Hey guys, Sean Nalewanyj here of SeanNal.com and BodyTransformationTruth.com and in this
lesson I want to answer the question of what you should do if you are wanting to include
pullups in your training routine but you currently aren't able to do them using your body weight.
So if you're looking to add width and overall thickness to your lats then good old-fashioned
pull ups are definitely one of the best exercises that you can perform, and for solid, long
term muscle-building results, pull ups really should be included as one of the core movements
in your back routines.
Now the quickest and simplest solution here is to use an assisted pull up machine.
And this machine allows you to basically place your knees on a pad and then change the resistance
level up and down in order to vary the difficulty of the exercise.
So if your gym has one of these assisted pull up machines then you're already set to go.
Just start off with a level of resistance that allows you to perform at least 5 to 6
reps in proper form and then just focus on progressing onward from that point.
Write down the resistance that you used and how many reps you performed, and then just
aim to improve upon those numbers in the following week.
And as you progress further and further you'll eventually reach the point where you no longer
require assistance from the machine and then you can just go ahead and perform pull ups
using your own bodyweight on a regular bar.
And of course, over time as your bodyweight becomes too light and you get stronger then
you're going to need to add additional resistance using a dumbbell or a weight belt.
Now, I understand that not everyone has access to an assisted pull up machine, and for those
of you who don't the process is just going to be a little bit different.
So if you don't have access to one of these machines, then you're going to want to use
a combination of lat pulldowns paired up with eccentric-only pull up training.
So the first thing you should focus on if you can't do pull ups with your bodyweight
right now is to use a lat pulldown movement.
Ideally you should perform this using a traditional lat pulldown machine with a straight bar attachment.
Grip the bar overhand about 6 to 8 inches outside of shoulder width, and this movement
will essentially simulate the pull up, except that you're going to be pulling the resistance
downward towards your body instead of pulling your body upwards, obviously.
And your goal, of course here, is to just make continual gains in strength by increasing
the amount of weight that you can pull down or by increasing the number of reps that you
can perform with a given weight.
Increasing your strength on the lat pulldown will directly assist you in building your
pull up strength.
After you've performed your lat pulldowns, you're then going to want to move on to eccentric-only
training.
So the "eccentric" is just another word for the negative phase of an exercise.
So in this case, we are referring to the lowering phase of the pull up.
So if you can't do pull ups in a positive fashion, then the only other option is to
do them in a negative fashion.
So your body is actually about 2.5 times stronger on the eccentric phase, and many studies have
revealed that more overall muscular damage actually occurs on this phase as opposed to
the positive.
By performing negative-only pull ups, you'll actually be building up a significant amount
of strength that will eventually allow you to chin yourself up in a positive fashion.
So the way to perform these is very simple.
Just jump yourself up into the starting position where your chin is over top of the bar and
it will probably be helpful for you to use a platform for this and then just lower yourself
down very slowly.
I would recommend doing about 2 to 3 sets of "negative-only" pull ups of about 5 to
7 reps each.
Keep the lowering phase slow and under control and aim to lower yourself in about 4-6 seconds.
Try to make it a bit harder each week by either increasing the total number of reps that you
perform, increasing the lowering time, or by adding resistance with a weightbelt or
a dumbbell.
After a few weeks of lat pulldowns and negative-only pull ups, you should start to see your strength
increase quite signficantly.
So just continue with this process until you can perform at least 4 positive reps using
your own bodyweight, and then just aim to progress from there like you would with any
other exercise.
So thanks for watching this video lesson.
If you found the information helpful, as always, please make sure to hit the Like button, leave
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Talk to you again soon.