Proper Pull Ups For Lat Development

We’ve all heard how great the pull-up variations are for lat development and strength; overhand (pull ups), neutral-grip, and underhand (chin ups), various widths, etc., but let me tell you, rarely do I ever see this movement performed with the actual LATS/BACK in mind.

What I most often see is simply a terrible attempt to “pull up” the body with no thought given to maximally engaging the muscles of the back. Just because you can get your chin to the bar doesn’t mean you executed a good rep … again in the context of BACK training.

Remember, within the context of physique development, it is not about just moving weight from A to B. It is about contracting the target muscles against resistance. It’s all about targeted tension!

If you see someone’s upper back/thoracic spine “rounding out” or going concave and the chest is caving in as is often the case, you know the movement is being executed incorrectly, and often due to insufficient strength to even be using this movement in their program. There is no significant lat involvement occurring here.

A properly performed pull up/chin up should look similar to a properly performed lat pulldown. The low back has a natural arch in it, the chest is UP throughout the entire rep.

A client had sent me a pull up video to review and the concaving of the upper back is what I observed in the video, so my suggestion was to invest in some bands so that she could start doing some band-assisted pull ups, the bands for which offer a form of accommodating resistance. The band offers you extra help at the bottom of the movement when it is under the greatest stretch and progressively less as you progress through the concentric phase of the rep.

(As an aside, I personally think that band-assisted pull ups/chins ups are superior to using the assisted pull-up machine, but both definitely have their place in programming.)