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Pull-ups are a simple exercise, but they do require a certain amount of body strength and stamina. It's pretty tough for if you're a woman and just starting out with weight training. You need to focus on strengthening your upper body first.
The exercises listed below can not only help you build your arms and shoulder muscles, but also tone other body parts like abs, lower back, lats and butt.
Each person is unique and there isn't a single "best" combination of exercises, especially if you are still at the beginner level. The key is to tailor the program to match your fitness goals as well as individual needs, fitness level, and any injuries or restrictions that you may have.
Best Pull-Up Exercises to Build Upper Body Strength
1) Dead Hang
Shoulders, arms, and back get a wonderful stretch from dead hangs. If your muscles are stiff from sitting or exercising, try dead hangs as a cooldown or soothing stretch a few times a week.
How to perform dead hang:
- Use a step or a bench to make it easier for your arms to reach the bar. You don't want to jump into a dead hang right away.
- Use an overhand hold on the bar (palms facing away from you).
- Remove your feet from the step or bench and hold on to the bar.
- Straighten your arms. Maintain a comfortable posture by not bending your arms.
- If you're new to the workout, hang for 10 seconds.
2) Scapular Pull-ups
Also known as scapula pull-ups, this is an upper-body workout that activates your shoulders and back muscles with a smaller range of motion than a typical pull-up. Scapular pull-ups, when done correctly, result in increased upper-body strength.
How to do Scapular pull-ups:
- Start in a standard pull-up position with your palms facing away from you and your hands shoulder-width apart.
- You want to draw the scapula down and together from a complete hang, with just slightly shrugged shoulders, to raise your body somewhat without bending your arms and pulling like a typical pull-up.
3) Hollow Body Pull-up
The hollow body hold is a great way to work the abdominal muscles, obliques, quads, hip flexors, inner thighs, and spinae. It also helps in the improvement of core and lower back muscle strength and stability.
How to do the hollow body pull-up:
- Set up like a typical pull-up, but with a slightly broader grasp for the hollow back pull-up.
- Look up at the bar as you engage your shoulders, and your back will arch slightly. This will assist you in isolating your back muscles from your front core muscles.
- Hollow back pulls are more of a vertical pull than bodyweight rows.
4) Ground Pull-ups
Pull-ups train your back while also developing and sculpting your shoulders, forearms, and chest (pecs). They also work your abs, especially the deep transverse abdominis, making them an excellent exercise for targeting several of the body's major muscles.
How to perform hollow ground pull-ups:
- You'll need a bar, to hold onto from your hollow rock posture, that's pull-up length distance and low to the ground.
- Pull your body across the floor, squeezing together your shoulder blades and keeping your hollow position, until your chin is almost beneath the bar.
- Repeat the process several times.
5) Negative Pull-ups
These pull-ups help you increase the muscle mass in your triceps and back muscles by using a lower range of motion than ordinary pull-ups.
How to do the Negative pull-up
- Hold for as long as you can at the top, then slowly lower yourself down.
- If you're seeing progress with your pull-ups, you may add a weighted belt to your routine to help you enhance your pull-up strength.
6) Assisted Pull-ups
Assisted pullups allow you to increase your strength while also improving your mobility and body alignment. While you won't obtain the same strength from these variations as you would from normal pullups, you will still gain strength and target the same muscles.
How to do assisted pull-ups:
- Take a partner and ask them to support you from behind your ribs.
- Start lifting yourself up while maintaining good form, and have your partner assist you as much as you need to finish the movement.
- Sometimes all you need is a gentle pat on the back to get you over the hump.
7) Towel Pull-ups
Towel pull-up is an excellent bodyweight exercise that uses a towel to enhance upper-body and grip strength, providing variety to your pull-up practice.
How to do towel pull-ups:
- By grabbing a towel instead of just the bar, you significantly increase the grip problem, making the entire move more difficult.
- Drape a towel over a pullup bar and pull up with one end of the towel in each hand.
Do not worry if you cannot do even one pull-up as a beginner. As with most exercises, it takes practice, perseverance, and time.
