I recently got a question on our preference of either pull-ups or chin-ups for our swimmers, and my initial response was that I like both, and it just depends on an athletes evaluation and program, as well as where they are in their season. After thinking about it more, it seemed like a good post idea because there is more that we can discuss.
The first thing that I’d ask myself in giving a swimmer one of these is do they have the range of motion to do it? We look at a few different tests of overhead a range of motion in all of our athletes and general population clients, so if we do find somebody that is limited in overhead motion, pull-ups or chin-ups might not be a good option right away. This is something that we will work towards once we're able to get them full overhead range of motion. If you do give somebody pull-ups or chin-ups without full overhead range of motion, it’s possible that they’ll get injured down the line.
In an evaluation, I’ll look at resting shoulder position to see where an athlete’s shoulders will naturally sit when standing at rest. This can be extremely important in determining what is likely needed for them to reach full range of motion during movement. But, I’ll also look at overhead motion into flexion and abduction just to see how the shoulders move. In this case, if I have a client that is sitting in a lot of shoulder depression, meaning scapulae sit lower, giving someone like that a lot of vertical pulling is likely to only make the situation worse and encourage the shoulder blades to sit lower and lower. Swimming is already a very lat-dominant sport as the athletes will use the lat muscles to pull themselves through the water. Giving them a lot of vertical pulling in combination with swimming can encourage the lats to be even more toned up and stiff which will contribute to scapular depression. In cases like this, it makes a lot more sense to remove vertical pulling for a little while and focus more on lat lengthening and inhibition exercises that put the shoulder blades in a better position to function. Shoulders that are sitting too low will have to make up for their lower sitting position during overhead movement, which poses a problem when a swimmer is trying to get their arm overhead in the catch.
Once I have an athlete getting adequate overhead range of motion to do one of these movements, the next thing I think about is injury history and sport. If somebody tends to have a lot of past shoulder injuries, as is possible with the swimming and overhead population, I may then decide that either a different vertical pulling variation is better such as a pull down where I can adjust the angle of the arm in the highest overhead position.
If I do find that they’re able to do a more advanced vertical pulling movement like a chin-up or pull-up, I’ll often choose chin-ups first. The reason behind this is for a few reasons. First, the head of the humerus (ball of the ball and socket joint) is not perfectly round; it's more oblong. This means that in certain positions, the muscles and tendons may have more or less space to move under the acromion process creating compression in that area and sometimes pain (often called impingement). So, with the palm up position in a chin-up, that may be more shoulder-friendly for a lot of people. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find an athlete who experiences shoulder pain in a pull-up but none in a chin-up. Another part of it is that chin-ups allow you to move more weight because you’re getting more assistance from your biceps as they’re in a stronger position versus the pronated grip that you would have them pull ups. That is why pull ups are harder to do than chin ups. It’s likely, then, that you’ll reach your first bodyweight chin-up sooner than the pull-up, and motivation for athletes and clients is something I always want to foster. Lastly, the lat is an internal rotator of the shoulder. Just look at any swimmer and you'll notice they tend to have rounder shoulders and at rest, their palms face behind them. This reason, along with the pecs being overdeveloped, is why this is so common. So, I'll choose to put the arms in more of an externally rotated position, like in chin-ups, more of the time.
I will often pick pull-ups as a better choice when our athletes are later in the season. I will likely do them for one or two programs because it’s a little bit more specific to the sport in which case I would need that pronated (palms down) position to swim. That’s generally how you would progress a program as you get closer to a sport, starting general and moving toward the specifics of what the athlete will have to do. I would want the program a swimmer is doing in the gym to not necessarily replicate the movements completed in a sport (as that can lead to overuse injuries and technique issues), but at least be a little bit more specific to what is needed in the pool.