How do I become able to do pullups?

Question

I'm a 5'11 18yo 79kg male, waist 32 inches (in the morning). I struggle with pull-ups, I think this is due to:

• excess body fat
• lack of muscle
• my disproportionately long arms (I don't have specific measurements but I know they're longer than my height).

I am a beginner in fitness. I've been going to the gym for a month, but I ran long distances before that. On the Smith Bench Press, I can do 70kg for 5-8 reps, 3 sets (incl. bar weight), and Smith Squat 90kg for 10 reps, 3 sets (incl. bar weight). In terms of bodyweight exercises, I can do ~30 wide grip pushups, and ~12 narrow grip close-to-the-chest pushups (ie. to work my triceps more). I can do assisted pullups with ~30kg support, 10-12 reps, and 3 sets. All of these are, to the best of my knowledge, good form. However, I struggle to do even a single pull-up. I've noted that my arms seem to be my weakest point, even in bench/lat pulldown/etc, my arms fatigue far more quickly than my chest/back/anything else. I would like to do pullups so that I can do a full-body workout even when I don't have access to a gym (variations of bodyweight pushups, pullups, and squats). I see a few options to achieve this: lose body fat, and gain muscle. Which of these would be best in my position?

Answer 1

Traditionally, when you can't do a full pullup yet, people typically have you start by doing either negatives, or assisted pull-ups. For the former, start in the pulled up position, and then lower yourself as slowly as you can. You can repeat this multiple times in a row as a set. The second can be a bit more tricky in my experience. Some gyms will have a machine with a platform where you can set your knees, which will take part of your weight during pull-ups. You can also use a rubber band, but there are a lot of videos on the internet of what happens when the band slips, especially if you're male. Lastly, some people will do static hangs, getting up to that upper position and then just holding on as long as they can, as well as practicing hangs at the bottom with the arms extended, and intermediate positions. This can help to build up shoulder strength, although it doesn't train you quite as well for the full dynamic motion. Even when not specifically training these, you can make it part of your negatives, trying to hold a bit at the beginning, and then at the end.

Also, as per the answers to this question, exercise is you can do to improve your pull up strength generally involve your lat muscles and your ab muscles. In particular, they seem to be recommending kneeling lat pulldowns.

Answer 2

There are multiple things that can help you here.

First off, many people don't know how to engage all the muscles properly that are used during a pullup. Activation of the scapula is an important part of the pullup that is often being overlooked. You trainthis by doing 'scapula pullups'.

Secondly, you can do multiple different variations of lat engagement to increase strenght to do your first pullup. Exercises like bent-over rows, inverted rows and lat pulldowns will strengthen your back and arms to a point where you can start doing either the eccentric part of a pullup (also known as the negative part of the movement) or assisted pullups.

After you master these, you can probably do atleast 1 pullup. You can start increasing reps from here by doing 1 or 2 pullups, and finishing the rest of the reps with assistance from a band.

One last tip; deadhangs will also help you in getting a better pullup, it helps in building proper grip strength!

Hope that helps, if you have any questions let me know.