Start with negatives. Jump up and pull yourself up, then go slow down on the negative for a few sets. Eventually you will be able to do a pull up. From there, a few sets of pull ups every other day should do the trick. Try not to go to failure. If you can do 10 reps max, try doing sets of 5-7 with a couple minutes rest, always leaving some in the tank.
My daughter likes do to the monkey bars and that and Centro inspired me to try and do one on top of the swing in the backyard. Failure.
Not the perfect setup but with a gun to my head and perfect setup I think I'd fail.
So if I can't do one, what exercises can I start doing to get one under my belt.
How long will this take me?
Yours in running,
-Weldon
If you just start doing the monkey bars every time you go to the park with your daughter you'll get there. I know, because I did exactly the same thing. I went from no pull ups to being able to do one just by practicing during our trips to the playground. Needless to say, do this when the playground is not crowded, not on a Saturday morning when it's mobbed. My neighborhood run also goes through our local playground and I'd usually do the monkeybars there in the morning. No one around at 7 am.
This hits close to home. Every year at the playground I still try to prove I'm a super dad by not doing a pull up per say but reaching up to the 2nd level bars on the playground and pulling myself up (kinda like peg board if they're vertical bars) and get myself over.
I'm waiting for my kids to get old enough that they no longer want to go to playgrounds.
Weldon, a good exercise to work in that I don't think has been mentioned is the towel pull. Get an old towel that you trust not to break, wrap it around a beam or tree in your yard, put your feet against the base of the beam, grab the towel and lean back, then pull yourself back up. Super easy to bang out some reps and get a nice workout going. I've fallen off my pull-up grind and can now do 5 on a good day (down from doing sets of 12 easily) but these have been a nice way to work back into it.
Nothing to do with needing to lose weight, just need to build muscle.
Like others have said, it just takes practice. Most people struggle to run a mile at first, so how do they get better?
We have one of those bars that fits in a door frame and for a while I was using that. Started with using a chair to help me get up there since I couldn't pull myself up. I'd do flexed arm hangs for longer periods of time until I was able to do a pull-up.
I forgot how many I could do in a row, but eventually stopped doing them in favor of more practical (to me) strength training.
I find this thread interesting. Several years ago I listened to Kenny Moore speak at a clinic. I certainly don't think anyone would have accused Kenny of looking like a body-builder during his heyday. However he said he won several bets during the European summer season getting into pull up contests against vain, big-muscled guys (Bob Seagren was mentioned specifically). Apparently Moore could do 20+ at will.
Nothing to do with needing to lose weight, just need to build muscle.
Like others have said, it just takes practice. Most people struggle to run a mile at first, so how do they get better?
We have one of those bars that fits in a door frame and for a while I was using that. Started with using a chair to help me get up there since I couldn't pull myself up. I'd do flexed arm hangs for longer periods of time until I was able to do a pull-up.
I forgot how many I could do in a row, but eventually stopped doing them in favor of more practical (to me) strength training.
Losing weight does help, you’re lifting less. That said, Wejo doesn’t look particularly overweight.
Any kind of strength training will help with pull-ups. I can probably do 8 clean pull-ups right now. When I couldn’t run and was lifting 4 days per week, I could do ~12.
Push-ups, curls, lat pull downs and rows will all help. Grip and forearm strength helps.
Nonsense. It's a both/and situation. When you're too weak for your weight, losing weight and training muscle will be your best path forward. Empty carbs are as much an issue as being a sofa jockey.
You can do assisted pullups by using a PT band and wrapping it around the bar and then putting your knee in the loop. Will take some serious weight off.
For me the problem with this method is that it really assists at the bottom where the band is most stretched, and once you get to the top of the pull up it doesn't assist at all because it is loose. The top of the pullup is the most challenging part for me. I can always get 3/4 of the way up and can do like 5 3/4 pull ups but zero full pull-ups.
Do not use the lat pull down or assisted pull-up machine at the gym neither will give you the strength to do a pull up.
Do two things every day.
1. Hang from the bar (it doesn't have to be a dead hang you can have your arms bent for more strength, dead hang is extremely hard)
2. Do negatives. Jump up and slowly lower yourself.
It may take up to half a year or more to gain the strength despite what the internet says. Pull-ups are an extremely hard exercise that looks easy.
I weigh 111 dressed for the gym and I can do 5 reps at 105 on the lat pull-down machine, but I cannot do one actual pull-up. It doesn't seem to quite translate. I'm a 64yo female.
I'll try the dead hangs and negatives, and perhaps some of the other suggestions that have been posted on this thread.
The bar that attaches to the lat machine probably weighs 10 lbs by itself so you’re likely doing reps at 95 lbs rather than 105
agree with those above that suggest starting with negatives. do a few slowly and then on the last one, lower yourself as slowly as you can.
you will be surprised how much strength you can gain this way.
i know this works. in my 20's i nearly died in an auto accident. came out the other side of recovery weighing 120 lbs (typically ~170) had zero muscle mass. could not do 1 push-up. could not do 1 dip. could not do 1 pull-up. starting with holding the positions, 15-30 seconds each. progressed to doing negatives. was doing at least real 2 reps of dips and pull ups in just a couple of weeks, multiple reps after a month. FWIW push-ups came back the fastest/easiest
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