How to Perfect Your Pull-up Prowess!

Follow these steps to perfect your pull-up prowess. Warning: no kipping allowed!
 

The chin-up. Some love it, some hate it, but no one can argue that it is the king of the bodyweight exercises.

There is also a good reason the chin-up bar at your gym has a covering of dust... it is a seriously tough exercise! It doesn’t matter how much you can bench, you still may not be able to perform a chin-up. The good news is everyone can work their way up to performing chinups. It will take some hard work, but it will be worth it.

To start your journey to completing a set of chin-ups, you need to start chinning. Just like kicking a ball, to get better at it you have to do it, preferably as often as possible.

But first let’s seek some clarity. For the sake of this article, a chin-up is a vertical bodyweight exercise where the aim is to get your chin up and over that bar, regardless of whether the grip is neutral (palms facing each other), supinated (palms facing you) or pronated (palms facing away from you). For those of you who can’t yet perform chin-ups... don’t despair, there are many techniques that can get you to the chin bar.

So, where to start? If you cannot yet complete a full chin-up with any grip, we need to start with some accessory exercises.

THE HORIZONTAL PULL-UP

This exercise is your bread and butter in building up the strength to chin-up. Set up a barbell, or the bar on a Smith Machine, at about hip height. Lying underneath with your body straight, pull your chest up to the bar. Once you can complete 3-5 sets of 10 reps, place your feet on a bench or box to increase the degree of difficulty. This will help develop your arm and upper back pulling strength.

THE NEGATIVE CHIN-UP