What Is Kipping?

Kipping has become all the rage over this past few years and is an exercise which is very closely associated with the CrossFit movement.

Pretty much everyone knows how do do a pull up, right?  Just hang with your arms straight and lift your body up until your chin comes up over the bar.  The rule has always been to keep your torso from swaying or moving as you do this movement, otherwise you’re cheating and using other muscles in your body to get you up over the bar.

So what are kipping pull ups then?

Kipping is NOT doing what is recommended most traditional body building/strength training techniques.  Kipping uses your legs and hips to build the momentum to get up and over the bar.  Your arms and upper body is still involved in the movement, but to much less of a degree than traditional pull-ups or chin-ups.

What is the point of kipping?

Most people find pull ups very hard.  With the right kipping technique there are no problems knocking off 20 pull-ups when you could normally only do a few traditional pull-ups.  Not only does this help you build up strength to do more traditional pull-ups in the long-run, kipping is also a great endurance exercise, similar to kettlebell swings.

Is kipping cheating?

Kipping is a legitimate exercise in itself, the issue is when people try to compare it to traditional chin-ups/pull-ups.   Kipping is a full body exercise that increases your power and speed as well as your strength.

Kipping: Speed, explosiveness & full body strength

Standard pull-ups: Muscle-building & strength

Of course, the exercises don’t need to be thought of as mutually exclusive.  Another way that kipping can be good, is to use the technique to build up your strength for doing proper pull ups.

External Resources

CrossFit kipping tutorial (Windows Media Video)

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