Seated Pike Pull-Ups: Target Your Back and Core Effectively

Pull-ups are my favorite back and biceps exercise. In terms of efficiency and effectiveness, they’re almost unbeatable. However, I also understand that the pull-up is beyond some people’s reach. After all, doing pull-ups means lifting your entire body weight with just your arms. Achieving this requires above-average strength.

That said, I also believe that most exercisers – male and female – can work up to doing pull-ups. There are several ways to do this, including using resistance bands for assistance or doing inverted rows to build basic pulling strength. Another way to reach your goal is with seated pike pull-ups.

In this article, we share the anatomy, techniques, benefits, and alternatives to the seated pike pull-up.

Seated Pike Pull-Ups – Muscles Worked

Seated pike pull-ups are a compound or multi-joint exercise. This means they work many major and minor muscles. Here is a list of the most important muscles you’ll be training with this exercise:

Latissimus Dorsi

The latissimus dorsi, or lats for short, are basically your wings and are located on the side of your upper back. The lats attach your arms to your torso and are responsible for the adduction and extension of your shoulder joint. The lats are the agonist during seated pike pull-ups, meaning they’re doing most of the work.

Biceps Brachii

The biceps brachii is the most famous muscle in the human body. However, most people just say biceps for short. Located on the front of your upper arm, the biceps flex your elbow and supinate your forearm. This means they turn your palm upward. While seated pike pull-ups are undeniably a back exercise, they also deliver a great biceps workout.

Forearms

You can’t do any pulling exercise without gripping a handle or bar, including seated pike pull-ups. Furthermore, keeping a firm grip means you’ll be working your forearms along with your back and biceps. More muscular forearms mean a more powerful grip, which may improve longevity and functionality in later life (1).

Trapezius

Also known as the traps, this large diamond-shaped muscle covers much of your upper back. It comprises three sets of fibers, each of which has a specialist function. The upper traps shrug your shoulders upward (elevation), while the lower traps pull them down (depression). The middle fibers pull your shoulders back and together.

Ultimately, all three sets of trapezius fibers work during seated pike pull-ups, but the middle and lower fibers are the most active.

Rhomboids

Located between your scapulae or shoulder blades, the rhomboids work with the middle fibers of the trapezius. As they, they’re responsible for pulling your shoulders back and together. This is important during all back exercises, as it helps stabilize and protect your shoulder joints.

Deltoids  

The deltoids are your most significant shoulder muscles. There are three sets of deltoid fibers, known as heads. These are the anterior head (front), medial head (middle) and posterior head (rear). All three heads are active during seated pike pull-ups, but the posterior and medial heads are most engaged.

Core

Core is the collective term for the muscles of your midsection. These include the rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverse abdominis. These muscles work like a weightlifting belt to support your lumbar spine and prevent unwanted movement. You’ll undoubtedly feel your core working during seated pike pull-ups, especially your abs.

Read more about anatomy, physiology, and the science of exercise here!

Now you know what muscles you’ll be working with seated pike pull-ups, it’s time to move on to the nitty-gritty of how to perform this great exercise.

How To Do Seated Pike Pull-Ups

Get more from seated pike pull-ups while keeping your risk of injury to a minimum by following these guidelines:

1. Using a suspension trainer, e.g., a TRX or gymnastic rings, adjust the handles to about mid-chest.
2. Sit on the floor with your legs extended. Reach up and grasp the handles, adjusting the height so your arms are comfortably straight but not hyperextended.
3. Pull your shoulders down and back, lift your chest, and brace your core. Start with your hands neutral (palms turning in) or pronated (palms facing forward).
4. Bend your arms and pull your shoulders up the handles, allowing your hands to turn naturally. Keep your feet on the floor and your knees straight. Do not use your legs to help you; this is an upper-body exercise.
5. Pause at the top of the rep for 2-3 seconds, then slowly return to the starting position.
6. Let your butt lightly touch the floor, and repeat.
7. Continue for the desired number of reps.

