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Just wanted to give a shout out to one of our GymPaws® fans who posted this video via Instagram!  You go girl!  

GymPaws Leather Lifting Grips aren’t just for weight lifting!  Tons of fans think that they are the best workout gloves for pull ups too!

We’re a fan of pull ups.  They’re one of the best upper body exercises you can do, and while our fan here makes them look easy – they can take some practice to master.

The Classic Over Hand Grip Pull Up

1. With a shoulder width grip, grasp the pull up bar with an over hand grip.

2. Squeezing the shoulder blades together, pull yourself up to the bar until your chin is inline with or just over the top of the bar.

3. Return to starting position.

While this description sounds simple enough there are a couple of more advanced techniques that make this classic pull up more challenging.

1. Jumping up to get the bar.  As you see in the demo video above jumping to the bar requires that you start the movement immediately and with explosive power. If your starting position were from a box or bench, you’d be starting the movement from a static position and the first part of the exercise would be the negative or downward phase.

2. Straight arm / hanging position.  Doing a pull up from a straight arm hanging position is more challenging and engages more of the larger back muscles.  In order to perform a pull up from a straight arm hanging position, you must first be comfortable hanging!  Any pull up requires that you develop a strong grip – after all you’re lifting almost your entire body weight with your hands.  Like our fan above, you may find that a good pair of pull up gloves will help you find a more comfortable grip when you’re ready to hit the pull up bar!

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