The pull-up is my all time favorite exercise. It's simple, effective and can be varied in an endless amount of ways. Pull-ups work the entire upper body, particularly the lats and other back muscles. The Basics The standard pull-up is performed while hanging from an overhead bar with your hands a bit wider than your shoulders and your palms facing away from you. Keeping your whole body tight… Continue reading

Body Weight Exercises, Pull-ups!

I know what you might be thinking, "Advanced muscle-ups? Aren't muscle-ups already an advanced exercise?" Yes, the muscle-up is a fairly advanced exercise by itself, but with practice, muscle-ups will eventually become manageable. That's when it's time to raise the bar! Plyo Muscle-ups If you know about plyometrics, it's easy to figure out what a plyo muscle-up might look like. To do this move, keep pushing… Continue reading

Body Weight Exercises, Pull-ups!

Last year, I posted a muscle-up tutorial that explained how to perform the muscle-up on a pull-up bar. Since then, several people have inquired about learning to perform this skill on gymnastics rings. Performing muscle-ups on rings may at first seem a lot harder to someone who is used to doing the exercise on a bar, but once one acclimates to the subtle differences in… Continue reading

Body Weight Exercises, Pull-ups!

The one arm chin-up has been my favorite feat of strength since the first time I ever saw one performed. It's a beautiful display of strength, power and control. Anyone who can do a one arm chin-up has automatically earned my respect, for to perform this move takes discipline, patience and determination. No matter how strong you are, you simply cannot acquire this skill without lots and… Continue reading

Body Weight Exercises, Pull-ups!

As you may already be aware, pull-ups are my favorite exercise! I'm also all about training to failure--so for me, doing pull-ups to failure is a no-brainer. However, like all exercises, there are infinite variations on the pull-up; some allow for a greater total number of reps than others. One such variation is the (often controversial) kipping pull-up. Since my recent dead hang pull-up contest with… Continue reading

Pull-ups!

If you've ever had a pull-up contest (or been asked to judge one), then you know how hard it is to ensure fairness. There are a lot of things to consider, such as technique, range of motion, hand placement, grip, etc. I've heard a lot of people boast about how many pull-ups they can do only to find out that what they count as a rep is barely half… Continue reading

Pull-ups!

As you may know, pull-ups are my favorite exercise. So when I stumbled across the twenty pull-up challenge the other day, it was obvious to me what I needed to do. For the purpose of this particular challenge, our pull-ups will be performed using an overhand grip on the bar, the legs will be kept straight and the movement will be performed with control. There… Continue reading

Pull-ups!

Australian pull-ups are becoming a very popular exercise. Like all types of pull-ups (and all types of exercises for that matter) there are many different ways to do the Australian, and it can be incorporated into a number of different contexts within a workout. Using the Australian for Beginners I first mentioned this idea in my introduction to Australian pull-ups. If you aren't strong enough… Continue reading

Body Weight Exercises, Pull-ups!

Last month I gave you some tips to get started on building up to one arm pull-ups. Here are three more tools to have in your arsenal along the way. The One Arm Australian The one arm Australian pull-up is a worthwhile exercise in its own right, though it's never been one of my favorites. However, it can be a useful tool to help build towards a classic… Continue reading

Pull-ups!, Strength and Conditioning

Sometimes a straight line isn't the fastest way to get from point A to point B. While pull-ups are typically performed by going straight up and down, the kipping pull-up creates an arc, rather than a straight line, as a means to quickly propel the body upward. In sports, there are rarely slow controlled movements like conventional pull-ups; real life activities typically involve using the body as a… Continue reading

Pull-ups!, Strength and Conditioning