The Perfect Pull Up and Chin Up: An Awesome Bodyweight Exercise
October 22nd, 2009
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by Mike T Nelson · Filed Under: Mobility · athletic performance · neurology
The Perfect Pull Up
Below is a short video on how to do the perfect pull up and chin up. Anyone else remember the Presidential Fitness test in middle school? Man, I HATED that thing. Let’s drag the most unathletic, string bean (read me) out in front of everyone else and see just how weak he really is. Ugh. The only part of the contest I even close to 50% was the shuttle run since I was in basketball and figured out that if you clean off your shoes before you run, you can stop exactly on the line. Everyone else was sliding around like they were trying to be human dust mops on the floor.
Guess which exercise I hated the most? Pull ups. You had to do them in front of EVERYONE so there was nowhere to hide. I got up there and just hung from the bar as the gym teacher told me to GO! Well, I was pulling and I swear to you that my elbows did not bend at all. The gym teacher told me to start again and I said that I was pulling. After the third time of him telling me to start the exercise I just let go of the bar. Oh, the good times.
Rant Almost Over
That stupid test is worthless. You want to have kids HATE exercise really fast, that is your ticket. I have not seen one President do it either. You should teach kids HOW to move and HOW to do the darn test and maybe have them PRACTICE it a few times first. Ok, back to today’s lesson.
Why Bother With Pull Ups?
- They are a great developer of the back muscles (you know, those on the opposite side of your chest you crazy 3 day a week bench nut!)
- Muscles like to be balanced and many time that stall in your bench press is actually from your body attempted to not let you get too far out of whack. Start to balance it out with some pull ups and you will be rocking.
- Pullups and Chins can be done almost anywhere too! No more excuses
What You Will Learn
- A cool neurologic “hack” to dramatically increase your pull ups.
- What perfect form looks like
- Options if you can’t do a full pull up
Testimonial Time
Here is what Gail has to say about it. Gail first came to see me at the very end of August to work on her pull ups for the Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC). We did a Z-Health movement session and some pull up practice. Here is her exact email sent on Sept 1.
September 1, 2009
From: Gail Jensen
To: Mike T Nelson
Training continues to go well though I can still do only 1 pullup (of course, I was on vacation for a week-I did work out one day at the Gold’s Gym in San Juan-they are still pretty old school-not a kettlebell on the premises!). I keep trying to convince myself that pullups are easy and I visualize myself doing 2 or more. I also do the chicken neck prior to each pullup. I hope I can soon move beyond this “plateau” I seem to be facing. It helps to train with a partner, too.
Fast forward only 4 weeks and Gail cranks off 6 at the Tactical Strength Challenge. Check the stats for yourself below
TSC Results Fall 2009
First off, I need to send a huge congrats to Gail as she did all the work; I just provided her a few tips that I show in the video below.
Perfect Pull-Up Video:
Techniques, Tips and Neuro Hacks to Increased Performance
Contest Time (read How to Win a FREE T-Shirt)
Ok, here is the deal. I am so confident that if you do perfect practice pull ups as above along with some neck mobility (as shown) above that you will increase your pull up numbers in record time I will put a T-shirt on it from my friends at Protein Factory again.
Details
- Contest starts today and ends exactly 45 days from now, but you need your numbers in the comments section below within 6 days from today
- Go find a pull up bar and do your initial numbers today if you don’t have them.
- Use the techniques above and follow them to a T. Do perfect reps only!
- Get as much volume (read practice) in as you can without any pain. Do chins, pulls up, neutral grip, etc.
- Report your numbers back here in the comments section by Wed Oct 28 at 5pm CST to be in the contest. No exceptions
- The one that shows the most improvement (measured by number of reps) wins the Protein Factory T-shirt shipped to them on me (sorry to my international friends, USA only for the T-shirt since customs is a big pain but if you win outside the US I will think of something for ya).
Its Go Time!
What are you waiting for. Send this on to as many friends as you want. You have only 6 days to enter your comments below with your starting reps to be in the contest. I would love to see at least 20 people in the contest. It is FREE, you may win a free T-shirt from Protein Factory, I will provide answers to your questions below, and your bench will probably even go up!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Comments RSS 
Superb video – thanks
I have a question after doing the demo drill on a few random people. I am a cyclist and when I am in the drops or the aero position my neck is cranked as bad or worse then in the demo drill. My question being does this screw up my power transfer to my legs? Thanks in advance and I really enjoy the blog.
