Pull-up advice

A lot of officers ask me about how to improve their score on pull-up pfts. Although I have touched on it here before here are some actual exercises that can help.

The common denominators between men and women who can do pull-ups are that they practice them regularly and have lower bodyfat percentages. The best way to train to increase the number of pull-ups you can do is to do pull-ups until you are exhausted, every other day. Being able to do pull-ups effectively helps with lifts, negotiating obstacles, body drags, crawling and more.

NEGATIVE PULL-UPS

Negatives are great if you can only do a few actual pull-ups then burning yourself out with negatives can help get you to the next step. A negative is assisting yourself to the "up" position and allowing your body to slowly lower to the "down" position. The idea is to lower your body as slowly as possible fighting against gravity for at least a 5-8 count.

LAT PULLS

The next best thing to a pull-up is the lat pull machine. The problem I see with people doing lat pulls, pulling a ton of weight, is they are almost always doing it wrong. It is important to retract your shoulder blades, sticking out your chest continuously throughout the movement. For other words, before making that first movement retract your shoulder blades together, which causes your chest to stick out, a natural curve to the lower back is fine. Keeping these muscles retracted throughout the whole movement is key. It may feel like you are not getting a "full range of motion" keeping the rhomboids and traps contracted, but you are increasing the work required from your upper back. Chances are you will not be able to do the same heavy weight and you should not be pulling from your hips or lower back. Never pull the bar behind your head.

DURING THE WEEK

To start pick 2 days a week to hit the pull-ups hard. Work with negatives and lat pulls 4-5 sets of each. Each set should be until exhaustion or close to it. Rest about 2 minutes between sets. Don't forget to work your biceps once a week (much smaller muscle group), another important component of pull-ups. Pull-ups are rough, make sure to get enough rest between workouts.