How To Get Your First Pull-Up (4 Steps)

I'm going to share with you the most effective routine to master the pull up. First, we'll cover the science behind the five key muscles that make mastering the pull up so difficult. Then we'll go through the best exercises to strengthen these muscles by at least 60% faster than normal. By the end of this video, you'll know exactly how to get your pull ups. From beginner to novice to master. Pull ups are a pain in the butt to master for two main reasons. Reason number one is they require a minimum amount of strength and several key muscles that tend to be weak. A 2018 study revealed these muscles as being the core, the lats, the mid and lower traps and the biceps. Reason number two is that they require your body to use these several muscles to work together. Your mid traps, lower traps and your coral muscles have to keep your body stable while your lats and your biceps pull your body up. This is something that other pulling exercises don't require and something that your body just isn't used to. To solve this, we're going to use a four step plan. In step one, we're going to first use pull up variations that are as similar as possible to the standard pull up, but not as difficult. This is going to help get your body to learn how to use his pulley muscles together. In step two, we're going to throw in the right accessory exercises to further strengthen the key muscles used in the pull up. Step three will reveal how to continue strengthening these key muscles over time to reach the point where you have the required strength to match the pull up. Step four will then show you how and why to use chin ups to get your first few pull ups. So let's start by diving into step one with your pull up variations. Research has shown that practicing an exercise three times per week can accelerate strength gains by about 56% compared to practicing them just once per week. We'll use three different pull up variations to match that training frequency. To further accelerate your strength gains by another 20% or so, we'll perform these three variations with a method called Daily Undulating Periodization. This is just a fancy way of saying that we're going to train each variation with a different amount of reps each time. Variation one comes from a unique study that examined a handful of pull up variations to see which best match a real pull up. As you can see in the following graph, this variation was found to have the most similar muscle activation patterns as a standard pull up, but only when set up correctly. To perform it, get on your knees and use A medium grip on an overhand lat pulldown attachment. Then, to maximize the strength, benefit and core activation you get from this exercise, you'll want to set the weight such that it's just heavy enough to pull your knees slightly up off the ground by an inch or so. We're going to do three sets of five reps of this variation. Now, if you don't have a pull down available, an alternative is to do kneeling pull ups under a Smith machine or any bar, using your legs sparingly for help to ensure that your pull up muscles are still being evolved. Alright, so variation two is going to be your secret weapon in gaining the strength you need. And it's something that we incorporate heavily into my Built with Science programs because of its unique benefits. So the downward portion of an exercise has been found to play an important role in building strength. Although not yet fully understood, it seems to do this by providing a unique stimulus to the muscle that it doesn't quite get from the upward part of an exercise. This is especially beneficial for the pull up since although you currently don't have the strength needed to do the upward part of the exercise, with the right setup, you will have the strength to do the downward part of it. All you'll need is a high stool or any elevated platform. Set up a lowell pull up bar to allow you to start from the top position of the pull up. Then you're going to simply lower yourself down as slowly as you can. We're going to do five sets of just one rep. The last variation, when properly set up, will be the closest thing to performing a standard pull up. It's actually a much better option than an assisted pull up machine because it activates the core to a much higher degree. To perform it, you're first going to need a band of the right resistance. You can tell if it's the right resistance if with this exercise you can get between 4 to 8 reps with it. You can also use two bands if needed to create the perfect amount of resistance to perform format, loop your band over the pull up bar, place your feet at the end and then try to do pull ups with the added assistance from the band. We're going to do a total of three sets for this variation. Alright. So before we add in our accessory exercises on top of these three variations, this is what your schedule should currently look like. Now it's time to add in four accessory movements to your routine that you'll need to strengthen the key muscles for the pull up. The first movement will help with improving your Grip strength and the endurance of your back and core muscles. And this is important because it takes about 20 to 30 seconds to complete a full set of 10 pull ups. Throughout this set, your back, your core and your forearm muscles need to hold your body in a specific position to enable your larger muscles to pull your body up and down. If these muscles don't have the prerequisite strength to do