@josh88 Lat pull downs are an ok place to start but assisted pull ups and negatives are much better. I have trained lots of people to their first pull up as well as to sets of 15. If the person can’t do one yet I always get them to do 4x4x4. Get a bar that’s about nose level when standing. Use a box or put a barbell in a high squat rack. Hold the bar with your hands and bend your knees so you are sort of hanging below the bar but your feet are on the box. Do a pull up using your legs to help you only the absolute minimum possible. At the top, lift your legs and do a negative. Be honest with yourself making the up portion as hard as possible and make the negative fairly slow. You can use your feet to assist the negative if you need to. Do 4 sets of 4 of these 4 days a week. I guarantee you will get a pull up in short order. It has never failed. It looks simple but done properly it is quite tough.
Can you do a pull up if you can pull your bw in a lat pulldown?
- Thread starter josh88
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@farmerdex I def don’t have a pull up yet, but do this style at home and sometimes the gym. I try to do a mix of machine assisted, pull downs, and negatives but my full bw negatives suuuuuck.
As a progression I started to take one leg off the box so I am lifting up even more weight. Well it feels like I am anyways. Was wondering if that is actually the case since you sound like you know your pull-ups? Thoughts on band assisted pull ups?
As a progression I started to take one leg off the box so I am lifting up even more weight. Well it feels like I am anyways. Was wondering if that is actually the case since you sound like you know your pull-ups? Thoughts on band assisted pull ups?
@dawn16 You should focus more on full body weight negatives as close to ‘real’ pull up form as possible. A big factor in successful pull-ups is core stability that you just won’t get from the method above.
I went from a maximum 8-second negative to my first strict pull up in a matter of weeks by just working on my negatives for a few sets (like 3) at the start of my workout. It really only took like 5 minutes each gym session
I went from a maximum 8-second negative to my first strict pull up in a matter of weeks by just working on my negatives for a few sets (like 3) at the start of my workout. It really only took like 5 minutes each gym session
@mathusala Thank you. Its one of my strength goals so I’m really planning on implementing negatives more after yalls replies! Felt like I wasn’t making progress on the full negatives after like like first 2 reps lately.
Is there any benefit to adding weight to negatives when you are in between a good slow lowering phase but can’t yet do a full pull up? I was almost there this summer, had a decent lowering count, but couldn’t progress to a full pull-up, so I switched to machine assisted mostly. Then caught covid and lost sooooo much of my strength gains
so I’m starting from like square one. Def gonna focus on the negatives mostly, I just drop like a brick now lol
Is there any benefit to adding weight to negatives when you are in between a good slow lowering phase but can’t yet do a full pull up? I was almost there this summer, had a decent lowering count, but couldn’t progress to a full pull-up, so I switched to machine assisted mostly. Then caught covid and lost sooooo much of my strength gains
so I’m starting from like square one. Def gonna focus on the negatives mostly, I just drop like a brick now lol@dawn16 The programming I did had me do three sets of 1 rep at 50% of my maximum negative from my initial (this was 8seconds so my working time was 4s) with 1min rest between sets, every day at the start of my workout. then the next week it might have been 4 sets at 4s then the next week I did a set at 75% of my max and 2 sets of 50%.
So I would say you don’t really need to. I’ve never heard of adding weight to a pull up unless you can do so many pull-ups that it takes too long to reach failure. The progression comes from adding time under tension to the negative, not weight
So I would say you don’t really need to. I’ve never heard of adding weight to a pull up unless you can do so many pull-ups that it takes too long to reach failure. The progression comes from adding time under tension to the negative, not weight
@mathusala Okay that makes sense! I have seen belted weights added to negatives before(and full pull ups), but I think weighted negatives are prob geared toward more advanced lifters who already have a pull up and want to increase strength. But you’re right, I think adding time to the lowering phase would make more sense for someone who can’t do full bw yet. I def would not add weights at this point but previously seemed to plateau on any progress in any variation. Thank you for you’re feed back!
