How To Do Pull-Ups for Beginners

We’ll focus on how to do pull-ups and actually improve your ability to complete reps.

Pull-ups are a fantastic exercise for people looking to gain mass quickly. It’s such a primitive move that is both physically and mentally exhausting and rewarding.

I personally get a pump and euphoria after a set of pull-ups that is hard to replicate. My back, arms, and core light up and I feel like a complete beast. If you are looking to learn tips on performing pull-ups or figuring out how to get started, you’ve come to the right place.

Don’t be discouraged if you can’t perform a single pull-up today.

Many times, skinny people looking to gain mass have an advantage in pull-ups, because they have to lift less weight than others. That still doesn’t mean every skinny person can actually do it. Your level of fitness and familiarity with the exercise play a part.

Below, we’ll dig into how you can improve your ability to do pull-ups.

Pull-Ups: why they are great

Pull-ups are a fantastic exercise for a variety of training programs. As you improve on pull-ups, you’ll improve your strength, add muscle and benefit from functional training.

They are a natural movement that target your back muscles and biceps, while also working your core. This type of compound movement is fantastic, especially for people looking to grow bigger muscles.

The flexibility of the exercise makes it a favorite of mine also. You can obviously do pull-ups at the gym, but with a simple over door bar, you can also do pull-ups at home. If you go to a public park, you can use bars like those that are found on swing sets or jungle gyms to do pull-ups. This makes it easy to rely on pull-ups in your training routine, even if you are working out while traveling.

Laying the foundation for what we’re talking about

First, it’s important to note this whole post is about pull-ups, which are different from chin-ups. They have a lot in common, but are still different. The pull-up uses and overhand grip on the bar, which means your palms face away from your body. This emphasizes the biceps less than a chin-up, although your arms do still get great work. Instead, the real focus is on your back muscles.

Second, I’m writing this from the perspective of completing bodyweight pull-ups without assistance. Even if you are not there yet, the point is to get you there. Over time, as you master the exercise, you may even add plates around your waist to add weight. However, let’s first master bodyweight, which will increase as you put on muscle mass, keeping the exercise challenging for a long time.

Tips for performing pull-ups

1. Retract your shoulder blades

This is the best piece of advice I’ve ever incorporated into training with pull-ups.

If you start off hanging on the bar and trying to pull your body up, without first setting your shoulder blades into the retracted position, you’re going to make it a lot harder on yourself.

Also, you’re more likely to injure yourself or strain your neck trying to get your body to pull in that position.

Learn to retract your shoulder blades first. The specific advice I got was to hang on the bar and practice simply retracting my shoulder blades, without even attempting to pull my weight up. I did 10 reps of just retracting and relaxing before jumping into pull-ups, and I immediately boosted my performance. I still do this warm up often before pull-ups.

That simple move warms up your body and also enhances the mind-muscle connection, so that you are using the right muscles during the exercise.

2. Treat your hands like hooks

You’ll see me refer to this tip over several posts, because it’s a fantastic queue during all kinds of training, not just for how to do pull-ups. Many of us are taught early on to “GRIP THE BAR AS HARD AS YOU CAN!” This stems from the idea of building grip strength and getting your forearms to work whenever possible.

The problem is that usually means you lose emphasis on the muscles you really want to target- your back.

Instead, think of your hands as hooks that simply keep you connected to and hanging on the bar. I don’t mean that you need to use a thumbless grip. Wrap your thumb around the bar. Grip the bar so you don’t fall off, but you don’t have to squeeze it until toothpaste comes out.

Your focus on squeezing any muscles should be in contracting your back muscles to really feel that burn while you work each rep.

3. Drive your chest to the bar, not your head

This is another common misconception with how to perform a pull-up. People hear that a rep is complete when they get their chin above the bar, so they focus on the position of their heads throughout the movement.

Think about driving your chest to the bar instead.

You don’t have to actually touch your chest to the bar. The rep is complete when your chin is above the bar. However, leading with your chest will get your body in the right position to do pull-ups more successfully and target your back. It will cause you to naturally arch slightly, which is what you’re looking for.

4. Get a full range of motion on each rep

This holds true for most exercises, especially for people looking to bulk up or add mass. Don’t cheat the rep by performing a shortcut version of the movement.

For each rep, you should start with your arms extended. A slight natural bend in your elbows is acceptable.

Each rep should end with your chest up and chin above the bar.

Envision your back working and the muscles growing with every single rep.

5. Don’t lose your momentum, but don’t use it either

When you get going, you might start to get excited. The feeling of getting up there with each rep will energize you.

Keep the reps controlled and using a reasonable tempo. Don’t allow your body to swing to help you. Don’t allow the momentum you generate from each rep to get you above the bar and cheat you from the gains you want.

I like to follow a tempo that takes me about 1 second to go up, and one second to come back down. I think about each rep individually, instead of a continual machine, to help alleviate any temptation to swing my body between reps. My legs are usually crossed behind my body and I don’t let them come forward.

6. Allow yourself time to develop!

Not everyone can do pull-ups. That’s OK!

You have to start somewhere, so don’t be ashamed if this is true for you. If you stay consistent, you will develop and improve over time. Here are a couple of ways to approach pull-ups and improve if you are not able to do many or any currently.

1. Get comfortable being on the bar anyway. Allowing yourself to hang on the bar and feel your weight and the start position are still very helpful for you.
2. Continue to attempt pull-ups with good form. The practice will prepare you physically and mentally, even if you aren’t moving much right now.
3. Perform assisted pull-ups. You can do this in a couple of different ways.
   • There are machines specifically designed to provide you support so that you don’t have to carry your full body weight.
   • You can use bands under your feet or legs and connected to the bar to give you just a little bit of help.
   • Use a stool or chair and keep one or both feet on it to support your weight throughout the rep. You can control the assistance by how much you press on the stool or chair for help.
   • Have a friend provide support by holding your legs and helping you up when needed.
4. Try isometric holds by cheating your way to the top of the bar and then keeping yourself up there as long as possible. You can either jump or use a chair to get up there.
5. Try negatives instead. This is similar to cheating up to the top as you would do above, but instead of staying there as long as possible, you slowly drop your body down to the starting position. This is basically doing the second half of each rep.
6. Build your back with other exercises. You can do the steps above and still incorporate other exercises for your back. Especially rowing exercises like barbell rows will develop your back and promote better pull-ups.

When I was starting, I did a combination of these to get more comfortable and build up to the point where I could do pull-ups with confidence.

Good luck on your journey. Thoughts or questions? Let me know in the comments!