How to Do Pull & Chin Ups

hey guys today we'll be going over how to do pull ups and chin ups with proper form mistakes to avoid and also other exercises that you can do to help build your strength to help get you to that first pull up and chin up let's get started [Music] uh we have pull-ups on the left and chin-ups on the right they're going to be pretty similar movements to each other except pull-ups will use a wider hand positioning with an overhand grip whereas chin-ups will use an underhand grip with hands a little bit closer together both exercises will utilize almost all the same muscles chin up simply place a little bit more focus on your biceps and pull ups a little bit more focus on your lats let's get started with pull-ups first start with hands place is just a few inches outside of your shoulders you don't want them too far apart because it'll limit your range of motion and too close together will make it difficult to engage your lats muscles on the sides of your back which are one of the most important muscles to utilize for this exercise you'll have to play around with hand positioning to see what works best for you from here lower yourself all the way down until your arms are completely straight then shut your shoulders down doing your best to engage your lats to power the pulling up movement squeeze your back muscles as you reach the top and then release them as you extend your arms back down and lower yourself you'll notice that my elbows point straight down to the ground as i pull up which is what we want in order to properly engage our back muscles as i pull up my chest is also open and facing forward which is also what we want in order to keep our shoulders traps and other muscles from taking over as you contract your back muscles to pull up exhale and as you lower yourself back down inhale my outfit is from tlf if you want to check it out i'll leave the details link in my discount code in the description now that we know what we want to do let's talk about what we don't want to do you'll see in the right that my chest is not open and my shoulders are rounded forward making it difficult to engage my back muscles as i reach the top my elbows also point straight to behind me instead of down keep your shoulders back lats engaged and chest to open now you'll see that my shoulders are very tense and shrugged up towards my ears throughout the entire movement which we also want to avoid as it places unnecessary strain on your shoulders keep those shoulders depressed down and allow your back muscles to do the heavy lifting from the side you'll also see the same mistakes to avoid shoulders are rounded forward causing the chest to cave in and elbows pointed behind me instead of straight down [Music] for chin ups we're going to be looking at a lot of the same overall cues hands will be placed right above your shoulders using an underhand grip fully extend yourself down until your arms are straight then contract your back muscles imagine pushing them and your shoulders down towards your lower back to initiate the movement simultaneously flexing your biceps to help pull your body up keep your shoulders rolled back and down and chest open as you pull up to allow your back and biceps to properly feel the movement [Music] really the biggest thing you'll want to avoid when doing chin ups is rounding your shoulders forward and caving your chest in just like we want to avoid doing for pull-ups as always i myself have made these mistakes before so never feel bad if you find yourself making them as well it's all part of the process in order to progress and get better [Music] now that we know how to do pulling chin nubs and what to avoid let's talk about a few exercises you can do to help make your way towards pull-ups of course you can do them assisted like i've been doing here on the machine if you have a partner you can have them hold your feet and give you a tiny lift just like my husband and i are doing [Music] here [Music] if you're up for a challenge you can also do isometric holds which just means holding yourself up at the top of the bar like i'm doing here for as long as you can you can do this either with the chin or pull up grip as i go down i'm going to slowly lower myself which is also another exercise you can do to help build your pull and chin up strength but really at the end of the day i feel like the best way to get better is to simply practice the exercise itself so keep on added and pushing through even when it gets hard you got this [Music] thanks so much for stopping by today guys if you enjoyed this video of course don't forget to leave a thumbs up and if you're not already subscribed to my channel do that and turn a notification below so you don't miss out on my other helpful videos just like this for daily fitness and workout inspiration make sure to also like me on facebook and follow me on instagram and if you have a gym buddy who you think might also find this video helpful make sure to share this video with them as well thanks so much again and have a great rest of your week guys