Reverse grip pull-ups, shoulder injury. Is it possible to replace pull-ups with a horizontal bar? Types of pull-ups on the horizontal bar for girls
Pull-ups are an excellent compound exercise for upper body development that work a large number of large and small muscle groups. If you want to build a beautiful and wide V-shaped back, you should definitely include pull-ups in your training program. However, sometimes, due to certain circumstances, a person is not able to perform this exercise. The question arises, what to replace pull-ups with? Read further in this article what exercises can replace pull-ups.
How to replace pull-ups on a horizontal bar?
As mentioned above, pull-ups work a large number of muscles in the upper half of the body. However, the bulk of the load falls on the latissimus dorsi and, to a lesser extent, on the biceps. Pull-ups can only be fully replaced with similar exercises for the back muscles.
The most suitable option is various traction vertical block. For example, wide-grip pull-ups can be replaced with rows upper block to the chest. Pull-ups can be replaced by overhead pull-downs. Likewise, narrow pull-ups reverse grip You can replace the lat pulldown with a narrow reverse grip.
Also for the back muscles, you can perform bent-over barbell or dumbbell rows, bent-over T-bar rows, vertical traction in the Hammer machine and deadlift for overall gains muscle mass and strength.
CONCLUSIONS
Without a doubt, the pull-up is one of the best core exercises for the upper body. If you are looking for something to replace pull-ups because you can’t do at least a few pull-ups, then I recommend reading the article “
- The main load falls on the back muscles: latissimus, rhomboid, trapezius.
- The biceps and posterior deltoid muscles are also actively involved in the movement.
- The abdominal muscles and spinal extensors stabilize the movement and prevent us from losing balance.
- Wide grip pull-ups
- Horizontal block row with a narrow parallel grip
- "Hammers" with dumbbells
- Wide grip pull-ups
- Vertical row with a narrow parallel grip
- Hanging on a towel
- Wide grip pull-ups
- Dumbbell curls with supination
- Hanging Leg Raise
- Two-handed force exit
- "Jumping" pull-ups
- Hanging on a towel
- Diagonal pull-ups
- Reverse medium grip pull-ups
What you need
With the help of a horizontal bar you can set an excellent load on the muscles of the back and arms. Along with classic wide-grip pull-ups, athletes around the world also use reverse-grip pull-ups. The biomechanics of this exercise are slightly different from regular pull-ups, and this great way add variety to the training process and work the muscles from a slightly different angle. This exercise is used in almost all power types sports: starting from crossfit and ending, but athletes everywhere set different goals for themselves.
In this article we will tell you how to do this exercise correctly and for what tasks it will be useful for you.
Benefits and contraindications
By regularly performing pull-ups on the horizontal bar with a reverse grip, you will perfectly develop your core muscles and make them stronger. They are also an excellent "helper" for others, more difficult exercises With own weight, such as jumping plyometric pull-ups, corner pull-ups, or two-arm muscle-ups.
Reverse grip pull-ups are great for developing strength in your palms, hands, and forearms. This will play into our hands when doing exercises such as deadlift, bent over row or lift.
Due to a strong grip, the projectile will not slip out of your hands, and your forearms and hands will not get tired before the target muscle group.
However, not everything is so simple with this exercise. Some athletes often have problems with it. Its implementation requires good stretching and mobility of the shoulder joints. If your deltoids enslaved, it will be difficult to perform, and in very advanced cases it can even be fraught with injury to the shoulder ligaments or tear of the deltoid muscle.
You can and should combat this problem, just make it a rule to start any workout with a thorough warm-up and stretching shoulder girdle. The most effective exercise For this exercise - cranking your arms with a stick. After a couple of weeks of doing this, you will notice that the shoulder joint has become much more mobile, and any kind of pulling exercises for the back or pressing exercises for the chest and shoulders are much easier and more comfortable.
Also, a heavy load falls on the elbow joints and ligaments. If you have had problems with them in the relatively recent past, it is better to refuse to perform this exercise or replace it with regular pull-ups or lat pull-downs.
What muscles work?