Pro Tips:

• Drive your elbows down and back to maximize back muscle engagement.
• Make this exercise harder by placing your feet on a bench.
• Bend your legs and rest your feet flat on the floor to make seated pike pull-ups easier.
• Use gym chalk to improve your grip and prevent slippage.
• You can also do this exercise with a straight bar, e.g., in a power rack or Smith machine.

Seated Pike Pull-Ups Benefits 

Not sure if seated pike pull-ups deserve a place in your workouts? Consider these benefits and then decide!

An excellent exercise for beginners – exercise newbies often lack the strength to do pull-ups. This is especially true for older, female, and overweight people. Seated pike pull-ups take some of the load off your arms, making this body-weight movement much more accessible.

Ideal for home workouts – although pull-ups are a straightforward body-weight exercise, you still need a suitable bar to do them. This may not be practical if you train at home or outdoors. However, you should have less of an issue finding a suitable anchor point for a suspension trainer or gymnastic rings.

A time-efficient workout – seated pike pull-ups work virtually every pulling muscle in your upper body, including your back and arms. Because of this, you won’t need to do many additional exercises to get a comprehensive upper-body workout. Some push-ups would balance things up nicely.

Scalable for all levels – raising your legs and resting your feet on a bench makes this exercise harder. In contrast, bending your legs and putting your feet closer to your butt makes them more manageable. You can also push with your legs to take weight off your arms. This means that seated pike pull-ups are suitable for all levels and abilities.

Ideal for advanced lifters looking for a low-intensity exercise – seated pike pull-ups aren’t just suitable for beginners. Strong, experienced lifters can use them, too. Do seated pike pull-ups after regular pull-ups to add more muscle-building volume to your workouts.

Alternatively, you can do them during recovery workouts to help ease muscle soreness. Seated pike pull-ups are also an excellent warm-up exercise before moving on to more demanding pulling exercisers, e.g., weighted pull-ups.

In summary, seated pike pull-ups are a valuable exercise. Not just for beginners, but for stronger, more experienced exercisers, too. 

Seated Pike Pull-Up Drawbacks

While seated pike pull-ups are a mostly beneficial exercise, there are also a few drawbacks to consider:

Reduced range of motion – full pull-ups typically involve a large range of motion, providing the lats and upper back with a beneficial stretch. The seated variation does not allow for such a large ROM, which may be a drawback for some.

Equipment dependency – you can do pull-ups anywhere you can find a place to hang from, such as a tree branch, squat rack, or roof joint. To do seated pike pull-ups, you’ll need additional equipment like a TRX or gymnastic rings, which may not be readily available.

It may not be suitable for all – seated pike pull-ups are an accessible exercise that’s suitable for most beginners. However, there are still some people who may find it difficult. For example, those with poor hamstring flexibility may find the pike position awkward or uncomfortable, leading to a rounded lower back.

Less functional – one could argue that seated pike pull-ups are less functional than standard pull-ups. After all, how often do you pull yourself up from a seated position? However, this is also true for lat pulldowns, so it probably isn’t a significant drawback.

To sum up, there are a few drawbacks to seated pike pull-ups. However, in most cases, the benefits far outweigh any downsides. 

7 Seated Pike Pull-Up Alternatives

Although seated pike pull-ups are a highly effective back and biceps exercise, that doesn’t mean you have to do them all the time. There are several alternatives you can use to keep your workouts productive and interesting:

1. Inverted Rows

Muscles targeted: Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, biceps, core.

Once you have mastered seated pike pull-ups, inverted rows could be your next stop on your pull-up journey. They also involve lifting less than your entire body weight, but they’re a little more intense than seated pike pull-ups. Conveniently, the setup and equipment options are the same, so transitioning between exercises will be seamless.

Steps:

1. Using a suspension trainer, gymnastic rings, or a straight bar, set your handle to about waist height.
2. Sit below the handle(s) and grab tightly. Pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your core.
3. Lean back so your arms are straight. Lift your butt so your feet, hips, and shoulders form a straight line.
4. Bend your arms and pull your shoulders up to your hands. Pause for 2-3 seconds.
5. Smoothly extend your arms and repeat, ensuring your hips don’t sag between reps.

