Reverse grip chinups and pullups are difficult strength training exercises for many people to complete because both exercises require you to reach up and grip a bar and then pull your own body weight up until your chin extends over the top of the bar. Both exercises are considered compound, meaning they feature movement around multiple joints and thus require a contribution from numerous muscles.
Technique Differences
The technique difference between the two exercises is hand placement. Regular pullups are completed with a wide hand placement. Your hands are positioned outside the width of your shoulders, and your palms face away from you. During chinups, your hands are in a significantly more narrow position, right at shoulder-width, and your palms face you.
Joint Movements
As you perform both regular pullups and chinups, your shoulder joint performs adduction and extension. Shoulder adduction is when your arms move toward the midline of your body. For example, if you were to flap your arms to your sides, the downward movement, as your arms move closer to your torso, is shoulder adduction. Shoulder extension is when your upper arm moves back toward your rear. For example, if you start by holding both of your arms out in front of you and then lower them to the floor, that is shoulder extension. During regular pullups, your shoulders undergo a greater degree of shoulder adduction. During chinups, however, your shoulder undergoes a lesser degree of shoulder adduction and a greater degree of shoulder extension. Also during both the chinup and pullup, your elbow joints perform flexion, or they bend against resistance.
Muscles
According to ExRx.net, a site recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine and an authorized CEU provider of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the primary muscle recruited in both pullups and chinups is the latissimus dorsi. The latissimus dorsi is the largest muscle in your back. It originates at your vertebral column and lower portion of your ribs, and then runs up toward your shoulder joint and inserts on your humerus bone. The latissimus dorsi is the primary mover for both shoulder adduction and extension. Therefore, no matter whether you complete chinups or pullups, the latissimus dorsi will be the primary muscle recruited. The difference is that you’re requiring it to either complete more adduction or extension. The primary muscle involved in elbow flexion is your biceps brachii muscle.
Ease of Exercise
According to StrongLifts.com, a site run by advanced weightlifter and founder of the 5X5 strength training program Mehdi Hadimduring, when you complete chinups and your hands are thus in a narrower position, your elbow joints must perform a greater degree of flexion. Therefore, your biceps brachii is more heavily involved in the exercise and can contribute more effectively. As a result, chinups are often significantly easier to complete than regular pullups, because of the decrease in effectiveness of the biceps brachii.
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