How To Get Your 1st Pullup

Hi Folks

In this article I'm going to discuss how to get your chin over the bar with overhand grip from a dead hang position for the first time without any kipping.

No matter if you are young, old, male, female, crossfitter or just a regular guy, you need to be able to pull your own body up.

There are variations of the pullup where you vary your hand placement or you help yourself up with your legs and your hip but I think for a beginner it's very beneficial to master this basic upper body movement because it's a good indicator of relative body strength

So let's get right into it. I wont name specifically how long and how often should you practice these moves because it's gonna be different for every individual and of course you probably know that the more you practice the quicker the result will come.

These exercises gonna be mentioned in the order of difficulty. The one who can't even hold his/her body at the top position of a pullup going to start with exercise number 1.

#1 Eccentric Descents

      With the very first step of achieving a pullup what you need to do is stepping onto a box or some elevated surface you your chin is right above the bar. From then you grab onto the bar around shoulder with apart with your palms facing away from you. Then you step off the box and start lowering yourself as slow as you can. It's very important to have total control over your body and try not to fall down but get down as slowly and as controlled as possible. Then immediately step right back up and repeat. 

      Do 5 sets of 5 descents of your slowest possible.

#2 Isometric Holds

      If you feel that you can lower your self comfortably and you have total control of your body on the way down now you can move onto the next exercise which is holding your body at the top part of a pullup with your arms bent and chin over the bar. First, just as before step on an elevated surface so you can get your chin over the bar, but this time when you step off the box try not the start going down but holding yourself in that upper position as long as possible. Then if you feel like losing it start slowly lowering yourself a just like in the previous exercise.

      Do 5 sets of 5 of holding as long as you can then lowering as slowly as you can.

#3 Assisted Pullups

   After you reached a point where you can comfortably hold yourself for around 10-20 seconds you can move on to the next progression exercise which is assisted pullups. The way you gonna perform these is just as before you place a box below the bar but now you're grabbing onto the bar and in a deadhang position you place one of your foot on the box, the other leg is still hanging. Then you're going to pull yourself up while you are helping yourself up with your foot on the box. The goal here is to help as little with your leg as possible but still being able to get your chin over the bar. After you pulled yourself up you get your foot off the box and slowly lower yourself again just like in the first exercise. Then place one of your foot back onto the box and repeat.

Try to rely on your leg less and less.

   Do 5 sets of 5 assisted pullups with slow lowering.

#4 Partial Pullups

      Now it's time to try performing a pullup. Probably you won't be able to pull yourself all the way up but let's say you can do 1/3 of a pullup. It's all good. Your next progression exercise gonna be the partial pullups where you are trying to increase the range of motion in which you are already capable of doing pullups.

Your job is to try to go higher and closer to get your chin over the bar every time and eventually you gonna be there.

      Do 5 sets of 5 max effort partial pullup.

Thats it folks I hope that helped to get your very first strict pullup. Please Share and if you have any questions feel free to comment.

Thanks for reading! Peace Out

Rob Kiss

follow me on Twitter @theRobKiss