Figure Athlete - Ladies, You Can Conquer the Pull-Up

Ladies, You Can Conquer the Pull-Up:
10 Reps After Only 6 Weeks!
by Leigh Peele

The pull-up is the ultimate Girl Power exercise.

For some women, it's a myth, a fable told by others. They have heard of some women doing it, but have never actually seen it done, and certainly haven't been able to do it themselves.

The pull-up isn't merely an exercise or a movement, it's the ultimate in female empowerment. Put a woman in front of a bunch of strong men and have her squat, run, and jump. The dudes may make some appreciative comments, but that's about it. However, put that same woman on a pull-up bar and let her start knocking out rep after perfect rep, and I assure you that every man in that room will stare in a mixture of awe, admiration, and (most deliciously of all) envy. I've seen it happen, and let me tell ya, it's a beautiful thing. The pull-up is the Great Equalizer: it evens the playing field, bridging the chasm between the boys and the girls.

Sad to think that many women will never be able to knock out those perfect reps, never be the object of male awe and envy, because the pull-up is, for many women, one of the toughest exercises to conquer. You, on the other hand, are one of the lucky ones, because you're reading this article. For you, those ten perfect pull-ups are definitely within your grasp.

Before you can conquer the pull-up, you must know your adversary: understand how the pull-up works. First, you need to look at the variation of grips. A change in grip changes muscles targeted, and technically, even changes the name of the exercises themselves (pull-ups as opposed to chin-ups). For the purpose of this article, we are going to be talking about three different grips, and the importance of each to your training.

Pronated grip: this is the standard pull-up grip of palms facing forward/overhand on the bar.

Supinated grip: this is the chin-up style grip of palms facing upward/underhand grip on the bar.

Neutral grip: this is your natural inclination style of grip, palms facing medial grip on a parallel bar.

Neutral (parallel) grip.

Different grips target different muscles in different ways. For example, a pronated grip is king and best at hitting the latissimus dorsi muscles of the back. With a pronated grip there is less stress and usage of the biceps brachii when compared to a supinated (chin-up) grip. The neutral grip utilizes your brachilalis and brachioradialis muscles in a way that neither of the other two grips do.

For some with chronic shoulder problems and impingements, the standard pull-up grip just isn't a great idea, and you may need to do all exercises with a supinated grip. However, if recovering from persistent elbow problems, being able to lower yourself properly in a negative exercise might be tougher in a supinated grip. If you're a complete mess, try the neutral style grip and go from there. Otherwise, follow the program as written, with grip alternations.

The success of doing a pull-up, as with all compound movements, becomes a game of finding where your weakness is. The main muscle usage for a pull-up should be from the back. From a hang position, you should fire primarily in your latissimus dorsi, and start off a chain of support, lifting your body more with your back and core than with your arms. The most common mistake in a pull-up is failing to fire the back properly, or at all. Consider that the average person gets their guns not from curls, but from doing brute-strength arms-dominant chin-up work.

A good exercise and test for this is the hang bar lift. The purpose of this movement is to see if you can properly control the firing of your back muscles to then coordinate the rest of the proper chain of events.

The hang bar lift is a good test of your lat control.

To do the hang bar lift, position yourself in a dead hang on the bar. This can be weight assisted or not, that aspect doesn't matter, but you need to be fully extended in a dead hang. You want to almost completely lock your elbows and paralyze your arm movement on the bar so that when you raise yourself up into a shrug, you're using only your back to lift yourself.

The movement is subtle: you're only causing a small movement and firing almost completely with your lats. Your grip on the bar may be tired from the hang, but all the work of lifting yourself into that movement should come from your back and back alone.

If you feel any pain at all in your shoulders, then switch grips to supinated or neutral.

Cheating a pull-up is going to cheat yourself out of success. Some of the ugliest half range pull-ups I've ever seen were largely due to weak rhomboids and lower trap muscles. A proper pull-up (with whatever grip you utilize) is from a dead hang to an above bar raise, and then lowered back down into controlled dead hang.

