How to Do a Proper Pull-up & Chin-up, Step By Step.

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So you want to do a pull-up, eh?

Well you’ve arrived at the right place!

Pull-ups are one of my favorite exercises and a critical movement we teach our coaching clients!

By building strength in your PULL muscles, we strengthen and tighten your back muscles. 

This will naturally cause you to pull your shoulder blades back and down into proper position, providing you a better posture. 

#4) Pull-ups improve grip strength. Grip strength is another indicator of overall health. In fact, a strong grip has been correlated with lower mortality rates.^[2]

Pull-ups are a great way to improve your grip since your hands and fingers have to support your bodyweight during the movement. 

If you’re looking for a stronger handshake, regularly doing pull-ups will go a long way towards that goal.

A quick note: we have a full guide on improving your grip strength if you’d like to learn more. 

#5) Pull-ups are convenient. Some other big compound movements require decent amounts of equipment to perform, like the deadlift or bench press. Meaning unless you have weights, barbells, and power racks at your home, you’re probably heading to the gym for your training. 

Not so with pull-ups. 

Doing a pull-up really only requires a pull-up bar, but even that can be substituted.

You can use monkey bars at a local playground, a towel around a strong beam, or even a sturdy tree:

If it’s taller than you and can support your weight, you can do pull-ups from it.^[3]

Alright, enough about why you should do pull-ups. Let’s show you how it’s done.

How to Do Proper Pull-Ups

HOW TO DO A PULL-UP, STEP-BY-STEP:

1. Grab a bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width, with your hands facing away from you.
2. Hang all the way down.
3. Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar.
4. Slight pause
5. Lower yourself all the way back down.

That’s it!

You may be thinking, “That’s all well and good Steve, but what if you can’t even do a pull-up yet! What should I do?”

Don’t panic!

I got you covered boo.

I’m going to share with you the exact pull-up progression plan we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients.

. 

Pull-Ups vs. Chin-Ups (What’s the Difference?)

You may hear the term “pull-up” and “chin-up” used interchangeably. 

However, there is a difference, so definitions are in order:

A PULL-UP is when your hands are facing away from you. 

This will work your back and biceps.

A CHIN-UP is when your hands are facing towards you.

 Although this also works your back, it has more emphasis on your biceps.

Are chin-ups easier than pull-ups?

Yes, chin-ups are generally easier to perform than pull-ups. The wider grip of a pull-up isolates your lats, which means you get less assistance from your biceps. 

We recommend including both chin-ups AND pull-ups into your workout, which we’ll discuss in our section on including pull-ups into your training. 

5 Common Mistakes When Doing a Pull-Up

Mistake #1: You don’t extend low enough or pull high enough. 

Full extension and a full range of motion are major problems for many people training pull-ups and chin-ups. Most people I see in the gym are doing half pull-ups. Either not pulling high enough, not dropping low enough, or both! It’s not a full rep, and it’s robbing your body of effective work.

Solution:

With each repetition you want your body to be in a straight line at the bottom – keep your elbows extended and your shoulder relaxed slightly up to your ears. Full range of motion for the win! Better to do a few proper pull-ups than more half-rep ones.

Mistake #2: You don’t engage your shoulders at the start. Another problem I see with people is not setting their shoulders properly when they start their pull-ups, which can put unnecessary strain on your joints/tendons/muscles. It can also be the difference between being able to get your first pull-up or chin-up and flailing around on the bar!

Solution: 

Imagine pinching a pen in between your shoulder blades, then do the pull-up. In other words, pull your shoulders down and back before you bend your elbows to pull up. This puts us in a far more efficient position. By not using our back and shoulder muscles fully, over the long run we’ll be weaker and at a higher risk for injury.

Mistake #3: You’re doing too hard a variation. Whether it’s lack of strength or too much body mass, you should choose a variation that allows you to have great form while getting stronger. Use a box, an assisted band, or an assisted pull-up machine to start at a low weight and build up your strength.

Solution: Always do proper pull-ups and chin-ups. Get your chin over the bar from a hang with every rep, and maintain good form. If you find yourself committing the mistakes on this list, make your variation easier.

Mistake #4: Not engaging your shoulders at the top. Many people will get a good extension at the bottom of their chin-up and start with great form. But then as they perform the movement, they’ll find their shoulders in a poor position at the top.

A classic sign this is happening is if the chest/neck doesn’t touch the bar, or the body curls inward significantly at the top. 

Is your shoulder elevated to the ears or rolled forward? Are you shrugging your shoulders as you’re struggling to get above the bar?

Solution: Make your variation easier by working on an assisted chin-up and maintaining a strong shoulder position at the top. 

Keep your shoulders down and back and engaged through the movement.

A chin over the bar is a chin-up – we aren’t trying to take away your chin-up if you aren’t getting your chest to the bar. But consider this a progression to even better form so you can eventually work on harder skills like pull-up variations or the legendary muscle-up.

Mistake #5: You use violent kipping motions to do your pull-ups or chin-ups. We know CrossFitters use the kip to get more pull-ups in a short amount of time. 

