The pull up is arguably the hardest bodyweight exercise there is. The exercise consists of grabbing a bar and pulling your body upwards with your chin as the preferred marking method for the completion of a pull up. However, people often find themselves struggling within their first couple reps. Personal experiences while struggling under the bar have taught me that grip strength is the key to master the pull up.
Whether you perform 5 pullups or 15, one factor within the exercise remains constant: you are still grabbing the bar. Think of it this way, your grip strength works as the bridge that allows your back muscles to do their job. The back muscles that are used in a pull up are more than likely to allow a healthy male to perform 5 pull ups, but often is the case where the grip strength only allows 2 or 3. I have patiently paid close attention to the development of my pull ups (I currently can perform 13 pull ups) and I believe I can provide some tips that would allow any of my readers to reach double digits reps under the bar.
A) The Dreaded Negative Pull ups
I am not going to lie, negative repetitions of any exercise are not my favorite and the pull up is not an exception. However, they are very fruitful. I recommend two options to perform negative pull ups. If you cannot perform a single pull up, or can rock a few, start by performing jumping pull ups and lower your body as slow as you can bear for 3 to 4 repetitions 10 times with 5 to 10 minute breaks in between each set. The other option, and my personal least hated one, is to perform negative pull ups with the aid of a resistance band. Resistance bands tend to come in sets where their resistance varies. Whether you can perform 5 pull ups or none at all, I suggest you use the 35-85lbs resistance band. Perform an assisted pull up and pull yourself as high as the base of your neck, then slowly control the lowering motion. Perform 5 repetitions 10 times with 5 to 10 minute breaks in between each set.
B) Finishers
For those who can only perform 3 to 5 pull ups, do your normal set and whenever you feel your grip strength is drained, get off the bar and change your grip to rock at least 2 more reps. Do this at the end of half of your sets. You can alternate your grips between overhand grip, where your palms are facing away from you, underhand grip, where your palms are facing you, or alternate grip where one of your palms is facing you while the other is facing the other way. Personally, I have found that the alternate grip is by far the best finisher grip, but I invite you to find your own favorite finisher.
C) Hang on the Bar
If you cannot perform a single pull up, dedicate a whole hour to simply hang on the bar for 5 to 30 seconds according to your personal abilities and take 5 to 10 minutes in between each set. Although callouses on the hands are welcome, they can only do so much before the physical stress forces them to rip and trust me when I say that ripped hands are no fun. Make sure you use chalk to keep your hands as dry as possible and if you feel you have a couple more sets left on you, but your hands feel otherwise, wear gloves, as mentioned on my other article https://steemit.com/fitness/@kevishka82/zero-to-hero-pullups
If you really want to improve your pull ups, you have to dedicate at least 3 days to them and if you feel like you want to hit the gym too, I highly suggest you do your pull ups first. This will feel monotonous because it really is. Performing 10 pull ups a set 10 times is monotonous too, it just looks cooler.
If you like the content please check out my other post https://steemit.com/fitness/@kevishka82/zero-to-hero-pullups
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