that, you're not going to be able to do a pull up. This movement focuses on that weakness. We're going to implement this into the beginning of each of our three sessions and aim to hold it for about 10 seconds, but just see how long you can get. We'll work on building this time up in step three. To perform it, you're going to start by hanging off a pull up bar. Flex your thighs, squeeze your glutes, point your toes forward and engage your core. From here, you're going to pull your shoulders down and away from your ears and hold that position. Try to remain as stiff as possible. As the seconds go by, you're going to start to feel a burn in your mid back muscles, your forearms and your core as they work hard to hold that position. This is a good thing. The second movement will be added to session one of your routine. Several of the members of my belt science program have found this exercise to be very helpful in improving their pull up strength. This is because it teaches your body how to control itself as you pull and will continue to strengthen the important core and back muscles used in the pull up. It's actually very similar to a standard pull up, but with your body horizontal rather than vertical. To make it easier to perform it, simply hang off of a high bar with your feet straight on the ground. Then you're going to straighten your arms and pull your chest towards the bar while keeping your body in a straight line. So the standard lat pulldown, given its seated position, it decreases the need for your core to be involved. This is why many who can pull a lot of weight with this movement still struggle with doing a single pull up. But given that we've already filled this core gap with our other exercises, we can now strategically use two types of lat pulldowns to help add more overall pulling volume to your routine. To minimize the risk of overworking the same muscles though, we're going to use an overhand wide grip in one of our weekly sessions and an underhand close grip in the other session. So with these four exercises added in, this is what your weekly schedule should now look like. The next step will show you how to add more difficulty to these exercises over time so your body continues to build the strength it needs to master the pull up. Now we're going to go through how to build your strength in each of the exercises that are currently in your routine. For the kneeling lat pulldown, you primarily want to focus focused on increasing the weight. However, the weight can't get too heavy. For example, if you currently weigh 150 pounds and the weight stat you select is 140 pounds, you're going to be pulling yourself almost completely off the ground. Therefore, once you get to a point where your knees are well off the ground when you pull, simply try to do more reps rather than add more weight. For the negative pull ups every week, you'll want to increase the time that it takes you to descend from the top position. So, so week one, you'll start with five sets of a one second descent, but gradually work towards increasing this to five sets of a five second descent. For your banded pull ups, you're going to start with a band that allows you to do 3 sets of 4 reps. Continue using this band until you can do 3 sets of 8 reps. Once you can do that, drop to the next smaller band. You have to make it more difficult if you only have one band, you can instead make it harder by taking one leg out of the band. For your Australian pull ups, you want to aim to do three sets of 10 reps. Once you can do that, you can make this harder by reducing the height of the bar. And then once you reach the point where your body is completely horizontal, you can continue increasing the difficulty by elevating your feet instead. For your holds, simply attempt to increase the time you can hold. Don't go to the point where you couldn't hold on any longer if you look dependent on it, but just try to add about 5 to 10 seconds to your time every week. A goal to aim for would be around 30 seconds. For the seated lap pulldowns, simply increase the weight every time you can successfully do three sets of 12 reps. So now that you have your strength plan, set up. The final step will get you to your first pull up by using the chin up first off. To use this routine for the best results, I want you to replace all of your current back training with these three weekly sessions and do them consistently. It would also be a good idea to actually reduce the number of sets that you do for your other muscle groups like your chest, your shoulders, your triceps and your legs by about 10 to 20% so you can really focus on improving your pull ups. Then after a week or two of this, before each of these three weekly sessions, start your session by attempting to do a chin up. The chin up is generally an easier exercise to master than the full pull up. Then once you can do a few chin ups in a row, you'll likely have the strength needed to finally master your first solo pull up and can build from there. Within our Bell with Science Programs, my team and I have taken care of all the guesswork for you by crafting a weekly program that caters to your specific body and fitness goals. To find out which of our programs are best suited for you and your body, you can take our free analysis quiz over at buildwithscience. Com. For help on other exercises like your bench press or your pushups. You can click here to give my videos on those topics to watch. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time.