Benefits:

• Slightly more challenging than seated pike pull-ups but still easier than full pull-ups.
• An excellent exercise for the mid-back and posterior deltoids.
• A good stepping stone toward full pull-ups.

Tips:

• Place your feet on an exercise bench to make this movement harder.
• Raise the bar/handles to take weight off your arms and make the exercise easier.
• You can also do this exercise with a weighted vest for a more intense workout.

2. Lat Pulldown

Muscles targeted: Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, biceps, core.

Lat pulldowns are a classic strength training exercise. Because you can easily adjust the weight, they’re an ideal choice for all levels of exerciser. So, if seated pike pull-ups are still a little way beyond your grasp, use this exercise to build your muscles and prepare them for the challenge that awaits.

Steps:

1. Attach your preferred handle/bar to the lat pulldown machine.
2. Grab the bar and sit down so the thigh pads hold your legs firmly in place.
3. Pull your shoulders back and down and brace your abs.
4. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper back. Pause for 2-3 seconds.
5. Smoothly extend your arms and repeat.

Benefits:

• Scalable for all levels of experience and strength.
• Teaches beginners the correct technique for pulling exercises.
• Widely accessible – most gyms have lat pulldown machines.

Tips:

• Use a narrow, medium, wide, overhand, underhand, or neutral grip as preferred.
• Lead with your elbows to maximize lat engagement.
• Keep your chest up for a more effective back workout.

3. Assisted Pull-Up Machine

Muscles targeted: Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, biceps, core.

Seated pike pull-ups aren’t the only way to get strong for full pull-ups. You can also use an assisted pull-up machine. These clever devices help counterbalance some of your weight, so even the most deconditioned person can get a feel for pull-ups. Simply reduce the counterbalance weight as you get stronger.

Steps:

1. Choose an appropriate weight – the heavier the load, the more assistance you get.
2. Hold the bar with an overhand, shoulder-width grip. Brace your core and pull your shoulders back and down.
3. Stand on the footplate or kneel on the pad and extend your arms so you’re at the bottom of the pull-up position.
4. Bend your arms and pull yourself up until your chin is just over the bar.
5. Extend your arms and repeat.

Benefits:

• An excellent introduction to pull-ups for beginners.
• Easy to progress or regress by subtracting or adding weight.
• Widely available, as most gyms have an assisted pull-up machine.

Tips:

• Experiment with the available grips to see which feels most comfortable and effective. Options usually include wide, medium, narrow, and neutral.
• Reduce the assistance as you get stronger.
• Assisted pull-up machine designs vary, so ask for guidance if the model in your gym is unfamiliar.

4. Band-Assisted Pull-Up

Muscles targeted:  Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, biceps, core.

Assisted pull-up machines are very useful, but not all gyms have them, and you probably don’t have one at home, either. The good news is that you can make pull-ups easier in other ways. In this instance, all you need is a strong resistance band. This is arguably one of the most accessible ways to learn to do pull-ups.

Steps:

1. Lay your resistance band over the middle of your pull-up bar. Put one end through the other and pull it tight to form a loop.
2. Grab your bar with an overhand, shoulder-width grip and place one or both feet in the resistance band loop.
3. Pull your shoulders back and down, brace your core, and hang with your arms straight.
4. Bend your elbows and pull your chin up and over the bar. Pause for 2-3 seconds.
5. Smoothly extend your arms and repeat.

Benefits:

• A low-tech way to make pull-ups more accessible for all exercisers.
• Can be used for all pull-up and chin-up variations.
• A cheap, portable solution that you can carry in your gym bag.

Tips:

• Check your band before using it, replacing it if damaged or worn.
• Start with a thick band, moving to a weaker one as you get stronger.
• Kneel in the band instead of standing it for less assistance without changing bands.

5. Standing Suspension Trainer Row

Muscles targeted: Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, biceps, core.

The standing suspension trainer row is an excellent workout option for beginners and heavier exercisers. You can shorten or lengthen your suspension trainer straps to vary the difficulty of this movement. Just moving your feet can also have a similar effect. All you need is a strong anchor for your suspension trainer.

