I hate to say it…all of the pull-up advice on this sub is 100% correct

[afriend4ever11]

@ashleye23 This is also similar to the advice I got for doing push-ups. Instead of practicing push-ups on my knees or hands on a bench, etc., what worked was negative push ups - resisting gravity does wonders lol.

 

[rootedingrace17]

@afriend4ever11 This seems so obvious and yet I’ve never even thought about it until now. I’m going to try this.

 

[mikek401]

@afriend4ever11 How does one do a negative push-up as a beginner?

 

[hymnpraise]

@mikek401 Just lowering yourself to the ground as slowly as you can. I will say though, I've had to train push ups from 0 a few times now (I've been wildly inconsistent with exercise over the years lol) and I've had better luck doing high volume work on incline push ups than negatives on the ground. For me at least, even negatives were too hard to feel useful when I first started out but I could do several sets of 20 with some rest in between on the wall. Then I moved to a dresser, then a couch arm, then a coffee table, then finally to the ground.

 

[doctoraines]

@mikek401 I used to struggle with negative push-ups a lot as a beginner. So much so I couldn’t be consistent. What ultimately did the trick for me was a lot of bench press on a smith machine with progressively heavy weights (I also was doing other general arms chest and shoulder workouts with dumbbells, but I think the bench press helped me the most) - one day I decided to try a proper pushup and lo - I did two straight away! Took me 2 months of regular workouts.

 

[afriend4ever11]

@mikek401 By moving in very small increments and plopping down a lot. Not saying it’s the right or the best way of doing it, but practicing going lower/holding it as much as I can on the way down was the only thing that worked for me. After doing push-ups on my knees, I was never able to successfully transition to a full push-up. In addition to holding it going lower, I was also advised to invest in floor presses.

 

[savedinmercyamen]

@ashleye23 What are negatives?!

 

[sunbakedguppy]

@savedinmercyamen Starting the pull up at the top position and resisting as much as you can on the way down. At first it'll feel like a barely controlled drop, but after enough practice you'll be able to fully control your descent. Then you're on the way to a full pull up!

 

[edgeofhaven]

@sunbakedguppy This might seem like an incredibly daft question — please forgive me — but how does one start at the top position if they can’t pull themselves up to the top position? Asking for a friend…

 

[sunbakedguppy]

@edgeofhaven No worries! Use some kind of box or step stool to get up. Just makes sure it's a step or so back from the bar so you can drop without hitting it.

 

[mattymatej]

@ashleye23 I wish i had somewhere in my apartment for a pull up bar but sadly all my door frames are too wonky!!

I've been doing 3 sets of negatives 2x/week (up to 30 seconds/rep for my negatives starting last month) since september and im so close to a pull up i can taste it - I'm able to get like 80% of the way there. So frustrating!

Frequency is king, but I can't train overhead movements too frequently without hurting my back

 

[nerissa1969]

@ashleye23 UGH, I want to get pull ups but there is no form of strength exercise I want to do every day. I don't even want to do strength training in general every stupid day.

 

[daniel1961]

@nerissa1969 But it's not like a whole sweaty workout, it's a quick maybe 1 min at a time, spread out. All you need is to not be wearing a tight non stretchy shirt

 

[catholicmother]

@daniel1961 I think you underestimate how broken my brain is.

 

[mightyfortress]

@catholicmother Lol. I’m with you.

 

[streetlight]

@nerissa1969 Maybe there's a cool sport or other activity that would motivate you to work out in pursuit of the other goal? For me it's figure skating, which I started last year. I haven't had the desire to work out in several years, but figure skating really excites me, and the desire to be able to more things and improve my skills makes me want to work out in between rink days. I've recently started doing deadlifts and squats, for example, because I want to be able to do that fancy spin where you're down low on the ice with one leg out straight in front (sit spin). It, like pretty much all of figure skating, requires a fair amount of strength to carry off, but now there's a reason to build the muscles other than "it's good for me," which for whatever reason doesn't really do it for me.

 

[nerissa1969]

@streetlight Actually, I started lifting at all to avoid injuries with running. But it's the lower body stuff and maybe a little bit of core strength that helps with running. I only do upper body lifts for aesthetics and to feel like I'm getting balanced work over the week - I can't think of any activity I want to do that actually requires pull-up type strength. Pull-ups are just cool.

 

[ucdresearch]

@ashleye23 Great job! Congrats!

 

[nursingninja]

@ashleye23 My goal for this year is 10 pull ups! Cheers to crushing goals!

 

[richard80]

@reyandrei Politely, I don’t think being 20lbs overweight is a good excuse. I used to think that it was, bc I was and still am like 100lbs overweight. But just this week(!) I was able to deadhang for 13 seconds! I had never been able to do that before and now I feel like anything is possible with some consistent effort. I had tried before like 7mos ago and couldn’t last a second, but now even at 230lbs, I was able to hold myself up!