Ladies, You Can Conquer the Pull-Up:
10 Reps After Only 6 Weeks!
by Leigh Peele

The pull-up is the ultimate Girl Power exercise. For
some women, it's a myth, a fable told by others. They have heard of
some women doing it, but have never actually seen it done, and
certainly haven't been able to do it themselves. The pull-up isn't merely an exercise or a movement, it's the ultimate
in female empowerment. Put a woman in front of a bunch of strong men
and have her squat, run, and jump. The dudes may make some appreciative
comments, but that's about it. However, put that same woman on a
pull-up bar and let her start knocking out rep after perfect rep, and I
assure you that every man in that room will stare in a mixture of awe,
admiration, and (most deliciously of all) envy. I've seen it
happen, and let me tell ya, it's a beautiful thing. The pull-up is the
Great Equalizer: it evens the playing field, bridging the chasm between
the boys and the girls. Sad to think that many women will
never be able to knock out those perfect reps, never be the object of
male awe and envy, because the pull-up is, for many women, one of the
toughest exercises to conquer. You, on the other hand, are one
of the lucky ones, because you're reading this article. For you, those
ten perfect pull-ups are definitely within your grasp.

Anatomy of a Pull-up Before
you can conquer the pull-up, you must know your adversary: understand
how the pull-up works. First, you need to look at the variation of
grips. A change in grip changes muscles targeted, and technically, even
changes the name of the exercises themselves (pull-ups as opposed to
chin-ups). For the purpose of this article, we are going to be talking
about three different grips, and the importance of each to your
training. Pronated grip: this is the standard pull-up grip of palms facing forward/overhand on the bar. Supinated grip: this is the chin-up style grip of palms facing upward/underhand grip on the bar. Neutral grip: this is your natural inclination style of grip, palms facing medial grip on a parallel bar.
Neutral (parallel) grip. Different
grips target different muscles in different ways. For example, a
pronated grip is king and best at hitting the latissimus dorsi muscles
of the back. With a pronated grip there is less stress and usage of the
biceps brachii when compared to a supinated (chin-up) grip. The neutral
grip utilizes your brachilalis and brachioradialis muscles in a way
that neither of the other two grips do. For some with chronic
shoulder problems and impingements, the standard pull-up grip just
isn't a great idea, and you may need to do all exercises with a
supinated grip. However, if recovering from persistent elbow problems,
being able to lower yourself properly in a negative exercise might be
tougher in a supinated grip. If you're a complete mess, try the neutral
style grip and go from there. Otherwise, follow the program as written,
with grip alternations.

It's the Little Things that Matter The
success of doing a pull-up, as with all compound movements, becomes a
game of finding where your weakness is. The main muscle usage for a
pull-up should be from the back. From a hang position, you should fire
primarily in your latissimus dorsi, and start off a chain of support,
lifting your body more with your back and core than with your arms. The
most common mistake in a pull-up is failing to fire the back properly,
or at all. Consider that the average person gets their guns not from
curls, but from doing brute-strength arms-dominant chin-up work. A
good exercise and test for this is the hang bar lift. The purpose of
this movement is to see if you can properly control the firing of your
back muscles to then coordinate the rest of the proper chain of events.
The hang bar lift is a good test of your lat control. To
do the hang bar lift, position yourself in a dead hang on the bar. This
can be weight assisted or not, that aspect doesn't matter, but you need
to be fully extended in a dead hang. You want to almost completely lock
your elbows and paralyze your arm movement on the bar so that when you
raise yourself up into a shrug, you're using only your back to lift
yourself. The movement is subtle: you're only causing a small
movement and firing almost completely with your lats. Your grip on the
bar may be tired from the hang, but all the work of lifting yourself
into that movement should come from your back and back alone. If you feel any pain at all in your shoulders, then switch grips to supinated or neutral.

Full Range of Motion Cheating
a pull-up is going to cheat yourself out of success. Some of the
ugliest half range pull-ups I've ever seen were largely due to weak
rhomboids and lower trap muscles. A proper pull-up (with whatever grip
you utilize) is from a dead hang to an above bar raise, and then
lowered back down into controlled dead hang.
Cheating will only cheat yourself out of your victory. That
lowering back down is where a lot of people miss out of the full
potential of this exercise, leading to overstrained lats, tight
pectorals, weak rhomboids and lower traps. Pull-ups and chin-ups, when
done with the correct range of motion, are quick and excellent tools
for improving a large amount of muscle weakness and imbalance. Done
wrong, they just make it worse. Don't just drop once you reach the top,
you earned getting up there, earn getting back down.

Beyond the Back You
know why gymnasts rock the pull-up? They are notorious for strong
cores. A weak core means a weak stabilization system and while it may
not seem like a big deal swinging around on that bar and lacking the
ability to stabilize force upward, it'll hurt your pull-up. Another
strong player in your pull-up ability is your actual forearm strength
and grip. Any of you involved in a good deadlifting program understand
the importance that grip strength plays in being able to hold that bar
up. Well what kind of role and importance do you think is going to
occur when your body becomes the force of that bar?

The Assistants In
this program you're going to have to use the aid of assistance in your
pull-ups. Each has its pros and cons, so in the end you should use
whatever you can to progress. Assist machine:
this is the easiest method to help assist you. These machines work on
the method of giving you opposing weight to help aid in lifting you
upwards. The con though is they can help aid you too much and take out
some of that stability work that you can earn with using some other
methods. Partner or wall assistant:
I love using partner assisted pull-ups because they automatically throw
off stability, help give that mental push, and allow for a lot more
resistance control. Don't utilize the partner so much to help raise
you; do that only as a last resort on forced reps. Instead utilize your
partners body/wall to aid your legs in assisting to help pull yourself
up. This way you get more core and leg training along with your pull-up
work. Bands: these are likely
the best in assistance because they offer changing resistance use of
stabilization, make it very hard to cheat, and offer portability. The
flip side is they can be a bit tricky to work with, and as your
resistance needs change, your band needs will change as well.