Steps:

1. Attach your suspension trainer to a suitable high anchor.
2. Grab the handles and pull your shoulders back and down. Brace your core.
3. With your feet roughly below the anchor, lean back until your arms are straight and your body is inclined to about 45 degrees.
4. Keeping your body straight, bend your arms and pull your shoulders up to the handles.
5. Extend your arms and repeat.

Benefits:

• An excellent mid-back and lat exercise for beginners.
• Easy to scale up or down by moving your feet or changing the length of your straps.
• This exercise teaches full-body awareness and core control.

Tips:

• You can also do this exercise with gymnastic rings.
• Perform this exercise on a non-slip surface to avoid accidents.
• Check your anchor before committing your weight to it. Failure could result in severe injury.

6. Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row

Muscles targeted: Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, biceps, core.

A lot of upper back exercises also work the lower back. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it could be problematic for some exercisers, especially those with a history of lower back pain. This freeweight lat exercise is very effective but is also lower-back friendly. With no strain on your lumbar spine, you are free to focus on pushing your lats to their limit.

Steps:

1. Set an adjustable exercise bench to about 30 degrees.
2. Lie face down on the bench with your head uppermost.
3. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and let your arms hang down from your shoulders, palms facing inward. Pull your shoulders back and down and brace your core.
4. Bend your arms and pull the dumbbells up and into your lower ribs.
5. Extend your arms and repeat.

Benefits:

• A very lower back-friendly exercise.
• Suitable for all levels of exerciser.
• An ideal exercise for home workouts.

Tips:

• Raise your bench on blocks if your dumbbells touch the floor before your arms are straight.
• Use a barbell instead of dumbbells if preferred.
• You can also do this exercise on a flat bench, which is an exercise called seal rows.

7. Seated Cable Rows

Muscles targeted: Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, biceps, core.

Like lat pulldowns, seated cable rows are a classic strength training exercise. They can be scaled up or down to suit all experience and fitness levels and, when performed correctly, are a very safe movement. Seated cable rows are an effective way to work your back muscles in the horizontal plane, making them a good exercise for better posture.

Steps:

1. Attach your chosen handle to a low cable row machine. Hold the handle and sit on the bench with your legs out in front of you, knees slightly bent.
2. Sit up tall, pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your core.
3. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the handle into your abdomen.
4. Extend your arms and repeat.

Benefits:

• Widely accessible, as most gyms have a seated row machine.
• A very effective upper back and posture exercise.
• Easy to scale for all levels of exerciser.

Tips:

• Lean forward from your hips to increase your range of motion.
• Use an overhand, underhand, or neutral grip as preferred.
• Avoid rounding your lower back, as doing so can cause severe injury.

FAQs

Do you have a question about seated pike pull-ups or back training in general? No problem, because we’ve got the answers!

1. How many times a week should I train my back?

While some exercises, especially bodybuilders, get good results by training their backs once a week, most people need two back workouts a week for best results (2). This provides a good balance between training and recovery time. Moreover, two weekly back workouts will take advantage of the fact that muscles take about 48-72 hours to recover from training.

2. How many reps and sets of seated pike pull-ups should I do?

Because seated pike pull-ups are a body-weight exercise, it is impossible to tell you precisely how many reps you should do for the best results. After all, we don’t know how heavy or strong you are.

So, instead of asking me how many reps you should do, I should be asking you!

Do as many reps as you can in good form, stopping when you only have 1-3 reps left in the tank. This will be sufficient to trigger positive muscular adaptions and increase strength and size. Strive to do more reps per set as you get stronger.

And speaking of sets, if you need more than 4-5 sets to fatigue your muscles, you are either stopping too far from failure or resting too long between efforts. Two to three sets should be sufficient, especially if you are doing several back exercises per workout.

3. How do different grip positions affect muscle engagement during pull-ups and pulldowns?

Most back exercises allow you to choose between several different grips, including wide, narrow, underhand, and overhand. But how do these grips affect your muscles? The answer is not much!

