Chin-Up (Wide Grip)
What Is the Chin-Up (Wide Grip)?
Chin-Up (Wide Grip) is a compound exercise that primarily targets the back, chiefly the latissimus dorsi, and also engages the biceps, the rear shoulders and the muscles between the shoulder blades. It is an intermediate-level movement: you hang from a bar with an underhand grip, palms facing you and hands set well outside your shoulders, then pull until your chin reaches the bar.
It sits between two more common exercises. The standard Chin-Up uses the same palms-up grip at about shoulder width, and the Pull-Up (Wide Grip) uses the same wide hand position with the palms facing away. Moving the hands out sends the elbows down and out to the sides instead of down in front of you and shortens the pull a little, while the underhand grip keeps the biceps working hard. The combination is mechanically awkward, so most people manage fewer reps here than with the standard chin-up, and the shoulders, elbows and wrists all work closer to the edge of their comfortable range.
Its main use is variety in vertical pulling for people who already train chin-ups and pull-ups and want another angle to work from. It is sometimes sold as a way to build a wider back, but no grip width isolates the lats: they do most of the work in every chin-up and pull-up grip, and back size comes from training them hard and consistently over time. The wide underhand grip is an optional variation, not a requirement, and many programs use the standard chin-up, the pull-up and a neutral grip instead.
It suits lifters who can already do several strict chin-ups and pull-ups and whose shoulders and elbows are comfortable with the palms-up grip set wide. If you cannot yet do a full standard chin-up, build up with the Leg-Assisted Chin-Up, Band-Assisted Chin-Up or Negative Chin-Up first. Thinking of driving the elbows down toward the hips, rather than pulling with the hands, helps keep the back doing the work.
Muscles Worked
- Latissimus Dorsi
- Primary
- Biceps Brachii
- High
- Teres Major
- High
- Brachialis
- Medium
- Deltoid
- Medium
- Infraspinatus
- Medium
- Lower Trapezius
- Medium
- Rhomboid Major
- Medium
Instructions
- Stand under a pull-up bar and grip it underhand, palms facing you, with your hands about one and a half times shoulder width apart and your thumbs wrapped around the bar.
- Keep the bar in your palms with your wrists straight.
- Hang with your arms straight, bend your knees slightly and cross your ankles.
- Brace your core and keep your chest up so your body stays still under the bar.
- Draw your shoulder blades down away from your ears before you bend your elbows.
- Drive your elbows down toward your sides, letting them travel out to the sides, and pull your chest up toward the bar.
- Pull until your chin reaches the bar, keeping your neck neutral rather than reaching with your chin.
- Pause briefly at the top with your shoulders down.
- Lower yourself under control until your arms are fully straight.
- Repeat for the desired number of reps without swinging.
Common Mistakes
Grip too wide
Setting the hands so wide that the wrists bend and the chin can no longer reach the bar shortens the pull and stresses the shoulders and elbows without adding anything for the back.
Bending the wrists
Letting the wrists bend or twist to hold the wide palms-up grip loads the wrist and inner elbow, so keep the bar in the palm with the wrists straight.
Shrugging into the pull
Starting the rep with the shoulders up by the ears instead of first drawing the shoulder blades down shifts the load to the upper trapezius and the front of the shoulder.
Kipping or swinging
Using a leg swing or a hip snap to get over the bar takes the work away from the back and jerks the shoulders and elbows at their most stretched position.
Half reps
Stopping before the chin reaches the bar or before the arms straighten at the bottom skips part of the range and hides how much the wide grip is costing you.
Craning the neck
Reaching the chin forward to get it over the bar strains the neck and disguises an incomplete pull, so bring the chest up toward the bar instead.
Injuries
Chin-Up (Wide Grip) is a medium risk exercise when performed with proper technique. You lift your full body weight from a hang, and the wide, palms-up hand position asks more of the shoulders, elbows and wrists than a standard chin-up or pull-up grip, so it is less forgiving of a grip set too wide or of volume added too quickly.
The shoulders are the first strain point, especially the front and top of the joint when the arms are straight overhead. A motion-capture study of 11 people who regularly trained pull-ups found that both a wide overhand grip and a shoulder-width underhand grip moved the shoulder in patterns linked with impingement risk, compared with a shoulder-width overhand grip. It did not test a wide underhand grip, but this exercise combines both hand positions, so treat shoulder discomfort seriously. The elbows are the second: an underhand grip loads the inside and front of the elbow, and the wider the hands, the harder it is to keep the wrists straight, so aches along the inner elbow or the little-finger side of the wrist are common complaints. Setting the hands only as wide as you can hold with straight wrists, drawing the shoulder blades down before each pull, lowering under control instead of dropping into the hang, and adding sets and reps gradually all reduce the stress.
If the wide grip bothers your shoulders or elbows, bring your hands in to the standard Chin-Up or switch to the Neutral Grip Pull-Up, which most people find easier on the elbows. To make the movement easier, use the Leg-Assisted Chin-Up, Band-Assisted Chin-Up or Negative Chin-Up. Once you can do clean sets of 8 to 10, make it harder with a pause at the top and a slower lowering before you consider adding weight.
Stop if you feel a sharp or pinching pain in the shoulder, pain on the inside or front of the elbow that lingers after the set or builds from session to session, or numbness or tingling in the hands, and have it assessed by a qualified professional before you continue.
- Primary Focus
- Back
- Equipment
- Pull-up bar and body weight
- Modality
- Strength
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
Alternative Exercises
Other Names for the Chin-Up (Wide Grip)
The Chin-Up (Wide Grip) is also known as:
- Wide Underhand Pull-Up
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: How wide should my grip be?
About one and a half times shoulder width works for most people. Go no wider than you can hold with straight wrists: if your wrists bend, your elbows ache or your chin stops short of the bar, bring your hands in.
- Q: Is the wide grip harder than a regular chin-up?
For most people, yes. The wide palms-up position is mechanically awkward for the shoulders and wrists, so expect fewer reps than with the standard Chin-Up grip.
- Q: How is it different from a wide-grip pull-up?
The hands are just as wide, but the palms face you instead of away. That keeps the biceps more involved, but it also puts the shoulders and forearms in a position many people find less comfortable, so the Pull-Up (Wide Grip) is usually the easier wide-grip option on the joints.
- Q: Does a wide grip build a wider back?
Not on its own. The lats do most of the work at any grip width, and back size comes from training them hard and consistently over time; the wide grip is one way to vary your pulling, not a requirement for lat growth.
- Q: My elbows hurt during wide-grip chin-ups. What should I change?
Bring your hands in to shoulder width or switch to the Neutral Grip Pull-Up for a while, since a palms-in grip usually sits more comfortably on the elbows. If the inside or front of the elbow stays sore between sessions, have it assessed before you go back to the wide grip.