so you want to be able to do pull-ups I mean like real deal body weight unassisted pull-ups this is
probably one of the most common requests I get from my female online and in-person coaching
clients I would love to be able to do a real pull-up so in this video I'm breaking down
Pull-Ups for beginners and I'm going to give you seven tips to get your first pull-up down here at
my private Studio core conditioning here in Surrey BC filming this video for you guys today and I'm
gonna do my best to give you all the information you need even if you are a beginner to start
strengthening and how to start training to getting your first pull-up I speak from experience because
I understand how hard doing a pull-up actually is even though I've been seriously strength training
for about 16 years straight other than taking a few breaks after having both of my babies it's
only in the last year or two that I've been able to do unassisted pull-ups and chin-ups
for reps because I started training the right way and that's what I'm gonna break down for you
guys in this video video today so in this video I'm going to talk about what's the difference
between a pull-up and a chin up then I'm going to give you seven tips of things that you can start
working on to get stronger in order to work towards doing an unassisted pull-up and make
sure you watch all the way to the end because I'm going to give you some very common mistakes I see
in people training to try and do a pull-up and of course just before you dive in if you're new
here make sure you subscribe to my channel and hit that Bell so you get a notification when I
release a new video every single week just like this one my name is Michelle Roots kinesiologist
personal trainer nutrition coach and fitness and fat loss motivation specialist and Mama of two
beautiful baby boys I have over 16 years in the industry helping people decrease body fat increase
lean muscle to feel like the best versions of themselves and I created this channel to help
you as well so if you find this video helpful make sure you give it a like and leave me any questions
in the comments below I'm always happy to help and I want to hear about your pull-up Journey so
just before we get into this if you're watching this video already and you're like I'll never
be able to do a pull-up there's no way it's not possible I just want to give you a prime example
of a woman who comes to my gym and on her 66th birthday right here in the studio on this chin
up bar right above my head she did 10 unassisted bodyweight chin-ups on her 66th birthday did she
get there overnight no but she is constantly showing up here putting in the work probably
for the last six or seven years I've lost track of time but it just goes to show if you believe
in the process and you're willing to put in the work that anything is possible so just remember
that when you're watching this video that even if you're starting from square one it is possible
it's just going to take time just like weight loss just like building lean muscle just like
body recomposition all of the things I talk about already on this channel patience and consistency
in putting in the work and doing what you need to do so first things first let's just get it over
with and Define what's the difference between a pull-up and a chin up the simplest explanation
a pull-up uses what we call a prone needed grip so you're in an overhand grip pulling yourself
up and down and a chin up uses what we call a supinated grip so you're in a reverse grips or
your wrists are facing you pulling yourself up and down both are amazing and both are considered a
primary upper body strength training exercise or compound exercise you're just going to challenge
your muscles in a different way due to the nature of the grip but for the sake of this
video I'm going to be going over pull-ups however a lot of the tips I give in this video are still
going to apply for a chin up as well I'm going to give you seven tips that's going to help you
get towards that goal that's going to help you build strength in the right muscles and perform
the right exercises to help you get stronger in your pull-ups number one you're going to want
to build your grip strap you don't have any grip strength you need to get stronger grip strength
in order to hold the bar so half of the battle of actually doing pull-ups is being able to hold your
body weight with just your grip and then of course going for reps pulling yourself up and down so we
want to build grip strength and endurance in that grip string so how are we going to do that there's
a few things you can do dead hangs so depending on where you're at in your fitness journey if
you are able to hang from the bar a dead hang is a great way to decompress your spine increase your
shoulder mobility and of course improve your grip strap so all you're going to do is hang from the
bar as long as you can keeping your core nice and tight making sure there's not a huge arch
in your lower back and literally shoot for 30 seconds if you're a beginner see how long you
can hang initially if it's five seconds that's fine drop down do three sets with about a minute
or two minute rest in between and continue to hang as long as you can and work towards beating your
times until you're able to hang for three sets of 30 seconds these dead hangs are amazing because
they just get you used to holding your own body weight which is one of the most important things
if you're looking to do a pull-up you need to understand how your body feels and you need to
train your muscles and your grip to be able to hold your own body weight I want to take
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d-r-i-n-k-l-m-n-t.com backslash Michelle another great way of improving your grip
strength is performing farmer carries I talk all about farmer carries in this video right
here best compound lifts for fat loss so farmer carries is definitely on that list because it will
help improve your grip strength and it's a great functional exercise I won't go over a lot of form
in this video but if you want to know proper form for Farmer carries I have a video mentioning that
here so again breaking down all the compound lifts and the proper form so farmer carries as mentioned
in that video I'll link it in the description below if you want to go watch that next another
