Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Ultimate Guide
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Introduction
Being able to do at least a single full range of motion pull is one of the most desired goals amongst anyone who works out - and you included, which is why you're here.
In this article, you'll learn:
Pull-up bar back exercises that'll help you reach your first pull-up.
Methods that I've used with Kairos Online members to help them achieve their first full chin-up.
Let's get stuck in.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Benefits of Bodyweight Exercises
Bodyweight exercises will improve the quality of your life by helping with muscle gain, bone health, energy levels, improving mood, and helping lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes, to name a few.
Although if you're like most people, you will likely underestimate how valuable getting good at bodyweight exercises can be, e.g., push-ups, chin-ups and pull-ups, or you may already be aware of some pull-up bar benefits, seeing as you're reading this article.
Anyway, what's the difference between the two?
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Difference Between the Pull-up and the Chin-up
So, what is the difference between a chin-up and a pull-up? The chin-up uses a supinated grip where your palms face towards you. The pull-up uses a pronated grip, where your palms face away from you.
The grip will slightly emphasise different muscles when pulling yourself up, with the supinated grip involving more bicep work and the pronated grip including more shoulder work.
The supinated grip also tends to be the easier of the two - although you will get better at whichever one you practice more.
Understand that the terms 'chin-up' and 'pull-up' will be used interchangeably throughout this article. Because I'm sure you're not too fussed about which grip you use more than you want to be able to get from A to B with your bodyweight chin-up/pull-up.
So, which grip should you opt for in your pull-up bar workout routine? As a beginner who can't do a rep yet, or can maybe just about do one - you could experiment with both and see which one feels easiest for now.
Although the following exercise examples will show the suggested grip.
Different Exercises
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Dead Hangs
One of the excellent bodyweight forearm exercises is the 'Dead Hang'.
This exercise is a great one to start with when it comes to pull-up bar exercises for beginners. This pull-up variation consists of you hanging from a pull-up bar, using a pronated grip, with minimal swinging.
It's also excellent for improvements in grip and core strength. Perfect for your beginners pull-up bar workout routine.
You can watch a video example of it below.
Understand that even if you can 'only' hang for just a few seconds - that's okay. The aim isn't to be able to hang for super long from day 1.
Progress when hanging from a pull-up bar could look like this:
Week 1: 10 seconds
Week 2: 12 seconds
Week 3: 18 seconds
Week 4: 16 seconds (because progress doesn't happen every single week)
Week 5: 25 seconds
Week 6: 32 seconds
An excellent place to start with the 'Dead Hang' is to try it out for three sets. Regarding reps, these aren't possible - so focus on increasing your hang time as the weeks go on.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Eccentric Chin-ups
The 'Eccentric Chin-Up' should be a staple in any pull-up bar workout routine when you're a beginner.
Why is this such a great exercise? Because it's probably the closest you'll get to doing a pull-up - without actually doing it.
To perform it correctly, you'd jump up to the top of the bar using a supinated grip and slowly control yourself down. So you only do the lowering half of the exercise and skip the half where you bring yourself up.
The aim is to make the lowering phase last as long as possible and increase the time it takes you to get from top to bottom over the weeks.
If you want a visual example, then check out this recording made for you below.
You'd do well to aim for 2 to 3 sets, depending on how much time you have within the session, and 2 to 4 reps.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Resistance Banded Chin-ups
The 'Banded Chin-Up' is another excellent pull-up bar idea you can try, with the band taking your body weight, making it much easier to do these assisted variations within your pull-up bar workout routine.
To perform the Banded Chin-Up, you'd wrap the band around your pull-up bar and then around either one or both knees. I like to tuck one knee only so the other knee is free in case the unlikely scenario of falling happens, allowing you to land more safely.
You can use either use a supinated or pronated grip for this exercise.
Check out the video example below.
A great way to progress the Banded Chin-Up is by decreasing the strength of the resistance band used over time, e.g. starting with the strongest band, then on to the medium band, and finishing off light. It'd be sensible to aim for 8-10 reps on the light resistance band before doing a single bodyweight rep.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Inverted Rows
The 'Inverted Row', although typically done from a barbell and not a pull-up bar - should still be an exercise that's included within your pull-up bar workout routine.
