Let’s be honest, pull-ups are badass. It doesn’t get more empowering than pulling your entire body over a bar. Holy shit does it feel good. And doing pull-ups will also develop great looking arms and a terrific back.
Especially for the ladies when there are bullshit articles out there like this one explaining why women shouldn’t be able to do pull-ups. Ok, maybe it is harder for women to do pull-ups. That’s the truth because generally speaking women have less muscle mass and more body fat than men do. So yes, that fact makes the act of pulling yourself over the bar more challenging.
But just because something is harder, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try anyway! I’m here to tell you that ANYONE can do a pull-up. If you currently can’t do one, no worries, that’s what today’s video is all about.
We’ll show you 2 pull-up variations you can do right now to work towards your first pull-up. And if you can do pull-ups, that’s great – we’ll have a video coming soon showing you some advanced variations of pull-ups.
For now, let’s discuss the 2 best exercises to train for pull-ups.
Band Assisted Pull-up – Using the resistance band will reduce the amount of bodyweight you have to pull-up (especially at the bottom when you need it most) allowing you to perform more reps than you otherwise could.
Eccentric / Negatives – This is a great way to build strength in your major pulling muscles. Try to lower yourself down for 5 seconds with each rep.
Here’s a 1-Month Pull-up Plan
Using basic progressive overload principles, you will perform the same number of band-assisted reps (10), but you will add 2 sets each week. The negatives will stay the same at 3 sets of 5 reps each week (see below for the exact details).
Julie couldn’t do 1 pull-up a few months ago. Now she can do up to 5 or 6 on a good day. Here’s Julie in the park busting out a few. And that’s only with 1 month of training. She has her eye on 10 and I think we’ll be there within a few months.
Here’s the plan for the next 4 weeks. You will carve out 3 sessions per week to work on your pull-ups. You will perform these 2 variations every session. Follow the reps and sets listed below. These sessions should take about 15-20 minutes.
Week 1 – 3 sessions per week. Rest for a full 1-2 minutes between sets.
- Band assisted pull-ups – 4 sets of 10 reps (40 total reps)
- Negatives – 3 sets of 5 reps (15 total reps)
Week 2 – 3 sessions per week. Rest for a full 1-2 minutes between sets.
- Band assisted pull-ups – 6 sets of 10 reps (60 total reps)
- Negatives – 3 sets of 5 reps (15 total reps)
Week 3 – 3 sessions per week. Rest for a full 1-2 minutes between sets.
- Band assisted pull-ups – 8 sets of 10 reps (80 total reps)
- Negatives – 3 sets of 5 reps (15 total reps)
Week 4 – 3 sessions per week. Rest for a full 1-2 minutes between sets.
- Band assisted pull-ups – 10 sets of 10 reps (100 total reps)
- Negatives – 3 sets of 5 reps (15 total reps)
