Pull Ups vs Chin Ups: Which is Best?

While each pull ups and chin ups are improbable compound upper body exercises, we frequently get asked: “Pull ups or chin ups, which one is best for constructing muscle and upper body strength? Which one should I do?”

Because this topic comes up time and time again, we’ve decided to reply the query in depth.

On this post, we’re going to be comparing chin ups vs pull ups from all angles – the differences, the similarities, difficulty level, how they aim the back, biceps and upper body muscles, and more. This may inform you the whole lot you should learn about these two difficult and highly effective body weight exercises.

Table of Contents:

• Chin Ups vs Pull Ups: Which Is Higher?
• What Are Chin Ups?
• What Are Pull Ups?
• Types Of Pull Ups & Chin Ups: Different Grips
• Chin Up vs Pull Up: Muscles Worked
• Pull Up & Chin Up Test
• Advantages of Chinups vs Pullups
• Comparing Chin Ups vs Pull Ups: Side By Side
• Chin Ups vs Pull Ups: FAQs

CHIN UPS VS PULL UPS: WHICH ARE BETTER?

With regards to back exercises, every trainer and strength coach will inform you that everybody should do pull ups and/or chin ups. Each are universally recognized as the very best exercises for constructing muscle and upper body strength within the back and biceps. Because of this pull ups and chin ups are used as the first test of physical conditioning and strength.

Let’s have a look at this from a militaristic view…

Certainly one of the primary physical fitness tests for Marines is the pull up. Nevertheless, the pull ups might be done with an overhand (pronated) grip or an underhand (supinated) grip. In other words, you’ll be able to do either pull ups or chin ups throughout the test. What does this say? Well, the 2 exercises are equally essential. 

All that said, the query of “which is best” still comes into play, with “higher” meaning effective.

The short answer to “chin ups vs pull ups, which is simpler?” is…each are effective, but pull ups and chin ups are a bit different!

They’re different in that they aim the back and biceps otherwise (pull ups hit certain muscles higher and chin ups hit certain muscles higher), but they do actually goal the entire same muscles.

So, which means you could possibly hit the entire muscles with only one or the opposite…BUT should you were to do each, then you definately could be giving your back muscles and biceps the very best possible stimulation and overload for adaption (i.e. strength and muscle gains).

To sum it up, each are great, they hit all the identical muscles yet they aim certain muscles otherwise, and it’s best to do each. Let’s get into the small print of why each are essential.

WHAT ARE CHIN UPS?

The chin up is an exercise that involves pulling your body up from a dead hang position, getting your chin up over an elevated bar, using an underhand grip (supinated – palms facing you) along with your hands about shoulder width apart.

For those who’re just beginning to dip a toe into the world of pull ups and chin ups, it’s possible you’ll even want to start out with the dead hang first to accumulate more upper body strength.

What Muscles Do Chin Ups Work?

Chin ups will increase strength and construct muscle and definition in your biceps, lats, rear delts, infraspinatus, mid-to-lower traps, teres major, and rhomboids, in addition to your pecs, abs, obliques, erector spinae and forearms (improved grip strength!).

Easy methods to do chin ups:

1. Grab the bar with each hands about shoulder width apart and your palms facing you (supinated grip).
2. From a dead hang, retract your shoulder blades for shoulder stability, and pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar. Your elbows needs to be fully bent (like they might be should you did a bicep curl).
3. Pause for a second at peak contraction and squeeze your shoulder blades down and in.
4. In a controlled manner, slowly lower yourself all the way in which back down until your arms are completely straight.
5. Repeat from number 2 above.

WHAT ARE PULL UPS?

The pull up is an exercise that involves pulling your body up from a dead hang position, getting your chin over the bar and chest as close as possible, using a pronated grip (palm away out of your body).

With pull ups, the width of your grip can vary. The closer your hands are to one another, the better it’ll be. Nevertheless, the usual pull up is taken into account to be the wide grip pull up, which is about 5 inches wider than shoulder-width apart (as seen in the image above).

What muscles do pull ups work?

