Side-to-Side Chin-Up
Trains the Lats.
- Equipment
- A pull-up bar
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Hang from a pull-up bar with an overhand grip wider than your shoulders.
- Set your shoulders down away from your ears.
- Pull up while shifting your weight toward one hand, so that shoulder finishes near its hand.
- Lower under control back to centre.
- Pull up again shifting toward the other hand.
- Alternate sides, keeping the hips square throughout.
Common mistakes
- Letting the hips swing across with the shoulders. The shift comes from the upper body; swinging the legs turns it into a kip with a lean.
- Going all the way to one hand. Most of the weight moves across, not all of it — arriving directly under one hand puts a lot of load on a shoulder in a position it is not braced for.
- Doing it before a clean strict pull-up. One arm takes most of the load on each repetition, which is a step beyond bodyweight on two.
- Alternating too quickly. Each repetition starts from a settled hang; a rhythm carries the swing into the next one.