6 Undeniable Benefits of Pull Ups That You Don’t Want Miss Out On

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By Alex
Last updated on

Enjoy the many benefits of pull ups! This classic upper body exercise is relatively easy to learn and 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 before you implement them in your workouts – Now, back to the benefits:

The Top 6 Benefits of Pull Up Benefits

The benefits of pull ups are pretty hard to ignore. Check 'em out...

1. Do Them Anywhere!

You can easily perform pull ups 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.

2. Train More Muscles

Like 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 "push" and "pull" muscles are flexed at the same time).

3. Build Overall Upper Body Mass & 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, traps, shoulders, arms, and even the chest, the final result is denser and more powerful upper body muscle mass.

4. "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 barbell overhead press).

5. 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!

6. Develop a More 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 push movements. When you overuse push 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).

The guys over Dark Iron Fitness wrote an article with even more benefits than the ones I've discussed here. Be sure to check it out if I haven't already convinced you to add pull ups to your routine!

Alex from King of the Gym
Author
Hey! My name is Alex and I'm the founder and author of King of the Gym. I've been lifting weights seriously since 2005 in high school when I started a home gym in my parents' basement. I started writing about fitness in 2009. Then, in 2014, I got into writing home gym equipment reviews and I haven't looked back. My current home gym is in my own house and it's constantly growing and evolving. My goal is to help you build the home gym of your dreams! Read more about me here.

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