Behind-the-Neck Pull-Ups

Pull-ups are traditionally performed with your body pulled up in front the bar to work your back muscles. However, you can also do this exercise pulling your body up behind the bar. This variation can be beneficial for targeting your muscles in a different way, but it also poses some risks that are not found with regular pull-ups.

  1. Execution

    • To perform a behind-the-neck pull-up, start by hanging from the pull-up bar with your arms extended. Grab the bar using an overhand grip a little more than shoulder-width apart. Put your thumbs around the bar to ensure a tight grip. Bend your elbows to pull your body upwards until the back of your neck is behind the bar, meaning on the other side of the bar. Then, extend your elbows to lower your body down to the start.

    Muscles Worked

    • Behind-the-neck pullups mostly target your latissimus dorsi, teres major and brachialis muscles. The latissimus dorsi is the largest of the muscles, spanning your middle to lower back. The teres major is located in the outer upper-back area. The brachialis is located underneath your biceps and also plays a role, albeit small, during the pull-up.

    Dangers

    • Unlike regular pull-ups, the behind-the-neck variations place your shoulders in an excessively externally-rotated state Try this to experience this external rotation: Bend your right arm to 90 degrees and position it by the right side of your head. Then, using your left hand, push your right forearm towards the rear. You should start to feel pain in your right shoulder. This pain is due to excessive external rotation. Although the amount of external rotation is not as extreme during behind-the-neck pull-ups as in this example, and thus you won't feel immediate pain during the exercise, the long-term execution of the movement may cause damage to your shoulders. So, you may not want to do behind-the-neck variations in every single back workout. Rather, include the exercise every couple of workouts.

    Sets and Reps

    • The behind-the-neck pull-up is a challenging movement, so unless you are advanced, you should only use your body weight. Aim for at least six repetitions per set and try to build up to 15 reps during each set. Do three sets of this exercise when you choose to include it in your back workouts. Once you build up to doing 15 reps per set, then you can try positioning a dumbbell between your feet to add resistance to the movement. You can also wear a weight belt with a weight attached to it instead of a dumbbell.