The Power of Pullups - How To Progress from Beginner to Advanced
Build muscle and strength with these accessible pullup variations
It goes without saying that the list of foundational muscle and strength-building exercises includes the pullup. Our upper bodies are designed to push things away from us and pull things toward us. We can push and pull in both the horizontal and vertical planes, as well as every angle in between. The growth and strength levels of our pushing and pulling muscles should be relatively balanced, which is why I’m writing this article.
Prior to this one, I wrote an article focused on pressing, specifically pushups. It provided you with several different pushup variations, ranging in difficulty and specific types of pressing focus. The purposes of the article you’re reading right now are to balance things out and ensure you have my thoughts on the most popular pulling exercise of all time, the pullup.
Here’s the link to my pushup article:
Now that you know what today’s article is about, and why I’m writing it, let’s move to the valuable information. Below, I’ll break down a handful of pullup variations, progressing in difficulty, which you can use to build and strengthen your back, biceps, and forearm muscles. Let’s get to pulling!
1. Lat Pulldown
Primary Activated Muscles:
Lats
Rhomboids
Teres
Biceps
Forearms
I kinda hated putting this first, since this article is about pullups and the first thing I bring up is pulldowns. However, just like with the pushup article, I’m starting with the easiest variation first. Not everyone can walk in the gym and knock out bodyweight pullups. For people who can’t, who are the majority, FYI, a sub-bodyweight regression is useful…enter the lat pulldown.
The lat pulldown is great for beginners, as it allows you a controlled way to lift less weight than your bodyweight, via a weight stack.
Personal Tip
Since we’re mimicking pullups here, which are a vertical pull (pulling straight down from above your head), it’s important to try to keep your torso in an upright position. A common mistake is to lay the torso back while pulling down with the arms. This changes the lift to more of a horizontal row, depending on how far you lay back.
Vertical pulling and horizontal rowing are different exercises that target different pulling muscles in their own way. Keep your torso upright to ensure your pull focus stays vertical.
Lat pulldowns can be performed with a multitude of different grips. Here are the basics:
Pullup (Pronated) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Chinup (Supinated) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Neutral (Palms facing each other) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Shown below is a wide pullup/pronated grip:
2. Band-Assisted Pullup
Primary Activated Muscles:
Lats
Rhomboids
Teres
Biceps
Forearms
Next up we have another bodyweight regression, which falls between lat pulldowns and pullups in terms of difficulty.
I view the band-assisted pullup as an extremely valuable exercise on your road to mastering bodyweight pullups, as it gets you on the pullup bar and builds tactile experience. You feel how your body needs to move through space, relative to the bar, and that’s just not something the lat pulldown is capable of delivering.
Essentially, the band lightens you up depending on how thick it is. A thicker band will provide more assistance, so I suggest starting there. You’ll want to start these off with a band that makes you feel quite light, letting you do plenty of reps to feel them out before pulling closer to your bodyweight.
Personal Tip
As shown in the picture below, my favorite way to set these up is to loop the band around the pullup bar, stand on a box or bench, and then loop the band under one foot. Make sure the band is set in the middle of your foot, as you don’t want it slipping off mid-set! From there, grab the bar, step the banded foot off the platform, then step the free leg off the platform, and start your reps.
Also, do you see how the guy in the picture has his free leg crossed over his banded leg? Do that too. It really helps secure the band in place, plus it keeps you from kicking that free leg around when things get tough.
Last, but not least, do these with control to avoid starting to swing back and forth. The more you can keep your legs straight and your feet under your hips, while controlling your reps (especially during the negative), the less you’ll end up swinging.
Band-assisted pullups can be performed with a multitude of different grips. Here are the basics:
Pullup (Pronated) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Chinup (Supinated) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Neutral (Palms facing each other) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Band-assisted pullups have a learning curve, and they’re a little more complicated to set up, but it’s all completely worth it.
They’re an effective direct regression to full-weight pullups and can really come in handy if you don’t have access to a lat pulldown machine. This is especially common when training at home.
3. Pullup
Primary Activated Muscles:
Lats
Rhomboids
Teres
Biceps
Forearms
You’ve mastered the lat pulldown machine, found your groove during band-assisted pullups, and now you’re ready for bodyweight pullups. Congratulations, you’re now in the minority group of people on Earth who can do pullups! Don’t you love the feeling of being able to effectively work all of those pulling muscles only using something as simple as a bar?
Pullups bring plenty of muscle growth, strength gains, and prideful feelings to your life. It’s 100% worth building up to them and always keeping them in your weekly routine once you’re there.
Personal Tip
Even if you can do just one pullup, that’s enough to keep them present in your plan. By continuing to work with your full bodyweight, even if it’s for multiple sets of one rep at a time, you’ll quickly advance. Before you know it, you’ll be doing sets of three, then five, then eight, then…you get the idea.
My point is this, don’t be afraid to jump on the bar to get just one rep. The more you can do this, the quicker you’ll be leaving those one-rep sets in the dust. If you’re in a public gym and worried what others will think about you just doing one rep at a time, stop worrying.
Remember, the majority of people in there can’t do the same. On top of that, just look around, people aren’t watching you or caring what you’re doing. They’re worried about themselves or their phone, I promise.
Pullups can be performed with a multitude of different grips. Here are the basics:
Pullup (Pronated) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Chinup (Supinated) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Neutral (Palms facing each other) Grip - Wide, Medium, Narrow
Shown below is a medium pullup/pronated grip:
4. Weighted Pullup
Primary Activated Muscles:
Lats
Rhomboids
Teres
Biceps
Forearms
Actions have consequences and weighted pullups are what happens when you’ve outgrown bodyweight pullups. I’d consider this a favorable consequnce! To keep making progress and challenging yourself, you’ll need to get heavier.
Now, you could do this by upping your pizza and ice cream intakes, but I don’t think that’s gonna give you the kind of extra weight you’re looking for. Instead, temporarily adding weight with a weighted vest or dip belt is where it’s at!
Personal Tip
Weighted pullups are the pinnacle of vertical pulling power. They offer unlimited potential, as it’s possible to add 100s of pounds to yourself through weight plates on a dip belt.
Of course, when just getting started with weighted pullups, don’t worry about adding much weight. Start with the same type of progression you use for other exercises. In other words, beginning with 5-10lbs of extra weight is smart. Adding too much, too fast, could easily leave you injured or feeling defeated.
Just like any other exercise, make sure to keep things under control. Adding just a little weight to start will help you maintain proper form as you continue getting stronger and add more weight over time. Keep these form cues in mind:
Keep the torso as vertical as possible throughout the entire rep
Avoid swinging your body or kicking your legs
Lift explosively toward the bar
Control the negative
Closing Thoughts
If you’re not currently including pullups or pullup regressions in your routine, I’m confident you’ll appreciate what they add to your pull-focused training. Don’t skip out on them.
Being able to do something you want to do, but currently can’t, comes down to progressing through increasingly difficult regressions until you’ve reached whatever that thing may be. This article outlines the regressions steps you’ll need to take in order to achieve pullups, or even better, weighted pullups.
There isn’t a doubt in my mind, that if you use the steps outlined in this article, bodyweight and weighted pullups are in your future.
My challenge to you is to give some of these variations a try, particularly any of them that you’ve never done. More than likely, this is going to be the band-assisted variation. Experiment and see how they feel, as they could very well be just what you need to reach bodyweight pullups...and beyond.
Thank you for reading,
Ryan