Pull up or shut up.

There is an exercise that I see far too many folks not giving the proper attention it deserves, or even disregarding it completely. The pull-up.

Pull-ups are the classic back builder, and have been for decades (centuries?). In such a simple movement, you activate almost every muscle in your upper body:  grip strength (hands), forearms, biceps/brachialis, traps, lats, lower back, and abdominals. You get so much bang for your buck I would be tempted to call this “the bench press of the back.” As in- this is a movement you should be putting real focus on and performing early on in your training that day- before any isolation movements or direct arm work.

Step 1 – Okay, so I know I bring my chin above the bar. But… How do I actually do a pull-up?

Use an overhand grip- palms facing out. The area for pull-ups will vary from gym to gym obviously. My gym has these thick bars on top of the set of tables with loose rubber on them for “grip.” I hate these. I really prefer doing pull-ups on a simple knurled, straight bar. Believe it or not, I put the bar on the Smith machine all the way up, lock it, and use that for my pull-ups. It’s just comfortable.

It’s okay to use straps. I don’t think any of us are doing powerlifting competitions anytime soon. We’re in the gym to work our back, not our grip strength. Your grip on your tiny fingers will obviously fail before your massive lats do, so, why not? I recommend doing some grip work later in the lift to keep yourself balanced (Kroc rows), but, for pull-ups I prefer to use the straps.

Grip the bar about shoulder width. Too wide can put excess pressure on your shoulders. Too narrow and you’re limiting the muscles you recruit to do the movement.

 

Focus on using your lats, NOT your biceps or forearms. A good mental cue here is to pull with your elbows. Think about driving your elbows downward, almost like you’re trying to hit a guy in the head that’s trying to grab you from below.

Scapular retraction. I’ve talked about this in a previous article, pull your shoulder blades together- back and down.

Pull your chest up towards the bar, get your chin over the bar, and control yourself on the way down.

Step 2 – How do you program them?

For a long time, I understood the value of pull-ups, but I just couldn't get over sets of 10. I even got up to 5 sets of 10… but I just couldn't get over that hump. Maybe 12 on my first set, but that was IT. This is very, very common. Two months ago I decided I was going to attack this movement and started reading up, reaching out to trainers, and strategizing.

My first step was to lean out a little. 5’10 225 was not a good look when trying to pull my bodyweight up.

The real revelation came when I purchased a dip belt and started doing weighted pull-ups.  Honestly, if I wanted to get stronger (aka, do more), why was I training the exercise utilizing the same exact weight every week, every rep? It makes no sense. If I want to build a big bench, should I just pop on 135 and try to do more reps each week? No, I should load a few plates on and toss some heavier iron around, increasing each working set.

Lately I've been on a big 15-15-12-8-6 kick in terms of how I do my rep schemes for compound movements. So I figured I would do something similar. For the first two sets, I would do as many pull-ups as I possibly could with bodyweight and then cheat my way to a few extra using my legs for pumping power at the bottom.

Aside: doing an actual pull-up, and cheating using leg pump, resistance bands, or jump/negatives, is INFINITELY more effective at improving your pull-up than doing lat pulldowns or the assisted pull-up machine. With lat pulldowns, they do have their place. However, doing the movement sitting down completely removes the lower back, abs, and stabilizers from the movement. No bueno. The Assisted pull-up machine keeps helping you throughout the movement while realistically you probably only need a little kick in the ass at the bottom. You read last week about cheating- it’s OK to do it on this movement to bang out a few extras. Pumping legs or wrapping a resistance band are options.. another option to push past failure if you are completely spent is to simply JUMP to the pull-up position and do a slow, tight negative on the movement.

From there, I’d simply at a 10 pound plate on my belt, and try to get within 2-3 of my first two sets.

Then another 10 pound plate, dropping the reps another 3 or so.

For the last set, I’d really overload it and do 3-5 reps.

With this said, I was starting in a decent spot. Being able to do 10-12 bodyweight pull-ups is OK, but maybe you can only do 5. Well that’s okay too. I still recommend that you add some weight, cheat a little if you need to, and really struggle with it. Do 2 or 3 at a time if you need to, rest a little, then grind out a few more. Follow a rep scheme similar to the 15 15 12 8 6, and just break the sets up with mini-rest periods. There are a lot of ways to attack it, but step 1 is to add some damn weight. If your gym doesn't have a  dip belt, or you don’t want to spring for one, you can even just hold a weight in between your sneakers or thighs.

For me, it seemed futile at first. Struggling to do a set of 5 pull-ups with a 35 lb plate around my waist. However, 8 weeks later, today my scheme was…

15 Bodyweight

12 (+3 cheating) 25lb

10 (+2 cheating) 25lb

6 (+2 cheating) 35lb

4 (+1 cheating) 45lb… then I took the belt off and banged out 12 bodyweight right after. So, on my fifth set, AFTER 4 pull-ups with 45 lb, I was able to do better than my first set from 8 weeks ago.

This doesn’t make me the best pull-up artist in the world but I was damn proud of my progress in such a short time. For cheating, that means a little leg pump at the bottom to help get me out of the hole.

In addition to all of this, aesthetically, I am seeing my back get wider and thicker, and I feel I’m getting better back days overall.

In short… take pull-ups seriously. Use good form. Add weight. Grow wings.

If you'd like to read further on the subject, here's a great T-Nation article: Take your Pull-ups to the Next Level.