Getting pull-ups is one of the gym New Year’s resolutions for many of us. In fact it was my purpose a few years ago and I ended up succeeding. So that all of you can also do it, we explain How can you help yourself with the bands or elastic bands to start doing pull-ups without help in a short time and thus conquer one of the most demanding exercises that you can do in the gym or on the street.
Why are pull-ups so difficult for some?
Pull-ups are an exercise in which, in principle (as long as we do not weigh ourselves down) we work with our own body weight: this means that they will test our relative strength, relative to our own weight.
The difficulty of chin-ups for those who cannot do them is usually that they are not able to identify well the muscle groups that have to be put to work to get up: many people think that it is the arms that carry a greater workload when what we really have to do is activate the muscles of the back and our core to reach above the bar.
Adopting a good posture before getting down to work is key to being able to go up in chin-ups: bring your shoulders back, joining your shoulder blades and thus forming a compact shape with our torso it can help us when it comes to pull-ups, with or without help.
How to use elastic bands to do pull-ups
Elastic bands are very useful when doing pull-ups since they allow us to make a natural movement of our body when climbing: when we do chin-ups we do not go up completely in a straight line (as it happens when we use the assisted chin-up machine), but the body makes subtle forward and backward movements (not very visible rocking, but slight movements).
In order to help us up we will use the rubber bands that are often used in functional training or CrossFit: they are closed, circular rubbers, which can have different thickness and resistance, which is usually indicated with a characteristic color. The thicker the rubber, the more support it will give us to help us do pull-ups.
The first thing we have to do is locate a chin-up bar and tie the rubber band so that it does not come loose: Start with a rubber that offers good resistance to make it easier to climb. Once secured, we grab the bar with our hands, with a close grip (placing the thumb under the bar, for safety) and put one foot inside the rubber. If you need it, you can put them in two or even use two combined rubbers to start.
As for the grip of the bar, you can use the one you prefer: prone (with the palms facing forward, the most common), supine (with the palms facing you) or neutral (with the palms facing you). hands looking at each other). It is generally easier to go up with a supine grip, which involves more of the biceps, but personally I started with the prone grip, and then with the supine the pull-ups came out “alone” to be simpler.
Once we are able to climb with a thick rubber (it is very, very simple) we have two options: place it on the knee, instead of on the foot, keeping the knees bent, or switch to a lighter rubber and keep testing. Once we can do pull-ups with the lightest rubber we have, it will be time to try to do them without help.
Exercises that help us go up in the chin-ups
If we want to do pull-ups The most important thing is to start by hanging from the bar and try to climb, first with help and then without it. But there are other exercises that can help us on the way to start doing them and that we cannot lose sight of.
- Oars: all kinds of paddles to improve the strength of our back. From pulley oars to those that we do with free weight. Any type of rowing will be beneficial for us if we want to start doing pull-ups.
- Inverted oars: Head over to the squat rack and position the bar at roughly hip level. Lie on your back under the bar, grab it with your hands and pull it up, lifting your body up: that’s an inverted row. If you’re just starting out, bend your knees and put your feet flat on the ground to make it easier; When you gain strength, you can only support your heels with your legs straight. You can also do it with rings or with TRX.
- Milestones: A pull is technically a row, a pulling exercise. High pulley chest pulls can also be a good workout to gain strength in your back and perform a movement similar to what you will do in chin-ups.
This article was originally published by Lady Fitness in January 2019 and has been reviewed for republication.
In Vitónica | Five exercises that will help you improve and advance your domination
Images | iStock