Effective Exercises: Band-Assisted Chin-ups
The vertical pull is one of several fundamental movement patterns just about everyone should do. Moreover, it’s one that just about everyone could stand to get better at. Problem is, it often gets left out because it’s hard for a lot of people to do a pull-up. But as goes one of the best quotes from one of the greatest movies of all time (leave a comment if you know what it is!), “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”
Different variations of the lat pulldown are fine for beginners, but they do little for core strength and stability, and they don’t teach you to handle your own bodyweight. Nothing screams strength like pull-ups and chin-ups. Of course, it takes time to get your back strong enough to pull up your entire bodyweight. You can usually find an assistance machine in a conventional gym, but what if you train somewhere else?
Enter the Superband.
Superbands come in four levels of resistance and can be wrapped around the body to unload bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and chin-ups. This allows you to still train the vertical pulling movement that you’d otherwise be too weak to perform. Band-assisted pull-ups and chin-ups can be done with the band around one or both knees (it’s harder with just one), or even around the feet (although I’m not a fan of this variation, as it’s easier for the feet to slip out and the band to snap up and hit you). The exercise is harder with the legs extended, however, as flexing the hips and knees shortens the lever and brings more mass to the center, giving the body less moment of inertia to overcome.
Key Cues:
- Loop the band over the handle of a pull-up bar and place one or both knees in the loop
- Start and end each rep with straight arms
- Pull the shoulders down and drive the elbows to the floor to pull yourself up
- Keep the head up and chest out
- Do not swing the legs to help you up
- Pull the chin over the bar
- Lower down under control
The vertical press is another movement that is sometimes avoided because it somehow got a reputation for being unsafe. While there are certain situations where it may be contraindicated (poor posture, rotator cuff pathology, etc.), the vertical press is a fundamental movement pattern just like the vertical pull, and should be practiced in healthy populations (though perhaps not as much as the vertical pull).
Here’s a video from Martin Rooney that one of my coworkers sent me (thanks Brent). It highlights some misconceptions about the vertical (overhead) press, and it’s good for a few laughs too:
Filed under: exercise instruction, strength training