Let's figure out which muscles work when doing pull-ups with a reverse grip:
Varieties of exercise
There are three main varieties of this exercise:
Close-grip pull-ups
This option shifts the load on the hands the most. The back works much less here, and only in the first half of the amplitude. Further, the lifting of the body is carried out purely by bending the arms in elbow joint, which in biomechanics is more reminiscent of barbell curls than pull-ups. The narrower your hands are, the more isolated the work on the biceps is, however, placing your hands too narrow (close to each other) can harm the ligaments of your wrists.
Medium reverse grip pull-ups
Using a medium grip width, you almost exactly imitate a lat pulldown with a medium reverse grip. And this, in turn, is one of the exercises for developing the lower part of the latissimus muscles, due to which the V-shaped back is formed. It is important to try to “turn off” your arms from the movement as much as possible and try to fully focus on working your back. Deflection in thoracic region The spine in this variation should be slightly smaller than in the others, so it will be easier for you to concentrate on working the lats.
Wide-grip pull-ups
An extremely effective exercise for giving your back impressive width. However, it is not without its disadvantages: due to the wide grip, the hands are slightly “twisted” inward. Hanging on the horizontal bar becomes uncomfortable and sometimes even painful. Straps only make this problem worse. If you also do this exercise extra weight, then the brushes literally break off. To avoid this, you need to work with a comfortable amplitude (slightly wider than your shoulders) and not try to reach the bar with your chin, but focus the load only on working your back (do not go through the last 25% of the amplitude).
Exercise technique
The technique of performing the exercise consists of the following sequence of movements:
Choosing a grip
Once you have decided on the grip width you need, start doing pull-ups. Beginners often have a question: “Which grip should you use: open or closed?” When doing pull-ups with a narrow reverse grip, it is better to use an open grip, and thumb place on top of the index finger. This way, the biceps and forearms will receive more load, and the load will be continuous: at the top point - maximum contraction, at the bottom - full stretch.
Good pumping is guaranteed. In other variations this point is not so important, do it as you feel comfortable. But keep in mind that holding your weight with a closed grip is much easier. The likelihood of your fingers unclenching is reduced. The next frequently asked question is: “Do I need to use straps?” If your goal is to isolate your back muscles as much as possible, then yes. However, they are completely useless when performing pull-ups with a narrow reverse grip.
Start of movement
Start an upward pulling movement with your back muscles. Approximately the first half of the amplitude should be completed solely due to their contraction. To better feel their contraction, as you rise, try to bring your shoulder blades together and create a slight arch in the thoracic spine. The positive phase of the amplitude will be performed while exhaling. The most common mistake when doing pull-ups is throwing your head back; almost every second athlete does it. And both beginners and experienced ones. There is no need to do this, otherwise you will create too much compression on the cervical region spine. Watch the position of your elbows; you don’t need to place them to the sides, they should move along the body.
Maintain the correct amplitude
Perform pull-ups at the planned amplitude. It is not necessary to raise your chin above the bar; it is much more important for us to fully work out the muscles than to amuse our “ego”. At the end point you should not feel any discomfort in your shoulders or hands.
Completion phase
Pause for a second at the point of peak contraction to increase the load on the latissimus dorsi or biceps muscles. After this, begin to smoothly lower down, placing your shoulder blades to the side and feeling the stretch in the muscles. The downward movement should occur while inhaling. Fully straighten up lowest point and after a second repeat the movement.
Pull-up program
If you have difficulty performing this exercise, and you can’t do more than 5-7 repetitions in one approach, try training with this program. It is designed for 10 workouts, the rest time between them should be 2-3 days. We do not only reverse grip pull-ups, but also other exercises for the back and arms in order to comprehensively work out all the muscles involved in the movement.
| Training no. | Exercises | Number of repetitions and approaches |
| 1 | 4x8 |
|
| 2 | 3x6 |
|
| 3 | 3x10 4x12 3 – to failure |
|
| 4 | 4x6 4x6 3 – to failure |
|
| 5 | 4x10 3x5 4x10 4x15 |
|
| 6 | 3x6 3x15 3 – to failure |
|
| 7 | 3x12 3x12 3x12 |
Crossfit complexes with exercise
Most CrossFit complexes contain pull-ups on the horizontal bar. No one is stopping you from diversifying the load and replacing classic wide-grip pull-ups with reverse-grip pull-ups with any comfortable position of your hands. This will increase the productivity of the workout, since most athletes find this exercise much more difficult. After a couple of weeks of training in this format, you will notice that your arms have become noticeably stronger, your grip has improved, and the volume of your biceps has increased.
