So, as I’ve said before, I still am not able to do my first pull-up.

But I have learned some things along the way.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to be able to do a pull-up (or a chin-up, I’d be happy with either, but I’m starting with pull-ups). Several years ago my husband bought one of those pull-up bars that fits in a doorway. He was using it a lot, but I got discouraged because I couldn’t do one and didn’t know how to start trying.

Assisted Pull-ups with a Chair:

Then a friend shared a trick with me. She told me to put a chair under the pull up bar, and use my legs as much (or as little) as I needed.

I was excited to try it, since when you do that you get through the whole range of motion. I started with 10 reps (1 rep being a pull up and letting yourself back down. I tried to go down slowly so that I was working my arms in both directions.) I was doing that about every other day.

Negative Pull-ups:

Similar to my friend’s idea with the chair, except you just climb up to the pull-up bar and then lower yourself down as slowly as possible. Although this is a great method, if you’re just starting out (like I was) I recommend keeping a foot on the chair (or using resistance bands) so that you’re not just free-falling. 😉

I think negatives work the best for me. I saw a video online that mentioned that doing negatives really just makes you better at negatives, which makes sense, but I *am* able to pull myself up farther, even though my progress might be slow.

Assisted Pull-ups with Resistance Bands:

So, I got super excited about this because it seemed so cool to be able to actually pull myself up, even if it was with help. But then *after* purchasing them, I did some *more* reading, and resistance bands have disadvantages because the “help” isn’t even (more help when the band is stretched more at the bottom, less help as you get up towards the pull-up bar), plus there can be momentum from the band kind of snapping back into its unstretched position.

But, I went ahead and tried them. But honestly, I don’t think I gained much/any strength using them. I think negatives work better for me. But I also think I might go back to them sometimes, because using them would be better than not doing anything, and it gets discouraging when I’m not seeing improvement.

Other Exercises:

I haven’t actually tried this, mostly because I like to keep things simple. But there’s a lot of info out there on the web if you want to try exercises like ring rows to build up the muscles you need for pull-ups.

My Routine:

This has evolved as I’ve continued to read and try things, but basically this is what I did/do with most of the methods I discussed, unless stated otherwise:

Do as many reps as I can
Break for 2 minutes
Repeat until I can’t do any more
The whole process takes less than 10 minutes (although I guess it could take longer if you’re stronger)

I currently use negatives, and so where I used to several pull-ups if I was using the resistance band, now I only do 1 negative before resting for 2 minutes. But that’s if I do a REALLY good negative. REALLY slow. If I don’t try as hard I could do more. So it’s something you have to figure out for yourself.

However, I found that I wasn’t making progress any more with that, so I decided to do that 2-3x/day (which is hard if you’re at work all day and don’t have access to a pull-up bar). Then I still wasn’t making progress, so I decided to do it 3-5x/day, but that hasn’t been working, because of logistical reasons (like being away from my bar) and just flat not wanting to do that. 😉 So . . . I’m still figuring it out.

What’s your favorite method? Do you have any tips? Do you want to join me on this journey? Let’s chat in the comments! 🙂