There’s no sugar coating the fact that pull-ups are hard and most people struggle to do more than 10 at a go, which is unlike other exercises including push-ups. But this is one situation when the saying “no pain, no gain” actually applies: pull ups have immense fitness benefits so you shouldn’t shy away from them just because of their reputed difficulty. Here are 5 benefits of doing pull-ups that just may convince you to start doing them regularly.
Stronger Back
Pull ups are among the very best techniques for really strengthening and developing all the muscles in your back. As you perform a pull up, your lats, rhomboids and traps all play a major role in helping you execute the motion. The back may not be a body part that you expect people to notice but some studies have shown that women find a well developed back to be the most attractive body part in a man, so pay attention fellas. On a more serious note, the muscles in the back are used in a lot of situations on a daily basis; from lifting heavy objects, to stabilizing the spine during motion and generating power, the back is a really important part of the body.
Stronger Abs
Not many people know that pull ups are also an excellent abdominal exercise which makes them really quite unique, as an exercise, because very few exercises are capable of adequately working opposing muscles at the same time. Opposing muscles are muscles which are found in the same region of the body, but on opposite sides, and have different but complimentary functions. It is important to work opposing muscles equally, because if one is stronger than the other, it will likely lead to some form of compensation in form which may lead to less efficient performance, pain and/or injury. The back and abdominal muscles are two major groups of opposing muscles and when you do pull-ups, you work them both.
Stronger Biceps
Biceps are a relatively tiny muscle and are probably not worth spending precious exercise time doing isolation exercises such as bicep curls; but, you can work your biceps, intensely, when you do pull-ups. This is also very significant because there aren’t many other calisthenics exercises that target the biceps as much.
Impressive Joint Strength
Stronger joints will improve your ability to lift, hold, throw and perform the full range of arm motion with relative ease. This could be an added advantage for people who play sports like wrestling, rugby or football (American), but even for the average Joe, having stronger upper body joints could have a lot of application on a day to day basis.
Stronger Grip
Its not likely that you’re ever going to find yourself hanging off a cliff or something of that sort, but if you do, you’ll know you are in good hands(literally). Pull-ups will improve the strength of your grip by improving your wrist, forearm and finger strength which could come in handy in a number of ways on a daily basis.
Conclusion
The impressive over-all physique that will come with working all these different muscles in your upper body will leave you looking fit and bursting with confidence, so we strongly encourage you to start doing more pull-ups today.
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