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Pull-Ups: The Ultimate Upper Body Exercise- Thomas DeLauer

I’m all about working out, but when it comes down to it, Nutrition is key, there’s so much more on http://www.ThomasDeLauer.com

I’m going to give you the five main reasons that the pull up is the ultimate upper body exercise. See, normally, I’m doing nutritional videos, but a lot of people have been asking me to do it a lot more in a way of exercise videos and discussing a little bit more about the physiology behind working out and what you’re really trying to achieve, because my school of thought is that you’re not necessarily working out just for any static reason. You’re trying to accomplish something else. You’re trying to feel better. You’re not just trying to look better. In my opinion, the pull up is one of those exercises that doesn’t just help you look better, but it helps you to feel better. It revs up the metabolism a lot. Here’s my five reasons why it think it’s amazing.

The number one reason is the amount of muscles that it recruits, specifically in the back. Your back is a big body part. A lot of us overlook that. In the back, you’ve got the lats, which take up a lot of blood volume. Then you’ve got your rhomboids which are at the center of your back. The pull up incorporates a lot of the top of the movement, and then of course, you’re incorporating your trapezius muscles too, which are pretty large and wrap underneath your rhomboid muscles. You’re encompassing your entire back. This means you’re getting a ton of blood flow, which means that you’re going to elicit a lot more of a metabolic response after the workout.

Now the number four reasons that I think pull ups are perfect, is because you can do them almost anywhere. You can do them whether you’re at the gym, you can do them hanging from a bridge, you can do them at the park. It doesn’t matter. It’s so versatile, and if you have to use a little bit of assistance, all you have to do is have another person help you lift up the knees a little bit. It’s really something that you can incorporate anywhere, with minimal equipment, so no excuses.

Now the number three reason is it opens up the chest. It opens up that anterior portion of the chest, that chest-delt tie-in and that front delt. Now how many times have you seen people walking around with their shoulders slumped forward? You see the thing is, is a lot of us end up doing our exercises like bench presses, dumbbell presses, and things like that, where we’re constantly tightening up that chest cavity. We’re really just making it so that it’s constantly constricted and contracted. Well, we don’t want that, and when you do a pull up, you notice that not only are you incorporating your back, but if you go all the way and you really pull all the way where you should, you’re going to expand the chest, and you’re going to actually dynamically stretch out the chest so that you feel a lot better and you end up not being hunched over as much. In time, this is going to help your posture, and this is going to make it so that you eventually can do a lot more in the way of other exercises.

Now the number two reason is core involvement. It may not seem like it, but when you’re doing a pull up, you’re tightening your core a lot, and you’re tightening something called the transverse abdominis. You’re not just using the rectus abdominis, which is those stereotypical six pack abs that you always see. You’ve got a whole set of muscles underneath that six pack, and those transverse abdominis are responsible for stabilizing the core and for holding the gut in. When you’re doing pull ups, you’re really activating that a lot. Where is this going to help you? It’s going to help you when you’re sitting at your desk or when you’re standing around, or when you’re walking around, making it so that you’re actually incorporating the right muscles at the right time.

Now the number one reason that I love the pull up is because it elongates your spine and stretches the muscles. So many of us sit at desks, and we’re constantly compacting our spines. We’re constantly feeling like we’re compressed, we’re slouched, and the pull up simply stretches you out. There’s no need to go out there and buy an inversion table where you have to lay on you back and flip yourself upside down to stretch out your spine. Just simply doing some pull ups can incorporate the right kind of movement that’s going to elongate your lower back and make it feel like you’re stretched out, make it feel like you’re new again.

No need to head to the gym. Head out to the park, and start working on those pull ups, and if you can’t do one, start with an inverted bench row, where you simply hang underneath a bar and row yourself like so. I’ll see you in the next video.

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About 

Cee Harmon is the founder of Elevate Christian Network and Elevate Your Potential Magazine. He enjoys helping people improve the quality of their lives - spirit, soul, and body.
 
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