Quick chin-/pull-up question

[Mr Punch]

When you do chin-ups/pull-ups does it make any difference if you have your legs pulled up in front of you or your knees bent and your calves pulled up by your butt?

And which do you prefer and why?

[lianweizhi]

For me it depends on whether I'm doing a palms out, palms in, or "neutral" (palms facing each other) grip, interestingly enough. For palms out, I prefer bending my legs behind me, or simply trying to keep them straight. For palms in, I like my legs behind me as well, and I'm usually arched more for these for some reason. For palms facing each other, I like to do "Ls"... somehow it balances my weight so I'm not swinging around as much.

[IronFist]

whatever's most comfortable.

Knees pulled up will probably tire out your abs more.

It's all unsprung weight so it's not really going to make a significant difference in how hard the exercise is.

[冠木侍]

In order to maintain myself from swinging, I find that bending my knees a bit helps.

[Mr Punch]

Originally Posted by IronFist

whatever's most comfortable.

Knees pulled up will probably tire out your abs more.

It's all unsprung weight so it's not really going to make a significant difference in how hard the exercise is.

Makes sense (except I don't know what unsprung means!). But, if a move into one of those positions each rep, presumably it'll work something bodyweight stylee?

[David Jamieson]

i just cross my ankles and bend my knees slightly.

[Oso]

i do the same thing as david does...I mostly do palm in chin's because of the shoulder.

[MightyB]

I've found that holding a Pike position or L as lianweizhi said really tears up my abs- try doing a set holding the Pike and you'll get a gut burn like no other.

[golgo]

Originally Posted by Mr Punch

When you do chin-ups/pull-ups does it make any difference if you have your legs pulled up in front of you or your knees bent and your calves pulled up by your butt?

And which do you prefer and why?

I believe that pulling your legs in front of you makes the action "easier" on the muscles doing the "pulling" motion (depending whether you are doing chins/pulls). When you pull your legs in front of you, your core and leg muscles are acting againt gravity and therefore reducing the amount of weight you are actually pulling with your upper body.

Thats how it has always been explained to me.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

Originally Posted by Mr Punch

Makes sense (except I don't know what unsprung means!). But, if a move into one of those positions each rep, presumably it'll work something bodyweight stylee?

i dont think so . .. im with ironfist . .. changing your leg position is going to have negligable affect on your back. the only muscle group that could be affected significantly is your abs, by holding them out in an L postion as mighty b mentioned (awesome exercised by the way - i sometimes rep out a few of those for warmups). and even then i dont think it would have a large net affect on your back muscles save for the fact that they might get less work from reaching failure sooner.

the only way your going to start mixing it up for your back muscles is by changing grip or grip width. many body builders say that one grip width over the other will work building thickness over building width. i can never remember which way it is, but i think a wide grip is used for width (makes sense as it would seem to involve more lat activation). also palms in will give the biceps a litte love, and your back wont suffer if you do them in good form. i had very good results doing a run with these during a 20 rep squat cycle. i had to do them off a swing set so palms in made sense, but i made sure that every rep i counted my chest touched the 2x4 i was holding on to (save for the last one or two which were close). my back really blew up from these. actually i noticed more results than im noticing now from doing chins with palms out during another 20 reps squat cycle (granted its 2 years later and adding mass in general is much more difficult).

in conclusion, put your legs where they are comfortable and mess with grip from time to time to keep from getting bored. research it more if building your back like a bodybuilder becomes an issue, but at our level simply doing chins will give you a bigger stronger back.

[Mr Punch]

Cheers folks.

[IronFist]

Originally Posted by Mr Punch

Makes sense (except I don't know what unsprung means!). But, if a move into one of those positions each rep, presumably it'll work something bodyweight stylee?

Unsprung is a term from the automotive world. Unsprung weight refers to the weight of a car that isn't supported by the springs/suspension. So like the weight of the wheels would be "unsprung."

As I was using the term, in pullups it would refer to any weight that you're not actually supporting with your arms. So basically the weight of your forearms. Imagine you strapped 10lb weights onto your forearms before doing pullups; it wouldn't make the pullups any harder. Now imagine you strapped 10lb weights around your waist before doing pullups; it would make it harder.

I hope that makes sense. I'm tired now so I hope I explained that well.

[SteveLau]

I have not done chin pull up for a long time. The way I do it is probably the same as David Jamieson's -

i just cross my ankles and bend my knees slightly.

The exercise is a strengthnous one. It is not good to make it more strengthnous by exercising the lower limbs.

With regards to this exercise, the point I would like to mention is the way our palms thus our forearms should orientate. Once upon a time, I thought chin pull up with our palms facing out is of more advance level since it is more difficult to do. But now, my view on this is very different then. Think about it. Why is it more difficult to do the exercise with our palms facing out, thus with ours forearm muscles twisted? IMHO, more advance can be defined as being more difficult to do because of the resistance level is higher. For example, we are pulling more weight. But with our forearm muscles twisted, it is more diffcult to exercise because the muscles are much more difficult to move. Also, that is mainly how elbow strain injury occurs. The muscles are moving strongly while overlapping one the other (twisted).


Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[Reverend Tap]

Haven't done pull-ups in a long time for lack of a bar, but my method was to keep my knees straight down and feet tucked all the way up to my butt. Mostly for simple pragmatic reasons; I have monkey arms and long legs and will often touch the ground if I don't tuck up my feet. But also, keeping my feet all the way up there helped me focus on maintaining full-body tension, something I've always had problems with (for a long time, trying to just bend my knees a little and cross them tended to result in inadvertently flailing legs). I would do equal sets of overhand, underhand, and underhand behind-the-head pulls, all at around shoulder-width, which helped vary up the exercises and worked well for me.

It'd be a very good thing for me to get back into, but the only thing around I can grab onto that will support me is the heavy bag chain...

[taai gihk yahn]

Originally Posted by Mr Punch

When you do chin-ups/pull-ups does it make any difference if you have your legs pulled up in front of you or your knees bent and your calves pulled up by your butt?

And which do you prefer and why?

the amount of weight is still the same, the difference is in the distribution (more to the front or back) which will impact how your organize your core musc. to stabilize dynamically; also, if you bend at the knee you fire hamstrings and if you bring your knees up you are activating psoas - both are flexors, although hams are also a weak hip extender while psoas is a powerful flexor of the hip - so if you want to bias towards flexor muscle function (which is what you are training by doing pull ups), you might find bringing your knees up gives you a little extra oomph - or not, LOL