Thread: pull upvs. chin up

They're basically identical movements, only in the chinup you use a supinated grip with a slightly narrower width.

The muscles they work are identical, though chinups might hit the biceps slightly harder (though even that is debatable). I prefer chinups or neutral grip only because you get better leverige gripping against your centre of gravity. On pullups your palms are gripping from the same side of the bar where you're body is hanging, so it's a harder grip workout but I find it makes it awkward to pull.

Also, on pullups when you're at the top of the movement your elbows move out to the side as opposed to forward when at the top of a chinup. I always found that felt awkward. They feel weird on the lats to me. I'll never use conventional pullups again except for maybe minor body weight sets for grip assistance.

pullups work your lats and rear delts exponentially better IMO. I never use chinups or reverse grip pulldowns.

personally, i do pullups, as the slightly different angle of chins hurts my elbows. both are great, but when i use to do both, i could always get 8-10 more chins than pullups for my max. a little more biceps coming into play doing chins vs pullups..
do both if you can..

Do you do rows? They likely have far greater lower trapezius involvement than either chinups or pullups.

I tend to dislike the conclusions drawn from EMG studies. They provide great data, but I don't think that data should lead to the elimination of an exercise from your training. These studies reflect that the movements are far more similar than they are different.

I do both but I emphasize chins (I do pullups but not weighted). The reasons for that are simple: First, chins allow for a larger range of motion since the grip is generally narrower. Second, grip strength is less of a factor in chins than it is in pullups.

Originally Posted by carter1990

I am not negating the use of either one just to present that some studies suggest they each have their strong points. I had responded to a thread and gave a link to mike reinold's website and thought others could benefit. He is the boston redsox physical therapist and he suggests that the pull up based off his finding is better for postural reasons.

He explains that the pull up allows for lower trapezius activation. I don't want to put words in his mouth so here is are the articles on the pull up vs. the chin up


This article is on the pullup vs. the chin up
mikereinold.com/2011/02/pull-up-or-chin-up-which-is-better.html

This article explains proper lat pulldown form
mikereinold.com/2010/09/lat-pulldown-how-to-maximize-latissimus.html

Thanks for sharing that information. Enjoyed reading it !