Happy Friday! I have always had a love hate relationship with pull-ups. They are an amazing body weight exercise to work the back and show true strength. But, they are damn hard and require a lot of practice. Before I was pregnant and when I was my most fittest I could rep out anywhere from 8-10 pull-ups each set unassisted. It took a lot of work and practice to get to that point. Now, 15 weeks postpartum I struggle to get one unassisted pull-up. It has been a humbling experience as I attempt to gain my strength back in the gym, pull-ups especially. With the proper techniques and tons of practice I know I can get back to where I was pre baby.
You might think that you should just hop on the bar or assisted pull-up machine and rep out as many pull-ups as you can and you will get stronger and better at them. Well, this isn’t necessarily true. The best way to get stronger at pull-ups is increasing your upper body pulling strength. I recommend starting where your strength is at and work up from there. Here is a list of pull-up progression exercises that will take you from being able to do no pull-ups to doing many!
- pulling movement with a barbell at an angel: start with a barbell on a rack at about chest height. Place your feet out in front of you so you are at an angel with the bar. Pull yourself to the bar. Over time, continue to place your feet further and further out so you are at more of an angel.
- TRX pull-ups: very similar to barbell pull-ups, place your feet out in front of you so your body is at an angel and perform a pulling movement. You can play with the length of the TRX and positioning of your feet for different difficulty levels. You could lay on the floor with your knees bent, you could stand and be at a slight angel or a sharp angel, you could place your feet on a small box out in front of you as your body is at an angel.
- Eccentric pull-up: with assistance with a resistance band perform a pull-up and slowly lower yourself down (3-4 seconds) to the starting position. Performa as many as you can with proper form. You can see me doing them here. Overtime, use less and less resistance.
- Assisted banded or machine pull-ups: perform pull-ups with perfect form with the assistance of a resistance band or pull-up machine. Overtime, use less and less resistance until you can perform pull-ups without any resistance.
Remember to start where your upper body strength is at. Don’t just jump into assisted pull-ups right away. Be persistent and consistent and keep practicing! The more reps you do, the stronger you will get, the more unassisted pull-ups you will be able to do!