Chin ups / Leg Rotations

by Chris Sherlock
(London, United Kingdom)

How to do chin ups with leg rotations

Chin ups are exercises that use the body weight for building strength and muscles. It is an exercise that may be pretty difficult for a beginner, but as you continuously practice, you will find that you will quickly progress to do several repetitions and may even be adding weights to increase the resistance and help you develop to a higher degree.

To do the chin up properly you need a chin up bar that when grasped will allow just the tip of your feet to be on the floor or that will allow you to be completely lifted off the floor. When you grasp the bar, your palms should be facing you. The other variation of this exercise is the pull up in which your palms are facing away from you.


• When you grasp the bar, your elbows must be straight
• Take a deep breath and then pull yourself up
• Keep your chest forward as if to approach the bar with your chest
• Make sure that you are looking up to the bar as you pull yourself upwards
• As you do the exercise, make sure that your elbows are pointing to the floor
• At the top of the exercise your chin should be at the bar or above it, rest and then slowly release yourself to the starting position and repeat the exercise.


Chin up exercise can be combined with a 360° leg rotation exercise. In order to do this exercise, you must be hanging on a chin up bar with your legs loosely in the starting position as in a normal chin up exercise.


• Keeping your elbows straight, and without pulling yourself up, bring your legs together and lift them up until they are pointing straight ahead in front of you
• Then rotate your legs in a circle by moving them together first to one side, then to the top and then to the starting position to make an imaginary circle
• Rotate one way (clockwise for example), and on then rotate in the other direction (counter clockwise if the first was clockwise) so as to work all the muscles of your abdomen, lower back and legs.


Variations of chin ups with leg rotations exercise


Another variation of this exercise is to perform a different form of let rotation while performing chin ups. In this second type, while you are pulling yourself up the bar, your stretched legs are making circles independently of each other, and meeting at the middle of the circles to give an imaginary figure 8.