Pull ups are your best friend if you want to develop rugged upper body strength and a muscular back.  I’ll be honest with you, pull ups and chin ups are HARD!  They are often a neglected exercise because they are so difficult and most people just are not good at doing them.  But, just because something is hard doesn’t mean you should shelve the exercise!  Here are few tips to help improve your pull ups.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

The only way to get good at pull ups is to do pull ups.  With pull ups especially, practice makes perfect.  Focus on sets with low reps.  For example, if your max is 5 consecutive pull ups, try performing 3-5 sets of 2-3 reps.  This will give you plenty of practice and sets of low reps will help you build strength and confidence.

Frequency is key as well.  Perform pull ups or chins at least a couple of times per week.  Remember, stick to your multiple sets of low reps.  Try to add a rep to each set every week.  If the first week you performed 5 sets of 2 reps (10 total pull ups), try to complete 5 sets of 3 reps.  Don’t worry if you don’t get all 15 pull ups.  Record the total number and keep working until you can get all 15 reps.

Set a Goal

Another way to improve your pulling power is to set a goal.  Pick a total number of pull ups you want to complete and try to get to that number in as few sets as possible.  If your target number is 30 and you knock them out in 6 sets, go for 5 sets next time.

Patience and Progression

Like I said above, people get discourage because they aren’t good at pull ups or they don’t think they’re improving.  You are not going to go from from only do 5 consecutive pull ups to doing 20 in a couple of weeks or months.  Improving a skill, such as performing pull ups takes time.

Don’t get discouraged.  Even if you do just one more pull up than you did last week you ARE getting stronger.  As long as you’re increasing your volume (either more sets or more reps per set) you’re progressing and getting stronger.