The pull up; striking fear into the heart of some while being the main bodyweight exercise for others. There areΒ Β good reasons that the pull up has the reputation that it does, and even better reasons for why you should be in the group of people making this exercise a staple in their workout regime.
When it comes to brutal exercises that leave your body quivering with fatigue, pull-ups are definitely up there. This taxing movement is a great way to gauge your upper body strength, even though it requires much more than just the upper body to pull off successfully. Itβs even arguably better than the bench press when it comes to upper body exercises, since it not only trains the front upper body but more importantly, the back.
The back also just happens to be a place that many people ignore. While having a strong back is important for general strength and aesthetics, itβs often trumped by things such as the bench press which hardly activates any back muscles. And even if you canβt do a single pull up, the path towards successfully doing multiple reps will not only strengthen your arms and back, but also have general resistance training benefits. Getting good at pull-ups is a ticket to fantastic general strength and fitness, so read on to find out how you can pull yourself up out of the no-pull up gutter.Β
The pull up is a deceptively simple movement. While it comes down to just gripping a bar and pulling yourself up, thereβs aΒ Β number of nuances thatβll help you when it comes to both form and ease of the movement. Even though you might not be able to do one yet, itβs important to keep in mind what a perfect one will look like when youβre going through the 30-day progression.
A visualization of the perfect pull up will not only help your form in the end, but itβll also help you cultivate thatΒ mind-muscle link and aid in auxiliary exercises thatβll improve a number of muscle groups.
1. Jump, or reach up, and grab the bar with your palms facing away from you (an overhand grip) at shoulder-width apart. Hang with your arms extended, but also keeping your shoulders and back muscles activated in order not to strain anything. If necessary, bend your knees so they donβt drag on the ground.
2. Along with activating your shoulders and keeping them back, also remember to engage your core throughout the entire movement. This will help with stability and keep you from swaying.
3. Pull up slowly, stopping once your chin gets just above the bar. Reverse the movement until your arms are once again hanging freely. Repeat for the number of reps required.
While thatβs essentially it, thereβs a number of things you should remember when attempting a pull-up.
Along with engaging the core, activating your glutes will also help in stabilization and allow for a more full-body workout. Bracing your body like this will engage all of your stabilizing muscles, and your weight will be better managed throughout the movement. To recruit even more muscle fibers, squeeze once again at the very top of the pull-up and hold that position for a moment before slowly going back down.
One of the most essential components of the pull up is the grip. Without the grip then everything else becomes moot, and with a wide range of grips, youβll be able to work out a wide range of muscle groups.
The defining feature of a pull up is the overhand grip. The overhand grip is one of the most difficult since most of the workload is placed on your lats rather than other muscles. Furthermore, if you want to focus in on specific muscles, just changing the width of the grip will allow you to do so. For example, the wider your grip, the more your lats will be worked. This is because your other muscles wonβt be able to help us much. On the other hand, a closer grip engages your biceps and chest much more and aΒ Β pre-workout supplement will help you get the trick done.
The underhand grip pull-up is called a chin up. Most people find these easier to do since there are a lot more muscles engaged and the ones that are engaged more fully (the biceps), are usually more developed than the back muscles needed for a pull-up. Nevertheless, doing chin-ups is still a good way to train up your pull-ups.
The easiest of the three grips is the neutral grip. This has your palms facing inwards towards each other. This movement activates the most amount of muscle groups, and your bodyweight is therefore more evenly distributed. This is also a good option when training for the ability to do more pull-ups.
While the different pull-up variations place emphasis on different parts of your body, they all have the sameΒ foundational building blocks thatβll benefit you equally, especially if youβre just starting out. Our 30-day progression guide to doing your first pull up looks at these muscle groups and trains them specifically.Β
The muscles targeted by pull-ups are the:
The first four are especially important when it comes to pull-ups, and therefore, itβs important to emphasize them when trying to progress towards a pull-up. Not only will improving these muscles aid in your pull up game, but theyβll also give you a very functional upper body strength thatβs difficult to duplicate when it comes to other single exercises. The fact that the pull-up targets both the arms and the back is enough to make it a staple in anyoneβs workout regime.Β
Another important emphasis is on the muscles of the forearm and particularlyΒ grip strength. One of the most common points-of-failure for not only pull-ups but also other heavy pulling exercises is the grip. With a solid amount of pull-ups under your belt, your grip strength will thank you for it and so will a number of other exercises you do in the gym. So, now that we have that out of the way, letβs get into the thick of things with some pull up progression exercises.
While a one-size-fits-all workout regime might be easy to incorporate into your routine, it wonβt necessarily work well for your routine. We will go over some exercises that we recommend on a daily progression basis, but it is important to try out different, simpler, variations of the pull up in order to gauge where youβre at.Β
This will help you when it comes down to progressing as quickly as possible. For example, if youβre already able to do a banded pull-up, then why start at inverted bodyweight rows? Sure, theyβll build some strength, but they wonβt get you towards your goal very fast..
So before going into any routine, itβs important to not only gauge where youβre at but also your capabilities when it comes to bodyweight exercises. Since a pull up is in its truest form, a bodyweight exercise, that means youβll be dealing with your body weight. If youβre overweight this can be an issue. Itβs obviously much easier to do a pull the lighter you weigh. On the other hand, however, if you do weigh more, and can do a pull up successfully, youβll be getting more of a workout in relation to your body mass.
