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Exercises on the horizontal bar can help develop a variety of muscle groups: the broadest back muscles, biceps, deltoids, abs, forearms, trapezius muscles, back and hand grip strength. In addition, exercise helps to build up the pectoral muscles. The ease of training on the horizontal bar is due to the availability of this simple simulator. If you don’t have the time or money to go to the gym, you can train at home and successfully build muscle.
During the exercises on the crossbar, the athlete uses only the weight of his body, so the probability of injury is very low if the basic precautions are observed. If you have never trained on a horizontal bar, then you are probably wondering how to learn how to do these exercises. There is nothing difficult in this, just grab the crossbar and try to pull yourself up. Be persistent, train daily, and in a few weeks you will be able to do full-fledged pull-ups.
Stock up on gloves
Prolonged exercises on the horizontal bar can lead to calluses on the hands, so it is advisable to purchase gloves. Gloves can be made of leather or other material, the most important thing is to wear them constantly during training.
Tune in for a long workout
Pull-up
When you start practicing pull-ups, remember that you will not get quick results. Be patient and just do the exercises in a disciplined manner. Along with this, observe the correct technique of execution. Grasp the crossbar, and then slowly and evenly pull yourself up. The pace of movement should be slow, without shocks.
Before proceeding to complex exercises on the crossbar, you should thoroughly master the technique of pulling up with both hands. This basic exercise should be performed correctly and fully, and only after that you can start further exercises on the horizontal bar.
Decide on the goal
Before you start training, decide what you want: to increase strength or build muscle mass? Pull-ups consist of two phases: positive and negative. The positive phase is when you pull up, and the negative phase is when you go down. To increase muscle strength and endurance, you need to slowly rise and quickly fall. So you put more emphasis on the positive phase.
Negative phase
The emphasis on the negative phase is when we quickly pull up the body and slowly lower it. In this case, the muscles gain volume. If you want to build strength and muscle mass at the same time, then you need to keep your muscles in tension during the entire movement.
Along with the emphasis on the movement phases, the type of grip is also very important. Each of the possible grips creates an additional load on a specific muscle group. Pull-ups with a straight grip (palms away from you) are used to build up the muscles of the shoulders and the broadest muscles of the back, pull-ups with a reverse grip (palms to yourself) – the muscles of the biceps.
Advanced training sessions
When simple pull-ups are already easy, you can move on to more complex exercises, as in any training system.
A good strength exercise is a more complex form of simple: hold the horizontal bar with one hand and the vertical bar with the other. The lower the vertical grip, the harder it will be to pull up. Gradually increase the number of repetitions until you reach ten to fifteen. This exercise is very effective for strengthening the back muscles.
Advanced training sessions
Another type of standard pull – ups is a pull-up with a wide grip. This is a difficult exercise and requires a lot of practice. It perfectly develops the chest muscles. Just grab the crossbar with a wide grip. When pulling up, try to touch the crossbar with your chest, while relaxing your biceps and loading your shoulder blades as much as possible. This exercise develops the muscles of the back and shoulder girdle. The trapezius muscle group and the broadest back muscles also work.
Challenging workouts
A more complex version of pull-ups is pull – ups, in which you touch the crossbar with your neck. This exercise has a high risk of injury, but if you do everything correctly, you can successfully train the widest, trapezius, round and subacute (triangular, flat) muscles. Make sure that your body is perfectly perpendicular to the ground when you move.
If you want to build up your biceps, you can use a reverse grip (palms to yourself). Ask for help with this exercise if you feel that you are not ready enough for it. When performing the movement, you should feel the load on your biceps and not pull your back. In addition, you need to go down to the end and do not sway.
To build up the triceps muscles, a pull-up with a neutral grip works perfectly. Grab the crossbar, so that one hand rests on the other. Pull up by turning your head to the left or right at the level of the bar. Try changing your hand position between sets.
Lifting the legs on the horizontal bar
Exercises on the horizontal bar are very effective for building up the muscles of the press. The abdominal muscles work if you lift your legs while holding on to the crossbar. This is quite a difficult exercise for beginners, as there is no support for the back and it is quite difficult to do it correctly from a technical point of view. That is why it is much easier to perform it near the Swedish wall, which provides support for the back.
During the movement, do not allow your legs and body to sway, as this takes away the necessary load on the press and the exercise becomes useless. The legs should be raised quickly, and lowered very slowly. Slow lifting of the legs involves the work of the lower abdominal muscles.
To strengthen the muscles of the upper abdomen, you can catch your feet on the crossbar and lift the body. The big drawback of this exercise is the difficulty of performing it, the inconvenience and the risk.
Conclusion
As you can see, the horizontal bar is a great tool for building and strengthening muscle mass. It is very easy to use and can be a great alternative to diversify your workouts. Once you gain experience, try a more complex form of pull-ups to achieve a better result. But the most important thing is to include the horizontal bar in your training program and perform the exercises technically correctly.