One of the things I am personally working on at the moment is to add some mass to my lats. Being able to perform a bodyweight pull up is key to achieving this goal.

I thought I would share with you some tips on how to master the pull up. Let’s face it the majority of people cannot do it. And yet it’s the ultimate exercise which combines both strength and bodyweight. Not to mention the cosmetic benefits as it gives you that lovely V shape, brings your shoulders out which then in turn makes your waist look small.

To perform a pull up you need a strong upper body and low body fat levels. Every kilo of body fat you are carrying is extra load that you would have to lift so decreasing your body fat and strengthening your upper body is the key to doing a pull up.

Another reason I think it’s important you master a pull up is – why do lat pull downs when you cannot even perform a pull up lifting your own weight? It’s ludicrous. Remember ALWAYS master the bodyweight version of an exercise before you start adding load.

The other problem with pull downs is your nervous system will fire differently to pull a bar down versus you pulling yourself up to a bar. So if you can’t do a pull up, it is time to start working on it. Not easy I know. I have been there many times dangling from the bar and going nowhere.

You will never be able to do a pull up by doing pull downs on their own. You’ll need to include some actual pull ups in your program to eventually be able to do a pull up.

But I know what your thinking and wanting to ask me – but how Alex do I do this when I can’t actually do a pull up? Fair question. Well there are a few tricks you can use to work your way towards doing a pull up:

1. The most effective method is to use a dyna band to assist you. The goal is to make your body think you are doing a pull up so your nervous system fires to pull your body up to the bar. Since you are not strong enough to lift your entire body weight yet, using a band will trick your body into thinking it’s lifting your whole body weight. Loop the band around the bar and then around one knee to support some of your body weight. These bands come in all different sizes and as you get stronger and as you lose body fat use a smaller band to increase the load until you are able to lift your body weight without a band.
2. Eccentric pulls are another way to strengthen your body to be able to do a pull up. Start with your chin over the bar at the top of a pull up and continuously lower your body to full extension under control slowly. As a rough guide if you can perform 10 of these you should be able to do 1 concentric pull up.
3. Losing body fat will help you to perform a pull up quicker as you have less weight to lift. To lose fat you must eat less than you are burning.
4. For grip, I would recommend you begin with a close grip as this will be easier than a wide grip. I also tend to find my forearms kick in and get so pumped it causes me to fail sooner than I want to. To help with this I highly recommend purchasing a good quality pair of lifting straps.

I look forward to hearing how you are getting on. Any questions, or personal tips you can share are of course greatly welcome !