Let’s face it, pull ups are hard and not everybody knows the methods to master them. That’s where we come in, check out our tips below to help you add a bit of consistency to your next attempts at home or in the gym.
Practice, Practice, Practice
A common piece of advice for any workout really, but make sure you’re always practicing. Even when you don’t feel like you’re making progress, anything is better than nothing. By even just attempting some pull ups, you’ll find new ways that work for you, how to grip, what pace to pull up at and more.
Everyone needs to start somewhere so don’t feel bad if you’re only doing a couple pull ups, or even just one or two to start with.
Grip It
A key part to staying on the bar for longer and adding pull ups is within grip strength. By improving your grip strength with exercises or even using chalk or gloves can help you add more strength and durability.
Activities such as rock climbing can be really helpful for improving grip strength and upper body, which is a great combination to build for improving pull up technique and stamina.
Look Elsewhere
Other exercises can be really useful for improving pull ups and your technique. Key parts off your body to engage are your upper body, back and abdominals. These three elements are really vital in pull ups and by building strength around those elements, you’ll be smashing 100 pull ups in no time.
Try exercises like: Dead hangs, dumbbell deadlifts, and side planks.
How to do a dead hang: Grab a pull-up bar or any overhead structure that’s strong enough to take your weight. Grip overhand, retract your shoulder blades, your arm should be extending straight up from your shoulder. You’ll feel the effect in your core and back muscles.
How to do dumbbell deadlifts: Stand tall with your back straight, feet should be shoulder-width apart whilst holding dumbbells in each hand. Hold the weights in front of the middle of your thighs. Shoulders back and your chest out. Drive your hips back to lower the weight down, try to keep the dumbbells close to your shins and go as low as you can. To pull back up, drive your hips forward and pull the dumbbells up.
How to do a side plank: Lay down and place your elbow and the side of your left foot on the ground so that your back is in a straight line and your hips are on the ground. Your right foot should be stacked on top of the left foot. Lift yourself off the ground so that only your elbow and your feet are in contact with the ground. Hold the position for as long as you can.
Consistency Is Key
For the best progress, it’s important to be consistent with your exercises and training. By following a regular schedule you’ll be building strength at a steady pace, which is important for balance.
It may hard to find motivation some days or in some moments but by engaging with these activities, you’ll be pulling up with ease in no time.
We hope these tips help you, if you think these tips will help somebody else, please share this on.
