It's no secret that the pull up is one of the most powerful tools in your strength, back and grip development arsenal. If this is the case, then why can most people only do one, and most likely with a lot of strain? Why do most people avoid pull ups like the plague even though they know the benefits? Most trainees don't do pull ups because they are hard! If you are looking to gain strength, the question is not IF you should include pull ups in your training, but HOW MANY.
Performing strength exercises are like investing your money. You want to make your money work for you and the same goes for your workouts. You want an exercise that gives you the most bang for your buck. Why pick an exercise that only hits your upper back when a pull up hits everything. It works your grip and hand strength. Just hanging on the bar can do that. It works your arms and shoulders and of course it works your entire back. Not to mention the ab work from keeping your core from swaying.
All in all, you will develop a strong body by incorporating pull ups, but now the question is, what if you can't even do one!? As the saying goes, if you want to lift more, you have to lift more. If you want to do pull ups, you have to do pull ups. Here's a plan that will get you on your way.
Kettlebell guru Pavel Tsatsouline teaches the Grease the Groove technique to show people how to increase their ability to perform an exercise. Here's how it works: over a long period (1 to 8 hours), you do as many reps as you can of an exercise. So for pull ups, you would do at least one rep every time you walk by a pull up bar. If you do it throughout the day, even if you're only able to do one rep at a time you'll still have done a number of reps and have built the strength needed to eventually do multiple reps during one set.
You might say, that looks good in theory, but what if I don't have access to a pull up bar. The answer is to grease the groove during your workout. Let's assume that you are at the gym for about an hour. During that hour in between sets of other exercises, go to the pull up bar and just do a few pull ups, not to failure. Perform pull ups every 5 minutes or so. As the hour passes, you'll have done about 10-15 pull ups. So, start working on your pull ups and you'll be reaping the benefits of having a powerful upper body, ridiculous grip strength, and the impressive ability to lift yourself over and over in no time.
One piece of equipment that gave me the ability to do pull ups at home or anywhere I wanted was the Tactical Athlete Pull up System (TAPS). It assembles to become a free-standing pull up system. I use it at home or take it with me. It assembles in about 15 minutes and is perfect for group training or outdoor training.
What's great about the Tactical Athlete Pull up System (TAPS) is that it allows me to perform dead hang pull ups with my legs fully extended because the height is adjustable. One might be afraid of the stability of it since it's free-standing, but I have been able to perform weighted pull ups and hang rings off of it as well with absolutely no problem. Best of all is that since it is military grade, the thing can take a beating. It's definitely one of my favorite pieces of equipment. - 16083
Performing strength exercises are like investing your money. You want to make your money work for you and the same goes for your workouts. You want an exercise that gives you the most bang for your buck. Why pick an exercise that only hits your upper back when a pull up hits everything. It works your grip and hand strength. Just hanging on the bar can do that. It works your arms and shoulders and of course it works your entire back. Not to mention the ab work from keeping your core from swaying.
All in all, you will develop a strong body by incorporating pull ups, but now the question is, what if you can't even do one!? As the saying goes, if you want to lift more, you have to lift more. If you want to do pull ups, you have to do pull ups. Here's a plan that will get you on your way.
Kettlebell guru Pavel Tsatsouline teaches the Grease the Groove technique to show people how to increase their ability to perform an exercise. Here's how it works: over a long period (1 to 8 hours), you do as many reps as you can of an exercise. So for pull ups, you would do at least one rep every time you walk by a pull up bar. If you do it throughout the day, even if you're only able to do one rep at a time you'll still have done a number of reps and have built the strength needed to eventually do multiple reps during one set.
You might say, that looks good in theory, but what if I don't have access to a pull up bar. The answer is to grease the groove during your workout. Let's assume that you are at the gym for about an hour. During that hour in between sets of other exercises, go to the pull up bar and just do a few pull ups, not to failure. Perform pull ups every 5 minutes or so. As the hour passes, you'll have done about 10-15 pull ups. So, start working on your pull ups and you'll be reaping the benefits of having a powerful upper body, ridiculous grip strength, and the impressive ability to lift yourself over and over in no time.
One piece of equipment that gave me the ability to do pull ups at home or anywhere I wanted was the Tactical Athlete Pull up System (TAPS). It assembles to become a free-standing pull up system. I use it at home or take it with me. It assembles in about 15 minutes and is perfect for group training or outdoor training.
What's great about the Tactical Athlete Pull up System (TAPS) is that it allows me to perform dead hang pull ups with my legs fully extended because the height is adjustable. One might be afraid of the stability of it since it's free-standing, but I have been able to perform weighted pull ups and hang rings off of it as well with absolutely no problem. Best of all is that since it is military grade, the thing can take a beating. It's definitely one of my favorite pieces of equipment. - 16083
About the Author:
Author: Marcus Martinez can help you reach your fitness goals. For fat loss articles and tips for kettlebells visit his free exercise database.
