pull-up=chin-up (?)

[GeneD]

There are two main variations of exercise where a person pulls himself up using a pull-up bar: using an underhand grasp and an overhand one. The dictionaries seem to call them both either chin-up or pull-up making no difference between the two variations. In the book I'm reading now there seems to be no difference too; both called pull-ups. But in another book the author made a clear distinction between them: the one with underhand grasp is called a chin-up, while the other is a pull-up (like in the picture here: https://res-5.cloudinary.com/rubber...a/wysiwyg/blog_images/pullupchinup-image1.jpg)

To me, it looks as if there are simply two ways of naming those exercises. There are those who use one name (either pull-up or chin-up) for both exercises, and there are those who think that pull-ups and chin-ups are different exercises. What do you think of this? What do you call them?

 

[jutfrank]

It's understandable that anyone who's really into doing them is going to have different words to refer to the two different variations.

I don't—I call both variations 'pull-ups'. But then, the last time I even thought about doing one was about five years ago. And it was only one.

 

[probus]

Pull-ups are BrE and chin-ups AmE. To me it makes no difference how the hand are positioned, although I seem to recall they were a bit easier with the palms towards the face. It was 50 years ago that I last tried to do a chin-up so please forgive me if my memory is faulty.

 

[GeneD]

I seem to recall they were a bit easier with the palms towards the face.

They surely are.

 

[GoesStation]

Pull-ups are BrE and chin-ups AmE.

They were different exercises to this American when I was a boy, one with the palms forward, the other with them back. I can't remember which was which.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

To me they're all chin-ups. But ask someone who does them!

 

[Tarheel]

I had only heard of pullups before.

How do you grab ahold of the bar with the palms facing you? Isn't it harder that way?

 

[probus]

GeneD evidently agrees that rhey are easier with the palms facing you. That would put your thumbs on the outward sides. If your palms were facing away from you your thumbs would be in the middle, between your two hands.

 

[GoesStation]

GeneD evidently agrees that rhey are easier with the palms facing you. That would put your thumbs on the outward sides. If your palms were facing away from you your thumbs would be in the middle, between your two hands.

That's right. It's a much more difficult exercise that way around.

These were about the only exercises I aced in high school. I was tiny, so I was lifting far less weight than my more robustly-built classmates.