Pull ups and pull up variations work your lats, biceps, traps, rear delts, teres major, infrasprinatus, teres minor, and forearms, in addition to your rhomboids, pecs, erector spinae, abs, and external obliques.

As you’ll be able to see, it’s a real compound exercises that just about hits your entire back and arms.

Pull ups and chin ups usually are not the funnest exercises by any stretch for many beginners because they’re difficult. Comparing to other body weight exercises, akin to push ups, pulling your body up over an elevated bar is significantly harder and requires a very good amount of upper body strength. Nevertheless, it is important to achieving well-rounded, true fitness and athleticism. 

Easy methods to perform pull ups:

1. Get into the starting position by grabbing the bar with each hands barely wider than shoulder-width apart and your palms facing away from you (pronated grip).
2. From a dead hang, retract your shoulder blades and pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar.
3. Pause for a second at peak contraction and squeeze your shoulder blades down and in.
4. In a controlled manner, slowly lower yourself all the way in which back down until your arms are completely straight.
5. Repeat from number 2 above.

TYPES OF PULL UPS and Chin Ups: EASIEST TO HARDEST GRIPS

Pull ups are probably the toughest and simplest body weight exercise there’s. For beginners, and most ladies, the issue factor of pull ups keeps efforts at bay. 

That’s a shame because should you give your best effort, your pull up game will actually progress in a short time. Furthermore, it’s a milestone upper body exercise that anyone who takes fitness seriously needs to be doing.

What’s harder: pull ups or chin ups?

For most individuals, the next variations are the best to hardest (based on grip):

1. Neutral-Grip (palms facing in at one another)
2. Chin Ups (underhand grip)
3. Shoulder Width Pull Ups (overhand grip)
4. Wide-Grip Pull Ups (overhand grip)

For beginners, start with neutral grip and once you’ll be able to do 10 or so reps, move on to chin ups. Once you’ll be able to do 10 reps of chin ups, do shoulder width pull ups…and so forth and so forth.

For those who are having trouble performing any form of pull up, think about using a resistance band when starting up. A resistance band is a fantastic option to get correct form down, leading to raised results.

Although you might be moving on to straightforward pull ups as you get stronger, you’ll be able to still do neutral grip pull ups and chin ups, as they’re working your muscles otherwise (we’re about to get into this) and so they are all still very effective.

The purpose is, you need to have the ability to master the wide grip pull up in some unspecified time in the future so you’ll be able to have that in your arsenal. Wide grip is king because the further your hands are apart on the pull up bar, the harder the pull up might be because less muscles are getting involved (the broader, the more isolated the movement is in your lats).

Widening your grip is a type of progressive overload to your lats, whereas weighted pull ups are a type of progressive overload to your back as a complete.  

PULL UP VS CHIN UP: MUSCLES WORKED

Chinups and pullups are incredible exercises for muscle activation in your back and biceps. In truth, they’re amongst the very best exercises of all for constructing muscle, alongside squats, deadlifts, bench press, and shoulder press.

Each chin ups and pull ups goal the entire same muscles, and pretty effectively at that. Nevertheless, generally speaking, chin ups will hit the biceps and upper back muscles (including the rear delts, infrasprinatus, teres major, and teres minor) barely more effectively, whereas pull ups will goal the lats and lower traps to a greater degree. So, the very best bet is to do each regularly.

For those who can’t do pull ups, start with chin ups and even these pull up alternatives. At the tip of the day, chin ups are working the entire same muscles. Nevertheless, eventually you should progress to tug ups. Remember, your lats are the largest muscle in your back, so if you need to construct an enormous v-shaped back, you would like as much lat development as possible, and no other exercise, including chin ups, is as effective at constructing big, strong lats because the pull up.

As we mentioned, pull up and chin ups not only work the identical muscle groups, but in addition they work multiple muscle groups. Nevertheless, what’s different is the degree to which those muscles get worked. So, let’s have a look at each of the first movers individually to check.