great way to train your grip strength is heavy deadlifts so whether using a barbell or using
a dumbbell performing heavy deadlifts is going to help you improve your grip strength as well
if you're looking to learn how to do deadlifts I mention it in those compound lift videos I just
talked about but I also have a deadlift specific form video right here where I talk about how to
do deadlifts with both kettlebells and barbells I'll link that in the description below as well
tip number two shoulder depressions so often I see when people are doing pull-ups or chin-ups
they're it's very very common that it's so hard of an exercise and you're trying to use every muscle
you possibly can to pull your body up whether you're using a band a machine or attempting
a body weight pull up they do this so you're up and you're pulling everything so shoulders
should be away from your ears so what you want to do to practice this movement of what we call
a shoulder depression so you're pulling your shoulder blades down and retracting them back so
you're squeezing the muscles in your mid-back so you can see here I'm hanging from the bar and I'm
keeping my body straight keeping my elbows locked straight and I'm just depressing my shoulders up
and down so in that hanging position I'm getting used to that initial movement so when you are at
the bottom of a pull-up and you're about to pull yourself up you want to do this shoulder
depression first to activate your lats and the right muscles versus your upper traps
so if you're all scrunched up you're going to be using a lot of your upper traps which aren't the
right muscles you want to be using in a pull-up so these shoulder depressions can also be done
in a lat pull-down machine as you can see here I'm using my cable machine I don't have a lap
pull down machine at my gym but this works just the same I've got weight in the handles and I'm
just arms locked straight and I'm retracting my shoulders away from my ears so so practicing that
initial movement of pulling my shoulders away from my ears so that I'm not activating my upper traps
when I go to do my pull again this is going to help build the right muscles but also just
create that habit of retracting or depressing your shoulders first before you perform your
pull-up tip number three again getting used to holding your own body weight up you want to do
eccentric training or what we call negatives so that is where you are climbing up somehow getting
your head above the bar and you're going to be slowly lowering your body down slow and controlled
depending on where you are in your journey if you're not able to hold your own body weight just
yet you can use a band for these you can also use a pull-up machine at the gym the idea behind this
eccentric training is getting your muscles used to holding your own body weight and controlling
the motion so try and time your descent how long it takes you to get down I usually tell people
to aim for a minimum of five seconds so if I'm up at the top of the bar I'm five four three two one
to full extension or if you're at the beginning of your journey and you find it really hard do
the best you can in trying to slowly control your way down until you have to drop if you drop that's
fine and you just keep doing it and of course just like any other exercise you're going to
get better and then as you get stronger you can add hold so you can practice maybe holding your
head above the bar for two seconds and then slowly lowering your body down you can also try holding
when you're at the halfway point for two seconds you can also start putting weight plates around
your waist to apply Progressive overload to those muscles and continue to challenge yourself to get
strong tip number four play around with variations the main goal in your training program should be
to get stronger in your upper back muscles so you need to do other exercises as well not just
do pull-ups all day every day it's a lap pull down machine is a great one TRX inverted rows
are great because again you get used to pulling your own body weight you can simply adjust the
difficulty of the exercise simply by just moving your feet barbell inverted rows are one of the
best exercises for building your upper back strength as well again another great one to
build your grip strength single arm dumbbell rows you want to make sure you're continually
to get stronger you're not just lifting the same weight all the time really think I'm trying to get
stronger muscles to be able to pull my body above that bar pull-up tip number five core
strength this is the one that is often forgot in a pull-up your core is working to stabilize your
spine and to stop your legs from swinging like this so in order to keep a proper form in your
pull-up you need to have core strength so make sure you're adding exercises in that strengthen
your core such as a front plank like you're seeing here or a hollow hold like you see here which is
really great for building your deep core strength and stabilization in order to be able able to do
pull-ups and once you start getting better at your dead hangs you can start challenging yourself by
holding your body in a shoulder depressed hollow hold position while you're in your dead head that
is really going to trigger all your core muscles your upper back muscles and just work on your
stabilization and again just like in the dead hangs you just challenge yourself for how long
you can hold this position remember do not neglect your core strength and I'm not talking like just
do sit-ups all day not talking your abdominals I'm talking your deep deep core stabilizers like
your transverse abdominis if you want to know more about how to start stabilizing your deep
deep core especially if you've had babies ladies transverse abdominis I talk all about it in this
video here so if you don't really know how to activate your core muscles you might want to
check that out first before you start doing these planks and Hollow holds and dead hangs I'll link
that video in the description below as well tip number six make your upper back exercises
a priority so if your goal is to do a pull-up you want to make sure if you're walking into the gym
to do whether it's a full body workout or an upper body strength workout make sure these upper back
focused exercises are at the top of your workout so after your warm up after your Dynamics and
