How to do your first pull-up
The first and most important step to getting your first pull-up is understanding that they’re really hard. You have to grab a bar and pull your entire body weight up. That’s not easy! Even for lean people, it’s a lot of weight to move. If you’ve struggled with this, don’t feel bad; everyone struggles with their first.
Getting there might feel impossible. Even just hanging from the bar can feel like a challenge! But this is one challenge that’s well worth all the effort it takes.
Why are they so hard?
Pull-ups aren’t just about your arms
How lean (or not) you are affects the difficulty
There’s more skill to pull-ups than you might think
Without a high baseline strength, pull-ups are a difficult skill to practice
They ain’t just your arms
Yes, your arms are involved, but if you don’t have a strong back, you ain’t gonna have a good time. You need strong lats (latissimus dorsi) and traps (trapezius), and a bunch of scapular muscles too.
You might see people who do a lot of pull-ups who have big biceps, and yes, they help. But biceps are a relatively small muscle, and they’re tiny compared to the lats.
Body weight matters
A lot of the people you might have seen on the Internet who do a lot of pull-ups are calisthenics people. One thing you might not know is that calisthenics folks need to tightly monitor their body weight so that they can perform the most spectacular skills. Beyond a certain weight, the exercises become much harder.
Don’t get me wrong, calisthenics folks are real strong. But even being real strong can’t overcome a body weight that is too high. If your body weight is high, pull-ups are necessarily harder.
Skill matters
Plenty of people think that pulling up to a bar is pretty simple. Plenty of people, similarly, can’t do pull-ups. Pulling mostly with your arms and not with your back makes the exercise much harder. Knowing where and how to grip the bar is important. How and when you engage your scapular muscles matters. To swing or not to swing is another question.
Not knowing the answers to those questions can make getting your first pull-up harder than it needs to be. Plenty of people who struggle without fixing their form might give up when they might be closer than they think.
They’re hard to practice if you’re not already strong
You need to be very strong to do just one pull-up. There are fit people who can’t do any! Without the strength to do at least one, you can’t practice the movement without specialized equipment.
If this is something you’ve struggled with, don’t worry. Everyone struggled with pull-ups at some point before they got their first. Strength has to be built over time, and that can feel like an agonizingly slow process.
No more bad news, let’s get started
Start by considering the equipment or lack thereof that you have available. If you have access to an assisted pull-up machine, that’s a great place to start. Training a movement directly with lower weight is an excellent bet. Given that not every gym has one of these machines and I’m willing to bet most people don’t either, let’s consider other options.
A lat pull-down is the next logical step. While it does not train the movement perfectly, it is a very close match. By overloading that exercise over time, it will get you moving in the right direction. It’s also a very common find in gyms. But, again, not everyone has access to one of these machines.
Thankfully, we can find ways to use cable machines, resistance bands, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even body weight exercises. Using these, we can train the three biggest pieces of the overall movement: back, arms, and grip.
Back
This, in my opinion, should be the focus of your pull-up training. Arms are great and all, but without a strong back, you’re gonna have a bad time. In this case, you’re going to want to train a vertical pull movement. You have a lot of options.
One of the best exercises I did to improve my pull-ups was the dumbbell pullover. When performed with a flat back, they let you move through the full range of motion. They also bias the most tension on the longest muscle length, which is the hardest part of the pull-up. Having the ideal resistance profile in an exercise you can overload is pretty good. They can be performed with any weights you can comfortably hold, be they dumbbells, kettlebells, or even weight plates.
What if you only have access to a cable machine or resistance bands? Try lat pull-downs or lat prayers. These motions fully stretch out your lats, move them through a full range of motion, and are easy to overload.
Only have access to a pull-up bar? You can do eccentric pull-ups, where you do only the lowering phase of a pull-up motion. This will let you work your back and your grip at the same time. Eccentric motions can get you very sore the first time you do them, but they’re a great option to work into your program.
Biceps
This isn’t complicated, just do some biceps curls. A barbell or some dumbbells would be my go-to option, though you can get good work in with kettlebells or resistance bands. Focusing on a movement that lets you bias the stretched position of the movement, such as a preacher curl, will help you with that critical lowest position.
If you want to go fancy and have access to a cable machine, I’m fond of the behind the back or Bayesian curl. They’re very challenging, bias the stretch, and let you get a lot of done with less weight. Cable machines are also ideal for drop sets if you want to do a lot of work in less time.
Going more basic, a barbell or dumbbell bicep curl of any variety is going to work. If you have a bench, the inclined curl allows you to apply more tension in the stretched position. If not, standing or seated bicep curls will get the job done.
