Many different ways to position the wrist and hands are used. Some say these are all different exercises, but they are all similar. Some kinds of pull-ups use weights on a belt to make the exercise harder.
Many who use bad form on this exercise will kick with their legs or jump and jerk with the legs to help the motion. Good form is holding the low parts of the body still and only using the arms to pull the body up.
Ancient Greek wrestling
Greek wrestling was a grappling combat sport practiced by the Ancient Greeks. A wrestler's objective (aim, goal) was to throw his opponent to the ground from a standing position. A point (or fall) was scored when a wrestler's back or shoulders touched the ground. Three points were needed to win a match. Holds were restricted to the upper body. Unlike modern wrestling, there were no weight divisions or time limits. As a result, the sport was dominated by large strong men and boys who could defeat smaller but more skillful opponents.
Each city had place for wrestling, called a palaestra. Some large cities had several palaestrae. Wrestlers trained and competed in the nude. The sport was the first added to the Ancient Olympic Games that was not a footrace. Two ancient Greek wrestlers that are remembered today are Leontiskos of Messene and Milo of Croton. Leontiskos is infamous for winning the Olympics after breaking his opponent's fingers, and Milo is famous for winning five Olympic championships. Wrestling was a popular subject for Greek sculpture, painting, and literature.
Greek wrestling was known to the ancients as "orthe pale" ("upright (or erect) wrestling"). Legend says that Theseus of Athens invented wrestling. The wrestler's objective (aim) was to throw his opponent to the ground from a standing position. Holds were restricted to the upper body and pinning an opponent to the ground was unknown. Wrestling on the ground was permitted only in the sports known to the Greeks as "kato pale" ("ground wrestling") and "pankration".
A point was scored for a fall. A fall occurred when a wrestler's back or shoulders touched the ground. Three points were required to win a match. Wrestling was less rough than the pankration and required less space. As a result, it was the most popular sport among Greek athletes. It was an event in the pentathlon (and could be the deciding event) but it was a separate event as well, with the same techniques. Wrestling was mentioned numerous times in Greek literature, especially poetry.
The remains of a papyrus wrestling manual from the 2nd century AD reveal that the Greeks were familiar with headlocks, joint locks, shoulder holds, and other techniques used by modern wrestlers. Because there were no time limits to matches, some would end in draws. A wrestler could submit under a chokehold and "tap out". Wrestlers were sometimes killed in contest, but their opponents were never held responsible for homicide.
Wrestling was taught and practiced in a building called the "palaestra". There were many of these wrestling schools across Greece. The first palaestras were built about the 6th century BC. They were privately owned, but by the 5th century BC palaestras were being built at the public expense. Palaestras were built until the end of the Age of the Roman Empire. The ancient Greek scholar Plutarch writes that only wrestling and the pankration were taught and practiced in the palaestra. Boxing and other sports were taught and practiced in gymnasiums.
The palaestra consisted of a square or rectangular yard open to the sky. This yard was used for training and practice. The yard was surrounded by colonnades. During rainy weather, wrestling and the pankration were practiced under the colonnades. Rooms adjoining the colonnades were used for lectures, bathing, dressing and undressing, game playing, socializing, and the storage of equipment and olive oil. Gay sex was rampant in the palaestra, despite official efforts to curb it.
Greek athletes were the few athletes in the ancient world who practiced and competed in the nude. Homer's wrestlers in "Iliad" wore loincloths, but shortly after the Age of Homer, Greek athletes started to strip. It is not known why. Pausanias says athletes wanted to imitate Orsippos of Megara, a runner who won a footrace at Olympia in 720 BC after losing his loincloth. Dionysios of Halikarnassos and Thucydides credited a Spartan with the custom.
Other legends say that a runner tripped on his loincloth and officials banned it as unsafe. Some say that athletes stripped to prove that they were males, or because they could run better in the nude. Other reasons have been given: athletes stripped for erotic reasons, or for cult reasons, or for good luck, or as a democratic equalizer. Some say they stripped because they were proud of their muscular bodies and their tans.
The Greeks called the penis a "dog". Athletes sometimes used a cord called a "dog leash" to tie off the foreskin of the penis. It is unknown if this custom had sexual or aesthetic meanings. It appears to have been a matter of personal preference. Tying the foreskin is sometimes a subject in vase painting.
The Greek wrestler carried three items to the palaestra: an oil flask, a scraper, and a sponge. The oil flask ("aryballos") was a ceramic container with a wide lip and narrow mouth that held a wrestler's daily allotment of olive oil. These containers took a variety of shapes. Some were fashioned to resemble birds, animals, or human body parts such as the head, foot, or penis. Most were simply globes without a resting base.
The scraper ("strigil" or "stlengis") was a tool with a concave blade. It was made of bronze, silver, glass, or iron. It was used to scrape the accumulated olive oil and sweat ("gloios") from an athlete's body. The gloios was sold for its alleged medicinal value. It was used to treat inflammations of the joints, the vulva and anus, for genital warts and syphilitic lesions, muscle sprains, and pains. Once the sweat and oil was removed, the wrestler bathed using a sponge ("spongos").
Heavy athleteswrestlers, pankratiasts, and boxersshared the same buildings, practiced the same exercises, used the same equipment (punching bags), and followed the same high-protein diets of meat. Wrestlers at Olympia once were given light boxing practice as a preparation for competition.
Wrestlers first rubbed their bodies with olive oil to keep sand out of their pores. The wrestler then dusted himself with a fine powder. He sometimes practiced with a partner to learn tactics, but, for the most part, wrestlers simply wrestled. Rhythm was important, so wrestlers practiced and competed to flute music. Unlike boxing and the pankration, wrestling practice was conducted at full bore. Wrestlers kept their hair cut short to avoid giving opponents something to grasp or wore a skullcap to keep their hair in place.
Wrestlers were paired by drawing lots ("kleroi"). These lots were about the size of a bean and marked with a letter. There were two lots for each letter. The lots were mixed in a pitcher. Each wrestler drew one lot and was paired with the wrestler who drew the same letter. If there was an odd number of wrestlers, the last letter would be marked on only one lot. The wrestler who drew it would not compete in the first round.