Pull-Ups...great back exercise...no further
explanation necessary.

THIS version of the pull-up takes things just a step further.
It's going to allow you target areas of your back that the
normal pull-up has a hard time hitting..specifically the
inner/lower aspect of the lats and the middle traps.

This is important for complete development and for
maximizing the muscular detail of your back muscles.

The lower/inner lats are extremely hard to target with
most exercises, yet are critical for having a full, thick,
"finished" look to your back rather than just having
lats that fade away into the sunset towards your hips.

Middle trap development is generally lacking in most
people due to the fact that these muscles are primarily
responsible for the last bit of the range of motion when
drawing the shoulder blades together...the very peak
contraction.

Most people don't ever fully engage the middle
traps on rowing movements and therefore don't
get full development.

To do this one, you will need a rack...there are no other
options here. It's 100% necessary...because what you're
going to be doing is wedging your forearms against the
vertical upright posts of the power rack as you're doing
the pull-up.

This wedging is going to allow you to add a very unique
element of tension to the pull-up...simply because in
addition to pulling up, you're also PUSHING outwards
against the uprights.

This changes the muscle activation pattern of the
exercise, allowing the inner/lower aspect of the lats
to engage strongly as well as forcing the middle-traps
to activate.

This is a TOUGH exercise...you will need to be
able to do at least 8 to 10 regular pull-ups first to
do the full bodyweight version.

First, either remove the safety rail on that side of the
rack or set it low and out of the way.

Grip the top cross-beam of the rack, out as far as you
can. Brace/wedge your forearms against the vertical
posts.

You'll notice with this one that the range of motion is
not "full" simply because you do want to keep those
forearms braced throughout the exercise.

You're going to be starting about 1/4 of the way up.
Now do a pull-up...again, FORCING your forearms
outwards against the posts as you come up.



Instead of thinking "pulling" in your head as you up, I want
you to think "pushing"...in other words, try to imagine as
though you're using your forearms to PUSH your body
up rather than pull it up.



You will still, of course, be pulling up...just the change in
your mental muscle activation pattern will help you to
keep forcing your forearms outwards, which is critical.

As you come to the top, you will feel a TREMENDOUS
contraction in the inner/lower lat area as the fan-shaped
"insertion" points of the lats are really forced to activate
fully (possibly for the first time ever!).

Pull/push yourself up as high as you possibly can and
hold the contraction at the top for a second or two.

Now lower yourself down under control, making sure you
only come down as far as you can go without letting the
forearms come off the rack uprights. We want to keep
exerting continuous outwards pushing tension for the
entire duration of the exercise here.

If you're not strong enough for the full version...

You can use the safety rail of the rack to set your feet on
and do self-spotter pull-ups. Use leg power to help get
your body up to perform the exercise.



This works GREAT if you're not quite strong enough for
full bodyweight or used as a drop-set, after you've
finished your set of full bodyweight pull-ups.

Bottom line, this is a TOUGH exercise that will really
challenge your back in ways it may NEVER have
experienced before.

If your back training needs a shake-up, you'll get a very
unique application of tension with this exercise...it's
going to target your back in a whole new way!

If you'd like to see the full video of this exercise in
action, I've got it posted to my YouTube channel here.

Enjoy!

And if you'd like even MORE bodyweight exercises like
this one, definitely check out my book "The Best Back Exercises You've Never Heard Of!"

Nick Nilsson
The "Mad Scientist of Muscle"