you're ready to start your workout if your goal is pull up so your bent over rows your dumbbell
rows your lap pull Downs your assisted pull-ups or chin-ups all of these exercises all of these
should be at the beginning of your workout when your muscles are at their strongest so you can
really push in order to apply Progressive overload and lift heavier in these specific exercises in
turn to build upper back strength in turn to get stronger at your pull-ups and tip number
seven probably the most important do not give up believe in yourself I'm just keeping it real is
that it's gonna feel impossible I promise you that there was times I was training clients in
here and my clients were knocking out pull-ups like it's nothing and I was like why can't I do
this as the coach I should be able to do this and then one day it clicked and something clicked and
I can't even explain it but I just kept trying I didn't give up I was like I don't care yeah I've
had two babies I don't care yeah I'm gonna be 40 in a month I don't care nothing is going to stop
me and I am going to do a pull-up if it kills me and sure enough here I am so I just want to remind
you whether you're already on a journey to your first pull-up and it seems impossible just please
don't give up you have to keep trying pull-ups especially or one of these exercises that even if
you take two weeks off and you haven't done them you're gonna come back they're gonna be hard again
so it's something that you have to keep working at and you have to believe yourself that you can do
believe in yourself and enjoy the journey to get there hopefully one of these tips was helpful and
it's something that you're not already doing and you can add into your regimen last but not least I
want to talk about common mistakes I see so one of the major common mistakes I see is people relying
only on bands to do their pull-ups fan assisted pull-ups are a great way to learn to lift your
body above the bar and to get your muscles firing but the problem is you're not really learning how
to lift your own body weight because when you have your foot in the band it's stretching all the way
down and the band is actually helping you at the part that is the hardest part of the pull-up the
hardest part is here and that is when it's the band is at its most stretch point so it's helping
you at the the hardest point of the pull-up they are a great tool to use to start getting the form
down start building your core strength start learning that shoulder depression building up
your grip strength they're great but eventually you're gonna have to move on to something else
of course you can go from a thicker band to a thinner band but eventually you want to start
playing around with other Tech techniques to help challenge your muscles in a different way so if
you're someone who's been doing band assisted Pull-Ups for a really long time and you find I'm
not really getting anywhere with them I'm not getting stronger even if it means you're doing
two negative pull-ups first without any band and then you're popping the band around your foot to
finish off your set that's totally fine and that's how you're gonna get stronger and then eventually
it goes to three unassisted eccentric pull-ups and then you pop the band on but just make sure
you're doing other things and not just relying on that band to do your pull-ups common mistake
number two they're not doing them often enough so you don't necessarily need to be doing pull-ups
every single day to get better at them but you do need to do them I would say at least two or three
times a week you need to be doing some form of a pull-up or a grip strength type exercise in order
to get strong this type of exercise is something that takes practice and takes repetition and just
as I said earlier even if you don't do them for three weeks and you come back to it it's gonna
feel hard again it's just unfortunately one of those exercises that is always going to be hard
but it just gets a little bit easier but it takes consistency and then the very last common mistake
I see is people aren't lifting heavy enough in their upper back exercises so they're not
applying Progressive overload you want to know what Progressive overload is and I keep saying
it and you have no idea what I'm talking about I've got a video all about it what is Progressive
overload and how to apply it I'll link that in the description below as well if you want to
learn why and how you can be applying Progressive overload to your upper back exercises in order to
get stronger to pull your head up over the bar so there you go guys that is the best tips I can give
you if you're a beginner or you're even in the middle of your journey and you're still trying
and you can't seem to get an unassisted pull-up I hope these tips were helpful I know all of the
things I mentioned in this video helped me get to where I am today where I can do unassisted
chin-ups with 20 pounds around my waist and it feels so good but I I didn't get here overnight
and I really do think that believing in yourself is half the problem you have to believe that you
can do it don't think it's going to happen overnight put in the work and it will happen
but keep me posted in the comments below I want to know what was your pull-up Journey like if you've
already been able to do a pull-up or where are you at in your journey let's cheer each other on
I love hearing your feedback in my video comments and cheering you guys on but if you're looking to
start a strength training Journey I've got an eight-week beginner-friendly strength training
program for the gym or at home with just dumbbells there's a four day split option and a three-day
split option based on your availability and what equipment you have access to but it's a
great starter point to start building strength and if you're in a body recomposition to build
some lean muscle and decrease body fat and I'll put more information about that eight
week program in the description below but if you want more personalization in your workouts and
your nutrition I'll put a link in the description below where you can find out more about working
with me in my online Fitness and Nutrition coaching and of course you guys thank you so
much for watching today I really hope this video was helpful and as usual I will see you next week