What's going on nation? I'm Scott from muscularstrength.com and today
We're going to take a look at the seven pull-up mistakes that are not only holding you back from making gains
But also progressing with the movement, but before we begin correcting your form be sure to turn on beer notifications
so you never miss a new video upload from me and for those of you who have a hard time finding all the links or
timestamps for the additional videos and information that I like to link to when doing my videos
Click the link in the pinned comment below for the article version of this video now. Let's get started mistake number one
Avoiding pull-ups because you can't even perform one rep now guys. This is the first mistake because it is without a doubt the most
Important to many of you say you skip out on pull-ups because they're too hot or that you can't do many reps
So you'd rather spend your time in the gym doing other exercises
But this is just an excuse especially since there are so many ways to get over the initial barrier of performing one repetition
To a full set of pull-ups for example most gyms today have assisted pull-up machines
Or you can even utilize bands to help displace your weight all you need to do is stop by
Displacing about say 50 percent of your body weight and then working to decreasing that number as you continue to grow
stronger and bigger muscles over time just like any other exercise
Then eventually you'll be able to perform one full pull-up without the assistance of the machine
And it's just a matter of time before you can stop banging out five six or eight reps in a row on top of that
There are other ways to increase your pull-ups such as doing jumping negatives
Inverted rows or you can even do dead hangs, which I actually made a video about a while back
and we'll link to it in the pin comment below and
Even if that isn't enough to get you going with your pull-ups
You can check out my other video called pull up in tips to increase your max reps, and it's for beginners, too
Which I'll link for you guys down and that pin comment below. Just don't mind the hair in that video
It was kind of rough a few years back
We won't talk about that, but at the end of the day if you're not utilizing the pull-up
Which is one of the most effective compound movements to build your upper-body strength and mass I strongly urge you to reconsider
Or else you'll be missing out on some serious gains and progress trust me mistake number two not going all the way down
Now get your mind out of the gutter guys. It's not what we're talking about here
We're talking about range of motion now
Whether it's chin-ups
Or pull-ups many of you struggle to get your chest or at least your chin close to the BAI at the top of the movement
But to be honest
I don't really care about that guys going all the way up as a matter of shoulder strength and
flexibility and it's not a must to maximize the pull up of
Course you should be going as high as you can on every single repetition
But don't feel defeated if you can't bring your chest to the BAA
However what I do care about is when I see dudes in my gym totally ignoring the stretch the bottom part of the movement
Especially when they're doing weighted pull-ups, it's like, bro
you didn't even pass step one yet put the weights down and do it right as you all know by now the
Negative is the most important part of the range of motion of any exercise
But to take it one step further the stretch at the end of the negative is
Even more important now of course by avoiding the lockout you're able to perform more repetitions, but at what cost?
How does more shitty reps help you build more muscle?
The answer is they don't but on the other hand when you go all the way down
Even if you get a few less reps you're still setting up your lats for an incredible stretch at the bottom of the movement
That will completely tear your muscles apart
That is what is going to spark new growth not doing as many repetitions as possible with bad form
So for your next set of pull-ups once you get to the top of the range of motion
I want you to control the negative and slowly lock out your elbows and shoulders by completely hanging from the bar on each repetition
Really feel that insane stretch in your lats
And then re-engage and go all the way up for your next rep and repeat
Then once you get tired you momentum or jumping to push through the concentric portion of the pull-up
So you can continue to focus on the negative until you finish all your reps
mistake number three using too much momentum
This isn't CrossFit guys with our workouts were actually trying to make gains with pull-ups
Not see how many times you can thrust our face over the bar 50 pull-ups in a row might sound good in theory
However your muscles. Don't get easily fooled
Which is why kipping is not a particular effect of pull-up technique in terms of back growth or strength in fact
I personally think that kipping should be its own exercise not a way to do more pull-ups
Especially when you're getting started with the exercise now don't get me wrong
I do use jumping or a bit of momentum myself to skip the concentric portion of the movement when I need to
but the difference is that we're still in 100% control of the negative and focus on a
one-second dead hang at the bottom of every single repetition
Kipping is more of a continuous movement
With that being said if you're currently stuck in a traps with your bodyweight
and can't possibly do any more I
Suggest you increase the resistance by strapping a 10 to 20 pound plate to your body and perform a few cheat reps while
focusing on the negative I
guarantee that if you do that for a few weeks when you try bodyweight pull-ups again
You'll be able to do a lot more than eight, but for the rest of you
Who are still finding your way when it comes to training?
focus on nice clean reps and a controlled positive and negative as much as you can mistake number four
Pulling with your biceps and not your lats guys
Just because you're performing a pull-up doesn't necessarily mean you're targeting your lats properly trust me
There are a lot of ways to screw up this movement
And if you're feeling it too much in your biceps forearms and shoulders
Then you better listen up the form fix is actually much simpler than you think all you need to do is fix
How you initiate the pull-up and you're good to go for example, let's say you're dead hanging from the bob
Which is the static position for every single rep and now instead of?
