The pull-up exercise is one of my favorite strength training exercises using my own body weight. Here is a list of 15 great reasons why you should do them or start doing them.
Works out the following muscles or muscle groups simultaneously (some to a greater extent, some to a lesser extent):
- Lats and other back muscles
- Shoulders
- Chest
- Biceps
- Triceps
- Core
Other reasons to do the pull-up exercise:
7. Builds strength because you are pulling yourself up against gravity. If you have trouble doing this exercise at the beginning, use an assisted pull-up machine and slowly work your way to an unassisted workstation like the ones in these two photos and in the video.
8. You can control the resistance by how slowly you do each pull-up.
9. Great for creating muscle definition.
10. Saves you workout time and maximizes your time spent during your strength training workout. Especially good when you don’t have a lot of time to exercise, this way you can hit several different muscle groups in the least amount of time possible.
11. Provides you with a lot of different exercise variety when you vary where you grip the handle (3 main handle bars: wide, medium and close grips - or anywhere in between). Most workstations (or rack machines) like the one in the above photo will have similar angled handle bars. This will work the your muscles slightly differently with each grip and prevents workout boredom.
12. Provides you with an amazing cardiovascular workout when you do multiple sets in a row - say 5 to 6 sets of 10-12 reps or how many you can do.
13. No need for a spotter and weights since you are using your own body weight to work out.
14. Great for burning fat.
15. You can skip some of your regular weight training exercises to save you workout time by doing this exercise.
Selfie video of the pull-up exercise.Text instruction plus video with audio on how to do the pull-up bodyweight exercise.
