Pull Up vs. Chin Up | Which is Better?

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Topic Overview

• Form
• Safety
• Comfort
• Specificity
• Muscle Emphasis
• Range of Motion
• Difficulty
• Other Options
• My Recommendations

Pull ups and the chin ups are very similar. They work the roughly same muscles, require the same equipment, and are about the same difficulty. However, their small form differences can make one or the other the best choice for you.

In this article, I'll cover all the factors to consider when deciding whether you should be doing pull ups or chin ups. The differences are summarized in the table right below and explained in greater detail in the following sections. I'll also get into some other options at the end, like neutral grip and gymnastics rings.

Summary Table

Factor	Pull Up	Chin Up
Form	Pronated (overhand) grip, slightly wider than shoulder width	Supinated (underhand) grip, about shoulder width apart
Safety	Safe if done with proper form	Safe if done with proper form
Comfort	Can put more stress on shoulders	Can put more stress on wrists and elbows
Specificity	More applicable. Life, sports, fitness tests	Not as applicable
Muscle Emphasis	Back and brachioradialis	Back and biceps
Range of Motion	Less	More
Difficulty	Harder, can't lift as much weight.	Easier, can lift a bit more weight.

Form

A pull up is performed with a pronated grip (palms facing away from) with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart.

A chin up is performed with a supinated grip (palms facing towards you) with your hands slightly narrower than shoulder width apart.

That's it. But these slight differences change quite a few things down the line.

Safety

While both exercises are equally safe, it's important to use proper form with both of them. Of particular importance is keeping your shoulder blades retracted and depressed. What this means is you should actively try to keep them together and down.

Failing to do this is a common cause of injury because if you let your shoulders come too far up or forward, you'll be relying on your tendons and bones, rather than your muscles to hold you up. I've outlined the proper form for both exercises below.

• Set Up

  • You should be in an active dead hang (arms fully extended, shoulder blades held down and back).
  • Keep your chest up, shoulders back, abs engaged, and legs in front of your body.

• The Pull

  • Pull your chest to the bar by pulling your elbows down and in and your hands towards your shoulders.
  • The rep is complete when your chin goes above the bar.
  • Lower yourself under control back to an active dead hang.
  • Minimize any swinging before your next rep.

• Common Mistakes

  • Do not wrap your thumbs around the bar.
  • Do not cross your feet.
  • Do not arch your back excessively.
  • Do not swing or kip.
  • Do not extend your neck at the top just to get your chin over the bar.

Comfort

This is the most straightforward, as well as the most important. If either the pull up or the chin up causes you discomfort, the other one is likely the better choice for you. However, there are a few things to try so that you have to option of doing both.

Wrist Discomfort

With both exercises, wrist discomfort usually comes from trying to rotate the wrist past the limits of its flexibility. The discomfort usually only occurs at a certain point in the exercise. This is because the positioning of your elbow affects what is comfortable for your wrist and you're holding onto a fixed bar.

To demonstrate this, raise your hand above your head and pronate your wrist (turn your palm to face away from you). Now try pronating your wrist but with your elbow at your side and your hand raised up to your shoulder. You'll notice that your hand can't face out nearly as far.

Wrist discomfort from pull ups usually comes wrapping your thumb around the bar. While wrapping your thumb makes it easier to grip the bar, it pronates your wrists even more. This might be fine at the bottom of the rep, but at the top of the rep it can push the limits of most people's wrist flexibility.

The fix is simple in this case. Don't wrap your thumbs and instead use a thumbless grip. While this may be difficult for a while, it is much better for your wrists.

Wrist discomfort from chin ups usually comes from limited wrist flexibility at the bottom of the exercise. This is not quite as straightforward to fix as simply using a thumbless grip. There are a couple short term fixes, like not going all the way down, but if you truly want to do a chin up on a straight bar, you'll have to improve your flexibility.

Elbow Discomfort

With both exercises, elbow discomfort usually comes from overuse, overflexing, or too narrow of a grip.

Overuse

As with any exercise, both of these exercises can be trained too much. Pushing yourself too hard without allowing enough time for recovery is a recipe for tendonitis. Listen to your body and don't train if something truly hurts. It's much better to skip one session than to be forced to take weeks or months to recover.

Overflexing

A common mistake people make is overflexing their elbows at the top of the rep. They pull as hard as they can to get their chin over the bar and end up compressing their elbow too much. It's a relatively small joint, and compressing it too much during a near maximal contraction very likely to cause some damage.

While it's important to have a full range of motion when performing either exercise, you shouldn't have to overflex your elbows to do so. At the top of each rep, be mindful of how hard you're flexing your elbows.

