Wide-Grip Rear Pull-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 noticeably wider than your shoulders.
- Set your shoulders down away from your ears.
- Tip your chin down slightly and pull yourself up, bringing the back of your neck toward the bar.
- Go only as far as the shoulders allow with the torso upright.
- Stop where the position holds rather than forcing the neck to the bar.
- Lower under control all the way to a straight hang.
Common mistakes
- Pulling the neck to the bar regardless of what the shoulders allow. A wide grip behind the head is full abduction and external rotation together, and the bottom of that range is set by the shoulder.
- Craning the head forward to make room. If the head has to move, the body is travelling further than the shoulders can follow.
- Choosing it over a front pull-up for the lats. The latissimus dorsi shortens the same way on either side of the head; what changes is the position the shoulder does it in.
- Adding weight to it. Of all the pull-up variations this is the one where the shoulder is least supported, and load is the wrong variable to add first.