How to do more pull ups?

How to do more pull ups

The best way to improve the strength of the upper body is to complete the pull-up in the correct posture. Pull up is one of the most challenging self-esteem exercises - being able to do several pull-ups is above average (especially for women and young people). As long as you work hard, everyone can improve the number of pull-ups, even from scratch, so start exercising your arm and back muscles quickly, so that pull-ups are no longer a dream!

1. Enhance the pull-up force

Complete more than you expected. If you can already do a few pull-ups, the way to progress is simple: force yourself to complete more times than within your power range! Setting goals that have room for progress and practical significance can make you try harder than expected, and make pull-up training a thing you are proud of - just complete one more at a time, and regard it as small progress.

For example, suppose you can only complete two pull-ups at a time, then set the goal for the next training to complete three pull-ups. Even if you finally complete only two and a half, you are still moving forward steadily.

Try more frequent pull-ups. Another way to improve related strength is to increase the frequency of training every week. The reason is very simple - the more you practice, the stronger your strength will be, and the movements will be more standardized. The final result is to complete more pull-ups. A reasonable and concentrated training plan is to train 2-3 times a week (once every other day) and complete 3-4 groups of movements each time.

Be sure to give your back and arm muscles plenty of rest. Generally speaking, training the same muscle group day after day is not a good thing - it will not only lead to unbalanced muscle growth, but also cause pain, fatigue, poor training results, and even health problems.

Consider increasing resistance. If it's easy for you to finish 10-15 pull-ups, consider adding resistance to your training. On the basis of self-weight, add sandbags, chains, and other weights to improve the training difficulty. Remember that the greater the difficulty, the more harvest (on the premise of reasonable diet and regular work and rest).

A common way to increase weight is to tie a weight-bearing belt. This is a belt with a chain, which is very similar to that worn by weightlifters. It will surround your waist through the chain and increase the resistance when you pull up. Weight-bearing belts are usually available for more than 300 yuan in sporting goods stores.

Try a variant pull-up to increase upper limb strength. The standard palm and face facing the same side are not the only pull-up movement. In addition to the standard movement, there are a considerable number of variants and other related exercises to help you mobilize every muscle of your arm and back. Here are some pull-ups you might be interested in:

• Backhand pull up. This action is no different from the conventional pull-up action, but the palm changes from the same face to the opposite face. It is usually easier than the conventional action, which is conducive to the exercise of the biceps and deltoid.
• Wide pull up. As the name suggests, the wide distance pull-up is the same as the conventional pull-up, but the distance between the hands is greater, which requires the participation of more back muscles.
• Triangle pulls up. This is a challenging variant. It requires you to lift your chest vertically to the right hand, then moves horizontally to the left hand, return to the starting position, and then repeat in the opposite direction.

Lean diet and balanced nutrition. Those who have been able to complete the pull-up movement must know the importance of a balanced diet for muscle growth. The key to obtaining strong pull-up muscles is that the diet should be rich in high-quality protein, carbohydrates, and beneficial fats. There are many ways to integrate the above nutrients into your diet without reducing the fun of eating. As long as you search the Internet, you can get countless nutritional recipes. Highly nutritious foods beneficial to muscle growth include:

• Protein: chicken breast, lean beef and lean pork, beans, milk, eggs, and most seafood.
• Carbohydrates: whole wheat, bread, pasta, quinoa, job's tears, wheat flakes, and corn products.
• Fat: some more fatty seafood (such as salmon), most nuts, health oils (sunflower seed oil, olive oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil, corn oil, soybean oil, etc.), avocado, olives, tofu, and bean products.

Get enough sleep. If the rest time is not enough, it will become difficult or even impossible to grow relevant muscles. Lack of sleep requires you to work harder and concentrate more on the exercise itself. It will be very difficult to make progress in growing muscles. The body needs time to rest after strength training, so when you are doing muscle training, you must try your best to ensure that you can get enough sleep every night. Although the specific situation varies from person to person, generally speaking, adults need 7-9 hours of sleep every day.

• You also need to plan your training carefully so as not to disturb the rest time. Training before bedtime makes it more difficult to fall asleep, so the training results are discounted. In order to get a normal rest, it is recommended to exercise at least three hours before going to bed.

2. Correct posture

Use the correct grip position. Even the most basic up and down pull-up movement still has many variants for you to choose from. No matter what kind of grip you use, the most important thing is to standardize your posture, so as to prevent sports injury and maximize training results. Here are three common grip methods and instructions - mostly similar movements.

• Regular style. Hands shoulder-width apart, fully grasp the railing, stretch your arms and hang your body. Slowly and evenly lift the chest to the railing, lift the chin above the railing, and then slowly put the body down to the starting position.
• Neutral style. Grasp two parallel railings or bracelets, let the two palms face each other, hang them with all their strength, then lift the chest to the middle of the railings as much as possible, put the chin on the railings, and then return to the starting position at a uniform speed.
• Chin up style. Hold the railing with low hand, the same width as the shoulder, lift the chin above the railing through the biceps, slow down the whole process, and then return to the starting position.

