if you had to choose one fitness movement to assess a person's fitness, which one would you choose?
Some people would choose the deep squat, others would choose the bench press, but there is no denying that many people with a lot of strength and a lot of muscle mass are fitness enthusiasts who can't do many pull-ups. For many fitness enthusiasts, especially those who are heavy, there is a love/hate relationship with pull-ups, knowing that they are very effective movements, but it is difficult to do them more than once.
whether you're at the gym or in the open gym, there are always fitness enthusiasts with low body fat, very visible lines and not a lot of muscle girth who do pull-ups as if they were doing them at will. They do a dozen sets of high reps of pull-ups and want to keep doing them.
This is because they really enjoy pull-ups as it builds excellent pulling power and impressive back muscles and shows off your ability to handle body weight.
in my opinion, pull-ups are one of the best upper body solos. That's why early bodybuilders spent over 20 years doing pull-ups consistently.
There is no doubt that pull-ups are used as a benchmark for overall strength and fitness. Whether you agree or disagree, pull-ups are indeed an underrated movement, but one that is consistently praised
here are my suggestions to help you do more pull-ups quickly
5 tips for doing more pull-ups
one: Practice pull-ups
the best way to work on your pull-ups is to do them more frequently.
The more pull-ups you do, the more efficient your musculo-nervous system becomes. In other words, this exercise will be closely linked to your brain and body.
There are many different ways to practice pull-ups.
You can install a pull-up bar in your office or at home and just do one. This will go a long way to improving your strength.
another way is to add pull-ups to every workout.
Finally, perhaps the best but also the most time consuming method is to do incremental decremental sets.
Let's say you can do 7 pull-ups. Do 1, then 2, 3, 4 and 5 reps, resting between sets. Then gradually go back to 1 and repeat twice.
So it's 4x the volume in simple 1-2-3-4-5 increments.
This type of training allows you to get a lot of work done without exerting yourself. You can practice pull-ups without exhaustion. This is the key.
If you constantly go all out and train to exhaustion, you will take longer to build strength and have a greater chance of injury.
2. Weight loss
as mentioned earlier in the article very heavy people struggle to manage pull-ups and you will find that many beginners with no fitness experience can do more pull-ups than heavily muscled men. If you have a lot of body fat, the second easiest and fastest way to do more pull-ups is to lose body fat.
If you can lose 5lbs, 10lbs or 20lbs or more, then you will lose weight with each set of pull-ups as a result.
By reducing body fat, pull-ups become much easier.
This is a key reason to be good at pull-ups, if you can lose some fat then take action and start as soon as possible.
3. Do centrifugal sections or static
3. Do weighted pull-ups
when you can do 5 or more pull-ups, you can start adding weight.
This may sound crazy, but it's like a shortcut. A hard and intense shortcut!
If you start practicing 1 or 2 additional weighted pull-ups (10 lbs or more), then the self-weighted pull-ups start to feel much easier.
Your nervous system adapts quickly, so you can do more pull-ups.
Of course, you need to be safe. Don't train to exhaustion. You shouldn't keep doing them while you're struggling like crazy because it won't help you get stronger faster and could also put you at risk of injury.
4. Do centrifugal sections or static suspensions
if you can't do pull-ups then do the centrifugal part of the movement.
Use a step or bench to help you be able to grab the pull-up bar and then muscle up to bring your body down slowly.
I'm not a big fan of using latissimus dorsi machines or even elastic bands to help you with pull-ups. This is because the load is too light.
If you don't have enough strength to get off the bar, or resist the force of the descent as your body descends - maybe you're too fat, then this will be a big load on your body, in which case hang static on the bar for a few sets until you build strength and either lose weight.
Both methods will help you get to the point where you can start doing the centrifugal phase.
If you can already do pull-ups then don't just do the centrifugal phase anymore.
5. Increase your grip strength
the two fastest ways to improve your overall strength are to increase your grip strength and core strength.
If your grip strength is weak, it is as difficult as trying to drive a car with the brakes on.
This limits your strength development.
The stronger your grip, the more power your body can generate. If you have a strong grip, it's easier to pull yourself up.
Warm tip: If you train in the gym, you will find that many big fitness guys like to borrow pull-up booster bands, just to reduce the grip strength of their forearms, with the aim of reducing forearm exhaustion first, so people with poor grip strength can borrow booster bands to do this.
other tips for doing more pull-ups
while the previous 5 are the best advice for beginners, i have some other tips that i must share with you.
Hard pulls with high weights
the hard pull can can help you build grip strength and core muscles at the same time. I believe it is the undisputed king of all strength movements.
The reason why hard pulls are not mentioned above is because most people are not safe enough to do them without a coach and it is not recommended for beginners to use them without guidance.
The barbell and hard pull combination, in my opinion, is very difficult to deal with and is the more dangerous of all barbell movements.
I know a strength training instructor who had lower back surgery after a slipped disc - but has since learned how to pull hard properly. And he was also a certified instructor and was also subject to injury.
The more weight you pull hard, the easier the pull-ups will be. For most people, it's not worth it. The risk is too great.
recruiting the latissimus dorsi muscle
some people have difficulty getting the latissimus dorsi muscles involved in the movement, or the muscles on the side of the body below the armpits to move.
If your latissimus dorsi muscles struggle to have tension above them when doing movements, you should activate them before doing pull-ups. This will help a lot.
You can do straight arm pulldowns to help activate the latissimus dorsi, or you can grab the latissimus dorsi and poke them to stimulate the muscle fibres.
Remember that when you start pull-ups, the first movement should be to depress or lower your shoulders, not to try to bend your arms, as bending your arms is the second step.
Use a grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width
there are many different pull-up variations you can do.
Reverse grip pull-ups mean that your palm is facing your body, rather than your back as in a forward grip. The forward grip is harder than the reverse grip because the biceps are less active.
The wider the grip, the more difficult it is to generate upward force to pull your body up.
If you use a slightly wider grip than shoulder width, you will be able to pull your body upwards onto the barbell more effectively. This is like why a reverse bicep curl (palms facing out) is harder than a standard bicep curl.
if you really want to start doing more pull-ups, remember that muscle extension is necessary.
Be sure to stretch your latissimus dorsi and keep your shoulders active.
Enjoy the pull-ups and remember to be patient. As with everything else, if you keep at it, you will get better and better.
