You’ve been diligently working hard, running through countless pushups, body squats, situps, you sprint your lungs out, your muscles burn, and you feel in pretty good shape, but things don’t seem to be getting lighter, and you still have trouble climbing trees (you are climbing trees, right?) The missing link is sheer strength. As I’ve discussed before, strength is one of the key components of health, as it enables your body to hold its own weight more effectively and to take the wear and tear of your daily life with less detriment. So, today we’re looking at the foundation of bodyweight strength-building: the pullup.
The concept behind the pullup is simple. From a dead hang (arms fully extended), pull yourself up to a bar (or ledge, tree limb) to clear your chin. Few people can actually do a nice clean pullup. It is undertrained, even among gym rats and jocks. But if you ever find yourself hanging for dear life off the edge of a cliff, you had better hope you can do one.
Equipment
This is one of very few bodyweight movements that requires some equipment. Sturdy pullup bars can be bought and installed on most doorframes (link to the one I used for a while). Some weight machines have horizontal grips at the tops that go unused but which are in fact meant for pullups. Tree limbs work well if you’re near a park (caution, this really does a number on your hands until you’re used to it). You can do angled pullups (see below) using a door knob and a towel looped around.
Scaling it Back
One thing I don’t recommend is doing pullups on a pullup assist machine, unless you literally have no other option. It really isn’t the same motion, nor does it work your muscles in the same way. There was a time when I was under the impression that it would help me, and I could do twelve assisted pullups on the machine, with little assistance, but not even a single normal pullup. If you do decide to use one, be diligent about lowering the assist weight pretty aggressively. If you can do more than 5 at a specific weight, it’s time to increase the difficulty.
Angle
Like pushups, pullups can be made easier by reducing the angle at which you do the exercise. Find a tall vertical pole, place your feet at its base, hold on to it at about chest height, and lean back, extending your arms. Then, pull yourself back up. Try to work up to 3 sets of 10 reps. If you can find a low bar, you can also do modified bodyweight rows.
Grip
Technically, it’s only a pullup if your palms are facing away from you on the bar. If they are facing towards you, it’s a chin-up, which is easier. So start with chin-ups, but start doing pullups ASAP because they are much more useful, and harder.
Jumping
Another way to make it easier is to jump up to the bar. As you get better at this, try to hop less and less. Try for 3 sets of 5-10 reps.
Negative Pullups
Once you’ve jumped up to the bar and cleared your chin, lower yourself all the way to full extension as slowly as possible. This will work the same muscles involved in the pullup and will help build the strength necessary to actually counteract (instead of simply slow) gravity. Once you can do 5-10 of these in a row without just dropping, start trying to pull yourself back up at the bottom.
Kipping Pullups
This is actually pretty technically difficult, but kipping pullups reduce the load on your shoulders by using the momentum of a hip swing. By doing enough of these, you will eventually develop the strength to do a strict pullup. Here’s a short clip with some slow-downs of how to do it:
Making it Harder
Once you can do 5 of the standard strict chin-up (palms facing you), turn your palms out, but keep the width about the same (or slightly wider if that’s comfortable). Extremely wide grip pullups, ostensibly used to really work your lats, are functionally pointless and put a lot of potentially damaging stress on the shoulders.
L-sit pullups are another option, or pullups with your knees bent. You can also do pullups holding on to towels or odd objects.
Or you can hang weights from your waist.
Programming
If you have a day set aside for strength work, that is a good time to train pullups. Doing 3 sets of 5-10 reps, depending on your difficulty level, is a great way to build up to the strength needed to incorporate them into other workouts. If you don’t have a day set aside specifically for strength training, you can do pullup practice just before your metcon workout. It’s generally better to do it before, rather than after, since metcon will tax your whole body, preventing you from getting the most out of a strength routine. Intersperse your pullup sets with pushups, or just rest briefly. Do whatever variation you need to to complete your 3 sets, and don’t be afraid to modify (aka, first set jumping negative pullups, second set jumping, third set at an angle). And definitly don’t be afraid to add difficulty when you can do more than 5 of a particular movement. What do you have to lose?
A note on grip: Pullups will hurt your hands at first. Most of us have oversensitive palms because we don’t put much stress on your grippers. Either wear gloves, or tough it out for a bit. That pain does go away, and its worth it to have hands capable of holding on to things with your body hanging off.