NOW, it is the humble opinion of our team that you should only be kipping AFTER you are capable of doing perfectly functional and safe pull-ups and chin-ups (in fact, many CrossFit gyms require qualifying strict pull-ups before you can kip).

Solution: Build strength and good position (the foundation!) before you worry about speed. You want to know how to drive a car before you learn how to race it!

In summary, don’t sacrifice good form for more pull-ups or chin-ups. You’ll create bad habits this way.

To check your form, simply record a video of yourself doing your pull-up variation and match it against the gifs and videos here.

If you want an expert to review your form, we can help! Through our spiffy app a Nerd Fitness Coach can evaluate your movement so you can perfect your technique!

#2) Side to Side Pull-Ups:

#3) Ring Pull-Ups

Rings hanging from the ceiling are inherently less stable than a pull-up bar. Thus ring pull-ups engage your core more as you stabilize yourself during the movement.

Want in on some ring action? Read our full guide on gymnastic rings workouts for more.

#4) Towel Pull-Ups

If you’re trying to improve your grip strength, try utilizing a couple of towels for your pull-ups. You’ll build lots of strength in your hands as you grasp the towels during the movement. 

#5) L-Sit Pull-ups

Raise your legs straight in front during your pull-up. This will challenge your core like you wouldn’t believe. 

#6) Clapping Pull-Up

The trick here is to have enough power to explode above the bar so you can clap your hands. The next trick is to grab the bar in time to bring yourself back down.

Be careful here. 

#7) One-Arm Pull-Ups

This is the most difficult pull-up variation you can do, what with the whole only using one arm business.

To keep yourself stable during the movement, keep your inactive arm close to your body while you pull.

If you start doing one-arm pull-ups, email us. Seriously. 

That should get you started experimenting with pull-up variations to increase the difficulty.

The other way to “progressive overload” your pull-ups is to add weight to the exercise, which we’ll devote our next section to.

How to Do Weighted Pull-Ups

Personally, my favorite thing to do in a gym is weighted pull-ups:

If you’re at this level and interested in doing so, here’s what you need to do:

1. Get a weight belt. I bought this one on Amazon and it’s worked out incredibly well for me. I’ve tried doing the whole “put weights in a backpack” thing, and it certainly works. But the angle of the weights hanging off your back is weird. With a weight belt, the weight hangs down between your legs (not a euphemism) so it feels more natural.
2. Add small amounts at a time. Most gyms will have 2.5 lb (roughly 1kg) weights; you might feel stupid putting on a big weight belt and only hanging a tiny weight off it, but you need to start somewhere.
3. Consistently add more weight. I’ll warm up with two sets of 5 pull-ups with no extra weight, and then do 3 sets of 5 weighted pull-ups. If I can complete all 3 sets of 5 reps (with my chin over the bar for every rep), I’ll make a note to add 2.5 or 5lbs (1 or 2kg) to my weight belt for the next time.

If you want any help scaling your workouts, check out our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. We’ll create you a plan that escalates in difficulty as you grow stronger! You’ll never have to worry about what exercises to do or how much. Instead, just follow the workout prescribed by your coach!

Unless you’ve been strength training for years and know what you’re doing, we recommend that you pick a full-body routine that you can do 2-3 times a week.

You want a workout routine that has at least one exercise for:

1. Quads (front of your legs).
2. Butt and hamstrings (back of your legs).
3. Chest, shoulders, and triceps: (“push” muscles).
4. Back, biceps, and grip ( “pull” muscles).
5. Core (abdominals and lower back).

Pull-ups, chin-ups, and all the variations covered would make a great addition for your “pull” muscles (back, biceps, and forearms). 

So a sample workout routine that includes pull-ups could look like:

1. Barbell squats: 5 sets of 5 reps.
2. Barbell Deadlifts: 3 sets of 3 reps.
3. Push-ups (or dips): 3 sets of 15 reps.
4. Pull-ups (or chin-ups): 3 sets of 8 reps.
5. Planks: 3 sets, 1 minute hold each.

Boom! Five exercises you can do at the gym and then go home.

Wanna avoid the gym and just train at home in the first place? 

No problem! Lots of our coaching clients choose to train and do pull-ups in their home. All you’ll need is:

• A sturdy pull-up bar. 
• Lots of bodyweight exercises to choose from.

Seriously, you don’t have to leave home to start doing pull-ups and get in shape.

Want proof?

Meet Christina:

Through our coaching program Christina learned to pick herself up, literally, and now crushes her training without ever stepping foot in a gym. You can read her full story right here. 

Start doing pull-ups regularly and I promise you your life will improve for the better.

If you’re interested in progressing but want help on the next step, we’ve built 3 options that might float your boat:

#1) If you want step-by-step guidance, a custom strength training program that levels up as you get stronger, and a coach to keep you accountable, check out our killer 1-on-1 coaching program:

The Academy has 20+ workouts for both bodyweight or weight training, a benchmark test to determine your starting workout, HD demonstrations of every movement, boss battles, meal plans, a questing system, and supportive community.