Research Corner - Pull Ups Pull Ups Introduction The Pull Up is a closed-chain bodyweight movement where the body is suspended by the arms, with a chosen grip, and pulled up with muscular eﬀort. As this happens, the wrists remain in neutral (straight, neither ﬂexed nor extended) position, the elbows ﬂex and the shoulder adducts and/or extends to bring the elbows to or sometimes behind the torso. Pull ups are thought to be one of the best ways that you can measure your upper body strength. The Pull Up recruits multiple muscles from the upper body. Muscles such as the Latissimus Dorsi extend from your vertebrae to your humerus, covering your middle and lower back. It pulls your humerus down and back during the pull up. The Trapezius is a “large, ﬂat, triangular sheet of muscle. It lays over your middle back, upper back and neck. Infraspinatus is the ﬁrst of the rotator cuﬀ muscles. This muscle is primarily responsible for external arm rotation. Pectoralis Major is the two large muscles of the chest. Biceps Brachii, commonly referred to as your biceps. The bicep is the primary muscle that allows your elbow to bend. The Erector spinae is a muscle group of the back in humans and animals, which extends the vertebral column (bending the spine such that the head moves posteriorly while the chest protrudes anteriorly). Highlighted below are the muscles used during the Pull Up (see Figure 1). A B C D E F Figure 1: Version 01 Muscles involved in the Pull Up. A: Latissimus Dorsi, B: Trapezius, B: Infraspinatus, D: Erector spinae, E: Pectoralis Major and F: Biceps Brachii (retrieved Wikipedia). Page 01 Research Corner - Pull Ups A Figure 2: B C Hand orientation and width variations A: supinated, B: neutral and C: pronated The diﬀerent Pull Up variations can be observed in Figure 2. As illustrated the variations can include diﬀerent hand positions or diﬀerent shoulder widths. Hand Position Youdas et al. (2010) reported the electromyographic (EMG) activation of diﬀerent muscles during the Pull Up when diﬀerent hand positions were used (See Table 1). As can be observed from Table 1 certain hand positions resulted in greater activation of certain muscle groups. The main ﬁndings of this study were that the supinated position resulted in greater muscle activation of the erector spinae, pectoralis major (13.6%) and biceps brachii (17.9%). The pronated position resulted in greater EMG in the infraspinatus and the lower trapezius (10.8%). Hand Orientation Increased Muscle Activity Pronated Grip Lower trapezius Infraspinatus Supinated Grip Pectoralis major Biceps brachii Erector spinae Neutral Grip Latissimus dorsi Table 1. Version 01 Greatest muscle activation (EMG) during variations of Pull-Ups with diﬀerent hand orientations. Page 02 Research Corner - Pull Ups References Antinori, F., Felici, F., Figura, F., Marchetti, M., Ricci, B. (1988). Joint moments and work in pull-ups. Journal Sports Medicine Physical Fitness 28: 132–37. Crates, T. (1996) .Analysis of the lat pull down. Journal Strength Conditioning Research19: 26–9. Lusk, S., Hale, B., Russell, D. (2010). Grip Width and Forearm orientation Eﬀects on Muscle Activity During the Lat Pull-Down. Journal Strength Conditioning Research 24:1895–1900. Gouvali, M.K., Boudolos, K. Dynamic and electromyographical analysis in variants of push-up exercise. Journal Strength Conditioning Research 19: 146–151, 2005. Leslie, K.L.M., Comfort, P. The Eﬀect of Grip Width and Hand Orientation on Muscle Activity During Pull-ups and the Lat Pull-down. Journal Strength conditioning research 2013, 35, 1. Youdas,J.W., Amundson ,C.L., Cicero,K.S., Hahn,J.J., Harezlak,D.T., Hollman,J.H. Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. Journal Strength Conditioning Research 24: 3404–3414, 2010. Version 01 Page 03