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How to get better at pull-ups
Master the dreaded pull-up, a staple for all men wanting a better upper body. Lat pulldowns pale in comparison to the mighty pull-up. Working on a lat machine doesn’t activate as many muscles as getting your chin over the bar—and it looks way less impressive. If you want a big, strong upper body, you have…
Master the dreaded pull-up, a staple for all men wanting a better upper body.
Lat pulldowns pale in comparison to the mighty pull-up. Working on a lat machine doesn’t activate as many muscles as getting your chin over the bar—and it looks way less impressive. If you want a big, strong upper body, you have to master the classic pull-up.
Whether you still can’t do a single pull-up rep, you want to do more, or you’re ready to add weight and see your lats grow like crazy, we’ve got a plan for you. Not to beginners: you may want to acquire some assistance bands. You can get them here, through Amazon. Yes, it’s an affiliate link and we get a few bucks, but you’ll get the ability to crank out pull-ups like a Marine straight outta boot camp.
Your goal: I can’t do a pullup, but I want to
Start doing iso-eccentric pullups. Grab onto a bar and jump up so your chest touches it. Try to hold that position for five seconds. If you can, take five seconds to lower yourself back down. (If you can’t, keep working at the hold until you can.) If you can lower yourself with control, perform another rep. When you can bang out 10 reps in this fashion, you’ll be able to do at least one regular pullup.
Your goal: I want to do more pull-ups
Write down your personal record—the most reps you can do with good form. The next time you do pull-ups, take half your PR and do four sets of that number. So if your PR was 10, you’ll do four sets of five reps. The next week, add one rep to each set. For Week 3, go back to one-half of your PR number, and add 2kg using a weighted belt. Continue progressing in this fashion.
The program looks like this:
Week 1 — 4×1/2 PR
Week 2 — 4×1/2 PR + 1 rep
Week 3 — 4×1/2 PR with 2kg
Week 4 — 4×1/2 PR + 1 rep with 2kg
Week 5 — 4×1/2 PR with 5kg
Week 6 — 4×1/2 PR + 1 rep with 5kg
Week 7 — 4×1/2 PR with 7kg
Week 8 — 4×1/2 PR + 1 rep with 7kg
Week 9 — retest your max
Your goal: I want to add more weight to my pullups
Find the load that allows you to do only five pullups with good form. Now add that amount to your bodyweight. Each week you’ll work up to a heavy set that uses a percentage of that total, and perform as many reps as possible. Perform several warm-up sets, increasing the weight until you reach the percentage you’re using on that day. (If the percentages give you a weight that is less than your bodyweight, use your bodyweight.) Do this for three weeks as shown below.
Week 1 — 70% x AMAP
Week 2 — 80% x AMAP
Week 3 — 90% x AMAP
After Week 3, add 1-2kgs to each percentage. After 12 weeks of this, take an easy week (only do a few reps of bodyweight pullups), and then the next week see how much weight you can use for a heavy set of five again.
