A pull-up is one of the purest tests (and flexes!) of strength out there—no machines, no momentum, just you versus gravity. It’s also one of the hardest exercises to achieve.

If your progress has stalled, you need this advice. By Talene Appleton, NASM-CPT Published: Apr 14, 2025 7:00 AM EDT Save Article WATCH NOW: Common Pull-Up Mistakes Why Pull-Up Form Matters ...

Add a weight vest for push-ups and pull-ups to overload muscles. Perform negative reps by slowly lowering yourself from the top position of a pull-up or push-up, fighting gravity for 3-5 seconds.

Test and Retest: Perform a 60-second pull-up test every 4–6 weeks to track progress. Track Your Workouts: Log your reps, sets, and training variations to monitor improvement.

That’s because a pull-up is not something that just anyone can hop up onto a bar and do with ease—even someone who is otherwise relatively strong. The move takes genuine, focused work, along ...

Chin-ups and pull-ups are different exercises that target the muscles in varying degrees, so it’s not straightforward to say a specific number of chin-ups equals a pull-up.

Pull-up variations like the flexed arm hang hold can build strength in the muscles used to perform pull-ups, while also improving your technique on the bar. It’s a great way to learn the top ...

Warm-up with the Pull-up Pyramid 1-5, stretch/jog between sets (20 seconds) + one-mile run: This half-pyramid warm-up requires you to do 15 pull-ups in five sets of increasing reps: 1 pull-up, jog ...

Pound for pound, few bodyweight exercises rival the pull-up in terms of building strength and lean mass. That’s because pull-ups work so many muscles at once: To successfully get your chin above ...

For many, it’s a long process and takes a slow, progressive build-up to get there, so the pull-up hold — also known as a flexed arm hang — could help you build the prerequisite upper-body ...

The traditional pull-up delivers more of a challenge to your back and arm muscles than the traditional inverted row because you’re pulling your full bodyweight (versus just a portion of it), so ...