There are some great benefits to doing chin-ups. If you haven’t tried to do them, I suggest you try them and incorporate them into your routine. You can use a strength band to assist you like in the video below. Some of the benefits of chin-ups and pull ups are:

Improved strength to weight ratio

If you can lift your own body weight it means that you carry an efficient bodyweight for your strength. Low body fat is a prerequisite for this challenge as well as strong back muscles and a good grip. I have yet to meet a woman who could do chin ups or pull-ups that wasn’t lean enough to show some abdominal definition. If you are not there yet they make strength bands that you can buy to assist you. Getting “toned” is a function of getting leaner and stronger. As you get leaner and stronger your chin ups and pull ups will improve.

Balancing effect

Chin-ups will strengthen the back. Strengthening the muscles in your back will also have the effect of pulling your shoulders back and greatly improving your posture. Commonly the posture of people is compromised because of sitting too much, carrying extra weight in the chest area, carrying children or general imbalance from doing too much in the frontal plane. This slouchy posture not only looks bad but also causes shoulder problems like frozen shoulder. Increasing your strength in “pulling” movements will correct this imbalance and give you a great looking back!

Quiktrain core exercise

Since chin-ups involve so much effort doing few sets of chin-ups a week is enough to maintain a great deal of strength and tone of the upper body without a lot of time invested. It also keeps you in check about your body fat as carrying extra body fat will make it very difficult to complete this exercise. Once you get to this goal, you save a bunch of time on your workout by making it a staple and I promise, you will get better at it but it will never become easy. That is a Quiktrain exercise.

Check out the video below to see one of my clients first attempt at a chin up using band assistance.