Learn to pull up

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If you regularly train your back, don’t have overweight, but still struggle with pull-ups? I’ll help you up with tips to learn pull-ups.

Is learning pull-ups difficult?

Pull-ups or Pull up are strange. Some people see it as an impossibly high barrier, while others seem to be able to do it naturally. There are a few obvious suspects as causes. However, based on my personal experience, these often cannot explain everything.

Strength-weight ratio

Often, the lack of muscle strength or too much weight is pointed out. It’s smarter to look at the ratio between the two, but I think we’re not there yet. Everyone understands if someone who weighs 300 kg and never trains can’t do a pull-up.

However, I regularly see strong and lean guys in the gym who have relatively much difficulty with pull-ups or don’t do them at all (perhaps for that reason?). Guys who are quite strong in other back and biceps exercises in relation to their weight. Guys who lift heavier weights than I do, but in terms of body weight don’t come close to the 120 kg that I weigh when I do pull-ups with 40kg between my legs. The strength-bodyweight ratio is obviously a very big factor, but it doesn’t explain everything. Let an average bar-star who does the most difficult pull-ups do normal back exercises in the gym, and that amount of strength seems quite manageable.

Insufficient strength in specific muscles

Another possible problem that I hear some mention is the lack of strength in specific muscles. However, pull-ups involve a large number of muscles including those in the back, shoulders, arms, and core. I find it not obvious to pick out one or a few of these as the cause and focus all your attention on them. Especially not if you’re the typical I-want-muscle-mass-and-live-in-the-gym-type. With a normal training split, you would already be training the involved muscles weekly. In other words, there are no specific muscles that I train to be able to do pull-ups, and yet I was already doing them long before I started with other forms of strength training.

A way to train specific muscles with home strength training to become stronger in pull-ups is using a wall-mounted pull-up bar. See below the Smartley Multi-Grip pull-up bar that you can easily mount and which supports up to 300kg. Or choose the Smartley pull-up bar that you can place above a door frame and remove after training.

Training for maximum strength

What could make sense for the average gym rat who can’t do pull-ups is to spend some time training for maximum strength. Especially back training. If you normally train for muscle mass, you will often be in a rep range of 8 to 12 repetitions. In terms of energy system, you train in the ATP system, but also in the lactic acid system.

If you can’t do a single pull-up, then for the involved muscles you should focus more on maximum strength than on hypertrophy and muscle growth. Especially the lat pulldown and rowing exercises could be trained for a while on maximum strength. For example, 5 sets of 3 repetitions with heavier weights instead of 3 sets of 10 repetitions. You then focus on the energy system and the type of muscle fibers that you will need the most for that first pull-up. Ultimately, you naturally want to be able to do more pull-ups and then you will also be training with pull-ups in the lactic acid system.

Learning pull-ups? Just a matter of doing

I have been doing pull-ups and push-ups as long as I can remember. As a small child, I regularly did pull-ups using door frames. I simply never stopped. Perhaps at that age, the strength-weight ratio is more favorable. Think of babies who can pull themselves up. However, I think since then my brain has been trained in pull-ups more than my muscles themselves.

Assuming that the strength-weight ratio is not the clear problem, it seems to me that more attention should be paid to how that strength is delivered during pull-ups. Look at the difference between powerlifters who are much better at certain exercises than a bodybuilder with more muscle mass. Of course, they train in different energy systems which means a difference in maximum strength. But even in higher rep ranges, an average powerlifter will always be better at, for example, squats or bench presses than the average bodybuilder.

An important difference in this context is that the bodybuilder divides his attention over more different exercises that largely consist of isolation exercises. Teaching your body to do pull-ups is then like turning a group of individual star players into a team that must work very well together to achieve a specific goal.

Learning pull-ups, in my opinion, is mostly just a matter of doing it. Training the brain in the correct control of the different muscles. Now, “doing” is of course a bit difficult if you can’t. Therefore, pull-ups are something many have accepted they just can’t do. However, by building it up in steps, it’s possible. Step by step, you will naturally develop the necessary strength where needed should you happen to be weak in specific muscles.

Grip strength and “active hanging”

The importance of grip strength can be debated. Working with straps means you don’t have to concentrate on grip strength (forearm muscles) and thus can focus more on the other muscles. So, if you’re purely looking to be able to do pull-ups in the gym, you could ignore grip strength. I often recommend straps because I believe you should be able to concentrate on the back muscles when training your back. Then I’m talking about, for example, the difference between 11 and 12 repetitions. Not about 0 or 1 repetition.

