The struggle with pull-ups and chin-ups is definitely real.
Even people who are very strong at other exercises can find the progression of pull-ups frustrating and slow.
I know how discouraging this can be – I’ve been stuck on assisted versions (with my foot in a band) for ages. The jump between these and the completely unassisted reps seemed gigantic.
But I overcame that and I’m here to share what I learned so you can too.
Now you know I’m speaking frankly, so I’ll tell you up front, the advice I’m going to give you won’t make things easy. We’re talking about lifting your full weight off the ground – it’s no small feat, so be prepared to work for it. But let me tell you, when you break through that barrier and find that you are able to do those first two reps of “proper” pull-ups, it’s totally worth it.
Pull against the chins
Before we get into it, let’s just define what we’re talking about here.
A pull-up is where your hands are placed on the bar just outside shoulder width with your palms facing away from you.
For a pull-up, your hands are placed shoulder-width apart on the bar, palms facing you.
For the sake of speed, I’ll primarily use the term pull-up in this article, but the tips apply to both movements.
They are similar exercises, but pull-ups work the back muscles more and chin-ups work the biceps harder. But these are just the areas where you’ll feel the most burn, both moves work your entire upper body: arms, shoulders, back, core and even glutes.
Weight is a factor
Because they engage many muscles and work them very hard, these exercises burn calories and are great for building true functional and athletic strength.
Of course, how difficult they are for you will depend on the balance between your body weight and your strength.
One of the things I really like about pull-ups is that they help reveal what the scale can’t tell us… If you notice that you’ve gained a little weight, but at the same time you notice good progress in your traction. This is a strong sign that the extra weight is actually lean muscle growth.
So if you step on the scale hoping it will tell you that you’re thinner, in this situation you can celebrate your progress, knowing that additional muscle gain will help you burn fat.
Pulling power
Pulling muscles is neglected in many training programs, which is very bad news. If you don’t balance pushing exercises (push-ups, shoulder presses, chest presses, dips, etc.) with pulling exercises, your posture will suffer and you’ll be more likely to have back and shoulder injuries painful and/or damaged. Ouch!
The pull-up is a very natural movement pattern. Our bodies are well designed for this kind of movement. If a strength exercise requires a machine or support for you to do it safely (or at all), it’s worth asking how functional it actually is. With pull-ups, it’s just you and the bar, or a tree branch if you really want to go primal!
For me personally, I also love the body shape of this sculpting exercise. What 90s women regularly inform me about is a “pear” shaped body, meaning I tend to store more fat around my hips, butt, and thighs than in my upper body. I’ll never be an “hourglass,” but pull-ups help me build and define my shoulder and back muscles for a more balanced figure.
But it’s really serious. Once you get into an exercise like this and start to feel the benefits, aesthetics become a happy side effect of your ambition to perform better and progress in the movement.
This is not normal
Progression is the key mindset here.
Don’t expect to be able to do chin-ups and chin-ups the first time you try.
(If you think this is ridiculously obvious, you’d be amazed at how many people expect to be able to crush reps on their shiny new pull-up bar right out of the box!)
Always remember that this is an advanced exercise. Sure, photos and videos of people doing pull-ups are everywhere online, but in the real world, very few people can do them. This is a particularly rare ability among women.
Please respect that… And, as you progress, appreciate the exceptional ability you acquire.
Be willing to be tenacious, yet humble, yet strong-minded, yet unafraid to face your weaknesses.
Pull-ups at home
Any decent gym will have a pull-up bar, outdoor gyms usually have them and children’s play areas usually have a climbing frame or bars that you can use (when they’re not full of kids!) .
But pull-ups are perfect for home training, that’s definitely where I do them.
Home pull-up bars have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years.
If you want to invest in a sophisticated pull-up station, the options are endless.
I started with a frame above the door, which has served me well for ages. These are very cheap (under £20).
The only problem I found with these doors was that my door frames were quite low so it was difficult to get full range of motion and the door to my workout area didn’t fit, I so I had to go to another room. (It wasn’t a big deal, we can always work around these issues.)
However, I recently purchased a Pull-up Mate pull-up bar that I love!
This is a sturdy freestanding frame that you can assemble and disassemble in just 5 minutes. Everything is stored in a large tote that I store under the guest bed. It has more height than my old door frame bar, so now I don’t have to leave my workout space to do my pull-up workout.
There will be no closure
Getting your first rep right is going to take time and hard training, but my advice is not to think about it in terms of “this only matters once I can do full pull-ups.”
Of course, harness your desire to do that awesome move to stay motivated, but don’t get so hung up on that goal that you forget that you’re getting all the benefits of increased strength, better posture, and better muscular balance. burn calories, etc. as you follow all the steps I’m about to describe to be able to do reps without assistance.
Spoiler alert: all that will happen when you nail that first rep is you’ll start focusing on two, then three, and so on.
What I’m saying is that it’s a journey, not a destination.
So enjoy the ride.