In daily exercise, to achieve the effect of fitness and shaping, people often focus on the abdomen or buttocks these parts of the training. However, a good arm and back line is also indispensable. So this article will introduce you to a few vertical pull exercises that may help you in your exercise program.
Benefits of Vertical Pull Exercises
Vertical pull exercises involve pulling weight or resistance towards your body in a vertical plane. These exercises can help strengthen your upper back, shoulders, and arms, and improve your posture. Some specific benefits of vertical pull exercises include:
- Improved posture: By strengthening your upper back muscles, vertical pull exercises can help improve your posture by pulling your shoulders back and helping you stand up tall.
- Increased upper body strength: These exercises can help build strength in your upper back, shoulders, and arms, which can improve your ability to perform everyday tasks and activities.
- Reduced risk of injury: Strong upper back muscles can help protect against injuries, such as muscle strains or sprains, by providing stability and support to your shoulders and spine.
- Improved appearance: Vertical pull exercises can help create a more toned and defined upper body, giving you a stronger, more athletic appearance.
Best Vertical Pull Exercises
1. Pull-up
Pull-ups are very beneficial to the body, the most direct effect is to strengthen the arms and back muscles. These vertical pull exercises can also enhance the coordination of the whole body. The different grip of pull-ups can also have a corresponding focus on different muscle training methods. However, because of the high demands on the human body, this exercise is not recommended for people with poor athletic ability. If you want to know why you can’t do pull-ups, this Youtube video may be a help.
How to do pull-up
- First, hold the bar with your hands slightly wider than your shoulders and your arms straight. This will better exercise the biceps and latissimus dorsi.
- Using your back, drop your shoulder blades and move your body up to your chin slightly over the bar. And crossing your feet to better maintain your body weight.
- Slowly drop your body, and control your body during the drop, so that you can better exercise your muscles. Keep your core muscles in constant force to keep your body stable, and don’t lean back during the pull-ups.
2. Lat Pulldown
A strong upper body not only makes the body look more upright and better, but also gives people a feeling of confidence, and the bench press is a very effective way to train. In addition to training the chest muscle groups, the bench press can also train the arm muscles and back muscles, so that the upper body is tighter and more upright, and make the upper body muscles more coordinated, improving bone health.
How to do Lat Pulldown
- Shoulder joint stabilization. Scapular contraction is the most basic, for training performance is very important, scapular inward contraction can reduce the use of shoulder force. It focuses on enhancing the activation of the pectoral muscles so that the pectoralis major muscle fibers are easier to force. So the better the pectoral muscle stimulation effect. On the contrary, this will make the shoulder feel bigger than the chest. And the weight will not be able to lift upwards.
- Keep wrists straight, do not bend or cock, elbow joints, wrist joints, and barbell three in a straight line, this can increase the safety of the bench press, reduce the risk of barbell slippage, and prevent excessive pressure on the wrists and forearms, which can lead to injury to the tendons and ligaments in the wrist. It is recommended to wear wrist guards to reduce the burden on the wrists when training with high weights.
- Practice inhaling during the centrifugal (when the barbell goes down) phase and exhaling during the centripetal (when the barbell is lifted) phase. It can help maintain balance and make the training more effective.
- Use the strength of the lower body. The correct bench press is not only the upper body out of power, but the core, hips, and feet also need help. And stable lower body strength to help the transmission of power.
3. High-Low Cable Row
Both high pull-down training and rope rowing are very good vertical pull exercises to find a good sense of back force. To be able to grasp this golden stage in the fitness novice period, let us together understand some simple content of rope rowing training. The action is actually a simple action of barbell rowing. The same action to increase the thickness of the back, rope rowing freedom is relatively low, and the trajectory is relatively fixed.
How to do High-Low Cable Row
- Sit on the rower and place your feet on the platform or crossbar. Make sure your knees are slightly bent and not locked.
- Lean forward with your back and V-handle in a natural parallel position.
- With your arms straight, pull back until your torso and legs are at 90 degrees. The back should be slightly bent, and the chest raised. A good extension of the latissimus dorsi should be felt when gripping the handle in front. This is the starting position of the movement.
- Keep your torso fixed and pull the handle toward your body, clenching your arms until they touch your abdomen. Exhale while doing this action. At this point should feel the back muscles contracted very tight. Hold this contraction position for a second, slowly return to the starting position and inhale.