Why is this the case? Because it's easier than a regular pull-up, however, it'll still get you used to moving your body weight - all whilst doing a pulling movement at a different angle.
You may not realise it, but it's essential to strengthen your back with rowing movements and movements where you have to pull down, such as the chin-up. So you're covering both horizontal and vertical angles.
The best part about this exercise is that you can easily adjust the difficulty, e.g. place the bar higher to make the movement easier or lower to make it more challenging. Meaning it's great for all levels of experience.
Both the supinated and pronated grip can be used.
Check out this video example recorded just for you below.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Flexed Arm Hang
It's almost like the dead hang but with an additional step.
Meaning that not only is the 'Flexed Arm Hang' another one of the great bodyweight forearms exercises, but it's also a solid exercise that'll get you working your biceps, back and abs.
This exercise is included over other back and ab exercises because you must practise hanging simultaneously, unlike other back and ab exercises. Perfect for learning the skill of holding up your body weight whilst getting in some extra back and ab work.
If you want to learn how to perform it, then click below.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Does Body Weight Matter?
Even with all the pull-up bar ideas listed above, one of the most important factors when it comes to being able to do your first full pull-up is that you will need to be at a reasonable body weight and/or be strong enough.
It's common to see people underestimate how much of a role body weight plays.
This is me speaking from experience.
After completing a bulk where I didn't have much idea what I was doing nutritionally and reached my heaviest of around 90.8kg (200.2 lbs), I had a relatively tougher time performing chin-ups compared to when I was lighter.
Once I'd knocked off about 18kg (about 40 lbs), the difference it made to my pull-up bar back exercises was unbelievable. I went from scraping out 3 to 4 chin-ups to quickly being able to do 16 in a row - which is still a personal best of mine without additional weight three years later.
That and doing four reps with almost 30kg strapped to me.
Ultimately, this section is trying to say that if you've been training for a while and have decent levels of strength in exercises such as the deadlift, row, squat, push-up, etc. However, if you still find it super tough to do a chin-up, then perhaps it's not that you lack strength; it could be that there's excess body fat that needs to be lost first, which will make any pull-up bar workout routine feel easier.
Don't want to lose weight or are uninterested in making weight loss a focus? That's fine; you certainly don't need to if you don't wanna. Nor is this being highlighted in any way to make you feel bad.
It's being mentioned because body weight plays a huge role in pulling up bar back exercises and omitting the subject entirely from an article about improving your chin up wouldn't be right.
On the other hand, do you feel like you still have a lot of weight to lose to the point that it's discouraging - but you still want to do your first full chin-up? Then, as long as you keep being consistent with the daily and weekly habits that'll get you there, you will eventually achieve your goal.
Yes, that's very simply put, but it'd be an entire article if I tried to cover all the nuances.
In the meantime, you'd do well to continue strengthening the muscles involved in pull-up bar back exercises, such as your biceps, back, shoulders, abdominals etc.
Note 1:
"But I'm at a low enough body weight already!"Well, this paragraph obviously isn't aimed at you - it's likely you fall into the 'more of a lack of strength' category. So keep gaining strength with pull-up bar workouts for beginners.
Note 2:
"How would I go about losing weight, then?"Check out my free ‘Nutrition for fat loss guide’ by clicking here.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Here's a Workout You Could Try
Here's how you could include some of the previously mentioned exercises within a workout plan:
If you were doing a 'Pull' session, as part of a push, pull, legs split, then it could look a bit like this:
Or if you're doing an upper body session as part of an upper + lower split, then it could look a bit like this:
Both are complete with pull-up bar back exercises, pull-up bar abs exercises, free weights and machines.
Pull-up Bar Exercises for Beginners: Conclusion
If you apply this article's information to your training, coupled with patience and consistency. In that case, you'll be able to achieve your first full chin-up, and I’m super excited for you.
In the meantime, you should check out these free downloadable PDFs that are available on the Kairos Online website, such as:
Speak soon,
Leo
P.S. If this article helped you in any way, then please consider sharing it with friends and family :)
