Chin Up Alternatives: 12 Swaps for Home, Gym and Sore Elbows

The best chin up alternative depends on why you need one. If you can't do a chin up yet, use slow negatives, band-assisted chin ups and underhand inverted rows to build up to it. If you have no bar, the underhand lat pulldown is the gym swap, and at home you've got underhand band pulldowns, underhand dumbbell rows and towel door rows. If chin ups hurt your elbows or shoulders, switch to a neutral grip or gymnastic rings before you drop vertical pulling altogether. In every case, try to keep the palms-up grip, because that grip is what makes a chin up a chin up rather than a pull up.

What a chin up alternative needs to copy

A chin up is a vertical pull from a dead hang with your palms facing you. That underhand (supinated) grip matters more than most swap lists admit. In a Mayo Clinic EMG study of 25 adults, the biceps and pectoralis major were significantly more active in the chin up than the pull up, while the lower trapezius worked harder in the pull up; lat activity was high in both (Youdas et al., 2010). So the chin up is a back exercise with a strong biceps bias, and the pull up is a back exercise with a little more shoulder blade work.

That gives you three things to look for in a replacement:

• An underhand grip, to keep the biceps doing their share.
• Elbows travelling down and in towards your ribs, which is the lat's main job.
• A load you can progress, because the goal is either more reps or a heavier pull over time.

If you'd rather swap out the overhand version, our pull ups guide and lat pulldown vs pull up comparison cover that side. This page sticks to the chin up.

Quick picker

Your situation	Best swap	Kit
Can't do one yet	Negative chin ups	Bar
Can't do one yet	Band-assisted chin ups	Bar, loop band
Can't do one yet	Underhand inverted row	Low bar, rack or table
Gym, no bar free	Underhand lat pulldown	Cable stack
Home, bands only	Kneeling underhand band pulldown	Band, door anchor
Home, dumbbells	Underhand bent-over row	Dumbbells
Home, nothing	Towel door row, table row	Towel, solid door or table
Sore elbows or shoulders	Neutral-grip pull up, ring chin up	Parallel handles or rings

1. You can't do a chin up yet

This is the most common reason people search for an alternative, and the honest answer is that you don't need one. You need a progression. Swapping chin ups for something easier forever won't get you your first rep; training the parts of the movement you can already do will.

Negative chin ups

Stand on a box or jump so your chin starts above the bar with an underhand grip. Then lower yourself as slowly as you can, aiming for 3 to 5 seconds, until your arms are straight. Step back up and repeat. Muscles are stronger lowering a weight than lifting it, so you can control a descent long before you can pull up from the bottom.

Start with 3 sets of 3 to 5 reps. Once you can make every rep last 5 seconds, you're usually close to a full chin up. Our negative pull ups guide walks through the set-up; flip the grip to palms facing you and everything else is the same.

Band-assisted chin ups

Loop a thick resistance band over the bar, put one knee or foot in it and do full chin ups with the band taking some of your weight. The band helps most at the bottom, where you're weakest, and least at the top. Work in sets of 5 to 8 reps and move to a thinner band when 3 sets of 8 feel solid. The assisted pull up guide covers band choice and the machine version, which works just as well underhand.

Underhand inverted row

Set a barbell in a rack (or a Smith machine bar) at about hip height, lie underneath it, grab it palms up at shoulder width and row your chest to the bar with your body in a straight line. It's a horizontal pull rather than a vertical one, but it builds the biceps and upper back strength that chin ups need, and you can make it easier by bending your knees or raising the bar. Our inverted row guide has the full technique.

2. You don't have a bar

Plenty of people have the strength but not the kit, or the bar at the gym is always taken. These swaps keep as much of the chin up as possible.

Underhand lat pulldown (gym)

This is the closest copy. Sit at a lat pulldown with your thighs locked under the pad, take a straight bar with a shoulder-width underhand grip and pull it to your upper chest, driving your elbows down and slightly back. Control the bar all the way up until your arms are straight. It lets you pick a weight lighter than your bodyweight and add it in 2.5kg to 5kg steps, which is the one big thing a chin up can't do.

One honest caveat: in an EMG study of four pulldown grips, the overhand grip produced more lat activity than the underhand grip, and grip type made no measurable difference to biceps activity (Lusk et al., 2010). That's a single small study in 12 men, so don't overread it. It does suggest the biceps emphasis people associate with the underhand grip shows up more clearly when you're hanging from a bar under your full bodyweight. If biceps growth is the point, add a few sets of curls. Our lat pulldown guide covers set-up, and the close-grip lat pulldown is a good neutral-grip partner for it.

