Alright so this particular workout we will talk about today is the “pull up” and the different combinations of pull ups, and what it takes in order to do a pull up, because it is a bit more than what meets the eye. In today’s fitness world, being able to do a pull up without assistance is a huge milestone and one that many people want to show off (instagram, facebook, youtube, at the gym, etc). This particular exercise isn’t easy and it takes patience and practice like any other exercise but it also takes building the right muscles in order to lift your body weight. I was one that didn’t know how to do a pull up; about 8 months ago and for me it was my lack of strength and not working on the muscles needed in order to do one. Today I am totally capable of doing a pull-up, but for those of you who do them on a more regular basis, you are capable of doing many more than I and with attached weight plates (advanced). I highly recommend for beginners that you don’t go adding unnecessary weight to this already difficult exercise and that you focus on the movement at hand. There are many variations of pull-ups and many ways that you can challenge yourself in order to increase your skill level. For those of you who may already know how to perform a proper pull up, you may offer more advice to those who want to learn, and feel free to do so in my comment section.
The traditional pull-up movement steps:
- Grab the pull bar with palms facing forward (wide grip, close grip, medium grip) for this one be in your medium grip (hands spaced out at shoulder width apart)
- With both hands extended in front of you at a chosen grip, bring your torso back around 30 degrees,
- Pull your torso up until the bar touches your upper chest while drawing the shoulders and upper arms down and back. Only the arms should move and the back should stay stationary, you will be exhaling during this movement
- after a second of being in the contracted position, start to inhale and slowly lower your torso back to the starting position when arms are full extended and the lats are fully stretched.
- Repeat this movement for the prescribed repetitions.
- Timed hangs, I would recommend to hang for 10 to 15 seconds with arms and legs straight (off the ground) for a repeated amount of times.
- Dumbbell holds (for beginners), I would recommend holding dumbbells for 30 seconds at your side, if you come to realize you cannot hold the amount of weight for 30 seconds, then decrease your load and rest for 60 seconds and repeat the hold
- Planks (because it is a total body exercise and helps with stabilization) not to mention you are holding your own body weight.
- Push ups-Once again you are working with your own body weight and helps strengthen the chest, shoulders and arms.
- Weighted pull up
- Muscle ups
- Around the world pull ups
- Clapping pull ups – yes people do these on youtube, and it is very cool, but again.. no one needs to go to these extremes in order to make a point.
- One arm pull up
- Parallel pull up
- Cliffhanger pull ups
- Towel pull ups
- Wide grip pull up
- chin up/ underhand pull up
- Kipping pull up
- Close grip pull up
- pull up with alternating knee twist
- pull up with leg raise
- Multi-joint exercise
- convenient
- different variations
- improves grip strength
- strengthens the lats, back, biceps, shoulders, and the abdominal area.
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Very nice! Hm, I was expecting you to share with all of us your pull up variations 😛 lmao
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I got a video coming soon of me doing pull ups but I learned how to do pull ups with my own body weight. I used the assisted pull up machine until I was able to do them on my own.
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I thought you might had already posted a video in the past! Didn’t mean for you to share your secret video coming soon to a place near me! LOL. I need to post videos of me working out period, once I get permission from my gym to videotape me doing so.
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I’m not the best at pull-ups but have you seen Marisa Inda do them? It’s pretty insane! They also have competitions and what not for what looks like jungle gym gymnastics. It blows my mind what some people can do.
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No. I had no idea about the competitions and I have not seen her demonstrate them. I will have a look, I always find it quite entertaining and obviously amazing the different variations people are capable of doing. Definitely something I wish I could do someday 🙂
Shay-lon
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Great post!! The pull up is one of the greatest muscle building exercises in existence, which is precisely why it’s been labeled the upper body squat. A pullup is what is classified as a closed kinetic chain (CKC) exercise (your effort moves you, rather than an open kinetic chain where your effort moves an object), CKC exercises are able to build functional strength because they train the body to move its own weight, a prerequisite for almost any real world event. This exercise measures your strength to weight ratio better than almost any other exercise known to man. Lat pulldowns wont even come close to comparing. Research has shown that whenever you move your body through space the level of neuromuscular activation is dramatically higher.
