Pull-ups and Beyond: Roadmap to Pulling Strength
Pull-ups are the holy grail of back exercises and your ultimate training tool for achieving incredible gains in raw pulling strength. An essential stepping stone towards attaining bodyweight mastery, this simple yet effective exercise will give you a well-developed back that is sought after by many fitness enthusiasts and recreational exercisers alike.
The beauty of the pull-up is its versatility to be modified for people of all fitness levels. Whether you are working towards pulling your chin over the bar for the first time or performing multiple reps with relative ease, our Online Courses contain many progressions that will challenge you.
Beyond Pull-ups
You will find many progressions of this iconic exercise in the GB Courses that will challenge every muscle in your body. From ground rows to pull-ups and beyond, Coach Christopher Sommer has beautifully mapped out the path to attain extreme upper body strength along with a lean muscular physique.
This GB Athlete developed his pulling strength with our Online Courses, and you can too!
Talk about efficiency. Performing the Pull-up with your legs held at parallel is a great way to get the most out of your GB Training. In the L-shape position, you can further challenge the muscles of your upper back while getting a great ab workout at the same time. Even if you’re able to crank out multiple repetitions of pull-ups, this L pull-up is extremely effective and a must-have in your gymnastics workout plan.
But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s start out with the basics first!
Build Strength for Pull-ups with Ground Rows
Before we dive into fun and exciting pull-up progressions, we must first build the necessary strength in our upper back and arms with the ground row. This scaled down, the modified pull-up is no joke. Done correctly this ground row will challenge anyone whether you are a complete beginner or the most advanced athlete.
So grab yourself a set of gymnastic rings and let’s get rowing!
Position yourself under the rings, with your arms extended so that your body forms a straight line from your head to toes. You can scale this row accordingly by walking your feet forward or backward. The further forward you place your feet, the more challenging the row will be. With your arms extended pull your chest upwards towards your hands then slowly lower yourself down until you return to your starting position. Try repeating for 3 sets of 10 repetitions. For an added challenge try elevating your feet on a bench.
Work the Negative
Performing negative pull-ups are a great way to build strength through a full range of motion. By focusing on the negative (lowering) phase of the movement, it’s much easier to discover where you are the weakest.
Hint, hint…. try holding your chin above the bar.
Begin by jumping to the top of a pull-up position with an overhand grip. Then, slowly lower down until your arms fully straight and disengaged. Aim for a 10-second descent from the top of the exercise to the bottom. Jump back up and repeat!
Don’t worry if you struggle to make the full 10 seconds at first. Just do what you can and you will improve over time. The positive side of working your negatives is that you will eventually be able to perform the full pull-up with ease.
Takeaway Points
- Performing body rows on the gymnastic rings are an excellent way to strengthen your back and arms.
- Work the negative portion of the pull-up by lowering down slowly from the top.
- L pull-ups will give you extreme pulling strength while simultaneously training your core.
GymnasticBodies upper body training is the first step in your path towards pull-up mastery; make GymFit TV your ultimate bodyweight strength tour guide!
