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How to Do a Proper Pull Up, and Why You Need to Do Them

Published on 07/31/2009 - 25 comments!

UPDATE: I’ve written an updated article on “how to do a pull up” that is a must read.

So you want to do a pull up, eh?
wrk_pullups

When many people think of fitness and the gym, they picture meat-heads doing countless arm curls, staring at themselves in the mirror.  Sounds about right to me.  As I stated in a previous blog, I have yet to see a single person in my gym do a deadlift, and I’ve probably only seen a handful of people (in a year and a half) doing legitimate pull ups.  As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not doing deadlifts, squats (going all the way down to parallel!), and pull ups and you want to “build muscle,” you’re just wasting your time.

When preparing for their roles in the movie 300, all the actors went to train with Mark Twight, who had them train by emphasizing “athleticism by combining compound movements, lifting, and throwing. Primitive tools – medicine balls, Kettlebells, rings – were used instead of machines. Each session was competitive, with a penalty-reward system tied to performance and results posted daily for all to see.”

Appearance is a consequence of fitness

That’s right, these guys weren’t training to have bulging biceps and chiseled abs.  Their motto, “appearance is a consequence of fitness,” meant that these guys worked on getting in the best shape possible – doing deadlifts, running sprints, Olympic ring push ups, doing pull ups until their arms fell off, etc. – and then doing it all over again.  This type of training really struck a chord with me, because I’ve always been fascinated with turning myself into an absolute machine; if I happen to look good as a side effect, awesome.  There’s a reason you need to do 50 pull ups to complete the 300 challenge: only the fitness elite can attempt such a thing.

You can read Mark’s article on 300 training here. It’s fascinating and highly recommended.

Proper Pull Ups

Personally, I believe pull ups are one of the most important exercises in a routine and I recommend them to anybody that comes to me for advice.  Forget bicep curls; show me a guy who can do 25 pull ups and 25 chin ups and there’s no WAY his arms aren’t well-developed.

Find a bar that will support your weight, anywhere. I don’t care. Just find one. If you have a gym membership there will be pull up bars all over the place.  At your house you might have “the perfect pull up” in your door way.  If you have neither of these things, find a local playground and use their monkey bars.  This is one piece of equipment that NEEDS to be in your arsenal, so find a way to get one.  No excuses, play like a champion.

  • A PULL UP is when your hands are facing away from you.  This will work your back and biceps.
  • A CHIN UP is when your hands are facing towards you.  Although this also works your back, it has more emphasis on your biceps.

Grab a bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width, with your hands facing away from you.  Hang all the way down.  Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar.  Slight pause  Lower yourself all the way back down.  Go up, and really concentrate on isolating your back and biceps.  Don’t swing!

Once you can do a single pull up, work on doing them in sets. Do one pull up, then wait a minute or two and do another one.  Then wait a few more minutes and do another one.  A few days later, try to do two in a row, and do a few sets of two.  You need to start somewhere, but as soon as you can do one, you can find a way to do two.  After that, find a way to do three, and so on.  Remember, don’t cheat yourself by only going halfway down and not going all the way up.  Straighten your arms out at the bottom, and get your chin over the bar!

Want big biceps? Do close-grip chin ups.  I guarantee if you’re banging out 3 sets of 12 at the gym, maybe even hanging some weight around your waist, your arms will be built like cannons.

Remember, appearance is a consequence of fitness.  Pull ups are a true test to somebody’s level of fitness, so where do you fit in?  For those of you who follow the blog, you know my obsession with Ninja Warrior on G4tv.  Here’s a video of a guy on stage 3, which is extremely back-intensive.  I guarantee this guy trains like crazy and as a result has one of the most chiseled frames I’ve ever seen:


Ninja Warrior Stage 3

Happy Friday!

-Steve

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  • Christopher

    Hello,
    I do 3 sets of pullups and 3 sets of chinups Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I think I am doing them correctly, but I don’t feel it too much in my back while I’m doing them and after I get through doing them. I go all the way up until my chin is over the bar, and I do as many as I can with each set, but I don’t feel it too much in my back, except maybe the back of my shoulders, and was wondering why. Thank you.