• Lats: The first function of the latissimus dorsi is shoulder extension, adduction and horizontal abduction. And once we’re examining lat exercises, both pull up and chin ups involve shoulder extension and shoulder adduction. Pull ups emphasize shoulder adduction due the overhand (pronated) grip flaring out your arms. Chin ups, alternatively, place more emphasis on shoulder extension on account of your arms being tucked to your sides. For the mid-to-lower a part of the lats, an in depth grip chin up is best, and for the upper-to-mid a part of the lats, a wide-grip pull up is best.
• Traps: The primary function of the traps is to retract the scapula, which you will consistently notice when performing trap exercises. This is applicable to the upper, middle and lower traps. Each pull ups and chin ups involve scapular movement, so either one will goal your traps. Some say the chin up targets your traps more as you’ll be able to get your chest higher as much as the bar and squeeze your scapulars more at the highest. While this will be true, pull ups are tougher than chin ups, so your traps might be more activated just because of that.
• Biceps: The 2 heads of the bicep have the identical function, elbow flexion and supination and forearm supination.To make things straightforward, the chin up is simpler at constructing muscle and strength within the biceps, however the pull up is great too. With pull ups, the narrower grip, the larger role the biceps will play. With wide grip pull ups, your biceps are playing a much smaller role, placing emphasis in your lats.

PULL UP & CHIN UP TEST

Before starting the test, it is vital to know the way many pull ups and chin ups it’s best to have the ability to do. 

Men should have the ability to perform at the least 8 pull ups. That is average. Anything below that could be a grade of fair or poor. 8-13 reps is taken into account above average, and anything higher than that is superb to elite. Women should have the ability to perform between 1-3 pull ups to be considered average. 4-9 could be above average, and anything above 10 is superb to elite.

For chin ups, men should have the ability to do 10 chin ups to be considered average. 10-15 is above average and anything higher than that is superb to elite. Women should have the ability to do 1-3 chin ups to be considered average. 5-10 is above average and anything higher than that is superb to elite.

All in all, it’s best to have the ability to do a number of more chin ups than you’ll be able to pull ups when testing yourself. When first starting our, your chin up to tug up ratio will likely be 3-to-1, but as you get stronger, that ratio narrows.

The Test:

With regards to the upper body, the pull up test (also called the chin up test) is the final word measure of strength and endurance. All you would like for this test is a pull up bar or an influence tower and your body. A straight horizontal bar is best and the usual for many tests.

Test yourself for each chin ups and pull ups. Do them on separate days. For many tests, chin up and pull up norms are the identical. Because of this military pull up tests allow for either grip variation.

BENEFITS OF MASTERING PULL UPS AND CHIN UPS

In search of more reasons to start out performing pull ups and chin ups? We’ll provide you with seven good ones!

• Compound Exercise: Pull ups and chin ups are a multi-joint compound exercise. For those who have a look at any weightlifter’s program, you can see pull ups in the combo. You might not find every other body weight exercises, but pull ups will at all times be employed. It’s because they’re a part of the 5 big compound exercises: squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, and PULL UPS. 
• Versatile: Pull ups are extremely versatile. By simply changing your grip (neutral, underhand, overhand, and grip width), and even body position, you’ll be able to goal your back and arms otherwise. One could argue that you could possibly construct a wonderfully well rounded back with just pull up variations alone. All in all, if there was just one back exercise that you could possibly do, it higher be pull ups (sorry deadlifts). The danger to reward ratio for pull ups is way higher too.
• Low Risk, High Reward: Pull ups and chin ups are among the many top compound exercises for strength and hypertrophy. Nevertheless, comparing to the others, pull ups are far safer. You get the identical big rewards, but with lots less risk. It’s actually quite hard to harm yourself when doing pull ups. Now, most exercises have some type of risk, in order that’s to not say you mustn’t do the opposite compound lifts we mentioned, but it surely does make us particularly keen on pull ups. They’re very easy on the joints.
• Easy Improvements: You can see that your muscles respond thoroughly to tug ups. It’s probably the toughest exercise that’s the best to enhance at. Ironic right? For those who struggle with 1 or 2 pull ups today, we guarantee should you persist with it and do pull ups every single day, you’ll have the ability to do 10 unassisted in a matter of 3-4 weeks.
• V-Shape: There isn’t any higher exercise for constructing the lats than pull ups. And should you want that sexy v-shape physique, you would like solid lats. So, not only will you turn into more powerful by doing pull ups, you may even turn into more attractive thanks to raised body composition in the shape of a “V”.
• Grip Strength: Pull ups and chin ups construct incredible grip strength and powerful forearms. Grip strength is significant as having a robust grip will translate to improvements across the board. You’ll turn into stronger in deadlifts, rows, and all the opposite pulling exercises you do.
• Improve Strength, Endurance, and Hypertrophy: Last, but surely not least, pull ups and chin ups are great for constructing upper body strength. All of those muscles we mentioned make up like a 3rd of your body. So, pull ups might be covering an enormous basis of your strength, hypertrophy, and endurance training. If you need to construct upper body strength, you would like them!

