[Closed] Pull-ups: Who has taught themselves to do multiple strict pull-ups?

Cheapest method of you can’t do one will be to pick up some elastic exercise bands in an appropriate strength and use ‘em to assist.

I believe the theory is to start at the top of the movement and lower yourself gently and hold, then repeat.

That said I weigh a LOT and have only ever managed about 1, some people just have better strength to weight ratios!

Reddit/youtube and try not to strain anything 🙂

I reckon if you offered me £1,000,000 to do one.... you'd still have £1,000,000

Dead hang first then work on grip, most can't pull from dead hang and only cheat themselves. My best pull was +40kg, could also do a one arm a few years back. Negatives can build some decent strength.
Just remember you are learning a skill, it takes practice and time.
The key to powerful pull ups is core strength, do not cross your ankles/legs.

Yes.

Do chin ups first, they're easier. Or just lower yourself half way.

Or find a horizontal bar about waist height.
Lie under it and pull yourself up to it. Distance your feet are past it changes difficulty. Can do similar with TRX straps

Years and years ago I did just this and went from being able to do maybe three or four to being able to do 30 on a full grip and 20 on fingers (I was climbing a lot at the time).
However I was 20 at the time. I've been trying more recently and it's incredibly demoralising when I can only do maybe three (even though I can now bench press approaching 100kg!)
If you try and find you just don't have the build for it, don't be disheartened, just try doing something else like press ups. Otherwise, it's just a case of making the effort and being disciplined about it.

hiya, i do lots of pull ups as part of my climbing training. first is to do dead hangs, then scapular pull ups.  after a couple of weeks start with elastic band assisted pullups, gradually reduce the strength of the bands then go to bodyweight.   I'm currently working on one arms pull ups but still a while off.

https://gripped.com/indoor-climbing/monday-motivation-magnus-midtbos-one-finger-pull-ups/

the other way is a pulley system with a harness and weights but it's a bit more complicated. good luck!

I think there are a few strategies. I’m trying to get myself to the point I can do 3 x 10 reps of strict wide grip pull-ups. I can do chin ups like that just about but the wide grip ones are much harder.

I’m using the large thick elastic band things to assist the full strict wide grip pull-ups at the moment. Gone from 2 bands (1 thick, 1 thinner), to 1 thick band to 1 thin band for assistance now. Hoping to make the jump to no assistance by the end of Jan.

You can also do negative reps - where you start in the pulled up position and slowly lower yourself down - slower the better.

I do other back exercises too - bent over dumbell rows, deadlifts, reverse dumbell flyes and glute bridges (more core I guess).

Watching with interest. Being a similarly weedy desk jockey, I have built up from being able to do about two press-ups to being able to do 50 (well, in three sets, 20+15+15), which I try to do every morning. I've got a pull-up bar and an elastic band with thoughts of doing similar there, but I can still only do one...

The problem is being able to do one, once you are there you can start building, so get one of these of appropriate strength:

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/search?Ntt=CROSS-TRAINING+ELASTIC+TRAINING+BAND

and if it gets too easy buy a weaker one until you don't need it. Then your away 🙂

P

I put in masses of pull-up training when we had scaffolding outside our house over summer. Over about three months, I went from being able to do 9 with good form to being able to do 10 (on a really good day) with good form.

Not sure I can offer any decent advice on training 😀

I realise this may seem like a stupid question but how on earth do get into position with the band on the pull up bar?!

I’ve recently reclaimed my garage from the builders and started doing weights again but the pull up bar is yet untouched. I was getting on ok doing a lot of the stuff mentioned above in the summer but trying to get my knees, feet, well any body part really into the elastic sling was nigh on impossible.. I give myself such a slap in the face with the band I’ve never tried again.

Doing pull ups from a deadhang can really damage your shoulders if you are not careful.
I always start with slightly bent arms

do not cross your ankles/legs.

Why?

Used to be able to do around 10 a set but weight ratio dwindled. Have recently returned to the gym where they have an assisted pull up machine.

Main muscles being worked are latissimus dorsi, trapezius & biceps. Wide grip puts more emphasis on lats and is harder, narrow grip puts more emphasis on biceps and is easier. Start with a narrow grip (6" - 12" apart) and then go wider. Low reps won't help with volume so bands will allow for more reps.

My best in my late 20's was 15 reps of wide slow controlled eccentric / concentric contractions, i've just recently started again and can now manage 5! Don't forget to work the opposing antagonistic muscle group, which in this case is the pectorals, tricep & anterior deltiods via press ups.

Just loop it through itself, as shown in video

Or find a horizontal bar about waist height.

