Pull-ups, love ‘em or hate ‘em – you can’t have a week of Crossfit programming without them. And to be honest, why would you? They are possibly the best unweighted upper body exercise around and their applicability to other movements – muscle-ups, gymnastics holds, the deadlift, the bench press, etc, are myriad. Did you know they also work the core too? Rectus abdominus (your ‘six-pack’ muscle) contracts harder during a pull-up than a sit-up.
We all know the range of motion for the pull-up. Full elbow extension in the bottom, chin over the bar at the top. Just pull your self straight up with your elbows coming straight down, right? Wrong. A complete pull will actually be conducted in a slight curve, with the elbows finishing behind the midline (the ‘midline’ splits the body from front to back, as viewed from the side). The head will be completely over the horizontal line of the bar and the chin will break the vertical line of the bar.
Allow me to illustrate with a few pictures.
Obvious foul here. I’m reaching with my chin; my chin is not at bar level, and my elbows are well ahead of my midline. I still have about 7 more inches of work to do on this one.
Less obvious foul here. The chin is over the bar, but only as a result of ‘reaching’. I’m not strengthening my pulling muscles here, rather just straining my neck tendons.
Even more obscure foul here. My chin is at the proper height, but it is behind the bar. Notice that my elbows are in line with but not breaking the midline. I am still a few inches of lateral movement short of a full pull.
This is a good rep for most of our workouts. The head and chin are over the bar with a fairly neutral head position. Elbows are behind the midline, completing the pull.
Even better, the chest to bar pullup. Somewhere from the collarbone down in contact with the bar, and elbows are well behind the midline. Using this movement, we work through the fullest range of motion. The chest to bar pull-up allows us to get to the switchover point between pulling and pushing muscles in the bar muscle up.
Photos by Tom Cerecedes
