Chin-Up Bars: 3 Simple Full-Body Exercises You Can do at Home

The chin-up is one of the most overlooked exercises (at least by beginners) for building core, upper body, and back strength. It requires a simple piece of workout equipment – a chin-up bar, that you can place in just about any room inside your house, as long as there’s a door. I currently have two chin-up bars in my house, one in my garage gym, and one in my bedroom. They are incredibly efficient pieces of equipment that you can use in several different ways.

Obviously, you can do chin ups. Chip ups work your back and biceps while forcing your entire body to work together, which makes them an excellent all-around exercise. In order to do a chin up, you should dead hang from the chin up bar with straight elbows, and have the palms face towards you. Keep your shoulders back, chest up, and tighten your core before pulling yourself up. Ideally, you want your chest to touch the bar before you lower yourself back down. There are a few modifications you can do to chin ups, such as negatives, flex hangs, and jumping chin-ups – if you don’t have the strength to do a proper one.

Another exercise you can do is the burpee pull-up. This is a more advanced exercise that can get your heart pumping fast and work on your pull up strength. In order to perform a burpee pull up, stand in front of the bar and get down to a squatting position with your hands on the floor. Then, kick your feet back into a push-up position and do a bow up or a push-up. After doing a push-up, jump back on your feet into a squatting position then jump into the air and do a pull-up. You can adjust the difficulty of this exercise by placing the chin up bar higher.

Lastly, chin-up bars let you work out your abs. Hanging knee and leg raises are great for strengthening your core and your grip. Knee raises are the more beginner-friendly exercise that you can do to prepare your body for leg raises. In order to do a knee raise, grab the bar shoulder-width, pull your shoulders back and tighten the rest of your body into a straight line. Keep your legs together and tuck them up towards your chest. In order to do a leg raise, place yourself in the same starting position, but instead of tucking your legs towards your chest, lift them until they’re parallel to the floor. For maximum effect, hold them up for a second, then lower them down slowly.