People often ask me, “How can I improve my pull ups?” Besides focusing on your nutrition and decreasing body fat, it is practice that makes one perfect. One simple but effective method to ramp up the amount of pull ups you can perform is by increasing the overall volume during a session. You might be thinking this is easier said than done.
Let’s say you can currently perform only four pull ups. Aim to complete only two pull ups per set but you have to complete 10 sets in total. In other words. you would have performed 20 pull ups by the end of your session.
For every workout, try to increase the total number of pull ups by at least one. This programme works because of the steady increase in the overall work done. As not all sets are done to failure, you should initially be able to complete 10 sets of two. Within a short period of time, your pull up performance would have increased. Your initial goal is to complete 10 sets of four; you can then retest your maximal performance for reps in a single set. I bet, you will be able to complete more than four.
In order to save time, pair your 10 sets of pull ups with an antagonistic superset. With such a pushing exercise, you will be able to get more work done during the session without compromising on your performance. For example, you would perform one set of two pull ups, have a rest of 60 seconds before performing one set of 10 reps flat bench press. Rest for 90 seconds, and that would be one set complete. Just nine more to go! In the next workout, you would try and do the same, but this time aim for 10 sets of three pull ups.
Tom Winterbottom personal trainer St Jon’s Wood personal trainer Marylebone