Pull ups are a great muscle building exercise. But there’s a reason why so few are able to accomplish this impressive feat of strength and unable to do enough reps to truly maximize the muscle building benefits of this exercise. In this video, I’ll explain why that is, how to improve your pull ups, and then give you a full pull up progression workout designed to quickly take you from 0, 2, 4, 8 — or wherever you’re at in your pull up journey — to 10 pullups in a row and beyond. Yes, this is essentially a tutorial covering “how to do pull ups” for beginners!

Let’s begin by covering why pull ups are so difficult in the first place. First, with pull ups, whether you weigh 150 or 300 pounds, that’s the weight you’ll have to overcome with each rep. Second, pull ups are not just a back exercise. No matter how strong your bigger back muscles or biceps get, if you have weak links in the chain, it will limit you from improving your pullups. There are 3 steps to solving these.

The first step is to change the way you train your pull ups for strength improvements. If you currently can’t do any pullups or can’t do more than 4 in a row, we will use 2 other exercises to quickly build your strength. The first exercise is the inverted rows. The second exercise that trains your body in a vertical manner (like the pull up) is the assisted negative pull ups.

Once you’re able to do between 5 to 7 pullups in a row, that’s when you’re ready for your pull up progression. You’re going to do sets of anywhere between 25 reps (at least 2 reps away from your max effort). You’ll do a set, rest for 3090 seconds, do another set, and repeat until you reach a total of 20 reps. The goal is to overtime comfortably reach a total of 30 reps. Next, get yourself a few resistance bands. Loop one around the top of a bar just like this and put your feet into it. The band will exert force upwards as long as you stand on it, effectively reducing the amount of resistance you need to overcome with each rep. Choose a band that enables you to do between 612 reps.

So, once you get to 89 reps in a row yet can’t quite break through 10, you’ll simply use the same routine as the 57 group but with more difficulty. For the bodyweight pullups, add a 5lb weight either with a weight belt or a dumbbell between your feet. For the banded pullups, switch to a thinner band or take one foot out to lessen the support.

The next step in how to improve your pull ups is to strengthen common weak links in the chain. The first is the core; to best replicate the intense demands placed on the core from pullups, we can use what’s known as a long lever rocking plank. The second is the lower traps; we’ll use scapular pull ups to train it.

Here’s the game plan (i.e., THE pull ups workout program suitable for beginners). Reference your current pull up ability — and progress accordingly from there.

04 PullUps:
Inverted Row: 4 sets of 812 reps
Negative PullUps: 5 sets of 5 reps (progress to 5 second descents each rep)
Long Lever Rocking Plank: 3 sets (aim to hold for 60120 seconds)
Scapular PullUps: 3 sets of 815 reps (2 second holds at top position)

57 PullUps:
PullUps: Sets of 25 reps staying 2 reps away from failure (aim for 2030 reps total)
Banded PullUps: 3 sets of 612 reps
Inverted Row: 3 sets of 812 reps
Long Lever Rocking Plank: 3 sets (aim to hold for 60120 seconds)
Scapular PullUps: 3 sets of 815 reps (2 second holds at top position)

89 PullUps:
Weighted PullUps: Sets of 25 reps staying 2 reps away from failure (aim for 2030 reps total)
Banded PullUps: 3 sets of 612 reps
Inverted Row: 3 sets of 812 reps
Long Lever Rocking Plank: 3 sets (aim to hold for 60120 seconds)
Scapular PullUps: 3 sets of 815 reps (2 second holds at top position)

It can easily be used as a full back workout performed once a week, or if you train back twice a week, you can plop in a couple of the exercises into each day. As you use this plan, you’ll also want to retest your max pullups every month and then move on to the next level as your strength improves.

Even if you can’t do any pull ups right now, use this workout, stay consistent, and just like countless others have experienced from my past pull up videos, you’ll be blown away with just how quickly your pull ups increase. That’s the true power of science.

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