The pull-up is one of the best exercises for working the back and upper body in general.
This version takes it a whole other level, also challenging your grip and forearms strongly.
You'll need a power rack and two Olympic bars to do this one, so might be a challenge in a crowded gym. If you're training at home and have two bars, you're golden.
Set one safety rail as high up as you can set it. Set the other about 18 inches to 2 feet below it.
Set two bars on the rails with the plate collar hooked over the rail of the bar to keep it from sliding (important).
Now load the low ends of the bars to counterbalance your bodyweight (be careful when loading and unloading the plates). You don't need much - I've got a single 25 lb plate on the ends of each bar and I weigh about 205 lbs right now doing this. The bars didn't budge.
Grip onto the fat ends of the bar facing away.
Grip as close to the bar ends as you can because your head will be close in towards the safety rail and you want to avoid it.
Now do a pull-up.
It's easy on the shoulders because it's neutral grip and by gripping on the fat, rolling ends of the bars you get GREAT grip and forearm work in addition to back and upper arm flexor work.
I found with the pinkies higher like this, it put a GREAT stretch on the lats at the bottom.
I wasn't able to go fully down into the stretch (you should) because I tweaked my shoulder a few weeks ago and I didn't want to overstretch it but even without the full stretch at the bottom, I could really feel the potential.
Pull up until your shoulders contact the bars.
I was only able to get a couple of reps each time I did this one because my forearms got pretty trashed from other stuff I was doing before it.
You can also turn and face inwards for this exercise, turning it into more of a sternum pull-up. The higher thumb position facing it makes that happen.
The do the pull-up.
If you've got the equipment and grip strength for it, I HIGHLY recommend this one.
You'll definitely need to be strong with pull-ups already and have very strong grip strength. The grip on the fat rolling bars is TOUGH.
Another excellent challenging pull-up variation is the Two Vertical Bar Pull-Up.
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