Pull-ups are a fundamental upper body exercise. They target multiple muscle groups in your upper body, including your lats and biceps. However, if you don't have a pull-up bar or if you don't have the upper body strength to do a pull-up, other exercises can target the same muscle groups.
Muscles Worked
Pull-ups target the muscles of your back and arms. Your latissimus dorsi muscles, the large muscles that run down your back on either side of your spine, are the primary movers during a pull-up. Other muscles assist the lats, including your biceps, traps, rhomboids and other small muscles in your upper back.
Lat Pull-down
The lat pull-down mimics a pull-up except you pull the bar down toward you instead of lifting yourself up toward the bar. The lat pull-down exercise allows you to practice a pull-up using less resistance than your body weight. Gradually build up your strength on the lat pull down until you can perform a pull-up.
You use a lat bar for this exercise -- a long, straight bar with the end grips angled down slightly. Use a wide grip, narrow grip or reverse grip.
Cable Pull-down with Stirrups
You do this exercise on a cable machine with two high pulleys. Sit in the middle and grab a handle in each hand. This is the same movement pattern as a pull-up except it allows a larger range of motion. Your hands start out wide at the top of the motion and come in closer together at the bottom of the movement. Your hands aren't locked into the limited grip options on a lat bar. You can also perform one-arm pull-downs with the stirrup handles.
Rows
A row follows a different movement pattern than a pull-up, but it works the same muscle groups. You can do a seated row with a cable machine or a bent-over row with free weights. For either version, you pull the weight into your upper abdominals by squeezing your back muscles. You can also perform a modified pull-up on a low bar, one that is about waist-high. Slide under the bar and pull yourself up until your chest almost touches the bar.
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