If you’re entirely lacking in equipment but you have a backpack, you aren’t as lacking in equipment as you think. Any bag you can (safely) put enough weight into to challenge your biceps is equipment enough.
Grip
This is the easiest one to work because all you need to do is hold something heavy. If you have a bar you can hang from, the dead hang is going to be the best bang for your buck. It’s also going to be more or less challenging depending on body weight, so results can vary. Holding all your body weight is real hard if you’re just starting out, so you may need other options.
Farmers carries, that is picking up heavy weights and talking around, are an excellent option. Picking up weights that are difficult to hold and walking for a set time or distance are a great grip challenge as well as a core stability exercise. You can do these with dumbbells, kettlebells, or anything you can comfortably hold that’s heavy.
Another option is to load a barbell, pick it up, and just stand there. It’s less interesting than walking around, but barbells are loadable such that you can add weight in small increments. Pick a weight that’s so heavy you can’t hold it for longer than a minute to maximize improving your grip.
What about a zero equipment situation? A bucket and some rice could be more up your alley. It may sound silly, but squeezing handfuls of rice in a bucket over and over can lead to surprising grip strength gains. Some people say this practice comes from the Shaolin monks, though the true origins have likely been lost to time.
Scapular pull-ups
When you get to the point where you can hang from the bar, you’re ready to engage your scaps. These are the next step after the dead hang. Now, while hanging from the bar, you’ll actively engage your shoulders to get into position to pull. You aren’t pulling yet, just putting your shoulders into the right position. Doing reps of these can be surprisingly challenging when you’re getting started!
If you’re struggling to get these going and have a large enough resistance band, you can wrap that band over the bar to (carefully) provide support. No band? Then don’t worry about it too much. Get in as many reps as you can manage. Even if you can only do a few, that’s still enough to build strength.
Eccentric pull-ups
The penultimate step. You’ve developed your back, arm, and grip strength. Now what you need is a bar and a chair or some other way to safely get up to the bar. Grab the bar in the top of a pull up position and hang for a second or two before slowly lowering down for around five seconds. Then, let go of the bar, jump on your chair, and do that again.
Build these up till you can do sets of ten in a row. When you’ve hit ten, it’s time to test if you can do one pull-up.
Pull-up Prep Program
If you’re looking for a more exact way to build towards a pull-up, here’s an example 12 week program to take you from never done one to your first attempt.
Week 1: Starting Light
Dumbbell pullovers: 8-12 reps, 2 sets
Barbell biceps curls: 8-12 reps, 2 sets
Farmer’s carry: 20 meters traveled, 2 sets
Week 2: Technique Focus
Lat prayers: 8-12 reps, 2 sets
Dead hang: 20-20 seconds, 2 sets
Preacher curls: 8-12 reps, 2 sets
Week 3-5: Building strength
Dumbbell pullovers: 5-8 reps, 3 sets
Barbell holds: 20-30 seconds, 3 sets
Dumbbell biceps curls: 5-8 reps, 3 sets
Scapular pull-ups: 3-5 reps
Week 6-8: Building strength II
Lat prayers: 5-8 reps, 4 sets
Dead hang 30-45 second, 3 sets
Barbell biceps curls: 5-8 reps, 4 sets
Scapular pull-ups: 8-12 reps
Eccentric pull-ups: 3-5 reps
Week 9: Deload (light weights)
Dumbbell pullovers: 3-6 reps, 2 sets
Farmer’s carry: 10 meters
Preacher curls: 3-6 reps, 2 sets
Scapular pull-ups: 3-5 reps
Week 10-12: The final prep
Lat pull-downs: 5-8 reps, 5 sets
Dead hang: 45-60 seconds, 3 sets
Dumbbell biceps curls: 5-8 reps, 5 sets
Scapular pull-ups: 12-15 reps, 2 sets
Eccentric pull-ups: 5-8 reps
Week 13: Try your first pull-up!
Pull-ups: 1
For some, this program will be very aggressive and 12 weeks won’t give you enough time to develop strength. For others, this may be too slow. In either case, adjust the timing to your schedule, equipment, and preferences. If you get to weeks 10-12, but just can’t quite do the pull-up in week 13, don’t give up! Repeat weeks 10-12 while progressing each exercise a little bit. With enough time and patience, you’ll get there.
Final thoughts
Pull-ups are hard and a worthy challenge. While I hope that you can get from zero to one in record time, you may have to grind for a while. I certainly did. The grind was worth it in the end! Pull-ups are now a regular part of my programs and something I’ve built slowly over time. I think after you get your first one, you’ll do the same. You just gotta get there! And I’m sure you can do it. Get grinding!