Guide to chinup and pullup progressions - even when you can't do a single rep

Chinups and pullups are great exercises to build your back but for most beginners they are way too difficult. This is because you are lifting most of your bodyweight which is quite a lot if you are new to strength training. Most of the progressions models out there have you do pull ups with resistance bands, negative repetitions etc. But there are some major issues with these approaches. 

The problem with negative repetitions is that you don’t get to train the pulling part (concentric part) of the pullup and it's hard to accumulate enough training volume to make progress. Think about it this way: Would you bench press negatives with weight above your 1 rep max? Most certainly not since you would be literally crushed by this exercise. So i don’t see the point of risking your joint health by doing negative repetition. If you are starting out and you damage your bicep or joints doing negatives you won’t be able to train at all. So in my opinion the negative repetitions are not a good choice for anyone and carry a big injury risk.

When it comes to resistance band assisted pullups you get a lot of help from bands in the bottom position and almost none at the top which leads to a non beneficial resistance curve. And you will need a wide selection of bands in order to progress when you reach the top of your rep range. But at least with the bands you are doing the full range of motion. So if you have a selection of bands available and want to use this progression method please try it out. At least it's better than the negative reps.

Above mentioned methods might be ways to get your first pull up but what you really need in order to make steady progress would be: 

• Full range of motion
• Proper rep range somewhere between 6-12 reps in all sets 
• Proper training volume of 8-12 sets of pulling weekly. But you would have to include your rows to this volume as well.

Why is it difficult to get your first pullup

Let's look at this with an example. Take two guys with the same height. The other one weighs  70kg (154lbs) and the other one carries a bit more excessive bodyfat and weighs 90kg (198lbs). In a pullup you are lifting about 93% of your bodyweight since we are not lifting anything above our elbow joint. But for simplicity let's just assume it's your whole bodyweight.

In a case where the lighter weight guy can’t do a single pullup (1RM slightly below 70kg (154lbs)) and both are equally strong then the 90kg (198lbs) guy is far from the target and he should increase his 1RM by 50% in order to do a single pullup.

Now let's assume they are equally strong and the guy weighing 70kg (154lbs) can do 8 pullups already. That gives us a 1RM of 87kg (192lbs). If the other guy weighing 90kg (198lbs) would be equally strong he still couldn’t do a single pullup with his bodyweight. So you see your ability to do pullups is highly dependent on your strength but also your bodyweight. Or to be more precise about BMI which is the bodyweight related to height.

Most likely for the untrained individuals starting point for 1RM in a pullup would be in the range of 30-50% of you bodyweight depending on their background. So as you can see that we need to bring our 1RM up quite a lot from 30% of bodyweight to at least 90% of bodyweight in order to get our first pullup. This is not going to happen over night.

Rack pullup progression to get your first pullup

Unlike with the pushups progression there is no kneeling version of the chinup. Bodyweight rows will have some carryover to your pulling strength and should be included in your back routine anyway but you can’t rely on the rows to give you the strength required to get your first pullup.

For this purpose I would like to introduce a well known exercise that was made popular by DC training decades ago. That is the rack pullup. Rack pullup is a great exercise that I would include in my exercise rotation with the chinups and pullups. The great thing about the rack pullup is that you can limit the range of motion if needed. So if you have shoulder impingement issues you can set this exercise in a way that you touch the floor before you reach full extension at the bottom and do a partial range of motion without the danger of over extending your shoulders in bottom position.

In order to progress with your rack pullup you will need: rings, homemade or real TRX trainer or just cam buckles and a strong bar and something to attach your equipment such as a pullup bar or stairs etc.

Rack pullup bar made from bodypump weight bar and cam buckles attached to pullup bar

Progression for the pullup/chinup would be following:

1. Leg assisted rack pullup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4O7n6IPCg4

Starting position should be on the floor. Adjust the height of the rings/bar according to your strength level. Move the rings or the bar higher when you can do 8reps on your first set. Do this until you have reached full range of motion for 8reps.

2. Straight leg rack pullup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcWleBeSjes

Pre-requirement: 8 reps of leg assisted rack pullup/chinup to get 5 reps

When you have reached full range of motion with the leg assisted version it's time to straighten your legs to get more resistance. When you can do 8reps with straight legs on your first set you can start working with the real rack pullup.

3. Rack pullup legs elevated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxb_ylP9w3o

Pre-requirement: 8 reps of straight leg rack pullup/chinup to get 5 reps

When you can do 8 solid reps with this variation you are likely able to do few real pullups. Give it a try if you like. If you are still not strong enough to do pullups or chinups yet in decent rep range try the next weighted version to get strong enough or get your reps above 10 with this version.

