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Bodyweight Pullups versus Chinups

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my understanding is that pull-ups develop your lats and upper back more. chin-ups have more added assistance of biceps.

it also seems to me that the pull up is a more natural climbing movement as you wouldn't (unless your climbing a tree) be able to grab anything underhand.
i can also do twice the amount of chin ups as i can pull ups. so for hypertrophy i chinups would be better for volume

But what about a mixed grip? one hand in the chinup position and the other in a pullup position?
 
If you need to pull yourself up and over things, a pullup, otherwise whatever you like. Bicep can help more in chin-up grip. Don't forget about other variations like a neutral grip and using rings instead of a bar. For general fitness purposes, mixing them all is good, IMHO.

-S-
 
my understanding is that pull-ups develop your lats and upper back more. chin-ups have more added assistance of biceps.
A bit more bicep and chest for the chin-up, a bit more lower traps for the pull-up. Otherwise no differences worth mentioning.
Pull Up vs. Chin Up: A Comparison and Analysis

You usually can perform more pull-ups than chin-ups because during chin-ups you have a better angle/lever, that's all.
Also there's no difference in muscle activation or amount of muscles worked when changing grip width, again it's just a question of better levers why one version is harder than another.

Do ring pull-ups and you don't have to mix grip versions all the time.
 
It's one of those great movements like the one arm pushup - you only have to spend a minute or so on them a day and you get big gains in strength. I'm asking in part because I fit all my supplemental exercises around S&S and the S&S movements more closely resemble overgrip pullups, therefore I'm afraid of over taxing my overgrip. As a youth I only did chinups, chinup variations and walking outside my judo and kendo. While I don't think they were effective in developing what you might term "fighting strength" they did however give me an excellent appearance and good upper body physical integrity and resilience to at least get through all the fights if not to necessarily dominate them (S&S on the other hand gives me the power to dominate fights.)

As I'm finding myself now that I'm insanely strong from all this SF work I've done over the past 15 months sliding back into Judo and (since it's the popular thing nowadays) BJJ too as both a fighter and as a coach, I'm looking to reactivate some of the good stuff I did as a youth. Gee, I never realized how "right" I was about a lot of fitness things as a youth. I just did stuff by feel and it was obviously a half decent programme I had concocted, if not optimal by any means.

It doesn't suck to have biceps. :)

One major goal I have is Sinister, and I intend to post proof of it here on these forums when I attain it.
 
It depends upon what your goals are. For my purposes pull-ups fit the bill better than chin-ups. I agree that if one is looking for balance then doing both might be of value (assuming one has the bandwidth in their training programme)
Also I concur that rings work great (for both)
 
It depends upon what your goals are. For my purposes pull-ups fit the bill better than chin-ups. I agree that if one is looking for balance then doing both might be of value (assuming one has the bandwidth in their training programme)
Also I concur that rings work great (for both)
I noticed while experimenting with things that overgrip pullups helped me develop the strength to go from 1h 32kg swings to 1h 40kg swings. I think the overgrip pullups are probably more "real world" functional strength, but maybe the good point for the undergrip chinups is that they don't overuse the muscles we're using in judo or physical labour but rather build up supplemental ones.
 
For general fitness purposes, mixing them all is good, IMHO.
Good advice. Maybe 1 set of Pull-ups is more useful than 1 set of Chin-up. But 1 set of Pull-ups and Chin-ups is better than 2 sets of either.

Maybe think of them like the Sumo/Conventional Deadlift in the sense that maybe you prefer one... but it's always a good idea to do some work with the other one.
 
If you need to pull yourself up and over things, a pullup, otherwise whatever you like. Bicep can help more in chin-up grip. Don't forget about other variations like a neutral grip and using rings instead of a bar. For general fitness purposes, mixing them all is good, IMHO.

-S-

I agree with Steve, mix them up (chins, pull ups, neutral grip, mixed grip, commando style etc). Keeps things interesting and helps avoid overuse injuries.

Same but different as Pavel would say!
 
Chin-ups work more of your anterior/front of your body, pull-ups work more of the posterior of your upper body. In my training for Iron Maiden, I found it beneficial to work weighted Chins because I could pull more weight in a chin and this helped my neural drive. Like Steve said, I agree both chins and pull-ups have a place in your training. I will caution that you really have to watch the volume more in Chin ups than in pull-ups in my experience. Chins are harder on the elbows.
 
Chin-ups work more of your anterior/front of your body, pull-ups work more of the posterior of your upper body. In my training for Iron Maiden, I found it beneficial to work weighted Chins because I could pull more weight in a chin and this helped my neural drive. Like Steve said, I agree both chins and pull-ups have a place in your training. I will caution that you really have to watch the volume more in Chin ups than in pull-ups in my experience. Chins are harder on the elbows.
Thank you. I think this will make me continue to give a preference to chinups over pullups, as it's the front of the body I need some more work on and the back chain is doing well with S&S.
 
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