If you really want to be able to pull yourself up (for a literal cliffhanger, for example), then the forearm muscles must have enough strength to hold onto the bar. For the target audience I have in mind here (the loyal gym-goer who regularly trains back), I don’t think grip strength is the biggest problem.

Yet, even then, ‘active hanging’ can be a good first step on the way to pull-ups. Besides training to simply be able to stay hanging, this can teach you how to stabilize your body in the correct position.

While hanging, you pull the shoulder blades down, which brings the chest up and forward. So, you pull yourself up a very small amount without bending the arms. You bring the pelvis slightly forward so that you hang a bit at an angle. This way, you train the back and core muscles to hang in the correct position relative to the bar. Moreover, you train the middle and lower trapezius, which are especially active in the first part of a pull-up.

Bodyweight rows

The next steps towards a pull-up don’t necessarily have to be in this order, but a bodyweight row is a handy next step.

In a bodyweight row, you keep your feet/heels on the ground while hanging at an angle from a low bar. The more upright you stand, the lighter the exercise. Thus, you can gradually increase the difficulty as you hang more slanted. The downside is that the more horizontal you hang, the less the exercise resembles pull-ups in terms of position relative to the bar.

Counterweight

The best tool, in my opinion at least, is not available in every gym. A pull-up machine with counterweight. A platform you stand on linked to a weight that is subtracted from your body weight. Perfect for progressive training, of course. You can make the exercise gradually heavier and see exactly how far you are from a full pull-up. However, the position of the body when you still use counterweight is not quite the same as in a normal pull-up. You are still standing on the platform, so your body is completely vertical instead of slightly tilted.

This may mean that during an attempt at a real pull-up, you find it actually goes a bit easier because now you can tilt your body. However, it can also still be getting used to stabilizing now that you’re hanging for the first time. Combining with the earlier exercise ‘active hanging’ is a perfect build-up to also limit this problem.

Pull-ups with bands

Somewhat similar is using rubber bands to make yourself lighter. A disadvantage compared to the machine with counterweight, however, is the way in which assistance is provided. A rubber band will help more at the bottom of the movement than at the top. Moreover, accurately changing resistance is more difficult.

Isometric and eccentric pull-ups

The name is misleading because you actually only let yourself down and don’t pull yourself up. “Step up, hang, and lower” is a more useful designation. Ideally, use a step to get into the highest position of a pull-up. Jumping up is possible, but using a step offers more control. From that position, you let go of the step and hang for three seconds above (‘isometric’). Then, you lower yourself in 3 seconds. Practice this until you can do it 8 repetitions and then do it in sets of 3. If you can do more than eight repetitions, hang extra weight on yourself (for example, 5 kilos). The next week you start again with an attempt at a real pull-up. If it doesn’t work, you go back to “step up, hang, and lower”, but you weigh yourself down with more weight than the previous week.

Attention! If you’re completely untrained, this won’t work and you will hardly manage to stay hanging or control the descent.

Assisted pull-ups

Just like working with counterweight, you can also make yourself lighter by helping yourself or having someone else help.

For example, you could have a spot where you can stand with one or two feet and where you provide just enough leg strength to be able to pull yourself up. Another option is to have a training partner help you.

In both cases, the disadvantage is that it’s quite difficult to keep this level of assistance consistent or to decrease it in a fixed manner. Especially with a partner, you can get too much or too little help.

Another disadvantage is that your position relative to the bar often changes when you get help. Someone helping you up by the ankles can cause your feet to hang further back than when you pull up on your own strength.

Start with the easiest grip

If you’re then ready to do “a real pull-up” after some of the above exercises and tips, it’s good to know that this can be done in different ways. Think of the difference between pull-ups and chin-ups.

Whether you hold your hands pronated, supinated, or neutral (palm facing forward, palm facing you, or palms facing each other/inside) makes a big difference in the difficulty of the pull-up. Also, a narrow grip or a wide grip can make a big difference. This can be personal, but for most, a narrow, neutral, or supinated grip will be the easiest way to pull up. A chin-up with a narrow grip will thus be an easier starting point than a pull-up with a wide grip.

Start with the easiest grip and then increase the difficulty level once you’ve succeeded.

Just do it!

Maybe you first have to overcome your ego because you don’t like to show people in the gym that you can’t do pull-ups. Too bad, because you’re there for yourself. If strength and weight are no excuse not to do pull-ups, then just get started with the tips and make sure this exercise becomes part of your repertoire.