It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the pull up.
Not only do I find it fun, and appreciate the fact that it can be done in so many environments, it’s also the most important exercise for the ectomorph. But it’s also an easy exercise to mess up, hindering your gains.
Here are the common pull up mistakes newbies make, and then how to work on correcting them:
Mistake #1: Dropping down
There are two obvious motions to the pull up: first you lift yourself up, and then you do the reverse motion to go down. The problem is, instead of doing the lifting motion in reverse, it’s common to suddenly just drop down by releasing the tension in your arms. This is bad for a few reasons:
- Encourages lazy technique.
- Possibly bad for your joints.
- Puts less stress on your muscles which minimizes gains and leads to higher reps instead of higher intensity.
Solution: Be mindful of the dropping down motion and don’t treat it like some irrelevant necessity; downwards is just as important as upwards. Plus, get out of the mindset of “more reps is better” – it’s just not true.
Not slackening your arms as you drop yourself down will put more stress on your muscles and reduce your reps, but it’s more effective, so you’ll be getting more done in less time.
Mistake #2: Cutting out the hardest part
Find anyone who doesn’t regularly train, ask them to do a pull up, and one of the first things they’ll do is begin with bent elbows, and then as they “complete” each rep you’ll see their arms never straighten. These are not pull ups with proper technique, or, to be more accurate: these are half pull ups.
Solution: You need to start from a dead hang, with your arms completely straight, and then return to that position at the end of each rep. Most people will struggle doing a single dead hang pull up if they’ve never done one before, but like all things worth achieving, it just takes a bit of patience.
Mistake #3: Giving up
“It’s too hard.”
“Why haven’t I seen the gains I expected?”
“I’ll never build any muscles.”
Your complaints are unoriginal and unfortunately normal (I went through all of them myself); just don’t let them hold you back by convincing you to give up. The surest way to not achieve your goals is to not strive for them. But that’s the easy way out and we don’t want easy, we want strength, and muscles, and fitness…and all those wonderful feelings associated with those desires.
The pull up is a mighty difficult exercise at first (simple to understand, difficult to complete) but it’s worth it. Complete 3 sets of pull ups and breaking your own records feels absolutely fantastic, and is 100% worth going through the initial pain and feelings of inadequacy.
Solution: The clinging to the easy road of giving up is more mental than physical. And because I’ve been interested in psychology/philosophy for so long here are some of the best articles I’ve written that are relevant:
- Sustainable Strength: A Guide for Ectomorphs Who Just Can’t Stick With It
- Don’t Train, Form Habits
- Are You Embracing the Long Term Mindset?
Okay, now go out and do some damn pull ups.