Equipment
Lat exercises on the pull-up bar
On the bar there is one load and there is no setting it: you weigh what you weigh. That is why this list looks nothing like the cable one. Instead of plates you get grips, versions that take part of the weight away, and variants built on the lowering phase alone.
The choice starts with one question: can you already do a rep from a full hang to chin over the bar. If you can, you are picking a grip and a hand spacing. If you cannot, you are picking a way to subtract weight - a band, a foot on a bench, or just lowering yourself from the top. Commando pull-ups, archer pull-ups and the muscle up are a separate category, where shifting your weight to one side or getting over the bar comes on top of everything else.
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About training Lat exercises on the pull-up bar
Choose one movement, perform it well, then progress it over time.
What does the bar give your back that a cable can't?
On the cable the weight travels to you while you sit locked under the pads. On the bar it is the other way around: you move relative to a fixed point, so bracing your midsection and holding your body in line get added to the work your back is doing. The pull-up descriptions say so outright, before they even get to the pulling.
The second difference is the grip. On the cable you hold a bar with weight attached to it, and at worst you drop it by a plate. On the bar you hang off your fingers with your whole mass, and it is often the forearms that end the set, not the back. The third is the end of the range: on the cable the rep closes when the bar touches your chest, on the bar your own body closes it, so there is no faking it by leaning in.
The drawback is the same thing as the advantage. There is no dial that makes the weight smaller, so for some people the first clean rep is a goal in itself, and that is exactly why the atlas carries versions with a band, with a foot supported and built on the negative.
What do you do when your grip goes before your back?
It is the most common scenario on the bar, and it does not mean you are doing anything wrong. Holding your own bodyweight in your hands is a separate job from pulling yourself up to the bar, and the two get tired at different rates.
The catalog has a few answers that need nothing bought. A close neutral grip feels safer to a lot of people and happens to be gentler on the wrist and elbow. An underhand grip puts the biceps in a good position, so it usually gives you the most reps. Shorter sets done more often let you finish each one before your hand starts sliding.
Straps take the grip out of the equation, but they also take it out of your training. If you reach for them out of habit on the first set, you stop developing something you will need anyway on heavier pulls. Whatever you choose, one rule holds: the bar has to be mounted solidly, because your whole mass hangs on a single point.
Progress the movement
Decide what counts
Every variant description comes back to the same two points: arms fully straight at the bottom, chin over the bar at the top. A rep that does not fit between them is not this exercise and is not worth adding to the set.
Take the help away in small pieces
A thinner band, less push from the foot on the bench. Assistance helps most at the bottom and almost disappears at the top, so every time you change it the end of the path is what gets hard first. That is the normal order, not a step backwards.
Shift your weight to one side
The archer pull-up splits the same bodyweight unevenly: your chest travels toward one hand while the other arm mostly guides. It is how the bar gets harder without a belt and a weight vest.
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