Cheating will only cheat yourself out of your victory.

That lowering back down is where a lot of people miss out of the full potential of this exercise, leading to overstrained lats, tight pectorals, weak rhomboids and lower traps. Pull-ups and chin-ups, when done with the correct range of motion, are quick and excellent tools for improving a large amount of muscle weakness and imbalance. Done wrong, they just make it worse. Don't just drop once you reach the top, you earned getting up there, earn getting back down.

You know why gymnasts rock the pull-up? They are notorious for strong cores. A weak core means a weak stabilization system and while it may not seem like a big deal swinging around on that bar and lacking the ability to stabilize force upward, it'll hurt your pull-up.

Another strong player in your pull-up ability is your actual forearm strength and grip. Any of you involved in a good deadlifting program understand the importance that grip strength plays in being able to hold that bar up. Well what kind of role and importance do you think is going to occur when your body becomes the force of that bar?

In this program you're going to have to use the aid of assistance in your pull-ups. Each has its pros and cons, so in the end you should use whatever you can to progress.

Assist machine: this is the easiest method to help assist you. These machines work on the method of giving you opposing weight to help aid in lifting you upwards. The con though is they can help aid you too much and take out some of that stability work that you can earn with using some other methods.

Partner or wall assistant: I love using partner assisted pull-ups because they automatically throw off stability, help give that mental push, and allow for a lot more resistance control. Don't utilize the partner so much to help raise you; do that only as a last resort on forced reps. Instead utilize your partners body/wall to aid your legs in assisting to help pull yourself up. This way you get more core and leg training along with your pull-up work.

Bands: these are likely the best in assistance because they offer changing resistance use of stabilization, make it very hard to cheat, and offer portability. The flip side is they can be a bit tricky to work with, and as your resistance needs change, your band needs will change as well.

Bands are best, but tricky to work with.

You almost have to break down and analyze the movement as if you're trying to figure out a complex puzzle. Why doesn't this work? What am I missing here? Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

While I can't help you find Carmen, I can shed some light on what we do know about pull-ups. Here it is:

You think she can do ten pull ups?

Your ability to do a pull-up has very little to do with your muscle mass, but a lot to do with muscle endurance. In fact, the less overall mass you have, the easier a pull-up is going to be. If you don't believe it, just watch a skinny-as-a-rail, low grade gymnast girl whoop.

I've been witness to the frustration of a big brute strong woman raising exterior weight above their body, but not even coming close to going from dead hang to pull-up on the bar. Muscle size and amount has nothing to do with it.

I don't always agree with everything the military does, particularly when it comes to training, but I've gotta admit they know the three most important secrets to pull-up success: frequency, frequency, and frequency. If you're looking to increase bodyweight pull-ups and pushups, then you need to take a clue from them. Bodyweight training is a completely different animal than external weight training, especially depending upon the goal.

Almost all of us have the ability to do a bodyweight squat, without any prior training. You have to add weight, or else you're not going to improve your strength or ability in this exercise. Pull-ups are different. Most people can't even do one withoutweight, so addingweight won't help much. The only way to get better at doing pull-ups is todo more pull-ups. Frequency is the key for bodyweight exercises.

The military has a simple rule: when in doubt, knock 'em out. Every day, multiple times a day, you just do them, over and over again. Like it or not, it works. Of course, being so gung-ho has its downsides, which range from overtraining to severe CNS fatigue and injury.

I already mentioned that people carrying more muscle mass would have a harder time doing a pull-up. What if you're carrying extra weight in the form of excess body fat? If you're an overweight guy or girl, the probability of lifting yourself over that bar can be summed up in two words: fat chance. And unfortunately, "overweight" in this case isn't as much as you might think. Just 4-5% higher body fat and your chances just got cut in half. If you're going to achieve your pull-ups, you have to get lean. If you don't like being lower in weight and leaner, then this is going to be a lot harder for you. Not impossible, but a lot harder.

