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Pull-Up

The pull-up is the benchmark upper-body pulling movement and the truest test of relative strength for the back. Pulling your own bodyweight from a dead hang to chin-over-bar loads the lats through a long range while forcing the whole shoulder girdle to work as one unit. It belongs early in a pull session while you are fresh, and it carries over to almost every other pulling lift you own.

Equipment
Pull-Up Bar
Body part
Back, Lats
Type
Strength
Browse by muscle
Latissimus Dorsi
Browse by movement
Vertical Pull
Muscles worked
Target
Latissimus Dorsi
Secondary
Biceps Brachii Long Head, Biceps Brachii Short Head, Brachioradialis, Trapezius Lower, Trapezius Middle
Tertiary
Infraspinatus, Deltoid Posterior, Erector Spinae

How to do it

  1. 1

    Grip a fixed bar with hands just outside shoulder width, palms facing away.

  2. 2

    Hang with arms straight, shoulders pulled down away from your ears, and legs steady or lightly crossed.

  3. 3

    Brace your abs and pull your elbows down toward your ribs, leading with your chest to the bar.

  4. 4

    Continue until your chin clears the bar without kipping or swinging.

  5. 5

    Lower under control back to a full dead hang, feeling the lats stretch.

  6. 6

    Exhale on the way up, inhale as you descend, and reset before the next rep.

Tips

  • Think about driving your elbows down into your back pockets rather than just bending your arms.
  • Keep a slight hollow-body position, ribs down, to stop the lower back from arching and swinging.
  • Do not shrug at the bottom, start each rep by setting the shoulder blades down before the arms pull.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • Swinging the legs to throw yourself upward turns a strict pull-up into a momentum drill and hides how much back strength you have; start each rep from a still hang.
  • Stopping the descent with the elbows still bent skips the full lat stretch and inflates your rep count; lower until the arms are straight before the next pull.
  • Tipping the head back so the chin clears while the chest stays low fakes the rep; the bar should clear because your elbows drove down toward your ribs.
  • Taking a very wide grip in the belief that it hits the lats harder mostly cuts your range and crowds the shoulder; keep the hands just outside shoulder width.
  • Letting go and dropping from the top leaves the shoulders to absorb the landing; lower yourself to the hang or step down onto a box to finish the set.

Frequently asked

How many pull-ups should you do when you are new to the exercise?
If you can already do a few strict reps, work with 3 or 4 sets of 3 to 5, two or three days a week, and stop each set two reps before your form breaks. If you cannot do one yet, spend four to six weeks on three sets of 6 to 8 band-assisted pull-ups or inverted rows, plus three slow five-second lowers from the top of the bar. Add reps first, and only hang weight from a belt once you can do three clean sets of eight.
What can I do instead of pull-ups if I have no bar?
Inverted rows under a sturdy table or on rings or a suspension trainer train the same pulling muscles with your feet still on the ground, and you can make them harder by walking the feet further out. In a gym, the lat pulldown lets you dial the load below your bodyweight and build up. At home, a doorway-anchored band pulldown, done kneeling, gives you the same overhead pulling direction.
What are pull-ups good for and when are they a poor choice?
They build lat width, upper-back strength, and grip, and they are the clearest measure of strength relative to your bodyweight. They are a poor choice as your main back exercise when you cannot yet do three strict reps, because you end up training a handful of ugly singles instead of the 20 to 30 quality reps a pulldown or row would give you. If your elbows or shoulders ache on a fixed bar, rings or a neutral-grip handle let the forearms rotate as you pull.

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