Translation – Andrey Oskolkov, for the portal
Once upon a time I couldn’t do one pull-up. Heck, I couldn't even do push-ups! I asked my mother to write a note for the teacher to take time off from physical education class, I was so afraid physical exercise. I was reluctantly accepted to play on the team.
Times change and in my mid-20s I learned to make my body do what I want it to do and pulled myself up for the first time. Now I do pull-ups with a weight of 20 kg, and this is one of my favorite exercises.
People ask me all the time how to learn to do pull-ups, or how to do more pull-ups. Therefore, I decided to collect in one article all the tips and exercises that helped me.
To begin with I will say that DOES NOT WORK personally for me. That doesn't mean it won't work for you too. I've noticed that a lot of things that work for most people don't work for me, so maybe I'm something of an anomaly. So:
- Block pull to the chest. I believe this doesn't work for several reasons. Firstly, you won't be able to pull much without a barrier on your legs - at some point you will "bounce" with the weight. The barriers push into your hip flexors, which are not in a natural position for pull-ups. Secondly, the chest row does not imitate pull-ups, so it is not the best auxiliary exercise.
- Gravitron. (This is a rarity for our halls). Exercise machine with an auxiliary mechanism for pull-ups. I never even go near him. From the looks of it, it appears to help with pull-ups more than deadlifts. However, in both cases, my ability to do pull-ups in the gravitron improved, but my ability to do regular pull-ups remained the same. The same goes for using elastic bandages.
I understand why these methods did not work - all because at that time I did not do other exercises besides them. Luckily, I realized this and tried new methods. So, if you want to learn how to do pull-ups, you need to do pull-ups and perform auxiliary elements for this exercise.
Here are ten exercises to help you master pull-ups and increase your reps:
1. Visa
If you want to do hanging pull-ups, then it would be logical to first learn how to do the hanging itself. For many people, simply hanging from the bar is the hardest part of the exercise. I always say that a strong grip gives a strong upper body. So do the hang.
Try hanging from the bar as long as you can. If your arms are already strong enough, you can complicate the exercise with bar extenders (special pads, or wrap them in a towel), try hanging on three, two, one finger, on one hand, and so on. You can also try exercises with weights, or changing the position of your legs. I like to do one arm hangs with leg raises.
2. “Scapular” pull-ups.
This is a great help for people who have problems with lateral muscles backs (which are primarily used when moving upward). Take a hanging position with your arms straight and “pull” your shoulder blades up. This exercise will help you understand the mechanics of movement and make your back stronger.
3.Mouse wings. I learned about this exercise from Dan John. You lie face down on a bench and hold two heavy weights or dumbbells. Pull the weights up as if you want to touch your fingers to your armpits, and in the peak position, squeeze your shoulder blades for 5+ seconds. This is a fantastic exercise for increasing strength in pulling movements.
4.Lifting and pressing kettlebells.
This exercise will strengthen your grip strength, core muscles, shoulder mobility and stability, all of which have great benefits when doing a pull-up.
5.“Bananas.”
If you want to get really good at doing pull-ups, you need to train your body to accept gymnastic positions. “Bananas” will teach you to take the desired position, and will also strengthen your abdominal muscles.
Take a lying position, try not to leave any gap between the floor and your lower back. Close your legs and lock your knees. Raise your shoulders and legs off the floor, while moving your arms back or clasping them behind your head. Hold this position as long as you can. To make it more difficult, you can rock back and forth.
6. Reverse Bananas.
From a push-up position, lift your pelvis and extend your arms forward as far as you can. Hold your position.
7. Pull-ups on the floor.
Take a banana position on the floor. Grab the bar and pull yourself up to it (you can also do it with a partner rather than on a machine). Use your shoulder blades to return to the starting position. Pull your body until your throat is level with the bar.
8. Isometrics.
I'm a big fan isometric exercises to build strength. For pull-ups, I like to do isometrics at the weak points of the movement for 5-10 seconds (for me this is the peak part of the movement). I also do isometrics with body weight and weights at various points in the movement. This is incredible useful exercises to increase strength.