Studies note that while different hand positions do change how an exercise affects your muscles, the impact is so small that it’s not really worth worrying about. For example, in one study, researchers found that using a wide grip increased lat engagement. In contrast, a narrow grip worked the biceps slightly more (3).

However, while these differences exist, they aren’t significant enough to worry about. So, use the grip that’s most comfortable, or change grips as and when you want to keep your workouts varied and interesting. Worrying about finding the best hand position is an example of majoring in minors.

4. Will seated pike pull-ups build muscle as well as other back exercises?

There is no reason to think seated pike pull-ups are less effective for muscle building than any other back exercise. That’s because your body can’t tell what exercises you are performing. Instead, it just knows muscle tension and work. Provided you take your sets close enough to failure, your body will respond by getting stronger and more muscular.

Ultimately, provided you work hard enough, seated pike pull-ups can help you build the back of your dreams. But, if you find yourself doing very high rep sets, you should probably graduate to a more challenging exercise. High reps can build muscle, but they’re not the best use of your training time (4).

5. Are seated pike pull-ups safe?

With an injury rate of 5.5 per 1000 hours of participation, strength training is a very safe recreational activity. To put that into perspective, soccer has an injury rate of 7.1/1000 hours, and football has 11.7/1000 hours (5).

That said, you can make strength training even safer by always warming up properly, using appropriate exercises and weights, and using good form.

Seated pike pull-ups are a very low-risk exercise. That’s because there isn’t far to fall if you fail a rep, and there are no weights to drop or get pinned under. In addition, you can reset your shoulders and grip between reps, and there is no opportunity for kipping.

You can make a safe exercise even safer by always lowering yourself slowly to avoid shock-loading your spine and doing your reps from a foam pad to absorb any impact.

To clarify, seated pike pull-ups are a very safe exercise, provided you perform them correctly.  

Closing Thoughts

Pull-ups and their close relative chin-ups are excellent exercises for building muscle strength and size. Both of these exercises are straightforward, minimalistic, and highly effective. However, they’re also challenging and somewhat too advanced for some exercisers.

The good news is that there is an exercise you can do that works the same muscles and will get you ready for pull-ups: the seated pike pull-up. This exercise uses all the same muscles but puts them under less load, making it a far more accessible exercise.

However, don’t write seated pike pull-ups off as a beginner exercise because they’re more than that. More advanced people can use this movement to increase training volume, work around injuries, or when they need a low-intensity workout. Plus, there are ways to make it more challenging.

While pull-ups and chin-ups will always be my favorite back-building exercise, seated pike pull-ups are a valuable addition to any body-weight back-building workout. Try them; I think you’ll like them!

References:

1. Bohannon RW. Grip Strength: An Indispensable Biomarker For Older Adults. Clin Interv Aging. 2019 Oct 1;14:1681-1691. doi: 10.2147/CIA.S194543. PMID: 31631989; PMCID: PMC6778477.
2. Hamarsland H, Moen H, Skaar OJ, Jorang PW, Rødahl HS, Rønnestad BR. Equal-Volume Strength Training With Different Training Frequencies Induces Similar Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Improvement in Trained Participants. Front Physiol. 2022 Jan 5;12:789403. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.789403. PMID: 35069251; PMCID: PMC8766679.
3. Signorile JF, Zink AJ, Szwed SP. A comparative electromyographical investigation of muscle utilization patterns using various hand positions during the lat pulldown. J Strength Cond Res. 2002 Nov;16(4):539-46. PMID: 12423182.
4. Lasevicius T, Ugrinowitsch C, Schoenfeld BJ, Roschel H, Tavares LD, De Souza EO, Laurentino G, Tricoli V. Effects of different intensities of resistance training with equated volume load on muscle strength and hypertrophy. Eur J Sport Sci. 2018 Jul;18(6):772-780. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2018.1450898. Epub 2018 Mar 22. PMID: 29564973.
5. Horton R. GBD 2010: Understanding disease, injury, and risk. Lancet. 2012 Dec 15;380(9859):2053-4. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)62133-3. PMID: 23245595.

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