Thanks for the comment Chris! Much appreciated! Keep up the great work yourself!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hi there Travis. Thanks for comment and taking action and trying out the drill.
Excellent question Travis. In general, it can impede some performance, but it depends. For some that I have tested, they are fine actually. Most tend to need neck and thoracic spine work to “offset” all the time on the bike.
For cyclist, I have them initially work on thoracic and neck work first in neutral (standing up) or seated. Once they get that down, I have them do it in a “biking” position (seated, hands in the standard position they would be in) and lastly they learn to do it while on the bike; but again making sure they don’t crash! Once you get the drills down, doing them on the bike isn’t too hard actually.
I hope that answers your question a bit. Let me know what follow up questions you have
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hi Mike thanks for the info. I have been doing R-phase drills for almost five months but never on the bike or in a biking position. Would it also be beneficial to do shoulder circles and so forth while ridding or in a bike position?
Cheers,
Travis
Awesome! I’m taking the challenge! On chins I max out at 10, on pullups I max at 7-8. I’m going to to the drills and post back with my (hopefully) improved numbers!
I’m sooooo guilty of chicken-heading. Tsk tsk.
Thanks for the great video Mike!
Georgie Fear RD
Awesome to hear Georgie!! Keep us updated on how it goes!
Who else is in? Time it ticking…..
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hey Mike, sounds great! Let’s see, starting with 12 PU’s and 12 CU’s, and would like to do 18-20 by the next TSC!!!!! thanks for the help and motivation.
Hi Mike,
I recently did 12 neutral grip chins/pullups.
I’ll try to ckeck out the normal pullups by tomorrow.
Dr. Tim
Awesome work Doc! Much appreciated!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Great to hear it Paul! Just be patient, keep working perfect reps and you will be doing awesome by the April TSC! What is your target for snatches and DL?
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
I can do 5 chinups and 2 pull ups. Weak back/shoulders?
Good question, but very hard to say. If you stand with your arm out to your side and your hand up (like a 90 degree stop command), is your arm more forward or straight up and down? Just checking to see how your upper arm rotation is.
If you can send in a video, that would be helpful. You can send a note to Mike@ExtremeHumanPerformance.com
Rock on
Mike N
8
dead hang
am I really the only entry?
Nope, there are a few others here, just scroll up in the comments. Thanks for competing man!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
April TSC PU’s 18, DL 315 ( I like the look of 3 wheels!)
and snatches 118
Worthy and achieveable goals.
Awesome Paul! Those are killer goals for the TSC and hard, but very do-able.
Yes, more wheels on the bar ALWAYS looks better!
Keep us updated on how it goes and let us know how we can help!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Progress update: Still stuck at about the same numbers, but I’m doing them correctly now!! (When I first started doing them with your tips I was down a bunch of reps, but now I’ve broken even….)
Hope to be posting with increases soon, but even if not, you fixed me!
Georgie
Thanks for the update Georgie! It takes a bit of relearning to get them down again.
You can add in some chin ups too on days pull ups are not going as well too.
Keep us updated!!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hi,
interesting ideas. i will try them.
since you look experienced on this pull up thing, let me ask a question: i decided not to do any pull ups(palms away) in the future, because it hurts my elbow. instead i do chin ups(palms towards me)and pull ups on rings (where palms face each other).
i can do 19 chin ups on a bar, and 17-18 “pull ups” on rings so why is it that even after 8-10 pull ups my elbows feel inconvenient?
thnaks
b.
Thanks for the comment!
Very hard to say without watching you, but my guess is that rotating the palm down may be an issue or external rotation at the shoulder may be an issue.
Is it just the pull up motion (palms away) that hurts? Any other movement that hurts?
Nice work on the chins and ring pull ups!!
rock on
Mike T Nelson
hi, thanks for the answer.
no , there are also other movements that hurt:one-arm-one-leg push up, muscle-up(will do never this).
to be honest i think it is due to some kind of injury and maybe it is getting better (very slowly). a year ago almost any kind of movement was inconvenient where bending elbows were required.still,one of the worst was the pull up, especially if I squezed the bar hard. and then gradually the situation started to improve step by step, and i started to do chin ups, and 24 kg kettlebells workouts. But still i am not sure whether i should do pull ups or not.
cheers
b.
Thanks for the follow up. Hard to say what is going on, but it sounds like it has been some time so getting it looked at in person by a professional would be a great idea.
In the meantime, I would not advise doing anything that is painful and working on some joint mobility work at a very slow speed.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
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