Along with these superstar advantages, pull ups and chin ups also help with decompression of your spine, opening your chest up, increasing shoulder mobility and range of motion, strengthening your shoulder joint complex (rotator cuff muscles), and higher posture.

Chin-Ups vs Pull Ups: Comparing Side-By-Side

We have gone over a ton of knowledge comparing the chin up vs. pull up. Here’s a have a look at the 2 exercises side-by-side so you’ll be able to see the similarities and differences.

FAQS ABOUT Pull Ups vs Chin Ups

More questions on pullups vs chinups? Let’s answer them here!

Why can I do chin ups but I can’t do pull ups?

This could be very normal. Chin ups are easier than pull ups. It’s because chin ups put the biceps in a more energetic role, whereas pull ups take away much of the biceps activity, isolating the lats, which makes pulling yourself up considerably tougher.

What if I can’t do chin ups or pull ups?

For those who can’t do pull ups, let alone neutral grip pull ups or chin ups, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing them. There are a lot of assisted pull up options to employ. With regards to assistance exercises, listed here are a few of the best kinds of pull ups, all of that are still very effective for constructing strength and muscle.

• Assisted Pull Up Machine: Most gyms have assisted pull up machines. With these assisted pull ups, you’ll be able to decrease the burden assistance as you get stronger, until you ultimately can do the pull up.
• Pull Up Assist Bands: Pull ups with resistance bands uses the identical concept as above. As you get stronger, you should use lighter bands, until you’re eventually not using any bands. Take a look at the 11 Best Resistance Bands in the marketplace so you’ll be able to perform these at home!
• Ask a buddy to help you: Have a gym buddy spot you. He/She will put their hands in your hips and allow you to pull up.

Make sure you practice different grip variations as well.

What do I do after I master the wide grip pull up?

When chin ups and pull ups turn into easy for you, it’s time to extend the issue. For those who can do 10-15 reps of chin ups or wide grip pull ups for 3-4 sets, you’ll be able to add weight to the movement by wearing a dip belt or a weighted vest. For those who don’t have either, cross your feet and place a dumbbell between them. You may even throw on a heavy backpack.

Other ways to make pull ups and chin ups harder is by chaining the tempo. Practice slow pull ups with holds at the highest, in addition to explosive pull ups.

These are all great ways to proceed increasing strength and constructing muscle.

How To Program PULL UPS AND CHIN UPS

With regards to a well rounded exercise routine, we highly recommend doing pull ups and chin ups should you can.

Adding each chin ups and pull ups (in addition to neutral grip pull ups) to your workout plan is straightforward. For those who do full body workouts 3 times per week, you could possibly do pull ups on day 1, chin ups day 2, and neutral grip on day 3.

For those who do upper/lower body workouts, then you definately likely hit upper body twice per week, so do chin ups on considered one of those day and pull ups on the opposite.

For those who do a 4-5 day bodybuilding split, then you definately probably hit your back once per week. Meaning you’re doing around 6-8 exercises on back day. At the very least 2 of those exercises might be pull up variations (chin ups, shoulder width pull ups, wide grip pull ups or neutral grip pull ups).

As chin ups and pull ups are arguably probably the most effective back exercises you’ll be able to do, you have to be doing them every back session! The more, the higher. And yes, you’ll be able to do each on the identical day!