Pull-up (Wide Overhand Grip)
The wide overhand grip pull-up is a fundamental bodyweight strength exercise where you hang from a bar and pull yourself up until your chin clears it. This variation places extra emphasis on the upper lats to build back width and overall upper body pulling strength.
Since pull-up performance is heavily influenced by body weight, the AI correlates your daily weight logs with your rep performance to calculate your true relative strength gains. By tracking recovery data like HRV and sleep, the app can predict when your lats and nervous system are fatigued, suggesting regressions like lat pulldowns or volume adjustments to prevent overuse injuries while ensuring progressive overload.
Form Cues
- Grasp the bar slightly wider than your shoulders with palms facing away from you
- Initiate the pull by driving your elbows down toward your hips
- Keep your chest lifted and core braced throughout the movement
- Lower yourself slowly under control until your arms are fully extended
- Don't swing your legs or use momentum to get over the bar
- Don't shrug your shoulders up toward your ears as you pull
- Don't jut your chin forward to reach the bar; clear it with your chest level
- Don't drop quickly into the bottom position; control the eccentric phase
Common Mistakes
- Performing half-reps without full arm extension
- Kipping or excessive swinging
- Rolling shoulders forward at the top of the movement
- Gripping too wide, putting stress on shoulder joints
Muscles Worked
This exercise is the gold standard for developing the latissimus dorsi, specifically targeting the upper and outer fibers to create a V-tapered look. It also heavily recruits the posterior deltoids, biceps, and forearms for grip strength, while the core muscles work isometrically to stabilize the torso.
Primary
Secondary
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