Pull-Ups the Ultimate Upper Body Exercise

When you are engaging your upper body in recreation or a sports event, rarely do you activate one muscle at a time. Instead, your movements will include back, shoulder and arm muscles working together. Perhaps you don’t have a particular sport but you want a great upper body or to lift that 1 yr old.

One of the best upper body exercises is the medium/wide grip pull up. Pull-ups (or chins) provide an excellent way to stress most of the muscles in the middle and upper back, shoulders, chest and arms and therefore, it’s an outstanding upper body exercise. I like to perform this exercise before each workout. It gives me a nice warm up and helps with increasing my strength.

This exercise is effective and will improve your athletic output whether you are going after a rebound in a weekend pick up, spiking the ball past the block or out for a leisurely canoe trip in the wilds.

Movement:
Use a pull up bar or assisted pull-up machine. Using a wide grip or a medium grip, grasp the bar with a pronated grip (palms away from your body) and hang with your elbows fully extended. Pull your body up until your collarbone reached the bar. Return to the starting position and repeat. Use a spotter or assist machine if you can’t do 10 reps.

Funk Roberts
Don’t Rush the Beat