I remember back in 2008, I wanted to learn how to do a pull-up. Mind you that I did not research how to do it and/or eat right at that time. My mindset was, “As long as I eat enough protein, I will gain muscle and strength.” This is essentially true and my approach was pretty effective.
Every day, I went into the gym just hoping to make progress with my bench, my pull ups, and my bicep curls. At the time, I could give less crap about my squat, deadlift, and shoulders. Which by the way are extremely important muscle groups if you want to achieve optimal results with your body.
I did split workouts focusing on back one day, chest another day, and biceps on the last day. I rinse and repeat those 3 days.
I remember I could barely do one pull up. I had to kick off something just to get myself at least halfway up. Does that sound like you?
Most people are taught to go 3 sets of 6-10 reps with heavy lat pulldowns so that you can get your muscle used to doing a pull up. Although that is true, it is also a slow way of doing it.
It took me 3 weeks and I was able to do 10 pull ups.
What changed? My eating habits? Nope. I approached it with the mindset of knowing that I will get there.
What I did was instead of doing 3 sets of 5-10 on the lat pull down, I started doing 5 sets of 1 rep of a pull up.
I came into the gym and I started with lat pulldowns as a warm up. Rather than doing that 3-4 sets, I did on set of lat pulldowns with 20 reps to get the blood flowing, then I focused on my pull up game.
I started with kicking off something to get me higher, then I slowly let myself down. The eccentric phase or relaxing of the muscles on the way down put my body in the position of really trying its best to hold me up as much as it can. Thus I was “tearing” the muscle on the way down.
The “tearing” of the muscle is very important for muscle growth.
Image cutting yourself and when your skin heals, it grows a new layer of tissue. Pretty much the same concept as “tearing the muscle” and building new muscle cells.
Every time it was my back day, I progressed by increasing the reps every time.
Day 1: 5 sets of 1.
Day 2: 5 sets of 2.
Day 3: 5 sets of 3.
Day 4: 5 sets of 4 etc.
One day I was curious how many I can do in one go and I surprised myself by doing 14 reps!
I don’t think I had the perfect form, but I just made sure I go as far down as I can and pull myself up enough to where my chin is above the bar.
Now there are so many different pull up variations.
So where can you start?
As a scrawn individual, you must eat a lot of protein. Increase your carb intake and focus on getting the form down first with the lat pulldown machine.
Next work your way up until you can do 3/4 of your body weight at least 5-6 times.
Once you achieve that, you can try a pull up. If you still can’t do it, repeat the cycle until you can do more weight on the lat pulldowns.
If you are a heavy individual, the best thing you can start with is being on a calorie deficit. Keep your protein intake still high so you can still focus on building strength and muscle. This may take a little bit longer for you to achieve a pull up because if you have never worked out before, you need to create a strong foundation for yourself first.
Most importantly, be patient. It may take longer than expected. Don’t compare yourself to others’ progress.
