Pull-up
A guide to the fundamental upper-body strength exercise - the Pull-up.
| Main muscle worked | Back |
| Other muscle worked | Biceps |
| Equipment | Pull-up bar, Gymnastic rings |
| Mechanics type | Compound |
How to do pull-ups on a bar
- Grasp the bar with an overhand grip and begin from a dead hang (arms fully extended, about shoulder width apart).
- Pull up toward the bar by bending at the arms and clear it with your chin.
- Pause at the top of the exercise and then lower back down, under control.
- Return to the starting position and repeat.
Notes:
- Keep the movement slow and controlled at all times.
- Ensure the body is tight throughout the exercise and keep the torso straight.
- Minimise 'kipping', rocking or swaying movements for strict pull-ups.
- Pull-ups can be performed on a static bar or gymnastic rings. Using gymnastics rings for pull-ups allows the joints to track naturally due to the free rotation of the rings. Many people find rings a more preferable platform for pull-up exercises. See ring pull-up for further details.
Pull-ups guide
Pull-ups are a fundamental exercise that should form part of everyone's fitness routine.
A primal favourite - the pull-up is a functional movement that recruits multiple upper-body muscles in one swift, controlled action. The ability to pull oneself up with the arms is a standard bodyweight exercise that sadly, on average, few people can do.
The pull-up demonstrates a superior strength to bodyweight ratio. There's no surface taking any burden of your bodyweight, it's just you, the bar, and the coordinated muscular effort of your upper-body muscles to lift you up.
The pull-up is a hugely rewarding exercise and develops incredible strength, muscle definition, and builds a body that can climb and pull things toward it with ease.
Regular pull-ups will develop an athletic body, keeping bodyweight down, the waist trim but shoulders wide and full. This increases the waist to shoulder ratio which is a key factor to an attractive physique.
Pull-ups for beginners
It's not uncommon for beginners to be unable to complete a single pull-up, but don't let that deter you as you can quickly progress to full repetitions using the suggested techniques below:
Assisted pull-up exercises
A basic approach to building strength for the pull-up is to use assistance exercises which bear some of your bodyweight to make the exercise challenging, yet achievable. As you build strength you can lessen the amount of assistance until able to perform the exercise on your own.
Leg assisted pull-ups
Begin with double leg assisted pull-ups - using a bench beneath the pull-up bar to support both legs during the exercise. Use the legs as little as possible during the lift.
As you develop strength you can progress to single leg assisted pull-ups - using the same technique as doubles but only supporting one leg on the bench, the other leg hanging.
Resistance band assisted pull-ups
Using resistance bands for pull-up assistance is a cheap and effective technique to building up pull-up strength.
Resistance bands are available in various sizes and thickness to help support your body weight to make the exercise possible. Simply choke the resistance band to a pull-up bar or gymnastics rings (as shown below) and place your knee (or knees for extra support!) into the band loop.
As you get stronger you can use the lighter resistance bands for less support. Also note that you can control the amount of assistance offered by the band by altering the length. The shorter the band, the more resistance is applied. Wrap the band around the bar more times before 'choking' to control the band length.
Negative pull-up reps
Many people have great success building up to the pull-up using negative reps. Use a bench to get up to the pull-up position, or perhaps jump into the pull-up and simply practice the lowering portion of the pull-up exercise.
Psychological approach
One effective psychological approach to help with pull-ups that many people find helpful is to envisage yourself pulling the bar down to your chest, as opposed to hoisting your body to the bar.
Advanced pull-ups
If you've mastered the pull-up and looking for some advanced techniques you can try the approaches below to keep the gains coming and develop serious strength-to-bodyweight ratio.
Weighted pull-ups
Adding additional weight to pull-ups is an obvious way of increasing the intensity of the exercise. You should only try this technique when you're a seasoned pull-up practitioner and joints are suitably up to it, even then, start small and incrementally add weight as you progress.
There's a few different techniques to adding weight to the pull-up:
- A weighted vest offers a simple and versatile way of adding weight that's evenly distributed over your body.
- A dipping belt allows you to attach various weight plates for weighted pull-ups. In the Fitstream gym we have an old climbing harness that we can use which allows us to thread through Olympic weight plates or sometimes even kettlebells for intense resistance.
- You can even just hold a dumbbell, or medicine ball between your feet for a bit of added weight, but this can be tricky to control as the weight increases.
Advanced pull-up techniques
If you're really proficient at pull-ups why not try the following, more advanced exercises:
- One-arm pull-up - very few people can do single-arm pull-ups. A seriously impressive and advanced pull-up exercise and we'll be writing more on this topic soon.
- Muscle-up (see ring muscle-up) - the half dip, half pull-up exercise. Commonly performed on gymnastics rings the muscle-up is a great demonstration of both strength and technique.
Pull-up variations
There are many variations and progressions on the basic pull-up exercise to consider:
- Muscle-up: move from below the rings or bar, to above, in one smooth, controlled action. The muscle-up is an excellent, advanced functional movement.
- One-arm pull-up - pulling up with one-arm instead of two, for an incredible display of strength.
- Kipping pull-up: A CrossFit favourite, a kipping pull-up involves the use of the legs to help with the exercise, in contrast to a strict pull-up where the lower body remains engaged and static. The legs are swung backwards to build momentum, and forcefully swung forward while pulling the body up with the arms.
- Chin-ups: The biceps are worked harder during chin-ups, and are slightly easier than pull-ups, which places greater emphasis on the back muscles.
- Pull-up burpee: Try the standard burpee exercise but during the jumping portion of the movement perform a pull-up, for a complex bodyweight circuit.
Disclaimer
Always consult your GP before undertaking any form of weight loss, fitness or exercise