It’s a common goal for a lot of members coming into the gym to get their first ever strict pull-up or regain the strength that they used to have. On paper going from 0 to 1 is easy. It’s only 1 rep, right? But what most people don’t think about is everyone starting at 0 and aiming to get their first pull-up is starting from a different stage and will have a different reason for them not being able to do a pull-up. This means one person may need to lose body fat percentage to make their gymnastics easier, another may not have the correct muscles actually working and may have muscle imbalances causing the body to compensate on the pull, and another may not be able to hang from a pull-up bar more than 10 seconds with the correct grip so they’ll start with grip strength, and the list goes on. Going from 0 to 1 is not easy but at the same time does not have to be complex and the main thing is not to rush the process.
If you’re above 20% body fat for a male and 25% body fat for a female then you’re gymnastics movments will be more difficult and your more ideal target will most likely be a bit lower than that but these percentages are a good number to at least shoot for. Imagine holding a 10-pound wall ball between your feet as you attempt a pull-up. How much harder do you think that would be? So in order to get your first pull-up we may actually need to work on your nutrition first and foremost. This doesn’t mean you can’t still do strength work at the same time but in a lot of people’s cases, your nutrition should be the priority. If this is the case then chat to us about some options we have for our nutrition program so we can do this in a healthy way and keep the body fat in a healthy level and not get too low. The last thing you want to do is cut your food so much that you don’t have the energy to train or the ablility to recover from training.
If you have more of an imbalance or a faulty movement then that’s where you want to find the LARGER muscles that aren’t working. If your shoulders/traps are pulling you up then you will create a ceiling that will send you tumbling back down again eventually and usually in pain. You will find yourself getting extremely tight shoulders and possibly even headaches or your neck locking up so you can’t move it. These are protective mechanisms from your body and it is trying to tell you to fix the problem. DO NOT push through this pain! We should be feeling the lats engaged during our pull-ups. Just because you have a ton of muscle mass in your lats unfortunately doesn’t mean that you will know how to do a pull-up using those muscles. If you move how you used to move then you will create the same problems you had before even though you did all of the accessory work to fix the muscle imbalance. Use a coach to tell you how to move correctly and fix your imbalances or movement mechanics if necessary.
If you cannot hang onto the bar with your knuckles stacked over the bar for at least 30 seconds then your grip strength needs to be improved. Ideally, you’re at 1 minute or more and you’ll most likely find you’ll have a weaker hand that needs strengthening. This doesn’t require anything fancy. It just requires you to hang from the bar correctly more often to build strength. If you just hang from your fingers you will not be building the necessary strength up the rest of the arm and will be compensating and again setting yourself up to fix your grip sooner or later. Things like false grip farmers carries work great as well but you can just keep it simple and hang from the bar correctly.
Most people find it’s more than one of these issues going on at the same time but that’s perfectly normal and these can be worked at the same time. For example, we can help you with your nutrition while we work on your strength or your movement mechanics. Again the main thing is to not rush the process and not to avoid the work that needs to be done.
If you need help with this then find a coach to help you get your first ever pull-up or get you back to doing pull-ups better than you ever have before!
If you are already a member of CrossFit Structure and want to talk to one of us about your goals you can book a free goal review here
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Aaron Scott
CrossFit Level 3 Trainer
CrossFit Structure Co-Owner