15 Great Reasons to do the Pull-up Exercise
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):
1. Lats and other back muscles
2. Shoulders
3. Chest
4. Biceps
5. Triceps
6. Core
Other reasons:
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.
Text instruction plus video with audio on how to do the pull-up
exercise.