Pull-ups are among the most well-known tests of strength. They aren’t among the classic powerlifting exercises that consist of the bench press, deadlift, and squat which are well-known as competitive lifts. However, much like the push-up, the pull-up tests how well you can move and lift your own body through space, as opposed to pushing or pulling resistance from a fixed position.
Pull-ups seem simple enough: you grip an overhead bar and pull your body up to it
Are You Short-Changing Yourself on Pull-Ups?
For the most part, when trainers do pull-ups they pull until their chin clears the bar. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this, as the lats will be getting a ton of work pulling the body. Even partial reps are okay if you are working your way up to the normal ‘chin to the bar’ pull-ups as it can be difficult to even get one rep if you’re new to training or can’t pull your body weight up all of the way.
Touching The Bar With The Chest
However, with the right training it’s possible to do strict pull-ups that have you touching your chest to the bar. I’m not even saying the upper chest either, as if you do them properly and build enough strength, it’s possible to touch your mid and lower chest to the bar. I can’t do more than a handful of pull chest-to-the-bar reps at a time, so I’m a work in progress myself. I’ve noticed the difference in my lats from getting high up on pull-ups and want to work up to sets of 10 or more reps.
Good Form On Pull-Ups
Getting clean pull-ups is no joke. It seems like 90% of the time there’s some cheating going on or reps that don’t quite cut it. Honestly, there’s really nothing wrong with this as long as you aren’t risking an injury by overdoing the cheating. Cheating with a little ‘kick up’ can help many trainers get all of the way up.
A lot of times it’s way more than just a little kick-up, though. In fact, this ‘kick up’ is also known as kipping. Kipping pull-ups are a big part of Crossfit, and many participants of that sport can do quite a great number of them. However, I’m trying to strengthen my lats and want to be able to do fuller pull-ups without cheating my way up. The exception to this is to give a little kick to get a few more reps or to get up just a little further on an extra rep or two.
Proper full range of motion pull-ups start with an overhand grip a little further than shoulder-width apart. Some prefer going with an underhand grip, but I find this is best reserved for training the biceps. Training with a false grip where the wrists are more on top of the bar while gripped can be quite beneficial as well. This will take practice, but if you want to advance to muscle-ups you will need to master this grip.
Lean Back
You should also be leaning back, not hanging straight up and down if you want to get fuller reps. This angled “lean back” is something I’ve only started doing over the past few months and it certainly helps engage the lats and other back muscles more effectively. This really also seems to be the real key to go higher up on pull-ups.
The exercise is started from a dead hang position, and the first move is to pull the back muscles with the arms remaining straight before beginning the pull upward. This is best described as a lat shrug as it’s comparable to doing shrugs for the traps, it’s an upward pull-shrug for the lats. This can easily be practiced by itself so you get the movement mastered for when you want to do pull-ups.
Add Weight To Progress
As you get stronger on pull-ups to the chest, you can progress by adding weight. Either a weight vest or dip belt are the best accessories to add weight to this exercise. Weighted pull-ups to the chin or upper chest can also be done to help you get stronger for high pull-ups without weight. The key is to try to hold at the top for a second or two before lowering your body slowly to take advantage of the eccentric (negative) phase of the exercise.
L-Sit Pull-Ups
An exercise to take advantage of which can aid in your quest to get high pull-up reps is the L-sit pull-up. This is a very strict version of the pull-up that works your core too as you literally keep your body in an L-shape. As you can imagine, the ability to swing the body up with the legs won’t be there with this exercise.
L-sit pull-ups can be done by hanging from an overhead bar and raising the legs until they are parallel to the floor. They can also be started from the floor with a very low overhead bar, which can be in the form of a Smith machine bar adjusted to your upper body length. I prefer the from-the-floor version myself, but they both have their merits.
Keep the Form Strict
Once you are in the proper position for the L-sit, pull up as far as possible. Keep the legs straight out as you perform the pull-up so your body stays in the L shape. Get up as high as possible and really get the upper back muscles to contract on each rep, trying to hold at the top if you can. Then, lower yourself slowly back to the starting sitting position. With the position your body is in, you won’t be able to kick up to get your body to the bar. You can also translate this strict form to your regular pull-ups.
The L-sit pull-up is a tough exercise that will test your core and pulling strength. As with any exercise, you can progressively add resistance. A weight vest is going to be the best option for adding weight as you can’t really do this exercise with a dip belt on.
Cable Lat Pulldowns
After pull-ups, I like to do at least one high-intensity set of lat cable pulldowns as an accessory exercise. This is a great exercise to go for higher reps and drop the weight on once or twice to really finish the lats off. Here I’ll pull the bar down to my lower chest – upper abs area as that’s where I’m trying to get to on my pull-ups. I may vary the grip here from time to time by using close-grip handles or going out wider than normal.
Pull-Up Routine
I like to do quite a few sets of pull-ups, usually between 8 and 10 in total. The first set or two may be done with body weight, trying to get as many chest-to-bar pull-up reps as possible. After this, I like to do 2 or 3 sets of weighted pull-ups, though at times I switch it up and start with them. Next, a few sets of L-sit pull-ups are done. To finish off pull-ups, I might try a set of side-to-side pull-ups, pulling up to one side then the other on each alternating rep. My last set will be another set of classic full-rep pull-ups.
Conclusion
If you keep at it and continue progressing, you will see the results you want from your pull-up workouts. Consistency is the name of the game, and going through this routine once or twice a week will have you getting all the way up in no time.
