The stretch is a tremendously important part of a complete rep, especially if building muscle is your goal.
The normal chin-up, done with a dead hang at the bottom gives you a decent stretch on the lats, however in my experience, I find that the majority of the stretch goes into the shoulder joint.
This can be a very good thing for joint health, but it diminishes the muscle-building punch of the chin-up.
By using a bench set in front of the bar, you're going to be able to use your legs to push your body backwards as you come down into the stretch position. This shifts more of the stretch tension into the lats.
You can use a flat bench or a decline bench for this...or even the seat of an incline bench, if that's what's available.
You will need a rack with a bar set on the rails, or a Smith machine, so that you can grab from a lower position (you'll need to mess around with height...for me, the bar is set around shoulder height).
Grab the bar (overhand/pronated or underhand/supinated...I find overhand to give a better stretch) and set your feet on the end of the bench.
Now do a chin-up...as you start the pull, engage your core to bring your legs up, too. This gives you the full load of your bodyweight, in addition to the stretch.
Lower and repeat.
You can also set your feet pushing on the END of the bench.
Here's the supinated/underhand version...basically the same except for grip.
Here's how it's done using the decline bench. By using the decline, it allows you to raise your feet up a bit higher (though this can be also accomplished with the flat bench by setting the bar a bit lower). It basically gives you another option to work with...the overall concept is the same.
This one is easy to set up and will really put a great stretch on your lats. You'll feel this one a day or two later...different than you would with regular chin-ups.
If you'd like to test yourself with an even more advanced pull-up variation, try the Two Vertical Bar Pull-Up. This one is amazing for building lat width.
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