You see it every single time you walk into a commercial gym. Someone is hanging from a bar, legs flailing like a fish out of water, chin barely reaching their knuckles, and shoulders hunched up to their ears. It’s painful to watch. They think they’re getting stronger, but honestly, they’re just ego-lifting their way toward a rotator cuff tear. Learning the proper way to do pull ups isn't just about showing off; it's about mechanical advantage and long-term joint health.
Pull ups are hard.
There is no way around that fact. It’s one of the few exercises where you can’t hide. You’re either moving your entire body weight against gravity, or you aren’t. But because they’re so difficult, people start taking shortcuts almost immediately. They kick their legs. They use momentum. They skip the bottom half of the movement because that’s where the real work happens. If you want a wide back and grip strength that actually means something, you have to stop treating the bar like an enemy you need to conquer at any cost and start treating it like a precision instrument.
The Anatomy of a Perfect Rep
Forget the "chin over bar" obsession for a second. While that’s the standard metric, it’s actually a pretty poor way to judge a rep if your form is trash.
The movement starts at the shoulder blades, not the elbows. This is where most people fail immediately. They try to pull with their biceps first. Your biceps are small; your latissimus dorsi is huge. To engage the lats, you have to initiate with a "scapular pull." Basically, you're depressing your shoulders away from your ears before your arms even start to bend. Imagine you're trying to put your shoulder blades into your back pockets.
Once those shoulders are set, you drive your elbows down toward your ribs. Don’t think about pulling your body up. Think about smashing your elbows into your sides. This mental cue changes everything. It shifts the tension from the weak tendons in your elbows to the massive slabs of muscle in your back. Your chest should be slightly arched toward the ceiling, almost as if you're trying to touch the bar with your sternum rather than your chin.
Look at someone like Dr. Stuart McGill, a world-renowned expert in spine biomechanics. He often emphasizes the importance of "core stiffness" during heavy compound movements. Pull ups are no different. If your legs are swinging or your lower back is arching wildly, you’re "leaking" energy. You want your body to be a rigid pillar. Cross your ankles, squeeze your glutes, and tension your abs. This creates a solid base that allows your back muscles to pull more efficiently.
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Why Your Grip is Holding You Back
Grip width is a bit of a polarizing topic in the fitness world. Some people swear by the ultra-wide grip because they think it "widens" the lats. Science doesn't really back that up as much as we once thought. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research actually suggested that a medium grip (slightly wider than shoulder-width) often allows for better muscle activation and higher volume because it puts the joints in a more advantageous position.
When you go too wide, you shorten the range of motion, sure, but you also put a massive amount of strain on the shoulder capsule. It’s a trade-off that usually isn't worth it.
Then there's the thumb. Do you wrap it or go with a "suicide grip" (thulmbless)? Most beginners should wrap the thumb for safety and better neural drive. However, some advanced lifters find that a thulmbless grip helps them "feel" the lats more because it reduces the tendency to squeeze the bar too hard with the forearms, which can sometimes over-activate the biceps. Try both. See what feels right. Just don't drop.
Breaking Down the Proper Way to Do Pull Ups
Let's get into the weeds of the actual execution. There are three distinct phases to every single rep, and if you're messing up one of them, the whole set is compromised.
- The Dead Hang: You start here. Arms fully extended. No, not "mostly" extended. Fully. Your ears should be between your biceps. If you start from a half-bent position, you’re skipping the hardest part of the movement and leaving gains on the table.
- The Initial Drive: This is the scapular depression we talked about. You pull the shoulders down. Your body rises maybe two or three inches. Your arms stay straight. This is the "active hang."
- The Transition: Now the elbows bend. You’re pulling toward the bar. Your gaze should be slightly upward. Keep the elbows tucked slightly forward; don't let them flare out 90 degrees to the side, as this can irritate the subacromial space in your shoulder.
- The Apex: Your chin clears the bar, or ideally, your chest touches it. Hold for a split second. Control is king.
- The Eccentric: This is the part everyone ignores. They just drop. Don't do that. Lower yourself under control. The eccentric (lowering) phase is where a huge portion of muscle hypertrophy occurs.
