How To Work Up To Pull-ups

Doing full pull-ups requires very strong back muscles, plus some help from your arm and shoulder muscles as well. If you're not quite strong enough to do full pull-ups yet, have no fear--you can usually work up to doing pull-ups, sometimes within just a few weeks, depending on how strong you are and what your body weight is when you first begin. All you have to do is strength the muscles that are primarily responsible for doing pull-ups, the latissimus dorsi (sometimes known as the lats). The other arm and shoulder muscles that help with pull-ups will naturally strengthen as well, since they aid in almost all motions executed by the latissimus dorsi.

Tips and Warnings

Introduce variety into your work-outs, while still working toward pull-ups, by doing other exercises that strengthen the lats. Seated narrow rows, dumbbell rows and pullovers are all good examples. You can also place a stepstool underneath the pull-up bar so that you can use your legs to help push you up to it, taking as much of the load on your back muscles as possible. Finally, you can also do "narrow grip pull-ups" from a roman chair by squatting inside the roman chair, grasping the handles, then lowering your body down to a hanging position--as if you were hanging from a pull-up bar--and pulling yourself up and down. Use the same form as if you were doing pull-ups, keeping your body vertical and the "bar" in front of your face; the only difference is that your feet on the ground help push your body up and down. Doing "negatives" is also a good way of building strength. Once you're able to do a few pull-ups but want to work up to doing more, use a step stool or jump to get yourself to the top of the pull-up position, then slowly lower yourself back down to the starting position with a smooth, controlled motion.