9. Negative repetitions.
This is the only type of negativity I allow in the gym. Take a peak hanging position on the bar, body pulled up so that your chin is above the bar (jump up, or use a stand). Hold this position for a few seconds, then begin to slowly lower yourself down until your arms are fully extended. I'm currently doing this exercise with 24kg or more weights to reach my goal of doing 24kg pull ups.
10. Pull-ups with an assistant (partner).
If you can't do a pull-up, ask someone to help you. Instead of grabbing your legs or feet, have him support you by your ribs. Make sure you do the exercise correctly and let him help you as many times as necessary.
Common mistakes when doing pull-ups
1. Leg kicking.
Many people try to kick their legs to give their body momentum at the beginning of the movement. There is no need to do this, keep your body in the correct position.
2.Squeezing your shoulders and lowering your chin to your chest.
This makes you weaker because the mechanics of movement and muscle function are disrupted, and can also lead to headaches. And it’s not very pleasant to look at this.
3. Do not straighten your arms at the bottom of the movement (negative).
If you start or finish a pull-up with your arms bent, you haven't completed the rep! And you are a cheater :)
I hope this article will help you learn how to do pull-ups, or increase the number of repetitions. Use the tips and exercises that work for you. Each person's body is individual. Make sure you are working with weak points to the maximum, although this is not very pleasant.
Reverse grip pull-ups are an effective compound exercise that focuses on the biceps. It is perfect for both developing arm muscles and increasing overall strength and endurance. Let's look at the technique of such pull-ups and the differences in muscle work from wide-grip pull-ups.
Loading the muscles correctly
As mentioned above, reverse grip pull-ups are basic exercise. Is it good or bad? What are the differences in muscle work from pull-ups with a straight wide grip?
Basic exercises are those in which movement occurs in more than one joint, and several muscle groups are involved in the work. In the pull-ups we mentioned, the movement occurs in the elbows and shoulder joints, and in addition to the biceps, the latissimus dorsi muscles help raise and lower the torso relative to the bar.
Isolation exercises involve movement in only one joint and maximally involve only one muscle group. Think barbell curls or hammer curls. Movement occurs exclusively at the elbow joint. In addition to the biceps, core stabilizers are involved in the work, but they are not taken into account.
All exercises are good, and it cannot be said that basic or isolating exercises are better. For complex training you need to do both.
The advantage of basic exercises is that they:
- Load more muscles, therefore, allow you to give more power load. Basic exercises allow you to work out your muscles in a comprehensive manner, increasing the overall effectiveness of your workout; they form the basis of most training programs.
- The load is distributed between several joints, which reduces the load on each of them individually.
- Coordination skills and overall coordination of movements are developed.
Isolation exercises are designed to:
- Maximum load on the target muscle, turning off everything else. In other words, when performing them, you spend less energy and use less weight, but the entire load goes into the selected muscle.
Returning to our exercise, we can say that pull-ups comprehensively train both the arms and the back. But, using a reverse grip and narrow setting hands, we focus the load on the biceps, minimally using the lats.
While pull-ups with a straight wide grip, on the contrary, remove the load from the arms and put maximum load on the back. Additionally, when doing pull-ups with both a reverse narrow grip and a straight wide grip, the abs, shoulders, and forearms work.
Next, we will move on to reviewing the pull-up technique. But first, it’s worth saying a few words about why compliance is more important than the number of repetitions. And this is not only about injuries to the shoulder joints and spine, which can be obtained by performing jerking movements or jumping from the horizontal bar to the ground.
By violating the technique, the athlete not only risks his health, but also reduces the effectiveness of the training to a minimum. After all, we need to efficiently load the biceps, and the lats are much larger and stronger muscle group. At every opportunity, the back will pull the load on itself, and the biceps will, as they say, sit idle.
Exercise technique
So, having made sure of the need to adhere to the movement technique, we move on to the algorithm for performing biceps pull-ups.
- You need to grab the horizontal bar using a reverse or supinated grip, that is, a grip with your palms facing you. Place the hands slightly narrower than the shoulders. For the biceps to work effectively, during the exercise your elbows should move along the body and not diverge to the sides. Therefore, we do not place the hands too narrow: firstly, this is traumatic for the joints, and, secondly, if the position is too narrow, you will still have to spread your elbows to pull your body towards the bar.
