Upside Down Pull Ups – The Guide For Beginners

When you imagine a perfect body, your favorite athlete, actor (tress) and models come to mind. You always wonder how they tone up and sculpt those amazing muscles. Doing this takes a combination of minimalistic diet approach and very rigorous workouts.

One of these rigorous workouts that target specific parts of the body is upside down pull ups. It is unheard of by most gym enthusiasts due to the unique movements involved. However, it is very effective in the sculpting of the arms and upper back muscles.

Other effects are an increase in the size of the upper torso muscles, the back muscles and the chest. The triceps will also become firmer while the abs will get a thorough workout. As you lock yourself in position and maintain balance in an upside down position, every muscle gets fired up.

And since this workout routine is relatively unknown, we have prepared this special article on upside down pull-ups. This would give you a somehow better understanding of what it entails so that you always have an alternative means of getting that dream body shape.

What Is Upside Down Pulls Ups?

At the first mention of pull-ups, the first thing that comes to your mind is the classic pull up bars. And all one thinks of are the continuous pulling yourself up and lowering yourself down. Even the occasional hanging from tree branches and door frames must qualify as pull ups too.

Upside down pull-ups though are a variation of this decade-old technique of getting fit. By being in a downside facing position, you have more of your muscles being involved in the workout. Triceps, biceps, abs, chest muscles and even legs muscles will also get involved in the action.

If you are a beginner, you probably should not try this position without the help of a friend. And in most cases, it takes a lot of upper body strength to pull this off.

This is why you would need a friend for the first time just in case swinging into an upside down position becomes hard. Or you could slip in the process, and this is a good reason why you need someone to help you out.

To pull this position off if you are using a pull bar, hold the pull up bar as you tuck in your legs close to your stomach. Then swing your body around such that you are in an upside down position. Next up, straighten your legs between the arms until they rest on the pull-up bar.

While in this position, you can then pull yourself up and down and you will have achieved the upside down pull-ups position. This position has certain advantages such as promoting the flow of lymph inside the body.

Benefits Of Upside Down Pull Ups

When going through this strenuous workout, there are several benefits that are accrued. Otherwise, there won’t be any point in you having to spend your time in the gym or at home in such a challenging and awkward position.

1. More Upper Body Strength

Whether you do it on a pull-up bar or any other equipment, pull-ups make you work yourself against gravity. So you have to work extra hard to overcome the forces and lift yourself up.

In the end, your upper body gets more defined as biceps, shoulders, and triceps, chest among others work all in unison. Therefore, you have more sculpted and toned muscles.

2. Stronger Abs

When doing any variation of the pull-ups, your abdominal muscles are fired up immensely. As you hold up your weight in a hanging position, your abs became more strengthened and defined as they tighten to absorb the strain.

3. Better grip strength

The success of going through a pull-up session depends on your ability to keep holding onto the bar as you strain yourself more. The more you keep hold, the better your grip becomes.

This becomes useful if you do tasks that require you to have better grip.

4. Increased Blood And Body Fluid Circulation

When you hang upside down and perform pull-ups, more fluids such as blood is then able to flow to the upper body at a faster rate. Gravitational pull is responsible for this increased flow rate. However, this should be done within certain time durations.

Excess fluids in the brain can be calamitous too, so you need to time well the duration you stay in an upside down position.

5. Aids In Spine Decompression

After a day of heavy lifting or doing any hard work, or was in an awkward posture, your spine might become more compressed. This occurs from the elimination of the spaces between the vertebrae of the spine.

Upside down pull-ups work to reintroduce these spaces since you are in an inverted position. The pressure that had accumulated is therefore relieved. This is what is called spine decompression.

6. More fats and calories are burnt

When compared to other routine workout regimes, the upside down pull-ups leads you to burn more fats as well as calories. The high number of muscle groups helps facilitate this fats elimination.

In return, your body becomes leaner and more toned. It is also a good way of shedding off that extra weight.

7. Do Not Need More Equipment To Workout

When you are on a tight budget but still need to work out, setting up a pull-up bar will not cost you much. We recognize that at some point you might need the more expensive machines, but why don’t you use this for starters?

To set it up, all you will need is a very sturdy bar from which you can hang onto. The emphasis here is on sturdy. The bar snapping when you are on it will not be very funny.

8. Better immunity

Being inverted has been proved to facilitate the flow rate of lymph. It is this system that is responsible for transporting impurities out of the bloodstream. Your body is therefore cleansed faster for an improved immune system.

Other Variation of Pull Ups

We know that you love to have various options to choose from when working out. In fact, this makes your sessions even more interesting. Besides the sort of challenging upside down pull-ups, here are others you can try out.

• Weighted Pull Ups

Here, you can add some weight to yourself to increase the resistance to your workouts. You could wear a weighted belt, vest or use a kettlebell.

• L Pull-ups

Just as the name suggests, you hold yourself in an L position and lift yourself up and down. Most of the muscle groups in your body are involved, if not all of them.

• Hanging Monkey

This exercise tests how long you can stay hanging on the pull-up bar with one arm. Each day, you can increase the amount of time you spend hanging on the bar.

• Negative Lift

For more intense training, you can vary the speeds of your lift and drops. Lift yourself faster and then slow down the dropping speed.

Here are some of the other variations that you can choose from.

Conclusion

When done in moderation, upside down pull-ups can be of great benefits to you. Emphasis is on moderation and doing pull-ups with a partner if you are a beginner. Do not always overstay in this position of workout for too long.

If you do everything that has been said in this article then the upper body strength, better grip, improved immune system, fats burning, the well-toned body that you have been dreaming of will be achieved in no time.

To make your workouts more dynamic, there are also other variations of these pull-ups that you can incorporate into your sessions.