Pay attention to the strength of latissimus dorsi and deltoid. For people with limited methods, pull up can be said to be the best way to test arm muscles, but in fact, compared with arm muscles, back muscles are more important for pull up. To form a standard posture (because you can maximize the training results), you might as well mobilize the muscles behind the armpit and the muscles on both sides of the body, rather than relying solely on the biceps and shoulder muscles.

• The muscles on both sides of your body and behind your armpits have special names, called latissimus dorsi and deltoid. If you find it difficult to move this part of the muscles when doing the pull-up movement, you might as well increase the grip distance.

Don't swing. Pull up is not easy, but the actual process is very simple: just hang on the railing, lift your body, and then put it down. Any other action that can make this training simple will discount your training results. Remember, pulling up itself is difficult, otherwise you will not have strength progress, so you should try to avoid swinging your body to try to reduce the difficulty of training, although many people advocate "swinging" pull up to reduce the difficulty.

• Rocking the body is at most a "fraud", and many movements are inherently dangerous. When doing the pull-up, do not shake, twist or jerk, because when you are training, your muscles are in a state of tension and contraction. These sudden movements will exert pressure on your shoulders and back, resulting in injury.

Cross your feet as you pull up. One thing that pull-up masters often do is to cross their feet when lifting the body. This seems to be an insignificant action, but it is actually very helpful to maintain the correct training posture: because cross feet can effectively prevent people's tendency to swing the body.

When crossing your feet, bend your knees properly - but without affecting the correct posture.

Keep your head forward and your body upright. When you find it difficult to pull up, you may naturally curl your body together, force your head down, bend your back and shrug your shoulders, but you should avoid these movements in training because doing so will put additional pressure on your neck and back, which may cause lasting pain and even injury. The correct posture is to straighten your body and face your head straight ahead, so as to load your muscles, not your spine.

3. Work up towards the first pull-out

Try to use other forces to complete the pull up. If you can't complete a complete pull up, don't worry - you're not alone, and you can achieve your goal through hard work. You might as well use other forces to complete the pull-up first. Doing so can enable you to successfully complete the actions that need to be completed for a normal pull-up, but with a little more help. Because these actions are very similar to the real pull-up actions, you can get familiar with and master the correct posture before the real "practice". The booster pull-up includes the following two types:

• Use the pull-up machine: the pull-up machine has a mat under the handrail. When the trainer completes the action, he can kneel on the mat with both legs. The handrail also has important options. Generally, the greater the weight you choose, the easier it is to complete the action.
• Find a partner. When doing pull ups, find someone to hold your feet or legs to help you lose some - not all - weight. The more power your partner uses to hold you, the easier your movement will be.

Incorporate reverse pull ups into your training program. Another way to help you complete the complete action is to complete the reverse pull-up. The so-called reverse pull-out is actually the second half of the complete action: start from the position of your chin above the railing, and then descend as slowly as possible. You can repeat the action if necessary, starting from the upward position every time (you may need a bench or a companion to help you finish).

Do back and arm strength exercises. Pull up is a training that needs to mobilize multiple muscle groups in the upper body, so it is a good auxiliary training to practice these muscle groups alone. Although these exercises have to take more time to exercise these muscle groups separately than the pull-up of the overall exercise, you can still grow steadily as you practice step by step. Here are some training combinations to improve your upper body strength, which can help you on the way to completing the pull-up.

• Pull down training. Pull down exercises help increase the upper back muscles and latissimus dorsi. Sit down on the pull-down machine, grab the railing with both hands shoulder width and pull down slowly towards the clavicle.
• Biceps training. As the name suggests, this workout helps grow biceps. With palms of both hands facing inward, hold the dumbbell respectively, lift the dumbbell to the shoulder at a uniform speed through the force of biceps, and then slowly lower it to the crotch position. In the whole process, both arms are kept on both sides of the body, and only the elbows are slightly bent.
• Sitting rowing. This exercise can strengthen latissimus dorsi and back muscles. Sit upright facing the rowing machine, hold the handle with both hands, pull slowly and evenly towards the body, and do not bend the crotch and waist - keep the body still and use the back muscles to exert force.
• Prone birds. This is a very helpful workout for the deltoid. Lie face down on a stool, hold the dumbbell with both hands, slowly lift the dumbbell off the floor and to both sides of the body, with both arms open, then slowly put the dumbbell down, and then repeat the action.

If you are overweight, consider reducing fat first. Pull up is a self weight training, so the heavier you weigh, the more difficult it is naturally. If your weight contains a lot of fat, no matter how strong you are, it is almost impossible to complete pull up. In this case, the most effective training is not to increase muscle, but to reduce fat, which can usually be completed through diet and exercise - calculate the calories consumed every day and ensure that the calories consumed through exercise are greater than those from food. The online calorie calculator can help you a lot.

• There are countless effective fat reduction information on the Internet (of course, some are not so effective). If you want to set a safe and balanced plan integrating all kinds of effective information, you might as well refer to our other articles on relevant topics.