Remember the monkey bars in your childhood play grounds? How about “Tug of War”? Ever climbed up a tree or swung on a rope? How about water skiing? Ever had to wrestle someone or pull yourself up from plummeting to your death or injury? If you answered NO to any of these questions, you have not lived life!
The pulling motion is essential in executing all those tasks, and you guessed it, the Pull Up is king for training this!
How many of you wish you can do a Pull Up, but can’t? In my opinion, everyone should be strong enough to accomplish at least 1. The Pull Up engages every muscle fiber in the upper body and even some in the legs.
*A simple fact to remember; the less you weigh, the easier the pull up will be because you are pulling less weight. So keep working on achieving your weight loss goals and you will be half way through the battle of mastering your pull ups.
Even kittens can do pull ups.. although this one seems to be using its head
I’m not going to lie, Pull Ups are hard! Luckily there are many variations and ways to progress to achieve your first pull up.
If you can’t do 1 pull up, I usually recommend beginning with the Reclined Pull Up, or Bodyweight Row. This movement is very similar to the push up although the resistance is applied to the pulling muscles. It targets all the same muscles as a regular pull up, but it applies an emphasis to the upper back muscles which, in turn, are needed to be strong in order to stabilize the body to do a regular pull up.
Bending the knees will make the resistance even lighter if you are not strong enough to do the straight leg version. Once you can achieve 3 sets of 15 reps (with 1 minute of rest in between) of the Bodyweight Row, you can definitely go ahead and attempt your first Pull Up.
Here’s to clear some confusion:
The PULL UP is done with a slightly wide PRONATED grip
The CHIN UP is done with a slightly narrow SUPINATED grip.
Normally I use the terms pull ups and chin ups interchangeably because they are both very effective. They both target the grip, biceps, shoulders, rotator cuff, the core, and the entire back in essentially the same ways. Here’s a tip; do them both! If in any case, one of them hurts, do the other.
The same way that supplementing push ups (and variations) in between your pressing sets give you an added benefit to your pushing muscles, adding pull ups and bodyweight rows to your pulling work out will do the same to your pulling muscles.
Once again, for the gym rats; try doing your set of Lat Pulldowns and immediately follow them with some pull ups. You won’t have the strength to do as many at this point, but the combination of the two exercises will have a greater effect than doing them alone and separately.
That’s actually one of my favorite ways to train! Beginning with the weighted strength exercise that isolates the muscle group being worked, then immediately followed by the functional, bodyweight version of the movement. You will absolutely work up a sweat and burn more calories as well as maintain natural movement.
Another strategy is to add pull ups and rows on your pushing days, and push up variations on your pulling days. This way you will maintain form and strength at a more consistent level.
Pull ups are totally underrated if you ask me. Nonetheless, they are great for your body and are an impressive tool to show off your strength.
(Copyright 2011 by Javier Fleites/Mr. Workout. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcasted, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)