+1, start with bodyweight rows and build the strength to do 3 sets of 12 first. My best was last year, 5 sets of 7, so not that great. Consistency is key.

I need to get a pull up bar sorted for myself again since moving.

As a teenager I used to do quite a bit of climbing. I had a finger board above my bedroom door. I could comfortably do 20, controlled, full extension pull ups on finger tips.

I am no longer a teenager

I used to be able to do 14 of them. Over the years I’ve got fatter and my pull up count lower. Last time I tried I managed three and the last one was a real struggle.

I’d echo the advice above..

I got to doing 100 pull ups a day for 30 days, in batches of 10.

Started with band assistance, but as the month went on, i was smashing them out (proper ones) with a 5kg vest.

I must get back into that… breaking the wrist didn’t help!

DrP

As a keen climber in my late teens and early 20's I just built o the strength of youth plus lots of them. Doing an outdoor Ed degree meant that things were competetive to say the least. A mate and I had a deal. We lived in ajoining halls of residence rooms and we decided that every pass though a door cost 10 pullups on the door frame. Going next door to borrow a biro therefore cost 40. We got strong. This was in the days before finger boards and plastic holds. Eventually one arm jobs were possible.
In the last month I have started doing a few as I am taking the kids in my class to the wall in January. Last did that early 2020. I felt old and weak then. Currently I can't pull from a dead hang on a door frame. Fingers can barely hold me there and 8 or 9 is my limit from a road bar. Boy am I fat and unfit for 58. The moral. Start with some leg support. An old inner tube will do the job and do hundreds of them.

I got to about 8 a few years ago but stalled. Not really the right build or age to get much good at them. You can start with some cheating, poor form etc to make it slightly easier, and then get stricter as you improve.

My aim was to manage a muscle-up but I never got close. I think they say that if you can do 10 good pull-ups, that's about the starting point for muscle-ups.

You need to start out smaller and build strength. After all, you wouldn't start out bench pressing at 70-80kg, you'd work up from lower weights.

Strategy that I used to use is to have a chair set slightly forward of the bar as you're facing it. Place heels.on chair, with legs straight and out in front of you. This effectively takes most of your leg weight out of consideration.

As you get stronger just one leg on the chair, then none.

Make sure to lock out your core. If you're arching your back it's bad form and could lead to injury.

I've had to reteach myself from scratch the year before last - got really bad tennis elbow (or the other one, Golfers - can't recall) and couldn't pull anything at all. Had to start with just bent arm isometric holds leaning back about 20 degrees and build up from that to slowly increase the tendon's tolerance. Being old, it took nearly a year with several set backs, but now back to doing chin ups / pull ups fine.

The general advice I've seen in Cross Fit gyms for chin up regressions is start at the top and lower yourself down. Just stand on a box to get up there and then step off it once locked onto the bar.

If you’re arching your back it’s bad form and could lead to injury.

I would be very surprised if you could injure your back doing a pull up, it's just got the same load through it as whenever you stand without a 'locked core', which is pretty much all the time. Obv deadlifting 2xBW is a different story, although most circus strong men would lift that with a curved back without any issues.

Use a step or chair to get you to the start position and lower yourself as slowly as possible. I find banded pull ups a poor exercise as the effort is reduced at the start of the pull, where you utilise your scapula muscles. For good shoulder health, just do some hanging at scapular pull ups.

It's also important to keep tension in every muscle you can muster, so no dangley legs, the more tension equals more power. Don't try to pull yourself up pull the bar down, i used to get the bar to waist level, oh and don't crane the neck over the bar.
Don't cross legs because you need to be symmetrical while in tension. Using a fatter bar also builds power and protects the elbows which are usually where the problems begin once you get beasty.
I would throw in some deadlifting to compliment them.

Don’t try to pull yourself up pull the bar down

Easy……

I started exactly this (multiple times) this year.
Method I used was to follow a calisthenics app.
App of choice is caliverse and there are many many training options on it and it's free. Loads of videos, loads of exercises and it really gradually builds up the strength.

Would very highly recommend it, I started seeing some decent progress where a few pull ups was becoming very easy. Then I hurt my wrist.
Have a look and thank me later.