4. Weighted rack pullup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIAHeUN6vVw

Pre-requirement: 8 reps of rack pullup/chinup with legs elevated

Use a backpack or weight on your lap to do weighted rack pullup.

5. Chinup/pullup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd_A0kDAyK4

Pre-requirement: 8 reps of weighted rack pullup/chinup with 10..20% added weight to get 6 reps

Or 12 reps of Rack pullup legs elevated to get 6reps

Once you are capable of doing 8-10 solid reps you can start with the next progression which is adding weight or doing one arm chinup progression.

6.1 Weighted chinup/pullup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FiR9W_gVF0

Or

6.2 Assisted one arm chinup/pullup progression

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj1NvN7Te_s

Progression based on the 1RM

Let's take a look at the progression presented above, actual load and 1RM. I like that my progression models are based on the calculated 1RM perfomance instead of arbitrary number of reps and sets. Since we don’t know the actual assistance from the legs in the rack pullup we can just guess that we are pulling lets say 80% of our bodyweight. So if our 90kg (198lbs) guy is pulling 8 reps on rack pullup that is about 72kg (159lbs) for 8 reps. 1RM for that lift is 89kg (196lbs). For chinup he would be lifting 90% of bodyweight. That is 84kg (185lbs). So he is likely to get only 1-2reps with chinup for that 1RM. Which is not in the moderate 6-12rep range yet.

Adding about 10 to 20% extra weight on the weighted rack pullup would get his chin up to decent rep-range. With 20% of bodyweight added to the rack pullup would get you roughly to the same load level as the actual pullup has.

So for our 90kg (198lbs) guy doing the rack pullup load would be: 0.8x bodyweight + 0.2x bodyweight ~ 1x bodyweight. Building rack pullup up to 8-10reps with 10-20% added load would get you to rep range of 6-8reps with the actual pullup. Adding reps up to 12 on the bodyweight rack pullup would work also if you don't have additional weight available.

My personal preference at the moment is to work with the weighted chinups in a moderate rep range and add weight when I reach 8 reps. If I didn’t have access to weights or a limited amount of additional weight I would max out the weight first and then move to the assisted one arm chin ups. The load change from standard pullup or chinup to assisted one arm chinup might be too tough to begin with so doing some weighted version first helps with the transition. Of course you can adjust the difficulty of the assisted one arm chinups gradually by moving the assisting arm further or closer.

Back workouts with pull up progressions

Let’s take a look how you would structure pull workouts around your training routine. For some general guidelines you should aim for 8-12 sets weekly with most of the work done in the 6-12 rep range.Ideally your routine should include both vertical and horizontal pulling. For example chinups and inverted rows. Also include at least some exercises that work your back extension muscles to your routine such as back bridges or deadlifts.

Two workouts a week

4-6 sets per workout when training 2 times a week. With one workout done in 6-10rep range and another workout in higher rep range doing a rack pullup regression or row progression

Example A One exercise per workout (8sets weekly)

Workout A

4x6-10reps Rack pullup progression

Workout B

4x8-12reps Incline rows (or any row progression)

Or

4x8-12 Straight leg rack pullup

Example B Two exercises per workout (10 sets weekly)

Workout A

3x6-10reps Rack pullup progression

2x8-12reps Incline rows

Workout B

3x6-10reps Inverted rows (weighted or bodyweight)

2x8-12reps Straight leg rack pullup

One workout a week

8-12 sets when training beck once per week. First exercises being in a lower rep range 6-10 and second or third exercise in 8-12 rep range.

Example A Two exercises per workout (8 sets weekly)

4x6-10reps Rack pullup progression

4x8-12reps Incline rows

Example B Three exercises per workout (10 sets weekly)

3x6-10reps Rack pullup progression

4x6-10reps Inverted rows

3x8-12reps Assisted rack chin ups

Check out the back workout planner here with exercise examples, videos and adjust the number of weekly sets.

View:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g54YMhkf1PrJbcB1SHv0_942CONQlbAomQ3vpkIvs1E/edit?usp=sharing

Copy to enable editing:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g54YMhkf1PrJbcB1SHv0_942CONQlbAomQ3vpkIvs1E/copy?usp=sharing

For a complete pull workout you would also do a few sets of back extension (bridges, supermans, deadlift etc.) and additional direct bicep work (narrow grip chinup, ring bicep curl etc.)

Have fun building  towards your first pullup and beyond with this progression and example workouts!

Interested in Bodyweight Strength Training?

This one is for those who are interested in practical information in one small package.

Get Guide to Bodyweight Strength Training at Amazon.com

I did my best to gather all the information between these covers so that you can make the best progress possible. It is a textbook with some math. But you can skip the math part and read the best parts. I don't mind!