How to Do Assisted Chin-Ups: Muscles Worked & Proper Form

Muscles Worked in Assisted Chin-Ups

Primary muscles worked:

• Lats

Secondary muscles worked:

• Biceps
• Rear Deltoids
• Forearm Flexors
• Rotator Cuffs

How to Do Assisted Chin-Ups

1. Grip the bar with a supinated grip (palms facing you), about shoulder-width apart. Put your feet/knees on the pad and let your body weight push it down until you’re hanging with your arms extended.
2. Keep your chest up, and look up at the bar.
3. Inhale and pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar, or the bar touches your upper chest.
4. Exhale and lower yourself with control until your arms are fully extended.

Commentary

Chin-ups train both your lats and arm flexors effectively. With a supinated grip like in this exercise, you make it possible to focus even more on your arm flexors, if you want to.

Assisted chin-ups are a good alternative if the chin-up is too heavy or if you want to be able to do more reps without adding too much workload.

Many people are slightly stronger in this variation than in regular pull-ups (with a pronated grip), which makes this a good step on the way, or entry-level exercise, for you who are training to do your first pull-up.