- Grabbing the horizontal bar in the manner described above, bend your elbows slightly to feel the tension in your biceps. You can cross your legs or bend your knees - whichever is more convenient for you. The main thing is that they do not hang out. This is the starting position.
- Take a deep breath and as you exhale, pull your chest toward the bar. The chin should be placed above her level. At the same time, the abdominal muscles are tense, the body is tight, and does not sway. At the top point, hold for 1-2 seconds and slowly lower down as you exhale. It is very important not to throw your body down, but to lower yourself slowly and under control. Try to avoid jerking and control every moment of your movement. At the lowest point, do not fully extend your arms.
- Repeat the exercise the required number of times. Come down from the horizontal bar, placing your feet gently on the floor, without jumping.
Answering the question of how many times to do pull-ups, we can say that it all depends on your training goals. To pump up the mass and volume of your biceps, you need to do chin-ups 8-12 times in 3-4 sets. When working on endurance, do as much as you can until failure.
Beginners can be advised to practice the exercise in special simulator- gravitron. It is much easier to do pull-ups in a gravitron than on simple horizontal bar, since the simulator creates additional support for the legs. A reverse grip and placing your hands slightly narrower than your shoulders allows you to maximally work your biceps, while pull-ups with a straight wide grip will strengthen your back muscles.
To ensure that close-grip pull-ups are as effective as possible, use these tips:
- Keep your abs tight and your core stable. Don't dangle or swing your legs.
- It is better to perform one slow repetition than several jerky repetitions. Sudden movements during pull-ups are contraindicated.
- Don't use a grip that is too narrow or too wide. Place your hands slightly narrower than your shoulders. Pulling up too much narrow grip, you create a traumatic load on your joints and spread your elbows, placing your hands shoulder-width apart or wider than your shoulders - transferring the load to your back. Then it’s better to pull yourself up straight wide.
- If you change the reverse grip to a straight grip without changing the distance between the hands, you will increase the load on the brachialis. This muscle is located under the biceps and also helps increase its volume.
- Once you've mastered bodyweight pull-ups, you can increase the load by performing the movement more slowly or by using additional weights.
There's a lot of controversy surrounding these two. different exercises. Yes, exactly different. IN English language they are even called differently: “ Pull Ups" - straight grip pull-ups, " Chin Ups" - the opposite. Each is good in its own way. And each is used for its own purposes. Let's look at this in more detail.
But first we need to dispel one very popular myth:
Do pull-ups with a direct grip work the back more, and pull-ups with a reverse grip work the biceps?
It is not true. From the point of view of human anatomy function latissimus muscle back - this is bringing the shoulder to the body. This is just one of the functions, but in the context of our conversation it is the most important.
Is the shoulder brought towards the body in pull-ups with a direct grip? Undoubtedly. And in reverse? Yes, and absolutely in the same trajectory! The difference in adduction can only depend on grip width. There is also a certain myth there, but we will discuss it later.
In general, this misconception especially seems delusional given the fact that almost everyone can do more pull-ups with a reverse grip than with a straight grip. Are the biceps stronger than the back?
Try to take heavy weight and perform bent over barbell rows. And then try taking the same weight on your biceps. It's unlikely that you will succeed. At least the same number of reps as the deadlift.
In general, you need to understand that both of our exercises are variations of vertical rows and have the same effect on the back. Well, from the point of view of movement mechanics. We’ll talk about the load separately when we deal with the next point.
Why do reverse grip pull-ups seem easier?
To do this, you can conduct a simple experiment.
Take a dumbbell and do a few biceps curls with your palm facing you. Note that the back does not work in this exercise, the shoulder is fixed. And then try to rotate the brush 180 degrees and perform a few more bends. Is it more complicated?
The thing is that in the first case we have the biceps actually work more(as in reverse grip pull-ups - it actually takes on more load). And in the second case b O the muscle called the brachioradialis (brachioradialis muscle) receives greater load. This is the part of the forearm that is responsible for its flexion. Yes, the function is the same as that of the biceps, but when you turn the hand, the load shifts from one muscle to another.
So here it is. In pull-ups, no matter how you look at it, your arms fail first.. And not the back at all. Only in the case of pull-ups with a direct grip, the brachioradialis is overloaded, and in the case of a reverse grip, the biceps is overloaded. Since the biceps is usually better developed than the brachioradialis muscle, it can do more work. This is why it turns out that pull-ups with a reverse grip seem “easier” to us.
