How To: Tone arms with a negative chin-up exercise

Negative chin-up… what's that? It's when you focus more on coming down than going up. And Men's Health shows you just how to do the "negative chin-up" exercise. Chin-ups will work your back, biceps, and forearms muscles.

Set a bench under a chin-up bar then stand on the bench and grasp the bar with an underhand grip, palms facing you and your hands about shoulder width apart.

Give yourself a boost from the bench so you don't have to use much effort to pull yourself up next to your hands. Slowly lower yourself for a count of six seconds. When you reach the bottom, just hop back up on the bench and up to the bar. Repeat.

This exercise is ideal for improving your chin-up technique if you have not yet developed the strength to pull yourself up from the bottom. Chin-ups will work your back, biceps and fore arms. The underhand grip shown is hitting the bicep more while an overhand grip will cause your fore arms to take more of the stress. The very advanced can try a normal chin-up on the way up without the aid of a step and maintain the six second count on the slow negative.