No form of weightlifting stunts your growth. Chinups are an exercise that can strengthen your back, improve your posture, and strengthen your shoulders and arms. Chinups will specifically develop strength for climbers or add muscle if you are looking to improve your physique. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.
Chinups
Chinups are performed by holding onto a bar over your head with your hands placed wider than your shoulders. Pull yourself up smoothly until your chin is over the bar, and lower yourself slowly. Do not drop out of the bottom of the repetition, this puts far more strain on your shoulder joint than it can comfortably tolerate. When you get stronger, you can try touching your upper chest or sternum to the bar. You can change grips from palms facing toward you to palms facing away as you wish. You can move your hands closer or wider for a better stretch.
Effectiveness of Chinups
Chinups work the widest muscles of your back, the latissimus dorsi, as well as your posterior deltoids, or the muscles of the back of the shoulder. Chinups also work your biceps and forearms, making them an exceptional exercise for developing upper-body power. Many of the small muscles underneath the shoulders and in the middle of the back are worked during chinups, so if you develop strength on this exercise, the muscles that stabilize your upper back will help maintain proper posture.
Performance
You can perform multiple sets of any number of chinups, and at first simply try to do as many as you can. When you can do 10 or more, you can add weight by holding a dumbbell between your feet. Another method of adding weight is to tie a plate or dumbbell to a belt around your waist. This method allows more weight to be used. For extra intensity you can perform your first set weighted, then simply drop the weight and keep going.
Height
Height and weight are factors when performing chinups. A taller person will have farther to pull themselves, and a heavier person will have more mass to move. The combination of the two make far more work of the exercise, so a smaller person will have an easier time when performing chinups. Chinups, like every other lifting exercise, are safe if performed properly. Weightlifting has one of the lowest injury rates of all sports, and there is no evidence that any sort of lifting will stunt your growth.
References
- "British Journal of Sports Medicine"; Diagnosis and Management of Superior Labrum Anterior Posterior Lesions in Overhead Athletes; G.D Abrams et al., December 2010
- "Dynamic Medicine"; Variations in Muscle Activation Levels During Traditional Latissimus Dorsi Weight Training Exercises: an Experimental Study; George J. Lehman, et al., June 2004
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Surface Electromyographic Activation Patterns and Elbow Joint Motion During a Pull-up, Chin-up, or Perfect-pullup™ Rotational Exercise; J. W. Youdas, et al., December 2010
- "Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness"; Chin-up Strength Tests: Does Stature Matter?; R. J. Sekerak, et al., March 2008
- "European Journal of Applied Physiology"; Movement Performance and Body Size: the Relationship for Different Groups of Tests; G. Markovic, et al., June 2002
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Relative Safety of Weightlifting and Weight Training; B.P Hamill; February 1994
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