Part of the series

Before we get started, though, don’t forget that this is the fourth in a series of five articles on pull ups.  So don’t miss the previous articles in this series:

• Introducing pull ups and chins - why they are a good idea and how to do them
• What to do if your shoulder hurts doing pull ups – it may not be the end of the world
• Pull up variants – pronated grip, supinated grip, neutral grip, wide grip, narrow grip and elbow flexor pull ups

Basic principles of doing more pull ups

The basic principles are:

• you need to do more pull ups;
• you need to do pull ups virtually every day; and
• you need to avoid training to failure.

If you can follow these principles, then you don’t really need to follow a written programme.  Some people get good results from putting a pull up bar in the kitchen doorway and getting into the habit of doing a couple of reps every time they go past.  They get good results.  Other people follow a rigid programme over several weeks.  They get good results too.

So what’s the science behind it?

The goal of these principles is to create muscular efficiency by constantly exposing the muscles to the same movements over and over again.  You won’t get bigger (and you won’t really get that much stronger either after you go over about 12 reps) but you will get a lot better at doing pull ups.  It’s very similar to the way that cyclists train for endurance races, like the Tour de France.  Most of their training is easy spinning in low gears and for long (like 5 or 6 hours) rides.  They then top this up with short sprints and other types of training before races.

Example programmes

If you’re the programme type, here are a couple to get you going.  They are all designed to keep you from training to failure but with the aim of getting plenty of pull ups done.  If you fancy using one, try to give it a couple of weeks to do the job and then switch to another method.  I tend to cycle workouts every 4 weeks to keep things fresh and you won’t lose out by doing that here.

Programme 1: morning and evening

• Day 1: test yourself – find the maximum number of reps you can do (e.g. 10 reps)
• Days 2 – 6: do 1 set of your maximum number of reps less 1 (e.g. 9 reps) in the morning and 1 set in the evening
• Day 7: rest

Programme 2: 1o minute sets

• Day 1: test yourself – find the maximum number of reps you can do (e.g. 10 reps)
• Days 2 – 6: do 1 set of half your maximum number of reps (e.g. 5 reps) on a minute for 10 minutes.  If you get all 10 sets, add a rep (e.g. 6 reps).
• Day 7: rest

Programme 3: ladders

• Day 1: test yourself – find the maximum number of reps you can do (e.g. 10 reps)
• Days 2 – 6: do 1 set of 1 rep, then a set of 2 reps, then a set of 3 reps and so on until you get to your maximum number of reps less 4 (e.g. 6 reps).  Do each set on 45 seconds and then come back down again.
• Day 7: rest

Programme 4: cluster sets

• Day 1: test yourself – find the maximum number of reps you can do (e.g. 10 reps)
• Days 2 – 6: do 2 reps and pause for 5 seconds, do another 2 reps and pause for 5 seconds.  Repeat this until you reach your maximum number of reps.  Then take 1 minute rest and repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 sets of (5 x 2) reps.
• Day 7: rest

Final tips

A couple more tips:

• some people find that their grip is one of the things that causes them to fail when doing higher reps, so you may need to work on that to improve your overall numbers.  Some good places to look for advice on grip strength are Diesel Crew and Ultimate Grip.
• watch your form on the last reps of each set and be aware that bad form can cause you to develop shoulder or back pain.  Refer to my last article about what to do if your shoulder hurts doing pull ups if this happens;
• if you wake up in the morning and you’re sore after doing pull ups the previous day, don’t hesitate to take a day off.  This isn’t about making the muscle sore.  If you make the muscle sore then you aren’t achieving the required goal.  We are looking for efficiency not muscle growth.
• if you find that you aren’t getting enough rest in one of the programmes, increase the rest periods.  We’re not looking for heart health here!

Don’t necessarily rely on your doctor for sports-specific injury help

My friends often ask me why I go to a physical therapist or a sports massage therapist rather than taking advantage of the NHS, which is free (I live in the UK)?  Why not go to a doctor instead?

Well, in the NHS, the local doctors are usually referred to as GP’s or General Practitioners, which means they know a little bit about a huge range of diseases, disorders and other ailments.  This is a good thing if you happen to go down with a bizarre tropical disease after flying back home from Mexico.  But it’s a bad thing if you need help with a bad knee.  What’s the point?  They aren’t specialists.

In the UK, GP’s are basically triage experts.  They see everything from people with Oh-my-God-you-have-5-minutes-to-live diseases to people who have I-have-a-bit-of-a-cold-doctor-but-all-I-really-need-is-some-sympathy-and-a-nice-cup-of-tea disorders.  If you walk into the surgery and ask about a bum shoulder the GP is going to say “rest it and come back in 6 weeks if it’s still a problem”.  You might get a prescription for some pain relievers but frankly you can get those cheaper in the supermarket anyway.

And if you think I’m being unkind about the medical profession, then take a look at the prevailing view on doctors at T-Nation for a no-holds barred approach…

Find a skilled sports massage therapist instead

In contrast, I have found the sports massage therapists I have used to be excellent.  I now recommend the London School of Sports Massage graduates to anyone who will listen.  Every LSSM practitioner I have worked with has understood that I am still going to train whatever they say and has worked with me on that basis.  They know that if they said “don’t do anything for 6 weeks” then I am going to go elsewhere in a hurry.

The London School of Sports Massage also has a feature on its website that allows you to search for practioners close to you.

