Why couldn’t I do a single pull-up?

[pablob]

I’m a 6’4” 19 year old male, I’ve been on a fitness journey for about 3 years now. I used to carry a lot more fat and lifted weights consistently for a couple of months so I weighed around 112kg (246 lb) at my heaviest. At this weight it was unsurprising to me that I couldn’t do a pull-up/chin-up (always been a huge personal goal for me)

I then lost a fair amount of weight and got down to 78.6 kg (173 lb). Now I know everyone is different etc etc but it was confusing to me that even after this loss I still couldn’t manage one. I did without doubt lose muscle and strength in my cut but I still carry someeeeeee muscle (enough I would have thought)

It was a New Years resolution to get a pull-up this year, I’m back up to around 100kg (225 lb). Do I need to lose weight or is it all about the training? Could my posture be holding me back? It’s pretty bad due to my height

 

[abbarrane]

@pablob I was not quite in your situation, but when I started strength training. I could not do a pull-up. I was very scrawny. For me it took me a lot of time. The key for me was band assisted pullups and also practice on a lat pull down machine to train me to pack my lats down and back. I started with the heaviest band for band assists. My rotator cuffs and lats were not accustomed to this. So I got so I could do a pull-up but I had no lats. I was doing it with my biceps. So had to relearn to pull-up using a lat pulldown machine and continued doing band assists. I think everyone has different ways of learning. Some stand by doing just negatives. Maybe that would have worked for me as well. Not sure. The more weight your carry the harder it will be for sure. But I don't think it's a hard stop. I can still do around 5 pullups with a 45 pound dumbbell. So it's possible to do pullups when heavy. But while learning it gonna make that first step harder while your trying to learn the proper form and work up all the stabilizers and small muscles of the back required to do them

 

[pablob]

@abbarrane Thank you

 

[2cor129]

@pablob I tried to teach my gf pull-ups, and the only way was band assistance. She went from 1 assisted with 45 kg band to 1 fully unassisted in 2.5 months. Bands are really good to learn pull-ups

 

[xodihantla]

@2cor129 Damn you're a good coach. Never managed to teach mine how to do it .

 

[greatfulforjesus]

@pablob I recommend getting a pull-up bar that hooks into a door frame easily. Any time you walk up past that door just try an do a pull-up. Eventually you will go from 0-10 in a couple months if you are dedicated to it

 

[darrflesy]

@greatfulforjesus I second this. I wasn’t able to complete a pull up at the start of high school, weighed something like 120 lbs.

By the end of high school I could do more pull ups than the majority of football players, possibly all of them. They had the army come to the school to try to talk to the seniors once and they brought one of those pull up bars with them. I showed up everyone at 130lbs and my peers were confused because I was super scrawny.

 

[lpapolczy]

@darrflesy Friend of mine can hang from a bar, lift his legs all the way over his head followed by his torso until his shoulders look dislocated then slowly bring himself all the way back over
Skinniest guy I know not an ounce of muscle on him still strong as fuck though and cannot be beat by any of us in an arm wrestle either

 

[clementpulaski]

@greatfulforjesus This. I did this through my teenage years. Every time I left or entered my room I would just do one. It adds up over the years.

Also, definitely lat pull downs to help build up to pull ups, even if it's lighter weights. Just good form, squeeze and up the reps. Keep at it bro

 

[patrickwhitmore]

@greatfulforjesus He says he's 100kg, so a doorframe pullup bar seems a bit sketchy

 

[greatfulforjesus]

@patrickwhitmore When I was losing weight around 18/19 I went down from 265-190. Started doing pull-ups on doorframes around 235lbs so he should be fine as long as he isn’t swinging on the bar

 

[qeghut]

@pablob I second this, pull-ups are hard as fuck and it took me legit weeks to realize how to do them properly. I also had to progress from hanging to negative pull ups to actual pull ups.

 

[lawrenrm]

@abbarrane I strongly believe this vid will help you as it did me

 

[decaturfamily]

@lawrenrm Huh. Today I learned about pronate vs supinated grip. Thanks for the vid, mate. Appreciated.

 

[lawrenrm]

@decaturfamily Goodluck and stay strong!

 

[aaronemill12]

@decaturfamily Those grip names are the fancier names for pullup (pronated) and chinup (supinated).

 

[sarahelizabeth]

@pablob It’s kind of unclear what training you’ve done. The only way to get better at pull-ups is to build lat, shoulder and bicep strength and, y’know, actually practice the movement.

As far as weight training goes, deadlifts, row variations and pull-downs are the go-to. For actually practicing the movement, band-assisted wide-grip pull-ups are the way to go.

 

[tiamia]

@pablob Start with scapular pulls.

 

[abbarrane]

@tiamia Agreed. This is what I did on the lat pulldown machine to retrain my pullup

 

[firmamentalist]

@pablob I did banded pullups, as has been mentioned, because I got absolutely sick of negatives. I progressed to unassisted pullups in 2 months; I'd highly recommend that path instead.