One Arm Chin-Up

One Arm Chin-Up is a compound strength exercise using other that trains the middle back.

Open in MyoAmigo →

StrengthOtherExpertCompoundPull

Primary muscles: Middle Back

Secondary muscles: Biceps, Forearms, Lats

How to do it

  1. For this exercise, start out by placing a towel around a chin up bar.
  2. Grab the chin-up bar with your palm facing you. One hand will be grabbing the chin-up bar and the other will be grabbing the towel.
  3. Bring your torso back around 30 degrees or so while creating a curvature on your lower back and sticking your chest out. This is your starting position.v
  4. Pull your torso up until the bar touches your upper chest by drawing the shoulders and the upper arms down and back. Exhale as you perform this portion of the movement. Tip: Concentrate on squeezing the back muscles once you reach the full contracted position. The upper torso should remain stationary as it moves through space and only the arms should move. The forearms should do no other work other than hold the bar.
  5. After a second on the contracted position, start to inhale and slowly lower your torso back to the starting position when your arms are fully extended and the lats are fully stretched.
  6. Repeat this motion for the prescribed amount of repetitions.
  7. Switch arms and repeat the movement.

Track it with MyoAmigo

MyoAmigo pre-fills every set of the One Arm Chin-Up from last time, charts your estimated 1RM trend so you can see strength move without testing a true max, and flags a stall with a concrete fix. It also credits this work toward your weekly Middle Back volume on the MyoMap heatmap. New to the movement? Start with picking a working weight and progressive overload.

Related Middle Back exercises

Kettlebells

Alternating Kettlebell Row

Kettlebells

Alternating Renegade Row

Barbell

Bent Over Barbell Row

Barbell

Bent Over One-Arm Long Bar Row

Barbell

Bent Over Two-Arm Long Bar Row

Dumbbell

Bent Over Two-Dumbbell Row

Dumbbell

Bent Over Two-Dumbbell Row With Palms In

Other

Bodyweight Mid Row

Dumbbell

Dumbbell Incline Row

← All exercises · Browse by muscle

iPhone · Apple Watch · Web · out now

Meet your new
training amigo.

MyoAmigo is on the App Store — free to log, sync, and keep your full history forever. Prefer the browser? Train on the web →