Narrow Grip

Using a narrow grip, as in narrower than shoulder width, makes it more difficult to use your back muscles to pull yourself up. This makes it so your arms, and therefore elbows, are responsible for lifting more weight. This can put too much stress on them, leading to discomfort and possibly tendonitis.

Shoulder Discomfort

With both exercises, shoulder discomfort usually comes from too wide or narrow of a grip. Your grip width should be shoulder width or slightly wider. Going narrower or wider makes it harder for your back muscles to pull yourself up and puts your shoulders in a more risky position.

Going too narrow doesn't allow you to retract your shoulder blades properly. It puts them too far forward, which can put too much compression on the tendons and muscles at the front of the shoulder.

Going too wide puts your back muscles at more of a disadvantage and significantly decreases the range of motion of the both exercises. While not necessarily bad, both of these things make it much easier to use poor form and then get injured because of it.

Specificity

Specificity means that your training should match what you're training for. In the same way that a competitive powerlifter should generally train with the grip, grip width, or stance that they're going to perform in competition, you should generally train with what best matches your goals or activities.

In general, pull ups are a better match. In most scenarios where you would need to pull yourself up something, you would likely be using an overhand grip. Also, most standardized fitness tests (that I know of at least) use pull ups rather than chin ups.

That being said, most people aren't climbers and don't have a standardized fitness test to prepare for. Chin ups, while not as specific, are nearly as applicable as pull ups for most people.

Muscle Emphasis

Pull ups put more emphasis on your back and brachioradialis muscles. The brachioradialis is a forearm muscle that assists in flexing in the elbow. While not as strong as the biceps, it is used since the biceps are in a disadvantaged position.

Chin ups put more empasis on your biceps. This doesn't mean chin ups are primarily a bicep exercise. Your back is still the primary mover, the biceps are simply used more than in the pull up because they are in a more advantageous position.

In any case, the difference between to two isn't that major. Pull ups work your back slightly more, while chin ups work your biceps slightly more.

For more information, check out this study on muscle activation between the two.

Range of Motion

Range of motion is how far a joint moves through its normal range. In this case, it means how far each exercises causes the joints involved to move through their normal ranges.

In general, more range of motion for an exercise is better because the muscles involved need to do more work to move farther.

Pull ups will usually have less range of motion due to their slightly wider grip. The wider grip means you won't be hanging down as low and you also won't be able to pull yourself up as high.

Chin ups, with their slightly narrower grip, have more range of motion.

Difficulty

Both exercises require a good amount of strength. Many beginners won't be able to properly do either one. However, pull ups are harder since they don't allow the biceps to be used as effectively. This means that chin ups are slightly better for beginners as they will be able to properly perform one earlier.

For more advanced trainees, this mostly affects how many reps can be done or how much weight needs to be added. If your goal is to do as many reps or strap on as much weight as possible, chin ups will let you do that. However, if you're in a situation where you don't have access to sufficient weight, pull ups will provide a better challenge.

The difference in difficulty between the two can vary significantly depending on the person. However, most people will find chin ups to be slightly easier than pull ups. If the difference in reps is larger than a few, there are likely some technique issues that need to be fixed.

Check out our Strength Standards page to see your standards for pull ups, chin ups, and many other exercises.

Other Options

Besides pull ups and chin ups, there are a few other grip options for you to be aware of.

Neutral Grip

Neutral grip is right in the middle of the two grips. Rather than facing away or towards you, your palms will be facing eachother. This grip keeps most of the upsides of both pull ups and chin ups, while minimizing the downsides.

One of the main obstacles to using neutral grip is not having the right equipment for it. It can't really be done on a normal bar, but most gyms will have the right handles for you to do neutral grip pull ups.

Rings

Gymnastics rings take neutral grip a step further. They allow your wrists to rotate naturally throughout the rep. They also allow your grip width to change naturally throughout each rep.

Both of these go a long way in putting less strain on your wrists, elbows, and shoulders while still allowing you to work the muscles to the same degree. They are a safer alternative that is just as effective.

Final Recommendations

All my final recommendations assume that every option is comfortable for you.

I would recommend pull ups if you would like to train the most applicable movement. They have the most carryover into sports and fitness tests and a just a more naturally useful movement.

I would recommend chin ups if you would like to train with the movement that activates the most muscle. They hit the biceps, can be weighted heavier, and have a greater range of motion. They are likely the best option for gaining muscle.

However, if you have access to neutral grip bars or gymnastics rings, I would recommend using those rather than pull ups or chin ups.

They are safer for your joints, have as much muscle activation as chin ups, and are just about as applicable as pull ups.

If you're interested in getting some gymnastics rings, check out Garage Fit Gymnastic Rings - Black Rings and Straps with Numbers. I've been using rings as part of my training for years and these are the best combination of value and quality that I've found.

That's It

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