Chin Up
The chin-up is a bodyweight vertical pull with an underhand grip: you hang from a bar with your palms facing you and pull until your chin clears it. It works the lats and biceps together, with the chest, brachialis and mid-back assisting, and for most lifters it is the stronger of the two main pull-up grips.
Also called: Chinup, Weighted Chin-up, Supinated Pull-Up, Underhand Pull-Up · Equipment: bodyweight · Pattern: pull
Step by step
- Grip the bar with your palms facing you, hands about shoulder-width apart, thumbs wrapped round the bar.
- Hang with straight arms. Keep your legs together, or bend your knees and cross your ankles, with your ribs down and glutes lightly squeezed so your body stays still.
- Start each rep by pulling your shoulder blades down, away from your ears, before your elbows bend.
- Drive your elbows down towards your hips and pull until your chin clears the bar, with your upper chest rising towards it.
- Pause briefly at the top with your shoulders still held down, not shrugged up to your ears.
- Return under control to a full straight-arm hang, taking about two seconds, without swinging.
- After the last rep, step down onto a box or drop from the straight-arm hang onto soft knees.
- Shoulders down before the elbows bend
- Drive your elbows to your hips
- Chin over the bar, chest up to it
- Straight arms at the bottom of every rep
- Ribs down, legs still
In VALDA, these cues are one tap away on the exercise while you train.
What it trains
| Muscle | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Latissimus dorsi | Prime mover | B |
| Biceps brachii | Prime mover | C |
| Brachialis | Secondary | C |
| Pectoralis major: sternocostal (mid) | Secondary | C |
| Teres major | Secondary | C |
| Brachioradialis | Secondary | C |
| Trapezius: lower | Secondary | C |
| Rhomboids | Secondary | C |
| Forearm flexors | Stabiliser | C |
| Rotator cuff | Stabiliser | C |
| Rectus abdominis | Stabiliser | C |
Evidence grades: A = strong research base · B = good · C = limited · D = coaching consensus.
What goes wrong, and the fix
Half reps at the bottom
Fix: Return to straight elbows at the bottom of every rep before pulling again.
Shrugging into the pull
Fix: Pull the shoulder blades down first, then bend the elbows.
Swinging or kicking
Fix: Squeeze your glutes, keep ribs down and legs still, and pause at the bottom.
Craning the chin to reach the bar
Fix: Keep your head neutral and pull until the chin clears with the chest rising to the bar.
Dropping from the top
Fix: Take about two seconds to return to a straight-arm hang.
What the research says
Strength · first choiceMuscle growth · first choiceGeneral fitness · first choiceSport performance · first choiceEndurance
- Load by goal — Research comparing loads finds maximal strength favours heavier loads (about 8 reps or fewer per set), while muscle growth is similar across a wide range of loads when sets finish close to failure. Lifters commonly add load with a dip belt, or use band or machine assistance to reach a target rep range.
- Effort — Studies show sets that finish a few reps short of failure capture most of the size benefit, and strength gains appear largely insensitive to how close to failure you train. True failure adds only a small extra return for growth.
- Volume and frequency — Research links more weekly sets for a muscle to more growth, with diminishing returns. Around 10 or more hard sets a week has been associated with more growth than fewer than 5, and training a muscle about twice a week is a common way to spread that volume.
- Rest — In trained lifters, rests of about 3 minutes between sets have produced greater strength and size gains than 1-minute rests, largely because each set can carry more work.
- Range of motion — Meta-analysis finds full range of motion gives greater strength gains than partial reps, which is why a straight-arm bottom and chin-over-bar top is the usual rep standard.
- Grip choice — An EMG study found the chin-up activates the biceps and chest more than the overhand pull-up, with similar lat activation, while the overhand grip works the trapezius more. That is activation data, and there is no direct research comparing the two grips for long-term growth.
Swap it mid-workout
With VALDA Pro, FLEX offers alternatives like these when you swap an exercise mid-workout.
Log the chin up in VALDA, with these cues one tap away while you train and your history for it in one place.
General information about exercise technique, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, your healthcare provider is the right person to ask.