Another old climber lost completely what could do in 20's not that work on technique would probably have got better outcomes but have "come back" from work commitments and later from injury a couple of times to be able to do 10plus wide pull ups...work on core (lots)...especially hanging knee raises and hold them... not a home option but I've used assisted pull up machine at gym...doing pyramids decreasing assistance 10reps 8 6 4 with 4 being failure change weight when can do the 4... every few weeks try pull ups unaided and it will happen

Do antagonistic stuff...
As to using bands and pull up bar/boards have done to do one arm and made more like stirrups with short wooden plank ...use a chair to get onto

As a couple of posters said above, be careful of tendon issues in your elbows, which will put a stop to all efforts until healed. Build volume up gradually, I'd suggest alternate days to start with even with the bands for assistance. As you ptogress, even when you can do unassisted pull ups, continue to use the bands for 'lighter sets' as this will help develop muscle and technique

Wrong wrong wrong. All lies.
I've tried pull-ups & they are literally impossible!

I had built up to 10 in a row, and was getting to good form with no jerking. Then lockdown came around and I lots all of that.
Then when I was back in the gym last year I hurt my shoulder starting too fast and had been battling a huge amount until I gave up again.

This winter I got back into the gym, and remembered the inverted push up as mentioned above was what I started with the last time I succeeded with pull ups. So I got that going for a few weeks using the weight rack bar, lying under facing up and pulling myself up to the bar. Did this for a few weeks until I was doing a reasonable amount comfortably, then moved to pull ups. I am now up to 2 sets of 4 pull ups with no shoulder pain. Not perfect form, but getting better each week.

I would be very surprised if you could injure your back doing a pull up, it’s just got the same load through it as whenever you stand without a ‘locked core’, which is pretty much all the time. 

It's so not. One is tension and the other is compression. Why do you think they put more metal on one edge of reinforced concrete beams? Totally different forces and strength.

They are easy.

My 2 year old grandson has mastered them already

Always been my best exercise. People lie on the internet about how much weight they can lift etc so I'll refrain from saying how many/how much, let's just say lots 🙂 though gave up on rubbish one-armers with elbow pain. Anyway it's a great all round upper body exercise, pull up high, wide grip, squeeze arms together so chest gets in on the act yadda yadda. Bands can people off the ground, er, literally, but assist varies with stretch. An alternative is to rig a simple pulley - rope over the bar, weight tied to one side, your foot in a loop on the other. Or just do what this guy does

(I'll confess to not having watched all this as I can do pullups. But I do rate his advice generally if not the schtick.

I keep seeing this thread title and thinking it's about potty training before I do a double take.
I must get out more

Any recommendations for a home pull up bar? I want a wall mounted one rather than a door frame one.

Also, how much height do you need? I think our garage is just shy of 8ft. I'd probably bounce my head off the ceiling if I ever managed to pull myself up.

I’ve had to reteach myself from scratch the year before last – got really bad tennis elbow (or the other one, Golfers – can’t recall) and couldn’t pull anything at all. Had to start with just bent arm isometric holds leaning back about 20 degrees and build up from that to slowly increase the tendon’s tolerance. Being old, it took nearly a year with several set backs, but now back to doing chin ups / pull ups fine.

The general advice I’ve seen in Cross Fit gyms for chin up regressions is start at the top and lower yourself down. Just stand on a box to get up there and then step off it once locked onto the bar.

I have the same problem with pull up bars and barbells, gives me golfers elbow due to needing to slightly over rotate my joint to grip the bar. I switched to a set of gym rings and an ez barbell which solved the issue.

Golfers elbow is the tendons attached to the bony bit on the inside of the joint, tennis elbow is the tendons on the outside of the joint.

Golfers elbow is the tendons attached to the bony bit on the inside of the joint, tennis elbow is the tendons on the outside of the joint.

Good to have that cleared up. But still doesn't explain precisely what washerwoman's elbow is 😀

What everyone else has said about bands etc, but also worth looking at getting some rings that you can attach to the pull up bar, then set them at different heights, and lean back and pull yourself upright.
Then set them lower, and repeat. Will help build arms and shoulders.
This type of thing -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/REEHUT-Gymnastic-Adjustable-Strap-Buckles/dp/B01KHPSXJM/ref=sxin_14_trr_454785031_0?cv_ct_cx=pull%2Bup%2Brings&keywords=pull%2Bup%2Brings&pd_rd_i=B01KHPSXJM&pd_rd_r=277c11b3-c609-4ec8-9bbf-d673bc6ada99&pd_rd_w=90f6h&pd_rd_wg=dzxct&pf_rd_p=00a8ce21-661a-4988-a18f-958276d531e3&pf_rd_r=MQMX8YV8NW229Q9A00K3&qid=1639669654&sr=1-1-439ac954-ad46-4ba0-bd86-480f8aab80ed&th=1

It genuinely supprises me that there are people on a sports forum that can't do one pull up.

