There’s not a person in the world who doesn’t want to have beautifully shaped muscles. Actually, many people’s routines are based solely around this purpose. It’s nice to have a beautiful body that you dress-up in any way you want, that makes you feel good and that can contribute to your overall health.
This is why it is important to choose the right workout for your needs and to find the exercise that helps you grow natural muscles that help you become stronger and look amazing.
Pull-ups and chin-ups are popular exercises among fitness enthusiasts that have the ability to help you achieve those goals. Their great advantage is that one doesn’t require gym equipment in order to do a full workout. All that is needed for pull-ups and chin-ups is a person’s will and motivation and a pull-up- bar.
If you’re just starting to train and you know that you must take it slow, then you should start with either one type of exercise or the other. In order to figure out which one is more suitable for your needs, you must learn the differences between them.
In this article, we will present the main difference between pull-ups and chin-ups and the reasons why you should choose one or the other.
#1. Pull-ups
Pull-ups are well known since the ancient times for being that type of exercise that you can do independently of others and can still provide you with the strength you need. Also, it is known for its difficulty level and the world records that have been set by people who had sky-rocketing motivation.
Pull-ups are challenging exercises that require nothing more than a pull-up bar to perform a lot of variations. Simple or classic pull-ups are those exercises during which a person lifts their body off the ground, by pulling the entire body weight upwards. The palms grab the pull-up bar facing the trainee’s body and the elbows bend during the lifting movement. The exercise is simpler done than said.
There are a lot of pull-up variations for advanced trainers that involve raising the legs, releasing the bar from one arm, widening the grip and so on. All types of pull-ups have a single purpose: to strengthen the muscles and increase one’s stamina.
#2. Chin-ups
Chin-ups are often confused with pull-ups. Although from a distance all the motions look similar, the closer you get, the better you understand the difference. In reality, chin-ups are nothing like pull-ups, except for the fact that both exercises require a bar.
Chin-ups are, however, pull-up derived, as they imply pulling the body upwards, in the bar’s direction with reverse grip. The term chin-up comes from the pulling level that is required for this exercise to be performed correctly. When doing chin-ups, the trainee’s chin must reach the bar’s level.
Chin-ups help individuals contract their biceps more intensely, as well as their pectoralis major. This is the main reason why those who find themselves at an advanced training level chose chin-ups and other variations over classic pull-ups. At some point, everyone becomes “immune” to a certain type of exercise and a small change is always welcome.
Pull-ups versus chin-ups. The differences
As we said at the beginning of this article, it is important to understand the differences between two types of exercise in order to see which one suits your needs better.
Therefore, you should know that pull-ups are easier to start with if you are a beginner. But you shouldn’t worry about the number of muscles a pull-up puts to work, because recent studies have shown that both exercises contract the exact same muscles, but at different intensities.
The main difference between pull-ups and chin-ups is the grip. While in the case of pull-ups, a normal, natural grip is required, facing your body, in the case of chin-ups your hands reverse, your palms facing the room. Pull-ups and chin-ups are also known as overhand and underhand pull-ups.
The level of difficulty for each type is set by a series of factors. It’s not just the actual exercise that matters; it’s the speed, intensity, number of repetitions and your own body weight that play an important part during this type of training.
Therefore, the more you widen your grip during a pull-up, the more difficult it will become for you to do more repetitions. Also, the faster you will do them, the easier you will get tired.
Pull-ups are great for beginners who want to get in shape with an easier exercise in a shorter period of time. If this is your case, you can start by doing no more than 10 repetitions daily and then raise the numbers. Also, you can learn to do correct pull-ups by using a chair at first. Mount a pull-up bar at home or in your yard and start practising every day.
Chin-ups, on the other hand, are more difficult and can be easily done by intermediate or advanced individuals. The wideness, velocity and intensity of the training matter as much as in the pull-ups’ case, but even as regular exercises, they are a bit more difficult than classic pull-ups.
Conclusion
If you’re not convinced about the difficulty level of pull-ups and chin-ups, the best thing you can do is to try them both and see for yourself what your real strength is. After that, you can start creating a workout plan that involves only one or both exercises.
No matter what you choose, one thing is for sure: you will notice that your shoulders, arms, core and legs become stronger and more toned after the first two weeks of training. You will even start to look different and you will feel better with every day that passes by.
Regardless of your gender, pull-ups and chin-ups are exercises that boost your cardiovascular system, your immune system, your mood and your looks. They are healthy for your mind and body and are worth the effort. If, at some point, you get bored, you can combine them with push-ups, rope jumping, squats or weight lifting.
