Chins vs. Pullups vs. Lat Pulldowns

[agentspades]

What's the basic differences in these three? I have been doing upper body twice a week once heavy with low reps and once lighter with higher reps and both days I do wide grip lateral pulldowns followed by close grip pulldowns. I am thinking of switching some exercises around maybe doing the pulldowns on the power days and the chins on the chin/dip machine for the hypertrophy days. I can't do the pullups just yet. What do you all suggest? Thanx!!

[medjen]

They are similar but chins put more focus on your biceps while pullups/pulldowns focus more on the lats.

All good. Work them in wherever they fit. Or do pulldowns for a few weeks than switch it up to chins for a few weeks and rotate them in and out.

[yitmy]

Ah ...almost there medjen. The difference between lat pull downs and pull ups is where the most strength comes from. When sitting the exercise is an open chain and when hanging its closed chain. Closed chain works on your shoulder stabilizers much more then open chain which works the target muscle.

Chins do work the biceps and the others work more your lats- as medjen stated.

[anntitone]

Personally I attribute pull ups a great way to widen and strengthen your back. Why not doing pull ups once a week at least? Practice makes perfect...u will get better the more you do them. If you have trouble with them I suggest force reps...