Warm-up exercises are useful at the start of a workout to get the muscles warm and loose, preparing your body for more intensive exercise. In many cases, a warm-up routine is as simple as a lower-intensity version of your primary exercise. Instead of starting immediately with pullups, first do warm-ups that work the same muscle groups you will need for the exercise.
Warm-ups: Why and How
Skipping a warm-up before physical activity can leave your body unprepared for the extra exertion, leading to muscle strains or more serious injuries. An effective warm-up uses large muscle groups, getting your whole body primed for activity. Once you've worked major muscles, you can continue the warm-up with exercises that focus on specific, smaller muscles useful to your particular exercise. Pullups provide a well-rounded workout for the upper body, making it even more important that your warm-up routine work a range of upper-body muscles, including the biceps, rhomboids, trapezius, oblique muscles and core. A more specialized warm-up will focus on the latissimus dorsi, or the large back muscles.
Different Workouts, Different Warm-ups
Select a warm-up based on the type of workout you have planned, keeping to the same basic type of activity. For example, before running, brisk walking is an ideal warm-up. Before doing pullups, move your muscles through the same movements you will use for the exercise, but without any external resistance. To step up your warm-up and focus on the latissimus dorsi, use a lat pull-down machine, which offers a similar movement to a pullup, except that you pull downward on an overhead bar instead of pulling yourself up. Instead of lifting your entire body weight, set the machine to a lesser weight.
Making Pullups Count
When done correctly, warm-up activities can dramatically improve overall performance. According to findings published in Sports Medicine Australia in 2007, a trial of rugby athletes showed significant improvement in sprinting following warm-ups. To make your pullups most effective, attend to your form during your warm-ups and during the exercise itself. When doing a pullup, minimize the time you spend hanging from the bar because the static hanging will sap of you the strength to perform more pullups. Avoid kicking your legs or swinging your body, neither of which will aid in the pullup, but will instead expend more energy. Keep your movement as fluid as possible, without any jerky starts or stops.
Additional Benefits
When done safely, with plenty of warm-up time, pullups can build exceptional value into your strength-training routine. In the March 2003 "Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport" journal, a trial of college-age female athletes evidenced dramatic improvement of strength-to-mass ratio, strength-to-fat-free-mass ratio and maximum strength after a regular pullup routine. Pullups also improve your strength for grappling and gripping, useful for many combat sports or for rock climbing. For those dedicated to weight training, regular pullups offer a corollary for bench press exercises, keeping the muscles of the shoulders and arms well-balanced.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Aerobic exercise: How to Warm Up and Cool Down
- ACE Fitness: Pull-ups
- "Sports Medicine Australia"; Warm Up or Stretch as Preparation for Sprint Performance?; M Stewart, et al; December 2007
- The President's Challenge: Pull-ups
- "Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport"; Training College-Age Women to Perform the Pull-Up Exercise; SP Flanagan; March 2003
- "Strong Lifts"; How To Do Pull-ups and Chin-ups With Proper Technique; October 2007
Member Comments