  • Christopher

    Hello,
    I do 3 sets of pullups and 3 sets of chinups Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I think I am doing them correctly, but I don’t feel it too much in my back while I’m doing them and after I get through doing them. I go all the way up until my chin is over the bar, and I do as many as I can with each set, but I don’t feel it too much in my back, except maybe the back of my shoulders, and was wondering why. Thank you.

  • http://www.nerdfitness.com/ Steve

    Hey Chris,

    Hmmm, how many reps can you do in each set? If you can do more than 3 sets of 10, I’d try adding some weight to make it tougher for ya and build more muscle: try a backpack with some weights in it. If you’re cranking out sets of pull ups and chin ups, your back must already be extremely strong. Shoot me an email at Steve@nerdfitness.com and I’ll gladly help you with more info!

    -Steve

  • http://www.nerdfitness.com Steve

    Hey Chris,

    Hmmm, how many reps can you do in each set? If you can do more than 3 sets of 10, I’d try adding some weight to make it tougher for ya and build more muscle: try a backpack with some weights in it. If you’re cranking out sets of pull ups and chin ups, your back must already be extremely strong. Shoot me an email at Steve@nerdfitness.com and I’ll gladly help you with more info!

    -Steve

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  • Simon

    Hi, i’d just like to say what a great article this is (and website to be fair) I’m not the fittest guy in the world, but i’ve long time been a fan of compound exercises (squats, deads, etc) in addition to this article, if you want a modern example of appearance being a consequence of fitness, just look at male gymnasts, they have massive arms and I guarantee you a large part of their training is pulls up and compounds :)

    Also to any guys reading this who think they are too big, too unfit or any other such thoughts, I dropped from a 40″ waist to a 36″ in 3-4 months, i’m now doing 3×5 pulls and chins and I did all this by starting slow, doing what i could and building on it, yes it takes time, but it is do-able

  • Simon

    Hi, i’d just like to say what a great article this is (and website to be fair) I’m not the fittest guy in the world, but i’ve long time been a fan of compound exercises (squats, deads, etc) in addition to this article, if you want a modern example of appearance being a consequence of fitness, just look at male gymnasts, they have massive arms and I guarantee you a large part of their training is pulls up and compounds :)

    Also to any guys reading this who think they are too big, too unfit or any other such thoughts, I dropped from a 40″ waist to a 36″ in 3-4 months, i’m now doing 3×5 pulls and chins and I did all this by starting slow, doing what i could and building on it, yes it takes time, but it is do-able

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  • Robert

    Chances are you're letting your shoulders come forward during the movement and your traps to rise up. This puts the movement almost exclusively on your arms. This is what 99.9% of people in any gym anywhere do when they are doing pullups or chinups. This is because they do not have strong enough lower traps/midtraps/rhomboids/rear delts to keep their shoulders back and down and to pull their chest to the bar. Chin-ups ought to be called Chest-ups to encourage proper form. Next time you go to the gym, ignore pullups and chinups. Go to the lat pull down station. Start with a very very low weight. Grab the bar initially, now retract your shoulder blades down and back, do this with your arms straight, elbows locked. From that position, pull the bar down to your clavicle, all the while keeping your shoulder blades locked down and back. you should feel as if you're pushing your chest out to meet the bar. Doing this will properly engage the muscles of the back. Once you can up your lbage in this movement, try to do actually pull-ups using this technique (it'll be a month or so before you can try this.)

  • Robert

    Or, as I pointed out, his arms could be very strong, and his back could be very weak, so he's overcompensating. A lot of people have a very hard time properly activating their back musculature. As simple as it sounds, I would guess that this is in large part because they cannot see these muscles. It makes sense if you think about it, it is easier to flex a muscle harder when you can see it in a mirror (hence all the mirrors in gyms). As I explained in my above reply, 99.9% of people do chin-ups and pull-ups horribly wrong and make them almost exclusively an arm exercise. Adding more weight to improper movements is not the solution to activating a muscle, learning proper movement patterns is.

  • NerdFitness

    Great point Robert – I'll shoot an email out to Robert in case he didn't see your responses. Thanks for chiming in!

    -Steve

  • NerdFitness

    Simon, that's a great story man! Congrats on your success :)

    -Steve

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  • http://doorwaypullupbar.info Doorway Pull Up Bar

    Pull-ups have always been my weakness. The Pull-Up Bar seems very versatile for a full-upper body work-out. great price too ;)

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  • Alex

    Hi Steve! Would you recommend chin-ups and pull-ups for women as well? 

