Pull Ups

Me doing chin ups

Today I am going to discuss an exercise that should form some part of any home workout, pull ups. To do a pull up we need something to pull up on, a pull up bar is an affordable and easy item to use, that can be inserted into a doorway.

To beginners, a pull up can be a truly challenging exercise, and it may be useful to use, for example, a chair to help practice good form. When we start getting good at pull ups though, they are one of the most beneficial exercises out there. Pull ups work the biceps and the muscles of the back; trapezius, rhomboids, the posterior deltoids, the latissimus dorsi and the teres major. The biceps get more work when the exercise is completed with the palms facing towards our self (this is the one often referred to as a chin up), and the back muscles gain more from the exercise being done with an overhand grip.

To complete a pull up, the body is suspended by the arms as we grip our pull up bar, and we pull ourselves up with muscular effort. The elbows will bend and we aim to bring our head above the bar and lower again. This is one repetition.

A good tip for when the pull up is mastered is to add a weighted belt (or any other weight) to make it even more challenging and to help develop our muscles further.

This exercise is highly recommended, and when we combine it with press ups, we get a decent upper body workout.

Two simple rules for working out

As I have mentioned before in my blog posts, food and diet is such an important part of fitness, health and muscle building. It is therefore very important that we eat correctly around our workouts but this can be hard to do. Here are two little tips though:

1. Avoid eating a full meal less than an hour before a workout. No our body won't explode if we do, but we will be very uncomfortable and will not be able to get the most from our workout. If we are hungry before our workout we should grab something like a banana that has a good supply of carbs as it will help us during the workout.

2. After a workout it is important to re-fuel as soon as possible. We need to ensure that we take in carbs to replenish the energy levels that we have been using and we will need protein to repair the muscles that we have used during our workout.

Hope these little tips help!