Here, by the way, we can draw one of the important conclusions:
If you want to put more stress on your back, do pull-ups with a reverse grip!
Because, thanks to the biceps, the back remains in work longer. This means he gets a lot of workload. Failure will still happen in your hands.
And one more conclusion:
If you want to pump up your biceps, do pull-ups with a reverse grip!
I won’t focus on this now. It's just a different topic. But here you need to understand that pull-ups with a reverse grip are both a basic exercise for the back and a basic exercise for the biceps. And due to a powerful metabolic response (more muscles are activated at the same time), the muscles grow and/or become stronger and better.
So it turns out that Are reverse grip pull-ups better? No, not really.
Overhand grip pull-ups are still considered a classic of physical training in most disciplines - functional training, calisthenics, CrossFit and military training.
Why you need to do pull-ups with an overhand grip
And here's the thing, if you want, not in anatomy, but in functionality. What is it anyway functional training? This is the development of actions aimed at a specific practical result.
And in this regard, you need to understand that Pull-ups themselves in their pure form are not found anywhere. This is just part of some really applicable and necessary movement for some.
In some case - this is a pulling movement from the exit by force. No, this is not about calisthenics or gymnastics. And, for example, in climbing a tree branch (this was once necessary) or overcoming a high vertical obstacle. For example, a soldier can overcome a barrier or a fireman can climb through a window. Or a thief. Or for you, if you forgot your keys or are trying to get to the lady of your heart against the will of the dragon sitting at the entrance. OK. Concierge at the dorm.
Also pull-up - it's part of the climbing movement, For example. Just imagine all the situations described above. Is it convenient (and is it even possible) to use a reverse grip? Well, in the case of a branch, this is real. But in order to fully climb it, you will need to change your grip midway through the overall movement. In the case of a rock, window or high barrier, this is simply unrealistic. Straight grip only.
That is why in the army, pull-ups with a direct grip were and will be a basic exercise in all tests for physical training. That's why they work there. It’s just that this grip is more common in real conditions. And what is tense there at the same time is the tenth matter.
As for calisthenics or gymnastics, then and here pull-ups are just part of some more complex elements. Which, as a result, is more convenient to do with an overhand grip. And it absolutely doesn’t matter what is included more - the back, biceps or brachioradialis. Either he did it or he didn't. Or you did it clearly and beautifully and received points.
CrossFit positions itself specifically as functional training. For the same military, firefighters, athletes of other disciplines. Therefore, they don’t even care about execution technique. Just more is better. And there are control points - you hang at the bottom, climb over the crossbar. All.
By the way, as for exactly training process, then in such schools of calisthenics as, for example, “THEN-X” by Chris Heria, All possible grips and hand placements are used to practice pull-ups. Why?
Yes, because it allows you to stay at work longer. Tired of cardiobrachialis? Let your biceps work. We changed the width of the grip - we gave some muscles a rest, while others worked more. And, again, it all comes down to working out the functionality, and not working out muscles, as in bodybuilding.
By the way, about the grip width. I promised to say a few words about this.
A few words about grip width
There is an opinion that, the wider the grip in pull-ups, the more you work on the width of your back. But physiologists say that muscles cannot grow in any particular direction. That is, if they are under enough stress, they will grow in all directions. And so, as provided by your genetics.
Who is right?
Both sides are right. Muscles really grow the way they can, and nothing else.. Just when wide grip the emphasis shifts from the latissimus dorsi muscle(of course, not completely) to the infraspinatus muscle(it is located in the area of the shoulder blade). And that, in the case of hypertrophy (growth), seems to squeeze out the latissimus. As a result, it seems that the widest has become even wider (sorry for the tautology). Well, in general it seems that the whole back is growing in width.
So... change your grip, change it. You will work more muscles. Change the position of the brushes and the width itself.
conclusions
1. If you want to specifically work your back, do pull-ups with a reverse grip.. Plus, this is a nice bonus to the size and strength of your biceps.
2. If you want to develop your functional abilities, do pull-ups with an overhand grip..
3. If you want both, change your grips. And both in brushes and in width. For broad setting Hands, by the way, are really more comfortable when the grip is straight.