@dawn16 Not a big fan of band assisted. I much prefer the leg assist as the band helps you the most at the bottom where you are generally pretty strong and not at all at the top where you are weak. If you have a squat rack and barbell you might be able to do it with the bar at the highes setting. I used to train police officers who had to do X number of pull ups in a test so I’ve put many, many people through the plan I laid out above. Training both the positive AND negative is important.
@farmerdex Thank you for your input! Def going to implement the box style progression more often and stop neglecting negatives!
@josh88 I trained to do pullups with the progressions on startbodyweight.com and it took me ~4 months or so. Now I can do ~5 at a time. Once I got to that point I started lat pulldowns at the gym, but I never approached my bodyweight on those. I weigh ~142lbs and got to 3x10 at 80lbs... not sure of 1 rep max, but I doubt it would be 142.
hillpalash
New member
@josh88 While I haven’t tried it, I probably would not be able to do a body weight lat pull down (or really close to it) despite being able to do a pull up. Lat pull downs are ok for training, but they never helped me finish actually getting my chin over the bar.
I always avoided negative pull ups as training because that’s what everyone recommended and I didn’t like doing them. However, those were the only things that made me able to finally do a pull up lol. I found even just jumping up to and hanging right above the max spot I could pull up to helped a lot. I also had to do it at least a couple times a week, or I wouldn’t make progress.
I also starting with the horizontal handles pull up version (I forgot the name of this pose, but it’s when your hands are on the little inside bars of some pull up bars). I found those the easiest, but they irritated my elbows. I then moved to chin ups, then finally to pull ups once I was comfortable doing a chin up.
I always avoided negative pull ups as training because that’s what everyone recommended and I didn’t like doing them. However, those were the only things that made me able to finally do a pull up lol. I found even just jumping up to and hanging right above the max spot I could pull up to helped a lot. I also had to do it at least a couple times a week, or I wouldn’t make progress.
I also starting with the horizontal handles pull up version (I forgot the name of this pose, but it’s when your hands are on the little inside bars of some pull up bars). I found those the easiest, but they irritated my elbows. I then moved to chin ups, then finally to pull ups once I was comfortable doing a chin up.
wallflower1104
New member
@hillpalash The little bars on the inside of some pull up bars are for neutral grip pull ups. I find those easiest too.
@hillpalash I’ll persevere with my negatives then, thanks!
hillpalash
New member
@josh88 I can't comment on the lat pulldown because it is not something I focus on very much, but I have trained for pull ups and can do them. IMO, the best way to train for pull ups...is to do pull ups. At the beginning obviously you need assistance to be able to do it, but that's fine. Treat it like any other linear progression, using less and less assistance each time.
Not sure where you work out but most gyms have an assisted pull up machine, that is ideal since you can easily control the amount of weight it assists you with. If you don't have that, look into getting exercise/resistance bands for your bar of different resistances. Forgive me if you know this technique already but you basically take a resistance band (or many, at the beginning), and loop them around the bar. Slip one foot into it and use it as you do pull ups.
Also keep building up your negatives, I think a lot of people overlook that.
Lastly I'd suggest only ever doing strict pull ups, starting at the very bottom (no tension in arms). No kipping or anything like that to start with.
You can definitely do this!! It just takes time, like anything else. Being small already is helpful (less weight to pull up) just have to grow the right muscles.
Not sure where you work out but most gyms have an assisted pull up machine, that is ideal since you can easily control the amount of weight it assists you with. If you don't have that, look into getting exercise/resistance bands for your bar of different resistances. Forgive me if you know this technique already but you basically take a resistance band (or many, at the beginning), and loop them around the bar. Slip one foot into it and use it as you do pull ups.
Also keep building up your negatives, I think a lot of people overlook that.
Lastly I'd suggest only ever doing strict pull ups, starting at the very bottom (no tension in arms). No kipping or anything like that to start with.
You can definitely do this!! It just takes time, like anything else. Being small already is helpful (less weight to pull up) just have to grow the right muscles.