Contrary to what most women believe, the average guy can't even do one pull-up. In fact, a lot of guys will really benefit from this program, and probably learn a few things, too. How come men can't do pull-ups? For the exact same reasons that women can't. Again, this exercise evens the playing field, and that's why I love it.

The average guy is a pathetic little worm who can't even do one pull-up.

This isn't an exercise where you can monkey around with lots of other things. The best way to get better at something is to just do it. If you're learning to play the guitar you don't practice on the piano even if it does strengthen your fingers. That doesn't mean that this program isn't going to help you work on your muscle weakness that make doing that one pull-up easier, but it does mean that once you get to the point of actually doing them, then you should focus on doing more of them.

I'm prescribing a cutting diet because most of you aren't lean enough to make this as easy as it should be, remember the lower your body fat, the easier it is. If you're already lean and just need the training, then ignore the diet. If you're above 20% body fat, get to cutting.

3 days a week: 10 x bodyweight in calories; 1.0 grams x bodyweight in protein

2 days a week: 9 x bodyweight in calories; 1.2 grams x bodyweight in protein

2 days a week: 13 x bodyweight in calories; 0.8 grams x bodyweight in protein

Substitute: Two meals every day with a Metabolic Drive shake and two servings of Flameout.

On a cutting diet, substitute two meals a day with a Metabolic Drive shake.

Have two servings of Flameout with your meal-replacement shake.

Walk: 60 minutes daily. This can be done a little at a time: it doesn't have to be done all at once.

This isn't overly complicated.

Keep the calories low, keep the protein high. Try to make your fats and carbohydrates good choices, and don't neglect your starches. You don't have to pick this diet but it gets it done and done fast. I will say that if doing an extremely low calorie diet, this may not be the time to do this program. This is more for a moderately aggressive dieting down program.

I've modified this program from a previous one to increase your results even faster, and to advance you to a stage where you have the best chance of knocking out rep after rep in no time. This program isn't about gaining mass; this program isn't about getting ready for a figure competition. All the exercises are to increase your strengths and weakness that are involved here. I don't want to hear "what about my deadlift?" This isn't about your deadlift, this is about your pull-ups.

Weeks 1-3

Sets: 4
Reps: 15 (or failure)
Rest: 45-60 seconds

Warm Up

Arm Claps
Scap Pushups
Golfer Pick ups

Days 1 and 4

Negatives with pronated grip
Face Pulls
One-legged Dumbbell Deadlifts
Farmer's Walks

Days 2 and 5

Negatives with supinated grip
Lat Pulldown
Front Dumbbell Squats
Plank Progressions

Days 3 and 6

Assisted Pull-ups with supinated grip
Swiss Ball Jack Knifes

Day 7

Rest

Weeks 4-6

Sets: 4
Reps: 10 (or failure)
Rest: 45-60 seconds

Warm Ups

Wall Slides
Chest Stretch to Lunge Twist
Lat Foam Rolls

Days 1 and 4

Assisted Pull-ups with pronated grip
Seated Rows
Swiss Ball Chest Fly

Days 2 and 5

Assisted Pull-ups with neutral grip
Step-ups (no push offs)
Ab Wheel Rollouts

Days 3 and 6

Pull-ups (any grip)
Side Planks

Day 7

Rest

At the end of this, if you're lean enough and you push yourself hard enough, you should easily be able to pump out ten perfect pull-ups. At the very least, keep focusing on your cut and try again. Remember, the P in pull-up stands for persistence.

Leigh Peele is a personal trainer who received her certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She has also earned certifications in nutrition consultation, training special populations, and weight management. Her clients range from college athletes and professional fighters to housewives and obese seniors. A nationally-published author and a leader in the study of metabolic behavior and recovery, Leigh is the one to go to when nothing else has worked. Find out more about Leigh's work at Avidity Fitness and The Fat Loss Troubleshoot.

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