Photo by Richard R
When it comes to essential gym exercises, there aren’t many better than the pull-up, especially when it comes to building upper body strength. In the past and now, the number of pull-ups and push-ups a person can do has been used as a way to measure their strength by military institutions all over the world, and that’s only one of the reasons why this movement is considered a cornerstone for people that considered themselves fit.
With that said, for most beginners and especially for women, performing a pull-up (even just one) without any assistance can be extremely challenging. Typically, that’s due to bad form, lack of muscles in the upper body, or, as is the case with most women, a lower body that’s a lot stronger (and heavier) than the upper body. In this short article, we’re going to discuss how to start doing pull-ups and how to progress to weighted pull-ups if you’re already strong enough to perform multiple reps of bodyweight ones.
So if that sounds like a topic, you’d be interested to learn more about, keep on reading.
How to Start Doing Pull-Ups?
If you struggle to perform even one normal push-up, you need to slowly build strength in your back. To do that, you can start incorporating other pulling movements in your workout routine. That includes rowing (with dumbbells, barbells, or on a machine), doing lat pulldowns on the machine, and negative pull-ups with a band. In most cases, you will have to train in this manner for several months in order to build the necessary strength for doing a pull-up with no assistance. The key to success here is consistency – you won’t build muscles in a week or even a month. However, if you’re staying on top of your programming and training regularly, in a few months’ time (depending on your starting level), you should be able to do a pull-up on your own.
How Do You Progress?
If you’re already able to do pull-ups and you wonder how you can advance to the next level, you should know there are several ways to go about it.
Maximize Repetitions
One of the best ways to continue challenging yourself with pull-ups is by doing a ton of reps. You can divide them by sets of 4 or 5 and aim to go until failure in each set. That way, you will be able to build not only strength but also endurance, as your body will have to work hard to keep going, especially once you start going over ten reps at once.
Add Additional Weight
If you’re already doing multiple reps with your bodyweight and you want to make the exercise that much more challenging, the only way is to add more weight. There are several ways to do this:
- By using a weighted vest: These are sold everywhere and can vary in weight – typically from 10 to 20 kg and are ideal for pull-ups as they sit comfortably around your upper body. They are often used in functional fitness training, as they can also be used when running or jumping.
- By using a pull-up chain belt: This allows you to add more kilograms compared to the vest, but it can feel a lot more uncomfortable, as you basically have chains and plates hanging from your waist. It’s definitely recommended only if you’re very fit and you’re not challenged by the vest and require even more weight.
Regardless of which way you choose to add weight, you will find these pull-ups much harder to do, and often, people find that their grip starts to slip away. In such cases, the WBCM experts recommend using straps that help you hold on to the bar better and take away the worry about the grip so you can instead focus on actually performing the pull-up with the correct form. One of the professional athletes and authors of the Warm Body Cold Mind blog, Sergey Putsov, based on his many years of experience in sports and coaching, says “When it comes to which straps to use, the market offers several types: figure 8 straps, lasso straps, open loop straps, closed loop straps and you should choose the ones that will actually be the most comfortable, convenient and safe during your training.” Also: “To understand which type of straps is right for you, you need to try several types and determine the best type for yourself in practice,” he adds.
In Conclusion
Progressing on your pull-up journey is definitely no easy feat. Even though it’s an extremely popular movement, it’s also one of the toughest ones to do and get better at, so you have to be prepared to dedicate quite a bit of your time to improving. Along with that, you have to be open to incorporating different accessories – from weighted vests and chain belts (to make the exercise harder to do) to straps and chalk (which allow you to focus on form and help with grip).
As with everything in the gym, you shouldn’t expect quick results – building strength takes time, and you should be ready to dedicate yourself to the task. Hopefully, the information you learned from this article will help you in your journey.
