Ive spent most of my life looking up at pull-up bars, wishing I could ascend to their height.
Sometimes I would train hard, and I would get one (1) pull-up.
But then Id slack off for a hot minute, and Id be back down to zero.
Im a cis woman, not particularly gifted with upper-body muscle.
By the beginning of November, I had my second.
I added a third and a fourth in December, then a fifth and a sixth in January.
I kept doing pullups whenever I could, andadded a seventh repduring that time.
I can currently do eight in a row, and Im hoping to hit nine and ten soon!
Know the basics
First, hand position matters.
If your palms are facing toward you, thats a chin-up.
If theyre facing away from you, thats a pull-up.
I like the ones with two handles spaced wide apart.
Play with hand position and figure out what works best for you.
Second, know what counts as a strict pull-up.
At the top position, your chin has to be higher than the bar.
Kipping pull-ups are a whole nother thing.
This is a move where youswing your body and use momentum to help yourself up.
I just want to see to it Ive said, on the record, that kipping is not cheating.
Its a different exercise.
Some folks swear bynegative reps, where you start at the top and lower yourself down.
I suspect the truth is that you have to domany different exercises, not just one.
Heres what I mean.
(Band pull-ups are like this, too.)
But if I get some upper-body gains and then slack off, theyll disappear.
So I committed to working on my pulling exercises two to three times a week, no matter what.
You probably wont get in very many sets of three during your workout.
You may find it more useful to do sets of just one or two at a time.
Ive also begun to work on weighted pull-ups.
Or at home, load books or dumbbells into a backpack.
