maratoolOne Arm Chin-Up
How to do the one arm chin-up
- For this exercise, start out by placing a towel around a chin up bar.
- Grab the chin-up bar with your palm facing you. One hand will be grabbing the chin-up bar and the other will be grabbing the towel.
- Bring your torso back around 30 degrees or so while creating a curvature on your lower back and sticking your chest out. This is your starting position.v
- Pull your torso up until the bar touches your upper chest by drawing the shoulders and the upper arms down and back. Exhale as you perform this portion of the movement. Tip: Concentrate on squeezing the back muscles once you reach the full contracted position. The upper torso should remain stationary as it moves through space and only the arms should move. The forearms should do no other work other than hold the bar.
- After a second on the contracted position, start to inhale and slowly lower your torso back to the starting position when your arms are fully extended and the lats are fully stretched.
- Repeat this motion for the prescribed amount of repetitions.
- Switch arms and repeat the movement.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rhomboids and mid-trapezius, which draw the shoulder blades together and back down the ribcage.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso.
Every exercise for:Middle backBicepsForearmsLats
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
These train the middle back too, using equipment this one does not:
- One-Arm Dumbbell Rowdumbbell
- One-Arm Kettlebell Rowkettlebell
- One-Arm Long Bar Rowbarbell
- Rhomboids-SMRfoam roll
- Seated Cable Rowscable
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 37 middle back exercises in this database, 3 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.