Holding your body up using your biceps and arms
I want you to envision pulling with your elbows
visualize your hands as hooks and initiate the movement by
Retracting and depressing your shoulder blades believe it or not this slight movement will activate your lats and serratus with minimal bicep
Engagement so from this point forward
try to focus on this one little movement before that start of every single rep to ensure you're targeting your lats as much as
possible also
another great way to make sure you're working your back instead of your arms is to stick your chest up and lean back just
A bit so give that a try on your next workout as well
The fifth mistake when it comes to the pull-up has to do with your grip
It's actually a very common
Misconception that the wider your grip is the more you train your lats with and with a narrow grip the more you train your back
Thickness guys. This couldn't be further from the truth and here are two reasons
Why number one any vertical pull works primarily your back with as?
every horizontal row works primarily your back thickness number two a
Shoulder width grip would actually work more of your back width than a wide grip anyways
it's actually kind of similar to when you're training your biceps a
narrow grip on the barbell works the outside of the bicep while a wide grip works the inside and now I know there are a
Lot of trainers and gurus out there advocating the use of a very wide grip to work on your laps more
But let's face it. It's far from optimal
Why well first and foremost you're greatly shortening the range of motion
Also the wide of the grip the more your elbows flare out
Which means you're not in a mechanically advantageous position to lift as much weight as possible
Remember guys if you want to see muscle growth you need to overload your muscles as much as you can
But their thinking is that because your elbows flare out your biceps and forearms will not come into play as much and while that's true
As I said you're still severely limiting the range of motion and how much weight you can lift
Secondly the wider your grip is the more your elbows flare out which is placing your shoulders in a danger
Position the problem is that your externally rotating the shoulder joints almost to the max of the range of motion and then you're placing
Resistance on there as well
Now if you're really flexible you'll most likely be fine, but for most of us
It's much smiler to keep our shoulders in a position where they're safe and will allow us to
maximize our strength for the movement mistake number six not
Stabilizing your lower body and now here's where it starts to get a bit more interesting
You'll see many people performing pull-ups, but don't really seem to be able to control their legs with a duration of the exercise
But why and what does it have to do with building muscle and strength?
well
This mistake is called an energy leak and it's when you're leaking energy from various parts of your body
Instead of funneling all your strength into the muscle groups
You're trying to tag it in the case of pull-ups
Swinging your legs back and forth and not being able to control them means you're limiting the amount of reps you can perform
Simply because your body is struggling to stay upright, and you're losing energy
So here's how you fix it jump on the bot and simply hang from it for two seconds until your body stops swinging
Now comes a tricky pot
I want you to flex and contract your glutes quads calves and abs as
Hard as you possibly can and keep them that way until you finish your set
This will allow you to let your body work as one unit and will funnel all your energy output
into the muscles that are needed to perform the pull-up this quick fix alone believe it or not could allow you to perform two or
Even three more additional reps on your sets instantly in the final mistake number seven not
Progressing with the movement the pull-up is one of the most effective if not the most effective tool you have in your muscle building
Arsenal, but you have to train smart and always focus on progressing with the movement now
There are several different ways to progress with the pull-up the best of which is simply
Strapping more weight onto your body and you can use a weighted belt a weighted vest or even just hold a dumbbell between your feet
Whatever works best for you
Another way you can progress without using any extra weight is by using a spotter you can perform as many reps
you can until failure and then have a friend happy with the concentric part of the movement while you're controlling the negative and
Finally a third way you can progress is by doing different variations of the pull-up such as a neutral grip pull-up
muscle ups ultra slow pull-ups
Or even by boosting the intensity of your reps by taking less rest time between your sets
Remember that feeling to progress with the pull-up
Just like any other exercise
eventually renders the exercise
useless because you're not gaining any more strength or
Muscle mass from doing it your body simply grows accustomed to the resistance and doesn't feel the need to
Adapt or grow and why should it you're not providing your back with any extra stimulus to grow or become stronger
guys you need to always venture beyond your limits on
Every single workout if you're serious about building a strong body and a lean muscular physique
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