What about pullups?

Chin ups are a core part of the basic Starting Strength programme. Though they are classed as an ancillary lift in the blue book, they are really on par with the other main lifts for strength development in my opinion. Whenever the topic of chins comes up there is always the inevitable question, “what about pullups?”. Well, what about them? Why do I prefer the chin up to the pull up as a general strength training tool?

When evaluating the usefulness of exercises for general strength training, we must consider three criteria. To get as strong as possible we want to use exercises that incorporate the most amount of muscle mass, over the longest effective range of motion, in order to lift the most weight possible.

With this in mind the answer becomes obvious. The chin up uses an underhand grip, thereby incorporating much more biceps involvement into the movement. This means that chins use more muscle mass than pull up and as a result allow you to lift more weight.

This fact is not contested by advocates for the pull up. Everyone who can do both says that chins are easier, that is because you have the added involvement of the biceps to assist the pulling.

“But Jack, doesn’t that mean the pull up is a better back exercise? Since you don’t have the biceps doing all the work?” is the usual follow up to this explanation to which I would say two things.

First, we are not interested in training muscle groups, but movement patterns. In this instance we’re training the ability to pull something towards you. The chin up allows you to do that in the strongest possible way, so is the better training tool.

Second, because the chin is the stronger movement, you can handle both more weight, and volume with it. This means you’ll be doing MORE work than you would otherwise do with pull ups, therefore producing a bigger and stronger back.