How to do your first pull-up

The building blocks

Think of the pull-up as a chain of skills and strengths, and train each link:

• Dead hangs: hang from the bar with straight arms for 20 to 45 seconds. Builds grip and gets your shoulders used to the position.
• Scapular pull-ups: from a dead hang, pull your shoulder blades down and back without bending your arms, lifting yourself a few centimetres. Teaches the first part of the pull.
• Rows: inverted rows under a bar or rings, and dumbbell rows, build the upper back and biceps.
• Lat pulldowns: the lat pulldown trains the same pattern with a load lighter than your body weight.
• Negatives: step up to the top position with your chin over the bar, then lower yourself as slowly as you can, aiming for 3 to 5 seconds.
• Flexed arm hangs: hold the top position, chin over the bar, for as long as you can.

You do not need all six every session. Pick three or four and rotate them.

Negatives: the most useful tool

Muscles are stronger when lowering a load than when lifting it, so you can usually control a descent well before you can pull yourself up. Slow negatives build strength through the full range and teach your body the path.

Start with 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 3 negatives, aiming for a slow, even descent. If you drop through the middle, that is the weak point; try pausing there for a second or two on the way down. Counting the seconds out loud helps, because most people speed up without realising as they tire. Rest fully between sets. Negatives cause a fair bit of soreness at first, so go easy in the first week.

What about resistance bands?

Bands looped over the bar are popular, and they help with confidence and volume. The limitation is that a band helps most at the bottom, where it is stretched, and least at the top, which is exactly where most people struggle. Use bands as one tool among several, not the only one.

An assisted pull-up machine, if available, gives consistent help through the whole range, and a partner lightly supporting your feet can do something similar. Reduce the assistance gradually over weeks. Whatever you use, make sure your shoulder blades still move properly and you are not simply swinging up.

A simple weekly plan

Train pulling two or three times a week on non-consecutive days. A session might look like this:

1. Dead hang: 3 x 20 to 30 seconds.
2. Scapular pull-ups: 3 x 5.
3. Negatives: 4 x 3, each taking 3 to 5 seconds to lower.
4. Inverted rows or lat pulldown: 3 x 8 to 12.
5. Biceps or hammer curls: 2 x 10 to 12.

Every two to three weeks, test yourself: fresh, after a warm-up, try a full pull-up from a dead hang. If you do not get it, compare how far you got with last time. Progress often shows up as a longer, slower negative or getting higher on the attempt before the first full rep arrives.

Keep this practice away from very tiring conditioning where you can. Pull-up strength is built fresh; attempting negatives at the end of a brutal session mostly builds frustration.

Body weight and grip

If you carry extra body fat, losing some makes pull-ups easier, because the job is lifting your own weight. You do not need to wait for that before training them, though. Strength gains and fat loss can happen together, and many people find that chasing a pull-up gives them a satisfying goal while they diet.

Grip often fails before the back and arms do. Dead hangs, farmers carries and heavy holds all help, and holding the bar across the base of your fingers rather than deep in the palm reduces pinching and tearing. Stronger forearms also help with carries, deadlifts and the sled pull, so the grip work pays off well beyond the bar. Our guide to grip strength has more ideas.

After the first rep

Once you get one, the next goal is three to five. The best route is frequent, fresh sets well short of failure: if you can do two, do several sets of one across the session, with full rest. Keep the negatives and rows going. Most people find reps come faster after the first. Expect the odd bad day, too: pull-up numbers are sensitive to sleep, body weight and fatigue, and a rep missed one week is often back the next. Once you can do a few, mix grips, as chin-ups, neutral grip and wide grip all train the back slightly differently.

If you want a structured plan and someone to check your progressions, coached upper body classes give you regular pulling practice. The 7-day free trial at Lycan Strength includes unlimited class access and a complimentary fitness assessment.