While teaching my clients the pull up I work on the eccentric portion of the lift, (eccentric = lengthening) the lowering phase. You are roughly 40% stronger eccentrically, what this means is you may be able to lower under control for 4 or 5 reps and still not pull up. In my experience, once you can do around 7 eccentric lifts with good technique you would have developed enough strength to perform a full (up and down) pull up.
My tip for this exercise is to pull your shoulder blades down and lock your shoulders into their sockets prior to lifting. This will ensure that the stress will be placed directly on the muscles and not the tendons and ligaments. Many people start in the dead hang position with their scapula elevated and their shoulders touching their ears. This is risky and incorrect. Go from straight, to chin over the bar, or touch the chest if you can and lower fully down, try it that way, it’s called the right way! and please, NO KIPPING!!
please follow me https://thinkfitnessjg.wordpress.com for an educated approach to all things fitness.
thanks
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Hey I appreciate the information you decided to share. I have my degree in exercise science and also intern regularly, so I feel as though my information may not be 100 percent by the bible for every trainer or coach but when I learn from others I implement it in writing, and of course many other fitness professionals may agree to disagree; which is why blogging is fun, because it engages everyone on a particular discussion. I think people would love to hear what you have to say but I do believe my post was fun and educational. I try to not boast about the science of things because the majority of my audience would not understand and it would not be how I would talk with my clients. Everyone has their own way of teaching things, no matter the subject matter. While you may go more in depth about pull ups, I am okay with staying on the surface and allowing people to ask me questions.. because I am more than confident in being able to answer them. I think the problem with the fitness industry, is there is too many people who want to be “right”. I personally find your information right on the spot, but I wouldn’t personally talk about the pull up in the way you do unless I was talking to someone in my field. I do however, appreciate you stopping by my blog page and sharing your information with me and all of my followers! I will have a look at your page 😀
Shay-lon
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Also, Always feel welcome to correct my wrongs or agree to disagree with anything I say! I love it and I love networking with other fitness professionals as well! so I am always up for learning from others like yourself. Don’t take offense to my last comment, I was just explaining why my post didn’t go into the same detail as your comment in case you didn’t like the information I supplied.. oops 😛 But I am a very cool person, so you are always welcome to my page! and I will always consider and respect your feedback 😀 Thank you again! have a wonderful weekend.
Shay-lon
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Hey, I haven’t taken offense in the slightest. I wasn’t disagreeing with what you wrote, I like it. I don’t see it as “boasting” about science, I teach / educate trainers through courses and seminars etc, and adapt my conversation to suit my audience, I feel its important for trainers to talk to each other anatomically or with the ‘scientific’ terms, if you don’t use it you lose it however, like you said, I wouldn’t talk to my clients this way unless they are interested in learning. Having said this, they do know what I mean when I talk about eccentric movements, I guess we all have our ways? keep up the good work and enjoy your weekend also.
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Alright! no, I wanted to make sure you weren’t getting the wrong idea, no offended by my post. I love what you do in order to help the community, that is awesome that my post attracted another fitness professional! love when it happens. I do appreciate your feedback and the information that you took the time to share with myself and others, I am sure more than enough people will be checking out your page for more information! Also, you are right we all do have our ways in teaching things, your way is more established because you have been in the business longer than us “rookies” starting out, so you have a more elegant way of explaining things that give people more information, where myself I tend to skim the surface because I feel as though I can never explain things where people can understand it takes me too long to reword it! LOL. So with your teachings , you have mastered in communicating things to people and more broad scope of people than I am sure I am able to on wordpress, so much respect 😀
Shay-lon
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This is very kind shay-lon. I enjoy interacting with other fitness professionals also! keep doing what you are doing, I think your work is great. To be honest I probably go a little to deep when talking about exercise, I mainly train other fitness professionals and find it easier conveying my message to other trainers, like yourself. You are able to appeal / communicate to a way larger audience, this in itself is very impressive. between the two of us we should have everyone covered! x
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Haha! Indeed.
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