Pull-ups are notoriously intimidating,
especially to women who tend to have less upper-
body strength than men. And although we think of
pull-ups as a strength exercise for back and biceps,
they actually recruit many more muscles and require
a lot of endurance — and if there’s one thing we girls
are great at, it’s endurance. So you can absolutely
master this move — and even challenge the guys
for reps: Just shift your focus from simply getting
your chin over the bar to teaching your muscles the
proper mechanics, and you can push past any pull-
up plateau and hit your goal with ease.SPECIFICALLY SPEAKING
The bad news is that in order to master the pull-up,
you have to actually do pull-ups. According to the
law of specificity, you get better at what you practice,
and while lat pulldowns and rows may seem similar
enough, the biomechanics of a pull-up involve more
musculature and coordination than a machine or
cable exercise. Research validates this statement,
indicating that neuromuscular adaptations don’t
transfer well from a pulldown to a pull-up, especially
for women. In one study of female swimmers,
the athletes’ lat-pulldown prowess had very little
correlation with their pull-up abilities. Furthermore,
the women with a higher total-body mass (fat
+ lean) had reduced pull-up capacity, and even
though they could crank out heavy pulldowns, they
floundered on the bar.
Since the only weight you’re lifting here is
yourself, how quickly you adapt will somewhat
depend on your own strength-to-weight ratio, even
if that weight is mainly muscle mass. And if you have
a smaller frame, you might be a natural because
your weight is light in relation to your strength.
In order to gauge your starting point, do a self-
test: Hop on the bar and see just how many strict
bodyweight pull-ups you can do. If you get none,
no worries: Set a goal to hit five by the end of the
program. If you can get a couple, great! Aim to add
two, three or even five reps to your total.FOUR SQUARE
This program implements four techniques to
improve your pull-ups, helping stave off boredom
and frustration while moving ever closer to your
ultimate goal.No. 1: Be Negative
A negative (eccentric) contraction is the part of a
rep where your muscle lengthens; the concentric
(positive) contraction is where your muscle shortens.
Your muscles are capable of generating more force
during an eccentric contraction than during a
concentric one, meaning you can lower more weight
than you can lift. In fact, you can most likely complete
multiple negative pull-ups right here and now,
even if you can’t get up to the bar by yourself. This
biomechanical phenomenon makes negatives the
perfect technique for those who can’t do a single pull-
up, building strength and control in both the primary
and secondary muscles.
No. 2: Keep It Strict
Ultimately, strict, pristine pull-ups are your goal. That
means no swinging, kipping or flopping about under
the bar like a hooked carp in order to clear your chin.
Yes, kipping pull-ups are a bit easier from a strength
standpoint because they use momentum to propel you
upward, but if you don’t have a strong strict pull-up as
your base, you are more likely to get hurt. The strength
and stability of your shoulders and core have to be on
point before you start adding momentum, so for now,
stick to strict. Once you’ve mastered that, everything
else is cake.
No. 3: Accessorize — Afterward
Although pull-ups primarily demand back strength,
your pectorals, serratus anterior, levator scapulae,
rotator cuffs, biceps, brachioradialis and forearm
flexors all participate in moving you upward to the
bar. Performing accessory exercises like a push-up
plus, a banded shoulder extension and grip training
can help strengthen these muscles, making pull-ups
more possible. Do these kinds of moves using a light to
moderate resistance and perform two to three sets —
only after your pull-up work is completed.
No. 4: Super Bands?
Purists maintain that using super bands during a pull-
up is contraindicated because you’re not truly pulling
your full bodyweight. And it’s true that the bands
provide the most assistance at the bottom of a pull-up
where you don’t need much help rather than in the
middle where your sticking point lies. However, bands
are good for training endurance, allowing you to get
in more reps than you could without one, adding
volume to your program. Volume means strength, and
strength means accomplishing more pull-ups.raise the
By Erin Calderone MS, CSCS, NASM-CPTPhotography by Cory Sorensen