Video credit to Philly Kinsella <-check him out
Pull Ups are an amazing exercise and great goal for men & women to aim to do multiple reps with your own
body weight. This post will help beginners who have no Pull Ups and more advanced peeps who have a few already.
But…..
Let me ruin everyone’s mood right now, the simplest way to get better at pull ups is to lose weight. If you’re
carrying too much weight/body fat then of course lifting your own body-weight will be harder.
So from here on in lets assume you’re losing weight & want to work on your pull ups while you do it OR you’re in
somewhat good shape already. If not then get that shit sorted or they’ll never get better. <——-what a buzz kill
First up here is a pull up demo vvvv
And here are 3 different grips I like to use vvvvvvv
****for the sake of keeping things simple I’m gonna refer to all types of grips as Pull Ups because this
method works for all kinds of grips, but for the record…..
Pull Ups = palm of hands facing away
Chin Ups = palm of hands facing you****
Awesome…..now that we’re clear lets get cracking. I really thought about going in detail into shoulder health &
prehab/rehab exercises, but then this thing would’ve gone on forever…..so we’ll cover that in a different post and just
get straight into the good stuff here.
WHERE DO YOU START?
Easy…..you test out how close to 1 full pull up you are now OR test how many good full pull ups you can do. If you
can’t do any then test how little assistance you can use while doing one vvvvv
If you’re in a commercial gym then feel free to use an assisted machine.
FIRST UP
Can you hang from a bar? Seriously people have told me they want to do 10 pull ups, but can’t hang out of a bar for
the same amount of time as it takes to do 10 pull ups. Start doing bar hangs daily, you can start with small sets and
build up. This is also great for shoulder health, just relax completely while you’re hanging.
Cool so once that is sorted there are a bunch of different pull up variations you can do to get better, I’m just gonna
real them off….then we’ll cover how a program might look at the end.
Assisted Pull-ups (2 variations)
I much prefer the first variation to the second both for progression & safety.
Pull Up Negatives (3-5 Sec Lowering)
You can see that there is no pulling up, you jump up and control yourself down. This can also be done by using bands
just like in assisted pull ups. More advanced peeps can add weight to it like below vvvvvvv
Chin Over Bar Hold
Again this can also be done with bands.
Pull Ups w/Added Weight
Obviously a bit more advanced
Missing Piece
A lot of people don’t realise that doing horizontal pulling is an amazing way to improve your pull ups, a lot of the
same muscles are used and it’s also essential to keep the shoulders healthy. Just doing nothing but pull ups and not
including these exercises as well can lead to some shoulder problems. Here are 7 different ones you can use vvvvvvv
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
So you know what exercises you need to do, but when do you do them and for how many reps? What if I’m a
beginner…..what if I’m more advanced?
***ALWAYS WARM UP BEFORE ANY WORKOUT***
Step 1: Strength Reps
At least once a week you should do Strength work, that means sets of 1-5 reps, you can mix it up and do different
reps and sets each week if you like. Lets take 5 sets of 3 reps as an example, take 2-3 minutes rest in between sets for
true strength reps. If you need to use bands for your strength reps there is absolutely nothing wrong with that,
likewise if you can add weight then do.What you do with that rest time could be anything from working on some
mobility, you could mix in some core work or you could combine it with another exercise.
e.g 3 Pull Ups, rest 30 seconds, 5 Lunges p/leg, rest 30 seconds, 30 Second Core Hold, Rest 90 seconds & repeat. So
by the time you get back to pull ups you will have had 2-3 minutes break from doing pull ups.
Step 2: Negatives/Chin Over Bar Hold
I’m a big believer in doing one of these 2 every week. Negatives for 5 seconds per rep for 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps is a
good place to start, again use bands if you need to, just do body weight or add extra weight depending on where
you’re at. For the chin over the bar hold 15-30 seconds works well. You’ll want to take longer rest between these sets
as well, the same as the strength work above.
Step 3: Assistance Work
Remember to mix up the exercises, there are 7 videos there
This is where horizontal pulling comes in. You can do this on the same day as the first 2 steps or on a separate
day. Reps here can be anywhere from 6-12 for 3-4 sets and rest can be 60-90 seconds. Again you could
combine/super-set these exercises with some lower body work or some core work or even some pushing movements
like bench press. You don’t have to do them all just pick 1 or 2 each sessions. You can also use pull ups in this rep
range too if you like.
e.g 3 sets of 8 1 Arm Rows p/arm, rest 60 seconds between sets
OR
3 rounds of 10 Ring Rows, 10 Bench Press, 20 Russian Twists, Rest 90 seconds between rounds
LAST PIECE…..
It’s very tough to make a general recommendation because how you’re program looks as a whole will really
determine what exercises and type of exercises you use.
BUT…
If you want to improve your pull ups you could do
Day 1: Strength + 1 Assistance Exercise
Day 2: Negatives/Chin Over The Bar Holds + 1 Different Assistance Exercise
You could mix them in as part of your own program or do them separately on top of your program. If you have any