Chin-ups and pull-ups can often give people some discomfort in their wrists and shoulders. Especially when you begin adding weight with a weight belt or weighted vest to help increase the resistance as you get stronger in these important vertical pulling exercises. To avoid any potential discomfort, consider the following to help alleviate any wrist pain!
PULL YOUR CHEST TOWARDS THE BAR
Instead of aiming to just get your chin up over the bar, focus instead on bringing your chest towards the bar. When you try to reach your chin above the bar, people tend to overextend their neck and roll their shoulders forward, which can cause some discomfort and more wear and tear on the shoulders over time.
CHANGE THE ANGLE
Instead of performing your chin-ups on a regular straight bar, try using a bar where the thumb side of your hand can be angled slightly inwards toward your body. This helps put less stress on your wrist as you pull upwards. Some gyms will have specially angled chin-up bars specifically for this reason; you can also do pull-ups on some sort of suspension trainer, like a TRX or some gymnastic rings, where you can pull up with a more natural wrist angle.
TRY A WIDE, NEUTRAL GRIP
People with shoulder and wrist issues may do better with sticking to a wide, neutral grip for their pull-ups. A neutral grip means the palms of your hands are facing inwards toward each other. This movement pattern creates much less stress on the shoulders and wrists compared to other vertical pulling variations. If your gym does not have a set of wide, neutral-grip bars you can always set up a pair of gymnastics rings on a standard straight bar extra wide and perform your pull-ups in this manner.