 sets of 1-2 reps with 90 seconds rest in between is a much smarter idea than doing 1 – 2 sets till failure (till you can’t complete any more) and calling it a day. structuring your training in this way will help you achieve higher volumes of training and more total reps completed, going a long way in terms of getting better at the pull-up.
For Hypertrophy
3-4 sets of 8-12 reps (90% effort), with a 60 – 90 second rest – once you can do +10 reps for 4 sets, add weight to make the exercise harder with a weight belt, dumbbell or backpack if you need to get inventive.
For Strength
3-4 sets of 4-6 reps (90% effort), with a 3 min – 5 min rest – Once again, if this gets too easy, add some weight!
The difference between a pull up and a chin up
A chin up is a variation of a pull up where you use an underhand grip (or “supinated”, see below), with your palms facing towards you. With a pull up, an overhand grip (pronated) is used, with your palms facing away from you.
What muscles do chin ups work?
A chin up works all of the same muscles that a pull up does (see list), with one major difference. Chin ups work the biceps more and work the lats less. This is because, during a pull up, the biceps are unable to activate effectively due to the overhand grip (pronated) leaving the lats to work harder.
Furthermore, the lats are involved in shoulder adduction (see below). Pull ups generally use a wider grip for biomechanical reasons (less pressure on wrists etc.), which allows for greater shoulder abduction, activating the lats to a larger degree.
In short, whilst the same muscles are used in both exercises, use pull ups for increased lat activation and chin ups for increased bicep activation.
Additional Pull Up Resources
- Pull ups outperform lat pulldowns for bicep and spinal erector activation, with no difference in lat activation. Doma et al, 2013.
- Pull up progression guide
- How to increase your pull up power
- Pull ups vs chin ups
- Related Blackridge blogs: humble row (upper back), helms row (lats), pronated pulldown (lats), neutral grip pulldown (lats), V bar pulldown (lats), 5 dumbbell pullover alternatives (lats + chest), chest supported row
Olly is a CIMSPA accredited personal trainer with a BSc degree in sport management from Solent University. He has over 10 years experience helping clients reach their health & fitness goals.
