Just when you thought you mastered the pull-up…. I found a way to make it more intense! Which exercise would you like to see next?
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Today I’m going to go over the three golden rules when performing a pull-up. Just like every other article in the golden rules series, the goal here is to show you proper form, and then show you how to take the exercise to the next level.
Pull-Up – Proper Form
When performing a pull-up, what you want to do is grab the bar a little outside of shoulder width. Once you’re in position, you’re going to keep your body nice and tight, and you’re going to pull yourself up, bringing your chest as high as you possibly can. Now you may not be able to bring your chest all the way up to the bar, but you want to get it as close as you can before controlling the movement and letting yourself go to a dead hang at the bottom. You then repeat this movement for repetitions. At its BASE FORM, that is what proper form of a pull-up looks like.
Golden Rule #1: Always Train In Full Range Of Motion
I know I just covered full range of motion (ROM) when going over proper form, but it’s what is happening inside your body, and that mind-muscle connection, that’s going to determine whether or not those reps are beneficial, or if you’re wasting your time. As I already said, I’m not so worried about you getting to the top of the movement, and having your chest touch the bar. Not everyone has the flexibility to do that, so every single time you pull to the top, just make sure you go as high as you possibly can.
When you go back down, however, there are a few things that need to happen in order to maximize the efficiency of the movement. The first is that full ROM requires a dead hang. A dead hang is where you fully disengage from the exercise. When you fully disengage from the exercise, you will notice a change in your back, and you will notice a lot more stretch in your lats. If you get to the bottom of the movement, and can still feel your lats are engaged, that’s not actually the bottom of the movement. You want to feel that nice, deep stretch in your back and lats.
When you can feel that nice deep stretch, it’s going to help you mentally turn off your biceps so that as you pull yourself up, you’re getting a lot more back engagement, and less bicep engagement. Obviously your biceps are a secondary mover when doing a pull-up, but what holds a lot of people back from fully maximizing the efficiency of a pull-up to build a wide back is that the biceps are doing the majority of the work. So get to the bottom, get to a dead hang, feel those lats stretch, and then pull yourself back to the top.
Golden Rule #2: Avoid “Power Leaks By Flexing Core / Lower Body
If you have a hard time with pull-ups, if you’re trying to get as many reps as possible with proper form, and you’re having to fight your body swinging side-to-side or forward and back, you’re losing power. To try to keep as much power as possible, and to be able to perform as many repetitions as you can, what you’re going to do is cross your legs, flex your glutes, flex your legs (squeezing your toes together will help), flex your core, and then you’re going to pull up before coming back down. You’ll quickly notice that you’re able to stay pretty much in a perfectly straight line when you do that.
If you want to take your pull-ups to the next level, you can actually do something very simple, which is lift your knees in the air. Part of your lats originate in your lower back. This means if you lift your knees in the air, you’re going to create spinal flexion, which is actually going to cause a pre-flex on the lats before you even start doing your pull-ups. So while hanging like you were before, you’ll still keep your core tight, but now you’re going to lift your knees in the air to create spinal flexion, and then perform your repetitions like that. As you’ll quickly find out, it’s much harder to do it that way.
Golden Rule #3: Always Progress With The Movement!
Obviously the main progression here is going to be adding more and more weight every time you do pull-ups. But let’s say you can’t do bodyweight pull-ups yet, so you start with a band to help you do your pull-ups.
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35 comments
Just when you thought you mastered the pull-up…. I found a way to make it more intense! Which exercise would you like to see next?
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Hide your pubic hear, pls.
Thanks, great tips and video!
Not all of you are going to be able to bring your chest up to the ba-ah
WHA T IS THAT HAIR
Excellent video as always!
BAH BELLS BOYS BAAAH BELLS
please do the golden rule for chin-up
On a different subject. I'm going to hit all my muscle group twice a week. One day is Hypertrophy and the other day is Strenght gain. Any suggestion or link i can see on What type of exercise I need to do on certain days to maximize the result. I think i got Chest workout down already, but i got confused on what work out for backs, shoudler, and legs for Hypertrphy and strength.
Hey Scott,
I've been working out for almost a year, built some muscle and progressed with the weights of my exercises.
Well, except pullups.
I can't even do 1 proper pullup (going from the "dead-man hanging" position to the top) and I don't know what I've been doing all this year.
Any tips how to get it? I can do 3-4 Pullups with a band, but that's basically it.
How do you have all the energy to work out and make all the videos on this channel? 😮
thanks
Hey Scott. Thanks for the tips. I am about to work on my pull ups now. So what you just said in this video will be of good use to me.
DON'T LET YOUR BODY GET USED TO IT – Golden Words!!
Thank you so much, Scott!!
I can do 100 pushups in a row. but can't do 20 pull ups correctly
Can you use weights in a backpack or is that no good?
Hey Scott nice vid !! but how do the elbows should travel ? Should I keep my elbows almost in front of me and as i ascend flare them out to put my "back pocket" or should i keep them flared out sideways all the time ? any tip would be greatly appreciated
keep seeing vids saying don't use the assist band
Among push-up and pull-ups which is the first exercise we have to do?? Plz reply
Scott dat hair doe?! WTF!
Doing chin ups to the bahhhhh is much hahhhdder then I imagined!
Thanks a lot Scott this video really helped me I always thought a dead hang was just having your arms straight, never realising the importance of stretching out the lats fully to engage your back from the start
Finally….. didn't expect to find the best tutorial ever after looking over 30 tutorial about pull up. Great tips on the lat stretch! Now I can feel my muscles all over the body. Check out his other pull up tips. I would smash that button 1,000,000,000
Has been my favorite exercise since I was a teenager. Haven't always done the dead, dead hang but I'm doing it more now. They broaden your shoulders, make your biceps like boulders and just a great overall wellness exercise. Currently can do about 13. I'm 49 years old. Hopefully I'll never be hunched over pushing a shopping cart.
Great 👍🏻
Thank you Scott your videos are great!!!
Jeff cavaliere would be happy!!!!!!!!!
Sry but ur form is wrong here 😃
Contradicts athlean-x. Have an active hang for pull ups at bottom.
Useful information, thanks.
I can mainly feel my right lat not my left, what should i do?
Yep
What about inhale and exhale? Lots of conflicting when to inhale exhale..?
When I go down to a full dead hang, I'm dead, locked in that position and can't get out of it.
I need to cheat a little, stop just short of all the way down.
I love this guy