If you want to build muscle and get stronger, look no further than pull ups. Pull ups are among the most important exercises which any one who wants to get stronger can do. It’s actually one of the most effective muscle building exercises, which is the reason why it is called an upper body squat.
Pull ups work the upper body along with the back muscles, and help in strengthening your arms and the core muscles. Pull up exercises will help you build quality muscle, endurance, body awareness, power, and will generally make you stronger.
In this article, we are going to take a look the different variations of pull ups you can do at home to get you stronger.
1. Hanging Knee Raises
Hanging knee raises is a great exercise which you can add to your pull up program, and can be done at home using the doorway pull up bar. This exercise will help strengthen your core muscles and will prepare you for the more difficult pull up exercises. To perform this exercise, you need to jump and grab the pull up bar, with both of your palms facing outwards.
Make sure your hands are shoulder width apart. Ideally, your doorway pull up bar should be high enough such that the feet clear the floor. Pull the shoulders backwards and downwards as you tighten your body to a straight line. Keep your legs together, and tuck your knees upwards toward your chest. You can then squeeze towards the chest, and lower your legs down to a straight line. When using a low doorway pull up bar, you should keep your legs bent throughout the exercise.
2. Dead Hang Exercises
Dead hang exercise is one of the best ways of building up your strength, especially if you have a high body weight. As the name suggests, “dead hang” means that there’s no motion; it is an isometric exercise. It involves hanging from a bar for about 20 to 30 seconds, (or for as long as possible). To do this exercise, you need to put a chair under the pull up bar so that you can be able to reach the pull up bar with a firm and wide grip. You can then grab the pull bar with the palms facing out. With the feet still on your chair, start the 1st pull up and make sure the elbows move outwards to the sides, parallel to your pull up bar.
Now keep the upper body still (motionless) in this particular position while you bend the knees til the feet are no longer on the chair. Put the shoulders in a packed position, and then hold still for about 30 seconds. In case you happen to find the shoulders way up beside the ears, it means you have not yet become strong enough to perform the dead hang. If that is the case, you can use your feet to assist for the set’s duration.
3. Burpee Pull Ups
This exercise works on your pull ups’ strength and also gets your heart rate bumping fast. To do this exercise, you simply need to stand in front of the pull up bar, and then drop down to the squat position with both hands on the ground or floor. Kick the feet backwards to a push ups position, and then lower the body slowly to the floor. You can bow up or you can do a complete push up, then jump the feet back into a squat position, and jump up, grab the bar, and do pull up. Generally, the higher your pull up bar, the harder the exercise will be.
4. Table Bodyweight Rows
Bodyweight rows (also known as called reverse rows or Australian pull ups), primarily work the biceps, the lats and upper back. To perform this exercise, you will need a low bar (about hip high, or even lower). You can even use a broomstick and 2 chairs, emulating a low bar setup. However, the best setup is using a sturdy table.
To do this, you simply need to grab the table’s edge with underhand grip. Keep your whole body in a stable straight line, and lock both of your elbows out at the bottom. Now, try and touch the table surface with your chest (you need to properly position your feet so that this exercise can work).
5. Hanging Leg Raises
This is another incredible core strengthening exercise. Hanging leg raises forces you to challenge your grip and work on your control. To perform this exercise, you need to grab onto the pull up bar with the palms facing outwards. Tighten your abs, and then pull the shoulders backwards and downwards.
While keeping your legs straight, lift both of them upwards so that they are parallel to the ground. Hold for about a second, and then lower them down with control. If you want to increase the level of difficulty, you can try bringing the toes all way up to the pull up bar. Keep your knees straight, and don’t use a lot of momentum in order to get there.
6. Door Pull-ins
Door pull ins are a great exercise which work the biceps, whilst emphasizing the forearms and upper back muscles. To do this exercise, you simply need to wrap a towel around the door’s edge and door knob. Now place the feet on the sides of your door. Use your feet to press against your door; this will work best if you have a wooden floor and you are on bare feet.
Use your hands to grip the ends of your towel and lower down til your torso, knees and thighs form an angle of about 90 degree. Ensure there is minimal change in the angle whenever you pull yourself up into the door.
Conclusion
Well, there are many different ways of doing pull ups at home to build strength. You can do pull up on the doorway bars, you can use ropes, rings, beams, towels, suspension straps, eagle loops, and even softballs or baseballs hanging from a chain. The variations are almost endless. You can start by performing the above pull up exercises, and you will be able to get stronger, and engage in more advanced pull up exercises.