Goal of the Week: Performing Proper Pull Up

Types of Pull Ups

PULL UP is when your hands are facing away from you. This will work your back and biceps.
CHIN UP is when your hands are facing towards you. Although this also works your back, it has more emphasis on your biceps.
The pull-up is a great strength-building exercise. In just one pull-up, your body calls upon the following muscles:
• Fingers
• Forearms
• Biceps
• Triceps
• Shoulders
• Back
• Core

Grab a bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width, with your hands facing away from you. Hang all the way down. Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar. Slight pause, then lower yourself all the way back down. Go up, and really concentrate on isolating your back and biceps. Don’t swing!

Once you can do a single pull up, work on doing them in sets. Do one pull up, then wait a minute or two and do another one. Then wait a few more minutes and do another one. A few days later, try to do two in a row, and do a few sets of two. You need to start somewhere, but as soon as you can do one, you can find a way to do two. After that, find a way to do three, and so on. Remember don’t cheat yourself by only going halfway down and not going all the way up. Straighten your arms out at the bottom, and get your chin over the bar!

HELP WITH PULL UPS
Assisted Pull Ups with chair – (either one foot or two depending on your needs) – your feet are ONLY there for support, use your upper body as much as possible.
Assisted Pull Ups with Resistance Band– (you can get different types of exercise bands with different levels of strength). Put your foot in the exercise band and pull yourself up.
Assisted pull ups with a partner – (have a friend hold your feet behind you and help you complete each rep). Have your friend use the least amount of help possible to get you through your workouts.
Pull Up Tips
Now, let’s say you don’t have a rubber band, you don’t have somebody to hold your feet, and you don’t have a chair – you ONLY have a pull up bar. That’s okay – you can do what we call negatives. When doing a negative, you jump above the bar and try to lower yourself slowly and in control until you’re at the bottom of the movement. Also try just holding in the pull position for as long as you can, until you continue to build your strength. Start with 20-30 seconds and then keep building on that.
It’s all about strength. And strength will come if you keep working at it. That’s the 1 thing you must keep in mind all the time: the only way to get good at Pull-ups, is to do Pull-ups and lots of them.
*While taking on this process, be sure to be training your back with other exercises such as DB Rows, Body Weighted Inverted Rows (on the Rings, Bar, or TRX), then proceed to other helpful tools such as the resistance bands.
If you currently can only do one pull-up, start out by doing 12 sets of 1 pull-up with a 45 second break between sets. Do the routine two times a week. Once you can do two pull-ups, begin this routine:
Week 1: 8 Pull Up Iso Holds for 30-40 seconds with 1 minute break. Twice a week.
Week 2: 6 sets of 2 reps. 45 second break in between sets. Twice a week.
Week 3: 5 sets of 3 reps. Twice a week.
Week 4: 4 Sets of 4 reps. Twice a week.
Week 5: 3 Sets of 6 reps. Twice a week. If you’re able to do more, go ahead.