What Muscle Is The Main Muscle In Pull-ups?

Pull-up exercises uses only a bar and your bodyweight to challenge and train the muscles of your upper body. They have a high degree of difficulty because they require you to lift your own bodyweight from a hanging position using only your arms but can be included in a back and biceps workout, as these muscles are highly engage to perform the lifting motion.

Targeted Muscle in a Pull-up

Many muscles work together to help you perform a pull-up, but the main muscle used are the latissimus dorsi, or the lats. The lats are a the largest muscle group in your back and the prime mover in this exercise. They originate along your spine from about mid-back all the way down to your lower back and sacrum. The muscle fibers then come together to insert into a small groove onto your humerus, or upper arm. They move your arm at the shoulder joint and help to extend, pull in and even rotate your arm.

Synergistic Muscles

Synergists are muscles that assist the main muscle in performing an exercise. There are many synergists in a pull-up. Your biceps, triceps, trapezius, serratus and even your pectorals all help in some way to perform this exercise. Because of the way your body is designed, you do not isolate just one muscle in a pull-up. It is a compound exercise that moves at both your elbow and shoulder, so these muscles work together to make it happen.

Changing the Focus

There are many variations of pull-ups. You can do wide-grip, standard, close-grip or even an under-hand grip. Changing your hand position can change the challenge to the various muscles. In a wide-grip pull-up you will focus more on your lats and less on your biceps. If you go under-hand, it is the opposite; your biceps will be working very hard to pull you up. Experiment with the different grips to find which works best for you and to add variety to your workouts.

Progression

Due to the difficulty of pull-ups you may need to start with a different exercise and build up to lifting your body weight. You can perform lat pull-downs in a seated manner and use all the same hand positions as you would in a pull-up. You can also use an assisted pull-up machine and work your way up to lifting your body weight on your own. Either of these options allows you to start with less weight and gradually increase the challenge.