Tips on how to work with your sports massage therapist

I have found the following approach to pay dividends when working with a sports massage therapist:

• Tell them what hurts and answer their questions honestly
• Ask the therapist what exercises you can do and do them
• Ask the therapist what exercises you can’t do and don’t do them
• Ask the therapist for corrective exercises if appropriate.  If they give you any, make sure that you do them

Speed your recovery

There are a few other things that I have done that have helped speed my recovery from shoulder pain:

• Drink plenty of water before and after massages
• Stretch after massages
• Use hot and cold contrast pads or showers on the affected areas

Balance your pressing and pulling

Once you’re back hitting the gym hard, it’s worth making sure that you aren’t setting yourself up for injury again because of an unbalanced programme.  About a year ago, my pull-up progression stalled.  I reviewed my programme and I found that (unlike most people) I was doing much more pulling than pressing.  To correct things, I introduced dips, which I hadn’t really been doing before.  My dips performance improved incredibly quickly, until it reached a similar level to my pull ups.  After that, they both moved upwards together.  Coincidence?  Probably not. 

A good rule of thumb is that your pull up strength should be similar to your bench press.  So if you weigh 75kg (165lbs) and bench 95kg (210lbs) then you should be adding 20kg (45lbs) to your belt when you do pull ups.  If you’re not then you shouldn’t be surprised if your shoulders hurt, really…

Improve your movement patterns and mobility

Many shoulder problems can be caused by inadequate shoulder movement patterns or mobility.  There have been lots of great articles written on this subject.  I found Eric Cressey’s article series Shoulder Savers to be the most helpful when I had my last injury.  I found the following hints made the most difference for me:

• Thoracic extensions on a foam roller
• More soft tissue work on a foam roller
• More targeted soft tissue work with a tennis ball
• Doing more horizontal rowing
• Sorting out my bench press technique

If your bench press technique isn’t at least as good as mine, you may be at risk of injuring your shoulders…

So that’s how I approach any injuries I get when lifting.  I hate getting injured as much as anyone so I like to have a game plan ready for when I do.  Fortunately, by following my own advice, I’ve been twinge-free for at least 6 months now and hoping it will stay that way!

This is the second article in a 5-part series about pull ups.  The first was a general introduction to pull ups and chins.

• Starting out – how to work up to one pull up if you can’t already do one
• Staying injury free – what to do if your shoulder hurts
• Pull up variants – pronated grip, supinated grip, neutral grip, wide grip, narrow grip, elbow flexor, isometrics and lock-offs
• Volume progressions – how to do more than one pull up
• Strength progressions – how to build a big weighted pull up

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What does a pull up look like?

This is what a pull up looks like.

The 3 pictures show the bottom, middle and top positions (yes, I did have to hold the middle position for ages while we got the camera to work, which is why I am bright red in the face).  Anyway, the key points are:

• You start from a dead hang
• You start with straight arms
• You don’t flail around or use momentum to throw yourself skywards
• You finish with your chin over the bar

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How do I do a pull up?

You reach up, grab the bar and pull your chin over it.  Anything more sophisticated than that is probably overblown.  If you can’t do a pull up yet, watch out for my tutorial in the next couple of weeks on how to do your first pull up and be prepared for the journey of a lifetime… or something like that.

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Why bother with pull ups and chins?

I must confess, I wrote this paragraph about 4 times before it made sense.  You see, I was somewhat perplexed about where to start.  To be honest, I have got to the point where I do pull ups and chins just to get better at pull ups and chins.  Like a powerlifter, I am only really interested in whether doing a routine will add to my 1RM.

However, I understand that most people don’t think like this!  There are, fortunately for me, lots of benefits:

• Pull ups hit the lats hard and your lats can never be strong enough (as Adam confirms)
• Close-grip chins hit the biceps hard and if you want bigger arms, this is the way forward
• Pull ups are a big, compound movement and therefore cause more testosterone to be released
• Pull ups will help stabilise your shoulders and prevent injury
• Pull ups will help you get a bigger bench
• Pull ups will get you out of trouble if you’re hanging on a cliff edge for dear life… Uh, no I don’t have a link for that one, but you can trust me…

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How do I integrate pull ups into my workouts?

As always, it depends on what you’re already doing and what your goals are.  If you already have a number of specific exercises that you are training for specific goals (like the powerlifts or the Olympic lifts) then you are probably already incorporating pull ups and chins as assistance exercises to help strengthen the lats and biceps.

If you are training for physique goals, then you could consider replacing one of your back or biceps exercises with a chin.  If you’re doing lat pull downs, for example, this would be the obvious exercise to replace as the movement is very similar.

Personally, I have found that pull ups and chins make a great choice for the max effort exercise in an upper body workout as part of a 4-day split routine.  Joe DeFranco has written a great 4-day split workout routine with max effort and repetitive or dynamic effort days called Westside for Skinny Bastards.

I actually tend to do 2 max effort exercises for a 3RM, a pull (always a pull up or a chin) and a push (usually a dip or bench).  This is different from Joe’s programme.  Initially, I was worried that I might overtrain doing this but so far (about 6 months), I have been fine.

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How do I progress pull ups?

You can either add weight or add reps.  You can add weight in various ways:

• Adding weight plates to a dipping belt
• Adding weight plates to a climbing harness using a sling and carabiner
• Holding a dumbbell on your feet (only for the brave)

I have found that a climbing harness works well as you can distribute the load around the belt and this prevents the weight from changing your centre of gravity too much.  I have found that anything over 2/3 bodyweight in one place starts to tip me forwards or backwards.  Once I get above this weight, I start to add plates to the back of the harness to balance myself out.

Well, that’s my introduction to pull-ups.  Stay tuned for parts 2 to 5…