5 Steps To Your First Pullup
Picture me walking into the gym with a buddy of mine. "Hey! Try a pull-up!" he said. "Sure," I said as I walked over to the pull-up bar.
The humiliation I felt as I couldn't even move an inch was overwhelming. That immediately lit the fire in me to get my chin over the top of that bar.
Fast forward to today, and I'm now able to rep pull-ups and even do some with added weight! But the best bit about this is that I’ve learnt the tricks of the trade when it comes to achieving your first pullup, so I can now help many others get to this milestone too, all whilst avoiding the mistakes I made along the way! I want to share with you my top tips that helped me progress towards where I am today, so let’s dive straight in.
It's a skill, so train it often. If you want a pull-up, or any skill for that matter, you're gonna need to train it a lot. That means about 3 times a week, but if your body allows you to, train it more. I couldn't do a pull-up for years, but when lockdown hit, I just did a pull-up or a negative pull-up every time I passed my pull up bar, and now they’re pretty easy.
Do negatives. A negative is when you cut out the concentric part (pulling up on the pull-up) and instead jump up to the bar and lower down slowly. You can usually lift 130% of your max for an eccentric, which will mean you can lower yourself down even when you can't pull yourself up. Keep adding reps, slow these reps down week on week, and eventually your concentric strength will improve meaning you can start on the pulling part of the movement!
Use assistance. If you have a pull-up bar machine in your gym, use it, and use the weights as a means for progressive overload. Keep adding reps at the same weight until you get to 5 reps and then make it harder by lowering the assistance by about 5 kg. Work up to 5 reps again and repeat until the weights are gone. You can also use a band if you wish - the same principle works.
Work on scapular strength. What on earth is the scapula? It’s the section on your back, specifically your mid and upper back where you can pinch your shoulder blades together. This type of strength is improved massively by doing retraction work - think ring rows and active hangs on the bar (hang from the bar/rings and retract - pull your shoulder blades down and pinch together).
Try a training program or get a coach. Having a structured training program is priceless. Especially when it’s guaranteed to get you the results you want because it’s personalised to YOU. Another common flaw that people make when trying to achieve their first pull-up is consistency. Naturally, progress fluctuates but generally it follows a linear pattern if you trust the process and keep consistent. Many people end up giving up when they see their progress has platued, or even gone backwards. I like to think of this as “one step backwards, two-steps forward”. The hardest days are the ones we need to push through the most. This is why having someone to stay accountable and consistent to is so important, and our online members can say just this.
Learn any of your current technique errors (if any) and how you can fix these through our expert and experience-based advice
Learn the most effective methods and principles to get you where you want to be
Experience the power of accountability and having someone to check in on you
So there you go! Stop dreaming about your first pull up, take action. Write out a program, do some more research, message a friend and ask him/her to join you in your journey, or sign up to online coaching today, if you want to guarantee to get your first pull up as fast as possible.
Happy training folks x