Benefits of Pull Ups

Enjoy the many benefits of pull ups! This classic upper body exercise is relatively easy to learn & it yields these remarkable results...

...But if you're truly considering this exercise, you should do yourself a favor and study up a bit on how to do pull ups and review these pull ups exercise tips before you implement them in your workouts -- Now, back to the benefits:

Pull Up Benefits. The advantages of pull ups are pretty hard to ignore. Check 'em out...

• Do It Anywhere! The exercise can easily performed just about anywhere -- at home, in a playground, or even in a tree. All you need for equipment is a bar (or something that can act as one) that you can grab onto and which can safely support your bodyweight.
• Work More Muscles. Like chest and tricep dips, pull ups are a closed kinetic chain (CKC) exercise. This means you move your body through space while your hands are in a fixed position, thus requiring multiple muscle joints and the co-contraction of opposite muscles (both "pushing" and "pulling" muscles are flexed at the same time).
• Build Upper Body Mass and Strength. Lifting your entire bodyweight (and more, with weights) is a sure-fire way to load your muscles and induce an anabolic (growth) response. And since you hit the back, arms, shoulders, and even the chest, the final result is denser and more powerful upper body muscle mass.
• "Crossover-ability." The stronger you become at pulling, the stronger you will be at pushing. In other words, strength built from this exercise improves your strength potential for upper body pressing exercises (e.g., the barbell bench press or the overhead press).
• Climbers and Fighters, Unite! Athletes like climbers and martial artists are among those who have the most to gain from performing this exercise. It trains your grip and your ability to pull downwards, which are 2 skills that can enable you to grip and then swiftly pull your opponent's head to your knee, or simply scale a skyscraper faster than Peter Parker could!
• Balanced Musculature. The final benefit of pull ups is the ability to prevent or help to reverse muscular imbalances resulting from too many upper body pushing movements. When you overuse pushing movements (or underuse your back), the result is injuries or posture problems from weak, overstretched back muscles. But this exercise focuses on strengthening the back as well as the rear deltoid (which is often grossly underdeveloped).

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