Work Your Way To A Full Pull-Up With These Tricks

Pull-ups are a functional bodyweight exercise that are great for building upper-body strength and engaging multiple muscle groups at once, however, they are hard to learn how to do.

Mastering a strict bodyweight pull-up is an incredible goal for anyone, and with practice, commitment and a couple of clever training techniques, you can definitely achieve it.

How to do a proper pull-up with perfect form

Before we get to the tips and tricks, let’s go through a quick step-by-step of how to do a pull-up with correct form to make sure you reap the full benefits of this powerful exercise.

1. Start by standing directly below a pull-up bar. Place your hands in an overhand grip (palms facing away from your body) with your hands slightly further than shoulder-width apart. Given the bar should be slightly out of reach, you may feel comfortable jumping up to grab it or you can place a box slightly in front of the bar, stand on it and hold the bar before stepping off the box.

2. Once you’re hanging from the bar, engage your core by drawing your belly button in towards your spine. Think about pulling your shoulders back and down away from your ears.

3. Engaging the muscles in your arms and back, bend your elbows and pull your body up toward the bar until your chin is over the bar and the bar is near your collarbones. You can imagine bringing your elbows toward your hips if that makes the movement easier. As you move, avoid swinging your legs around or shrugging your shoulders up towards your ears. You want to make sure your shoulder blades remain back and down throughout the exercise.

4. Extend your elbows and lower your body back down to the hanging position. Repeat.

5. When you finish your last rep, you can either drop to land softly on the floor or step back onto the box behind you.

If you find yourself hanging from the bar and thinking, there is no way I can pull myself up, that is totally OK and very common. Mastering a strict pull-up straight off the bat isn’t something many people can do, even those who regularly include strength training in their routine. Think about it - you’re literally lifting the weight of your entire body. That ain’t easy!

No matter how close or far you are from being able to complete a pull-up, there are several pull-up modifications and training tricks that will meet you where you’re at and help you progress to be able to tick off that final goal.

Pull-up exercises: Here’s how to train for pull-ups

If completing push-ups on your toes is too hard, you drop to your knees for an easier modification as you build your strength, and your approach to pull-ups should be no different. Try these four pull-up variations to work on your strength and progress towards mastering this challenging exercise.

Kayla Itsines has demonstrated several of these movements in the video above with a chin-up grip where your hands are facing towards your face as opposed to a pull-up grip where your hands are facing away from your body, but the exercises remain the same regardless of your grip!

Assisted pull-ups with a resistance band

One way to get the hang of your pull-up technique and build your strength without using your full bodyweight to use a resistance band. Start by looping the resistance band around the pull-up bar so that one end is secured around the bar, and place your foot in the loop at the bottom. You can then perform the movement as normal, but the band will reduce the resistance and allow you to pull your body up with greater ease.

The thicker the resistance band, the easier the movement will be. Once you’ve mastered the pull-up with a certain band thickness, gradually start to use thinner bands each time.

Although some people can progress from a thin band straight to a strict pull-up, Kayla says that most people need to work on these three other strengthening exercises without a resistance band.

Isometric holds

An isometric hold on the pull-up bar involves jumping up to the top of the movement so your head is above the bar and your chest is against it, rather than pulling yourself up from a straight-arm hang. You can either jump up from the ground or use a box. Once you’re there, hold onto the bar in that position for as long as you can. Repeat this hold three times as part of your strength training routine.

Negative pull-ups

To do a negative pull-up, place your hands in an overhand grip just wider than shoulder-width apart. Use a box or sturdy chair to jump up to the top of the pull-up movement so that your chest is touching the bar. Then, slowly lower your body down with control until your arms are fully extended. Let go of the bar to land softly on the floor, then repeat.

This movement still builds strength in the same muscles, but is a modified movement that’s more beginner-friendly. Add negative pull-ups to your exercise routine by performing these in three sets of 8-12, making sure you take a break in between each set.

Pull-up shrugs or scapular pull-ups

This variation is all about strengthening your shoulders, lats and traps. From a full dead hang position with your arms extended, raise your body slightly as if you were shrugging your shoulders down and back. Your arms remain straight during each shrug and the movement is coming from your back and shoulders. Keep your gaze slightly up, not down at the floor.

Commit to a strength training program

Aside from these pull-up-specific exercises, it’s also going to work in your favour to follow a strength training program. Pull-ups require strength in your arms, back, chest and core, and working on your holistic strength with a range of different exercises will make a big difference to your pull-up game.

Practice makes perfect

There are plenty of resistance exercises like pull-ups that are tricky to master, especially if you are new to strength training. But you shouldn’t feel discouraged from doing them if you’re not quite there yet — everyone was a beginner once and there are plenty of variations available to suit your skill level.

Whether you’re just starting to work out or you’ve been exercising for a long time, pull-ups are a great movement to add to your routine and there are so many ways to begin. Remember, we all start from somewhere and building up confidence and strength takes time!

The trick to learning how to do a pull-up and progressing to more challenging exercises is simply to give it a go, and progress towards a full pull-up with easier variations.