Kneeling underhand band pulldown (home)

Anchor a long loop band over the top of a door with a door anchor, kneel a little way back so the band is taut with your arms overhead, then grip it palms facing you and pull your hands down to your shoulders. Bands get harder as they stretch, so the bottom of the rep is the toughest part, which is the opposite of a chin up. Slow the return to make up for it. It's still the only vertical, underhand pull you can do at home without a bar. If you need bands, our best resistance bands roundup covers loop bands strong enough for this.

Underhand bent-over dumbbell row (home)

Hold a pair of dumbbells with your palms facing forwards, hinge at the hips until your torso is roughly 45 degrees to the floor and row the weights to your lower ribs, keeping your elbows close to your sides. The underhand grip brings the biceps in and the elbow path is close to the bottom half of a chin up. You can also do it one arm at a time with a hand on a bench, which lets you go heavier; our dumbbell row guide has the cues.

Towel door row and table row (no kit)

For a towel door row, wrap a strong bath towel around both handles of a solid door, stand on the side where pulling would push the door into its frame rather than open it, hold an end in each hand with palms up and lean back with your feet close to the door. Row yourself in. The closer your feet are to the door, the harder it gets. Check the handles are firmly fixed before you trust them with your weight.

A table row is the same idea with a sturdier anchor: lie under a heavy dining table, grip the edge underhand and pull your chest up. Only use a table that won't tip when you hang off one side. Both are horizontal pulls, so treat them as stopgaps; our inverted row alternative guide has more no-kit rows if these don't suit your house.

3. Chin ups hurt your elbows or shoulders

The chin up locks your forearms in full supination for every rep. Some people find that fixed twist aggravates the inside of the elbow or the front of the shoulder, especially at higher volumes. These swaps keep the vertical pull and change the hand position. If pain is sharp, gets worse each session or comes with numbness or tingling, stop and see a physiotherapist rather than working through a list of exercises.

Neutral-grip pull up

Use parallel handles (many pull up bars and power towers have them) so your palms face each other. The biceps still help, the elbows stay closer to your sides and a lot of people find it the most comfortable vertical pull there is. It's usually about as hard as a chin up.

Ring chin up

Gymnastic rings let your hands rotate as you pull. Start palms facing you at the bottom and let your hands turn wherever feels natural on the way up. That freedom takes the forced angle away from the elbow and shoulder. Rings also hang from almost any sturdy beam or bar, which makes them useful for home training.

Neutral-grip or close-grip pulldown

In the gym, use the V-handle or parallel-grip attachment on the pulldown. It lets you pull lighter than bodyweight with your hands in a neutral position, which is a good way to keep training the lats while an elbow settles down. The close-grip lat pulldown guide covers it in detail.

Half-kneeling single-arm cable pulldown

Set a single handle high on a cable stack, kneel side-on and pull one arm down at a time, letting your palm rotate from facing forwards to facing in. Working one side at a time lets you stop the moment a sore arm complains, while the good side keeps training.

Common mistakes when swapping out chin ups

Losing the underhand grip without meaning to. Plenty of lists treat any back exercise as a chin up alternative. If you switch to wide overhand pulldowns and nothing else, you've swapped a biceps-heavy pull for a different exercise. That's fine if you mean to, but know which one you're doing.

Using the alternative as a permanent crutch. If you can't do a chin up yet, the pulldown helps, but it won't replace practising negatives and assisted reps on a bar. Treat the swaps as tools, not a destination.

Rowing with a rounded back. Underhand dumbbell rows and table rows go wrong when the lower back rounds or the hips sag. Keep a neutral spine on rows and a straight line from shoulders to heels on table and towel rows.

Cutting the range short. Half-rep pulldowns and rows to nowhere miss the stretched position, which is where a lot of the training effect sits. Straighten your arms fully at the top of each rep.

How to programme the swaps

Treat the alternative like you'd treat chin ups: two or three back sessions a week, with a vertical pull and a horizontal pull in each.

• Building towards a chin up: 3 sets of 3 to 5 negatives, then 3 sets of 6 to 8 band-assisted chin ups.
• Building muscle with no bar: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 underhand pulldowns or band pulldowns, plus 3 sets of 10 to 12 underhand dumbbell rows. Rest 60 to 90 seconds.
• Working around sore elbows: 3 sets of 6 to 10 neutral-grip pull ups or ring chin ups, stopping a couple of reps short of failure.

Add reps first, then load, and come back to the real chin up whenever you can. More ideas for pulling days are in our chin ups guide and the wider workouts hub.

Recommended reads

1. Chin ups: how to do them, muscles worked and benefits
2. Negative pull ups: how to use them for your first rep
3. Lat pulldown vs pull up
4. The best pull up bars in the UK
5. Free standing pull up bars