Pull-ups are a staple in most trainees muscle-building arsenal, and for good reason.
Pull-ups work almost your entire back, including your lats, traps and rhomboids as well as hitting your biceps and your rear deltoids at the back of shoulders. They'll also help improve your grip and engage your core muscles. Yep, pull-ups and chin-ups, of all varieties, are the Swiss army knife of upper body movements. Oh, and did we mention they do all of this using just your bodyweight?
But whether you're still gunning for that game-changing first rep, don't have a pull-up bar, or are simply looking for some back-building variety, we've got seven pull-up alternatives that will still help you to build those wings. All of which you can perform at home, with just your bodyweight, or with basic equipment.
But first, a quick anatomy lesson.
What Muscles Do Pull-ups Work
Pull-ups primarily target the upper body muscles, engaging:
- Latissimus dorsi (lats)
- Biceps brachii
- Biceps brachialis.
Additionally, the muscles in the shoulders, specifically the deltoids and rotator cuff muscles, are activated to stabilise and assist in the pulling motion. Pull-ups also engage the muscles of the forearm, including the brachioradialis and flexor digitorum superficialis, enhancing grip strength. The trapezius muscles in the upper back and the rhomboids between the shoulder blades also play a crucial role in stabilising the shoulders during the exercise. Research has also shown that pull-ups can be a surprisingly effective core exercise, with the rectus abdominis activating to stabilise the lower body during the movement.
All of the pull-up alternatives we've got for you below are designed to target the same muscle groups.
7 Pull-up Alternatives
Band Pulldowns
Banded pulldowns (or cable pulldowns, if you have access) are a great way to mimic the 'vertical pulling' motion of pull-ups and chin-ups. You can use thicker or thinner bands to decrease or increase the difficulty, respectively.
FORM CHECK
Take a seat on the ground beneath your band. Grip it with both hands and manoeuvre backwards until there is some tension on the band (A). Keeping your shoulders down and back, draw your elbows down towards your pockets, squeezing your shoulder blades hard at the bottom (B). Slowly return to full stretch and repeat.
Doorway towel rows
A home-based hack that allows you to to quickly add pulling movements into your bodyweight repertoire, without any extra investment. Just be sure your door is up for it first. Obviously.
FORM CHECK
Tie a knot around one end of a towel, throw it over a door and close it towards you. Grip the towel by the corners, place your feet on the bottom of the door and squat down and back, putting your weight into your hands, with your arms at full stretch (A). From this position draw your elbows back, pulling yourself upwards until your hands are touching your torso (B). Use your legs for help if necessary.
Inverted Rows on Chairs/ Boxes
Inverted rows are not just a great stepping stone to full pull-ups, they're also a movement that should be in your arsenal forever, in their own right.
FORM CHECK
Put a sturdy pole or bar across two chairs or boxes, or grip the underside of a table, walk your feet forward until you’re hanging with straight arms (A), keeping your elbows close to your body, row yourself upwards until your chest makes contact, pause here for a second (B) before lowering yourself under control back to a full hang, repeat.
Band Assisted Pull-ups
Graduating up to ‘proper’ pull-ups may require some assistance. Use a resistance band to lighten the load, making each rep slightly easier and allowing you to perform enough reps to move the needle on your goals. Again, you can use thicker or thinner bands to decrease or increase the difficulty, respectively.
FORM CHECK
Loop a resistance band over a pull-up bar and step your feet or knees into the band to support some of your body weight. Grasp the bar with an overhand grip, hands slightly over shoulder-width apart (A). Pull yourself up by flexing your elbows and pulling your shoulder blades down and back. Think of driving your elbows down into your pockets. When your chin passes the bar, pause (B) before lowering slowly to the starting position. Use a thicker or thinner band to decrease or increase the difficulty, respectively.
Eccentric/ Jumping Pull-ups
Work with your full-body weight, if only for half of the movement. The ‘eccentric’ or lowering portion of the pull-up is the part of the movement where you’re strongest — we’re going to take advantage of this to build even more strength, until you're ready to smash that first full pull-up.
Set up a box or bench beneath a bar, standing at a height that enables you to grip the bar with bent arms (A). Jump up, touching your chest to the bar (B). Each time you jump, try to hold yourself above the bar for a second or two, before slowly lowering yourself over 2-3 seconds, into a full hang. Step back onto the box and repeat.
Band Distracted Rows
Adding an additional line of resistance in the form of a resistance band can help to make the 'horizontal pull' of a row mimic the more lat-dominant 'vertical pull' of the pull-up.
FORM CHECK
Anchor a resistance band around a low point and loop the other end around your wrist or a dumbbell. Hold the dumbbell in your left arm and hinge at the hips, placing your right hand onto something sturdy (A). With a flat back and rigid core, shift your weight onto your right hand and row the right dumbbell up into your hip (B). Pause briefly, then lower the weight under control until your arm is straight. Perform your designated reps and then switch sides.
Renegade Rows
Remember the core strengthening benefits of the pull-up? A lot of these alternatives see you sacrificing these. Renegade rows, however, will set your trunk ablaze while still building that back.
FORM CHECK
Drop into a strong plank with both hands gripping dumbbells (A). Keeping your hips from rotating, shift your weight onto your left hand, row the right dumbbell towards your hip (B). Pause briefly, then lower the weight under control. Repeat on the opposite side. Continue in this fashion, alternating arms
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With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.