  • Matt

    I don’t know if Steve will reply to this as it’s a fairly old article tbh, but I can guarantee that he would recommend pull-ups and chin-ups for everybody! I’m no expert (not sure I can even do a pull-up myself yet!) but you’ll get this impression after reading just a few of his atricles! :P Hope this helps!

  • http://twitter.com/tinyinkling Anne Speck

    Hiya — just wanted to let you know the new link for the 300 workout — looks like the Gym Jones/ Mark Twight site has been reorganized: 
    http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge/article/3/

  • C

    As a woman who does chin-ups and pull-ups I can recommend them. Women typically have a harder time building upper body strength and our center of gravity tends to be lower so this exercise is really difficult, but totally worth it.
    If you are a female and can do sets of five or more you are in great shape. I did use the assist machine and lat pull-down to train the muscles. If you don’t have access, jump up to the bar; hold and lower yourself slowly, training in reverse chin-ups/pull-ups. Chin-ups tend to be easier of the two.

  • Dave

    I am just starting out, and am a big guy out of shape.  I cant do one pull up or chin up yet.  How do I build to that point?  

  • Mark Jones

     hey dave.  this is the link to an article he wrote a few years ago.  if you cant do one yet, work your back muscles until you can!

    http://www.nerdfitness.com/2011/04/25/do-a-pull-up/

  • Travis

    How do you feel about behind-the-neck pullups? I’ve heard that they’re bad for shoulders/neck but I can do them no problem and feel that I’m working my back more as opposed to mostly my arms and shoulders when I perform normal pullups.

    (If it makes a difference I am pretty proficient at regular pullups- 10 or so at a time is doable)

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/MUCJGS3PD4BQXPQAR2SCXHJXQE Banjo

    Most of the reason women “can’t” do pullups is because 99% of women have never trained their upper bodies. Of course, women naturally don’t build upper body muscle as well as men (they don’t anywhere, though), but I’ve seen women do sets of pullups with 25 pounds strapped to them… and these women didn’t look like bodybuilders.

    Do pullups, or assisted pullups, or inverted rows. Whatever you can!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/MUCJGS3PD4BQXPQAR2SCXHJXQE Banjo

    You likely just have a stronger back, so they are dominating the exercise.
    In order to get more out of your arms, underhand chinups will work them more. Also, try mixed grip. Or, if you want to struggle, do towel pullups.

  • Daniel Brady

    You say appearance is the consequence of fitness.  I’m confused though, I think my strength is good compared to my body weight since I’m smallish but I lift the same as the big guys at the gym.  I’m confused why I am not as big as them since I lift just as much.

    I expect to surpass their lifts pretty soon, but I’m sure I’ll still be 20kg less than them.  I’m guessing the difference is that they’ve been lifting for longer than me and consistency is what gave them the muscles, but maybe I’ve been training harder and smarter so have reached the same lifts as them in less time but not enough time to get big muscles.

    Any opinion?

  • Onelex3gz

    I am a veteran, I have always been running for years and I had an ankle replacement done in may, 2012 and I didn’t know how to start doing anything else. Its going on a year and i have put on about 30 plus lbs. I am going to try these chin ups and pull ups. i want to get back to my normal weight and decent looking body. If there is any other type of exercise I can do with out using my legs? Thank you.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dick.vanviegen Dick van Viegen

    Ever considered checking what kind of bodytype you have? I’m no expert on the theory, but I myself am endomorphic, meaning I store fat more easily, but as a consequence also build muscle (and so look bigger) more easily. Don’t know if this’ll help, but here’s a wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatotype_and_constitutional_psychology

    Cheers!

  • Cookz

    Video is private :(

  • Will

    Great article.. working abroad for the next 6 weeks and have been put in a “lad pad” which contains a bar :) Im looking to build strong arms while working on my core/shoulders.

    A couple of questions if I can -

    1) Is it redundant to perform pull-ups/chin-ups both wide gripped and narrow gripped?
    2) I understand having legs at 90 degrees to your body works the abs – is this true and does it require the leg to be straight or bent at the knee?

    Thanks in advance.