2 Major Tips to Master the Pull-up
Incorporating these tips truly helped blow up my pull-up strength!
Being able to do pull-ups is a common milestone to reach for those starting to get into fitness. Pull-ups are often used as an indicator of upper body strength, and unlike movements such as barbell squats or deadlifts, you don’t need access to gym equipment to do. Purchasing a pull-up bar for your home is pretty affordable, and many neighbourhood parks have bars that can be used to practice the movement.
A goal I always had (and still have) is to be able to consistently progress on my ability to do pull-ups. The obvious way to improve your pull-ups is to simply do them more often. But in the case of many people, they may not be able to do any variation of pull-ups when starting out. For myself, I certainly wasn’t able to do them, so I started to do exercises that would help me reach my goal of being able to do a pull-up.
Being able to train to do pull-ups depends on your ability to not only practice the movement pattern, but to develop the strength of muscles required for the movement. Pull-ups are an exercise that primarily targets your back and bicep muscles, so I began to focus on doing more exercises that can strengthen those muscles.
Here are some tips I’d recommend to help train to do a pull-up:
1. Incorporate exercises that have a similar movement pattern as a pull-up.
Lat Pulldowns
I found lat pulldowns to be very effective in helping me to do pull-ups. Lat pull-downs are a great substitute for those who cannot do pull-ups because it allows you to progressive overload (increase weight) on a movement that essentially mimics a pull-up. This means that you can gradually increase the strength of muscles that are also used to pull-ups, which in turn will help you do pull-ups.
Assisted Pull-Up Machine
The assisted pull-up machine is often used to train to do pull-ups as well. Personally, I didn’t find the assisted pull-up machine to be too effective, since I felt that being aware that I was being assisted psychologically prevented me from pushing as hard as I could. However, it is another option as an exercise that allows you to progressive overload (by reducing the weight of assistance by the machine), and also follows a similar movement pattern as a pull-up.
Pull-Up’s with Resistance Bands
I personally haven’t had much experience with doing resistance band pull-ups but I reckon they would be great to train to do pull-ups, due to having the most similarity to the movement of a true pull-up. You have the option to progressive overload by gradually using resistance bands that offer less resistance, which would require you to rely more on your own strength to perform the movement.
2. Incorporate exercises that will strengthen your whole back.
Deadlifts
Deadlifts are a powerful movement that works your posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, back). Since deadlifts allow you to lift such high external loads, it really helps with building up your back strength. Deadlifts are my personal favourite exercise, and ever since I began doing them more often I have seen my back strength increase measurably. Another benefit of doing deadlifts regularly is its ability to develop your grip strength, which would help prevent your grip from becoming a limiting factor when doing pull-ups.
Rows
Doing a form of row variation such as the barbell, T-bar, or seated row is important for developing overall back strength. The barbell variation would allow you to use the heaviest weight, but can put more strain on your lower back compared to seated or T-bar forms.
3. Start off by doing chin-ups.
Chin-ups are often the easier pull-up variation for people due to the difference in the way you grip the bar. With the chin-up you grip the bar so that your palms are facing you (supinated grip). Once you’ve developed the ability to do chin-ups, practice the movement as often as you can, gradually increasing the repetitions you do. You should be able to do pull-ups with all grip variations in no time!
Takeaway Points:
Pull-ups are a movement that is accessible for many people to do, even without having access to a gym. Performing exercises that mimic the movement pattern and targets the same muscles as the pull-up are crucial to progress in the movement.
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