Imagine how easy pulling back and down on seated climbs will be when you get a few in the bag. It will feel like cheating.

sports forum

What is this sports forum of which you speak?

.......Imagine how easy pulling back and down on seated climbs will be when you get a few in the bag. It will feel like cheating

would have to be a pretty steep gradient / long steerer / high stem angle surely?
...actually my local gym has indoor bike parking with high up wall hooks for the front wheel...will keep me eyes open for cyclists arriving hanging up their bike and knocking off some reps

sports forum

[Manuel] Que? [/Manuel]

Lets not over complicate things here.

Walk up to the bar
Put your hands on the bar.
Take a deep breath.
Pull like f***. Maximum Effort. Seriously - like your peeing out a golf ball.

Don't worry about 'good form' when your starting. Its very hard to hurt yourself doing a couple of pullups. Just get that 1/2/3 reps done. Embrace failure.

I tend to agree with Earl though it's many years since I did a single pull up. I don't recall it being difficult to learn back in my climbing days, though admittedly I had different arms, not these puny cyclist's appendages.

My top tip is to wear shoes with big grips or a decent heel if you are using a band for help, because that band sure hurts when it slaps you on the arse followed by the back of your head!

Lets not over complicate things here.

Walk up to the bar
Put your hands on the bar.
Take a deep breath.
Pull like f***. Maximum Effort. Seriously – like your peeing out a golf ball.

Don’t worry about ‘good form’ when your starting. Its very hard to hurt yourself doing a couple of pullups. Just get that 1/2/3 reps done. Embrace failure.

Lots of people won't get more than a couple of inches off the ground!

Pull ups are pretty challenging if you're not active. Women, especially, don't tend to have much upper body strength and really struggle at first. Hence the start at the top and lower yourself down approach which makes it much more accessible.

I got a hang board recently to help with climbing strength and I've been building up my pull ups. Up to four controlled, no jerking from dead hang (or close, I tend to lower to just before locked elbows) off the jugs.

Mixing that with seven second dead hang reps in various different hold combos to build finger strength, plus press ups and squat jumps to mix it up.

Definitely seems to be having an effect after a few weeks. Don't ask about my sloper dead hangs though.

Anyone else have problems from their jab?
Could probably do 6 - 10 each time I tried around about a year ago.
After being triple jabbed this year, it's a struggle to do 1, with any attempt at pull-ups or press ups producing pain on left shoulder muscle.

don't get injured. Palms facing is strongest (easiest) position
Ultimate safetey guide:

I've got plastic 'olympic rings' haging off my confifer. Can do 6 slow ones now, 10s per pull up.

Humans are up to 2.5x stronger in the negative motion of muscles than positive...so thats why you can start at the top and work on lowering slowly first.

@loum. Yes I had the AZ jab 6 months ago. It effected the nerves in the shoulder. I now have a dead spot in my pull and push. Arm seams to take the scenic route.

Thanks for that. At least I know it's not just me. Will give it another go, but without worrying to much.

Grip strength is number 1 if you have massive grip strength then everything becomes a lot easier, my moto is if you can't grip it you can't rip it.
Try single arm hang toes to bar, makes pull ups look like a walk in the park.
The gym i used to go to had an 85 year old who could do full ab wheel roll outs.

I do pull ups on my hang board. With them and fingerboard work it def helps on the bike. Seems to help core too

Getting a bit far away from the op's questions but for all you pull junkies - try Win Hoff's 40 breaths technique. Add 20-30% to what you currently have. It's free and it's magic.

Haven't read it all, but elastic to get you to 1. And then you are good. Not done any for a few months but still good for a few on the finger board.

Bitd we used to practice lock-offs and all that nonsense. Also plyometrics on campus boards. But then the last time I was in a room with a campus board I was leaving the city and donated my stereo to the climbing wall. Double tape deck and a graphic equaliser no less.

I have an axe handle suspended between two loops of chain hanging from the gantry of my big shed door. The idea is that I do pull ups from it every time I pass, and the chain means it works the core a bit more to keep things stable.
... Sometimes I remember. Can do 8 underhand grip ones (whatever they're called) but tried the 'strict' overhand ones today and could just do two.

Try 'greasing the groove' method.

Every time you pass your pull up stand, do one pull up (or negative as slow as you can).

Trying to do multiple pull ups (unless you don't weigh much and have short strong hands) is very demoralizing at the beginning.

This way you will be able to do 5-10 per day, just spread out over it.

I can do 3 sets of 8 at the moment.

Before I went on my diet I could do three sets of 12.

If you are struggling with grip strength, try some lifting straps. I use them for heavy deadlifts and rows.