The aim of a military pullup is to grip a horizontal bar with your hands and lift your body from a hanging position. Your chin should come over the level of the bar at the top of your pullup before you return to your starting position. This exercise will help to strengthen and tone your arms and back muscles.
Technique
Take hold of the chin up bar ensuring that your hands face away from you and that both your fingers and thumbs are wrapped firmly around the bar. When you are ready, lift your body upwards by bending your elbows and pulling them down into your sides. Lift your body until your chin is level with your hands and the bar, pause, and then reverse the action to return to your starting position.
Tips
As you pull upward, your elbows should come straight down toward the floor rather than out to the sides. It is also important that your wrists remain in a straight line with your forearms as you complete your pullup rather than trying to bend with the exertion. Ensure that your stomach muscles are pulled in, your head faces forward and your shoulders are pulled back and down throughout entire the pullup exercise. If you need to, you can cross your legs to help stabilize your body as you complete the exercise.
Variations
If you are unable to complete a full pullup, negative pullups will get your arms used to supporting your body weight and increase your strength. With the help of a spotter or a block, put yourself into the top of a pullup with your chin above the bar. You can then lower yourself toward the floor, completing the downward section of the pullup. Once you get to the bottom, hang for five seconds before releasing your grip. Increase this time as your strength improves and, when you feel ready, attempt the full pullup. As your pullups improve, try wearing weighted belts to increase the resistance your body works against.
Training
When you complete military pullups, you use your latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, serratus anterior, transverse abdominals and your obliques. Former Navy SEAL, Stew Smith, says you must practice pullups if you want to be able to do pullups. He advises you to incorporate pullup exercises in your workout program three times per week and to complete bicep curls, lat pulldowns and dumbbell rows to help strengthen the muscles used for pullups.
Member Comments