So, without further ado, letβs introduce the various steps you might be at.
Bring a box underneath the bar thatβs a good height for you to stand on and grab the bar without too much difficulty. With an overhand pull-up grip, you want to grab the bar and pull yourself up into the top position of the movement.
Remember to pull your shoulder blades back, engage your core, and then keep your chin above the bar for as long as you can.
If youβre unable to do this, then first practice with dead hangsβjust grabbing onto the bar and hanging there with your shoulders pulled back and lats engagedβfor as long as you can.Β
Once you can do the isometric hold for over 60 seconds, itβs a good idea to move onto the next progressive step in order to keep your feet at the fire.
Using the box once again, place it below the bar. Now, you can either use a box thatβs relatively high so you donβt have to jump up to the bar, or you can use a smaller box and jump. The point in this exercise isnβt to pull yourself up but to grab on to the bar and then very slowly lower yourself down.Β
You should be aiming for at least a 15-second βrelaxationβ of the arms until you find yourself in a dead hang position. Once at the bottom, rest for one minute. Thatβs equal to one rep. In order to progress to the next stage, youβll want to comfortably be able to do 3 sets of 3 reps, of 15 seconds each.
The first of these can be done with a resistance band looped around the pull-up bar. With the relatively long band hanging down, grab onto the bar with the pull-up grip and nestle your knees or feet into the band.Β
You want to find a band thatβll allow you to do a lot of the work yourself, but also a band thatβs tight enough to help you. As always, the point is to work as hard as you can and push yourself. You should be able to do a few reps of a banded pull-up and then struggle after 5 or more.
Once youβre able to do 2 legs quite easily, you can ramp up the difficulty by just putting one leg into the resistance band. Thisβll allow your other hand to dangle behind or in front, placing more pressure on the muscles necessary to complete a pull-up. Remember to reverse the movement slowly, taking 15 seconds once again.
You can also get a partner to help you. This is somewhat more difficult than the banded pull up since your partner is only allowed to assist on the way up. Supporting you from your hips, the person should aid when youβre pulling yourself up above the bar. However, when youβre coming down and taking your time, there should be no assistance.
This is the last progressive step before doing a full pull up, and wherever youβre starting from, you should be able to accomplish one within a month if you stick to it and make pull-ups your training focus. Even though you might be tempted to focus solely on these progressive pull-up movements, youβll benefit just as much from other exercises that focus on the necessary muscles.Β
As we mentioned before, one-size-fits-all routines are always problematic because every person is different physiologically and in their progression. So use the below as guidelines, and substitute the pull-up exercises for whatever your progression is in the above movementsβfrom isometric holds to assisted pull-ups.
Dead Hang: This is a good way to train grip strength while also getting used to the range of motion that a pull up will necessitateβespecially when it comes to your shoulders. While a simple exercise, make sure to maximize the amount of time youβre hanging on and feel free to add a weight belt in order to ramp up the difficulty.
Lat Pulldown: Youβll want to grasp the bar with an overhand grip thatβs relatively wide (wider than your shoulders). This will help in activating your lats. Pulling the bar down, you want to exhale as youβre going through the movement. Bring it down at around chin-level, while trying to maintain an upright torso, rather than leaning backward.Β
Keep your core engaged and your feet flat on the floor throughout the movement and keep your shoulders pulled back and squared. Reverse the movement, slowly, and repeat. This is one of the best ways to train for pull-ups since the lat pulldown, as the name suggests, places a great emphasis on the lats.
Towel grip dead hang: This hold will have you draping two towels on the pull-up bar, about shoulder-width apart. This is an amazing, yet difficult, grip training exercise which engages your forearms to a very high degree.
Youβll want to grip the hanging towels with palms facing inward and hold for as long as you can.
One-arm bent over dumbbell row: Youβll be needing a bench or a platform thatβs about the height of your thighs. Putting one of your legs on the bench and grab the side of it with your hand on the same side. Bend over at an angle, but keep your back straight as you lean down to pick up the dumbbell.Β
Keep your arm extended as you lift the dumbbell up with an overhand grip, bringing it up to your chest. Remember to keep your back and shoulder muscles engaged more than your arm. At the top of the exercise, squeeze your back and shoulder muscles, and then lower the weight back down. Repeat for the desired amount of reps, and then switch arms.
Inverted barbell row: This is another terrific exercise to do when training for the pull up since it uses a lot of the same muscle groups. Set a bar about waist height, and keep in mind that the lower the bar, the more difficult the movements become. Lie down on the floor underneath the bar, with your arms directly underneath it.
Grabbing the bar with an overhand grip and slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, engage your core and glutes, and then pull up until your chest touches the bar. Reverse the movement and repeat.
Along with the above, remember to add in the various pull-up progressions, according to your own comfort level and strength. The most important aspect is to train the pull up (or a close variation) itself, train grip, and also train your back and shoulders. If you include these three aspects and put an emphasis on them in training, youβll be doing pull-ups in no time.Β
And, as always, remember to take a rest day in between each day in order to allow your boy to recover. As with any routine, but especially one that relies primarily on your own bodyweight, diet becomes important. If youβre on the heavier side, pull-ups will be that much more difficult, and itβll probably be a good idea to focus on getting to a pull up-manageable weight first.Β Otherwise, go out there andΒ start swinging and hanging off anything you can.Β
