How To Increase Your Pull Ups

Posted on | May 4, 2009 |

All too often I get asked at the gym, “how are you able to perform so many pull ups without stopping?” This person in particular was soon-to-be taking the Police Academy physical fitness test and pull ups were one of the requirements. He was watching me do my sets and was wondering how he could do as many pull ups as I was doing as well as using the proper form that I had.

I explained to him that it’s all about setting goals for yourself. Figure out how many pull ups you are looking at or are required to do, and use that as your target for where you need to be. If you are required to perform 10 pull ups in 1 minute, and you can’t do more than 4 or 5 right now, figure out a goal that is attainable to work towards, and then increase your repetitions from there.

Before we get into how to increase your pull ups, let’s talk about proper pull up form (not to be confused with a chin-up which your hands are reversed grip or palms facing towards you). Grab a bar, palms forward, hands shoulder-width apart. Your body should be hanging without tension or strain on the biceps. Pull your body all the way up so your chest is going to towards the bar, using your lats and upper back and NOT your biceps. Continue pulling until your chin is at bar level. Lower all the way down until you are back at your starting position. That is one rep.

If you can do 5 pull ups, but need to do 10, perform sets of 4 pull ups per set. Do a total of 4 sets and you have completed 16 total. They may be not all together, but you can work your way up to your goal. Give yourself one minute of rest and get back at it again. The key here is strengthening the muscles used for pull ups, so if you keep working at it, you will be at your goal in a very short time. Just keep at it. If it were easy, everyone would be able to do it.

I tend to start out my back day workouts with 5 sets of 10 pull ups per set, for a total of 50 pull ups. I can perform about 20 consecutive pull ups with no rest. This wasn’t always the case for me. I have come a long ways since my first physical fitness test where all I could muster up was 2 pull ups. I set a goal for myself to be able to do more and more pull up until I eventually reached my target. Now my starting goal is anywhere between 10-14 reps for the first set. I eventually would like to be able to perform 30, so I will keep you posted on that.

This is what works for me. What about you?

Category: Back & Shoulders
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One Response to “How To Increase Your Pull Ups”

  1. 3 Simple Exercises Can Produce Great Results - Muscle Body Workouts
    May 19th, 2009 @ 11:30 am

    [...] get stronger in all 3 areas. You probably will pump out a few more push ups you can do, or maybe increase the amount of pull ups as you continue to work at it. You might even get some muscularity and definition from doing enough [...]

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