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Bodyweight · Lats

How to Do a Pull-Up (And Build Toward Your First One)

The pull-up is the benchmark bodyweight back exercise, and also one people give up on too early. Here is the proper form, plus how to build toward your first rep if you are not there yet.

· 2 min read

Pull-up demonstration

A pull-up looks like an arm exercise from the outside, but it's driven by your back — and it is one of the more honest strength tests there is, because there's no way to fake your way through it with momentum for long.

How to do it

  1. 1Grip slightly wider than shoulders — palms facing away from you, hanging with arms fully extended.
  2. 2Start from a dead hang — engage your shoulder blades slightly before pulling, rather than starting completely loose.
  3. 3Pull your chest to the bar — drive your elbows down and back, leading with your chest rather than your chin.
  4. 4Avoid kipping or swinging — keep your legs relatively still — use your back and arms, not momentum from your hips.
  5. 5Lower all the way down — control the descent back to a full hang before starting the next rep.

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Sets and reps

If you can already do pull-ups, 3–4 sets of as many strict reps as possible, leaving a rep or two in the tank. If you are building toward your first one, use an assisted pull-up machine, resistance bands looped over the bar, or slow negative reps — jump to the top, lower for 4–5 seconds — three times a week.

Common mistakes

  • Kipping or swinging. Using momentum from your legs turns this into a different, less strength-focused exercise. Keep the movement strict unless you are specifically training kipping technique.
  • Partial range of motion. Stopping short of a full hang at the bottom or the chest at the top trains a shorter, less useful range.
  • Chin-first instead of chest-first. Craning the neck to get the chin over the bar without driving the chest up trains poor mechanics. Think 'chest to bar,' not 'chin over bar.'

Safety note

Building toward a first pull-up takes weeks of consistent practice for most people — assisted reps and negatives are legitimate training, not a lesser version of the exercise.

If you can't do one yet, you're not behind — you're mid-progression. Negatives and assisted reps build the exact strength a full pull-up needs.

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