Most people struggle because they lack the "hollow body" position. If you’ve ever done gymnastics, you know what this is. It's when you pull your ribs down toward your pelvis and slightly protract the hips. It prevents the "banana back" shape that leads to swinging. A quiet body is a strong body.
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Common Pitfalls and How to Fix Them
Kipping is the most obvious sin. Unless you’re specifically training for high-rep CrossFit competitions where kipping is the standard, it has no place in a strength-building routine. Kipping uses momentum to bypass the very muscles you're trying to grow. It’s effectively a different exercise. If you can’t do five strict reps, don’t do ten kipping reps. Do negatives instead.
Negatives are the secret sauce. If you're struggling with the proper way to do pull ups because you're just not strong enough yet, jump to the top of the bar and lower yourself as slowly as humanly possible. Five seconds down. Ten seconds down. This builds the specific neurological pathways and connective tissue strength required for the full movement.
Then there’s the "half-rep" syndrome. People get tired, so they stop going all the way down. Then they stop going all the way up. Before you know it, they’re doing three-inch pulses in the middle of the range. If you can't do a full range of motion rep, the set is over. Put the ego aside. Quality beats quantity every single day of the week.
Equipment and Environment
The bar matters. A thin, slippery bar is a nightmare for grip. If you're working out in a park or a garage gym with a smooth steel bar, use chalk. It’s not just for powerlifters. Chalk absorbs the moisture on your palms and allows you to maintain a more secure connection to the bar, which actually allows your brain to send stronger signals to your muscles. It’s called the irradiation principle—the harder you can grip something, the more tension you can generate in the surrounding muscles.
Also, consider your footwear. It sounds weird, but heavy boots or clunky shoes change your center of gravity. Most serious calisthenics athletes train barefoot or in minimalist shoes to keep their weight distribution predictable. If you're wearing heavy basketball shoes, you're essentially adding a small ankle weight to the movement, which might shift your hips forward.
Programming for Progress
You can't just do three sets of ten every Monday and expect to look like a gymnast. The back responds well to volume, but because pull ups are so taxing on the central nervous system, you have to be smart.
Greasing the Groove (GTG) is a famous method popularized by Pavel Tsatsouline. The idea is simple: do half as many pull ups as you’re capable of, but do them many times throughout the day. If your max is 10, do 5 reps. Do that six times a day, every day. You're never training to failure, so you never get exhausted, but you're getting a massive amount of high-quality practice. This "trains" your nervous system to make the movement second nature.
For those in a standard gym setting, try varying the grip every few weeks.
- Chin-ups (palms facing you): More bicep and lower lat involvement. Usually easier for beginners.
- Neutral grip (palms facing each other): The most "natural" position for the wrist and shoulder. Great for people with previous injuries.
- Wide grip (palms away): The classic builder, but use caution with the range of motion.
Actionable Steps to Master the Move
If you want to actually implement the proper way to do pull ups, stop guessing and start measuring. Record a set from the side. You'll probably be shocked at how much you're swinging or how short your range of motion actually is. We all have a bit of body dysmorphia when it comes to our own form.
- Step 1: Master the Scapular Pull. Spend your next two workouts just doing the first 2 inches of the move. Hang, pull the shoulders down, hold, relax. Do 3 sets of 10. If you can't control your shoulder blades, you can't control the pull.
- Step 2: Implement "Paused" Reps. Pull yourself to the top and hold for 3 seconds. This kills all momentum and forces your muscles to stabilize at the most difficult point of the movement.
- Step 3: Slow Down the Descent. Spend a full 3 to 4 seconds lowering yourself on every single rep. This builds the structural integrity in your elbows and shoulders that prevents tendonitis (the dreaded "golfer's elbow" often associated with bad pull up form).
- Step 4: Use Resistance Bands Wisely. If you use a band, don't use it to bounce out of the bottom. Use the thinnest band possible that allows for a full range of motion. The goal is to get off the bands as quickly as possible, not to get comfortable on them.
Consistency is the only "hack" that exists. You can't rush connective tissue adaptation. Your muscles will get stronger faster than your tendons will. This is why people who jump into high-volume pull up programs often end up with elbow pain. Give your body time to catch up. Focus on the tension, keep your core tight, and stop counting reps that don't look perfect. If it isn't a clean rep, it doesn't count. Period.