Pull Up

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How many pull ups can you do? Like the bench press, the pull up is commonly used as an indicator of strength and physical fitness. It's popular for general fitness and is a fundamental exercise for climbers and calisthenics athletes. Its popularity is most definitely warranted as its one of the most convenient, effective, and functional exercises out there.

The Basics

The pull up is primarily used as a strength exercise. It is classified as a vertical upper pull movement. It is more generally classified as a upper pull movement. Since it involves significant activation of multiple muscle groups, it is considered a compound exercise.

Form

Set Up

• Grasp the bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width apart
• You should be in an active dead hang (arms fully extended, shoulder blades held down and back)
• Keep your chest up, shoulders back, abs engaged, and legs in front of your body

Execution

• Pull your chest to the bar by pulling your elbows down and in and your hands towards your shoulders
• Keep your shoulder blades held down and back for the entire rep
• The rep is complete when your chin goes above the bar
• Lower yourself under control back to an active dead hang
• Minimize any swinging before your next rep

Common Mistakes

Wrapping Your Thumbs

If you're doing pull ups on a pull up bar, wrapping your thumbs can wrist and elbow discomfort. Your hands are already pronated (facing away from you), and wrapping your thumbs can cause them to pronate past the limits of your mobility. This, combined with supporting almost your entire body weight, can lead to discomfort and even injury.

Crossing Your Feet

While not that big of a deal, crossing your feet isn't ideal for core activation. Keep your legs straight if possible.

Arching Your Back

Arching your back can lead to lower back pain. It also decreases core activation and turns what's meant to be a vertical pull into more of a horizontal pull.

Swinging/Kipping

Swinging or kipping changes the focus and difficulty of the exercise significantly. Using momentum from your lower body makes completing the movement much easier and won't develop the pulling muscles nearly as much.

Extending Your Neck

Don't give in to the urge to extend your neck at the top of reps just to get your chin over the bar. Keep your chin tucked and keep a full range of motion for every rep.

Additional Info

Difficulty

Pull ups are undeniably tough. Of all the common calisthenics exercises, they are the most difficult since you're moving almost your entire bodyweight with just your arms. For comparison, you only move about 70% of your bodyweight when doing a push up. Fortunately, there are several ways to build up to doing a pull up. Using an assisted pull up machine or doing lat pulldowns are both great options. For more options, check out the Related Exercises section.

Minimal Equipment

All you need to be able to do pull ups is something that you can safely hang from. This can be a pull up bar, gymnastics rings, playground equipment, or even a tree branch. If you're looking to get a home gym set up, a pull up bar or rings are a great investment.

Progression

Unlike some other calisthenics exercises, pull ups are fairly simple to do with extra weight. There are a lot of options, such as: putting weight in a backpack, holding a dumbbell between your legs, using a weight vest, and using a dip belt and plates. Using a dip belt is the recommended method since the other methods get difficult to load at higher weights.

If you don't have a way to add extra weight, there are also several more difficult variations that require little to no additional equipment. Don't worry about these not being challenging enough, they go all the way up to a one arm pull up.

Related Articles

• How to One Arm Pull Up | Progressions and Tips for Building Singular Strength: Doing a one arm pull up is hard. Really hard. Which is why it's one of the most impressive skills to achieve. However, if you're willing to put in the work and train smart, you can definitely get there.
• Pull Up vs. Chin Up | Which is Better?: Pull ups and chin ups are both great exercises. While they're similar, each has its advantages and disadvantages that may make it the better choice for you.

Related Exercises

Reviews

Performance Standard Ranks

The ranks assume that you are generally healthy, with no underlying health conditions or injuries and have the mobility to perform the exercise correctly. You can determine your rank by comparing your numbers to the tables below. Your rank is also tracked automatically when using our Workout Log feature.

Strength Standards

The tables show the one rep max* in pounds needed to reach each rank at different body weights (also in lbs). The 1RMs on the table are based on world records, balanced ratios, and the average time needed to attain each rank. To see personalized strength standards for every exercise, check out the Strength Standards page. You can also find your Strength Score to see how you rank as part of our Fitness Score System.

*Added weight if positive, assistance if negative. The planche and levers are also notable exceptions as they show the moment at the shoulder, not weight. For more info, check out the Moment Calculator page.

Muscular Endurance Standards By Body Weight

The tables show the reps or isometric hold times (in seconds) needed to reach each of the muscular endurance ranks at different body weights. The reps on the table are based on world records, ratios, and the average time needed to attain each rank. To see personalized standards for every exercise, check out the Muscular Endurance Standards page.

The amount of weight used to test for muscular endurance of some of the exercises is a percentage of body weight. The percentage was chosen to be memorable and to require a Novice to Intermediate level of strength so that most trainees could reasonably use it while not having to do an excessive amount of reps.