A pull-up is a variety of upper-body compound pulling exercises. The pull-up has two main grips: palms facing forward/away, and palms facing the person.
The most popular current meaning refers to a closed-chain bodyweight movement where the body is suspended by the arms, gripping something, and pulls up. As this happens, the wrists remain in neutral (straight, neither flexed nor extended) position, the elbows flex and the shoulder adducts and/or extends to bring the elbows to or sometimes behind the torso. The knees may be bent by choice or if the bar is not high enough. Bending the knees may reduce pendulum-type swinging.
A traditional pull-up relies on upper body strength with no swinging or "kipping"[1] (using a forceful initial movement of the legs in order to gain momentum). The exercise often targets the latissimus dorsi muscle in the back along with many other assisting muscles.
Pull up tests in armed forces
US military personnel conducting pull ups
Pull ups are one of the best ways to measure the upper body strength of the "pulling muscles". They are commonly used by armed forces, such as the United States Marine Corps, as a vital way to determine strength among service members.
Pull ups are also used as part of military test in places such as Singapore, where the IPPT for National-Service men is used. It is also used in the NAPFA test for male students above the age of 14.
This is determined by the amount of good form reps that can be done, commonly 20 to 25 pull ups in a row is the standard of perfect score in most of the physical condition tests and the minimum value is 3 full pull ups. This test is usually a non-timed event.
World Record
The world record for consecutive pull-ups (palms faced outwards) is 612 achieved by 70-year-old Lee
Chin-Yong of Korea on December 29, 1994. The feat took 2hr 40min to complete. [9] Other records are listed below
Muscles used
Trunk
Pull-ups primarily target the latissimus dorsi.
Arms
Pull-ups also work the brachialis and brachioradialis in the arms. These muscles are located near the elbow, and help move the forearm. The biceps brachii, or simply biceps, cross the elbow and shoulder joints and work to flex the elbow joint during the exercise. They are involved more during a Chin-up.[11] The long head of the triceps also crosses the shoulder joint and assists in shoulder adduction.
Shoulders
Pull-ups work on the teres major, a small muscle at the back of the shoulder blade. The nearby rhomboids, which connect the spine to the shoulder blade, play a part in pull-ups and related exercises. Pull-ups also work on the trapezius along the spine and shoulder, and the levator scalpulae along the side of the neck. These muscles work to elevate and depress the shoulder blade, and are sometimes called the "shrugging muscles." The deltoid, which is used in all side lifting movements, and which stabilizes the upper arm bones on the scapula, also comes into play.[12] The posterior deltoid also assists in external rotation at the top of the movement.
Abdominal muscles
The abdominal muscles stabilize your entire torso and help generate force to lift the body up. They prevent the spine from rounding to compensate strength and injury. These stabilizers include the transversus abdominus, the muscle that surrounds the spine and organs, diaphragm, and other deep muscles near the spine. The outer abdominal muscles, including the rectus abdominus and external and internal obliques, function as secondary support for the stabilizing abdominal muscles. They also help reduce body swinging.
Pelvic floor
Like the abdominal muscles, the pelvic floor muscles hold the organs up within the body cavity and stabilize the pelvis and legs during pull-ups. Without proper hip stabilization, the legs and pelvis would move around during the exercise, causing instability and decreasing one's ability to perform a pull-up well.[13]
Hands and forearms
The muscles of the forearm are also worked by holding the overall body weight, improving the strength of the fingers and the forearms muscles creating a strong isometric contraction in these muscle groups.
Source:wikipedia
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