Pull-ups: from your first rep to training with added weight

Before you start: the bar

At home the most practical option is a door frame bar: it rests on the frame without drilling and comes off in seconds. Before you buy one, measure the doorway: this one fits frames of 61 to 81 cm with moulding, which is where it rests. It also works for push-ups and floor ab work.

The first time, before you hang your full weight, load it gradually with your feet still on the floor and check that it does not move.

Step 1: hanging and engaging your shoulders

Everything starts from a hang. Two exercises:

• Dead hang: arms straight, 3 sets of 20 to 30 seconds. If you cannot manage that, start with what you can hold and add a few seconds each week.
• Scapular pull-up: hanging, without bending your elbows, pull your shoulders down away from your ears and back. It is a short movement, a few centimetres, and it is exactly how a pull-up starts. 3 sets of 8 to 10.

Step 2: slow negatives

Jump or step up from a chair until your chin is above the bar, and lower yourself as slowly as you can, taking 3 to 5 seconds, until you are hanging with straight arms. It is the phase that gets stronger first, and the one that brings you closest to your first rep.

3 sets of 3 to 5 negatives, with plenty of rest between them. If a negative turns into a drop, the set is over.

Step 3: assisted pull-ups

Assistance lets you do the full movement with less weight:

• Feet on a chair: push with your legs only as much as you need to finish the rep.
• A long band hung from the bar, under your knees or feet.
• A partner giving you a light push from behind.

If you train assisted pull-ups with gloves, there are grip gloves designed for assisted pull-ups. Check the size chart carefully before choosing: they follow Asian sizing and tend to come up small, so if you are between two sizes, go for the larger one.

Step 4: your first clean pull-up

A rep counts when:

1. You start from a hang, with straight arms.
2. You pull up without swinging until your chin clears the bar.
3. You lower yourself under control until your arms are straight again.

With your palms facing you —what is usually called a chin-up— almost everyone gets their first rep sooner, because the biceps help more. Start there if you are struggling, and move to palms facing away afterwards.

Once the first one comes, do not chase failure: do several sets of 1 to 3 reps with long rests. It is better to rack up good reps than to grind out a bad one.

Step 5: adding reps

Two or three days a week, with at least one rest day in between. A simple way to progress is a ladder: 1, 2, 3 reps with a short rest between rungs, then start again, two or three times. When the ladder to 3 feels easy, try one to 4.

Grip is usually the first thing to fail as sets get longer. If that is you, how to improve grip strength has the exercises to fix it.

Step 6: adding weight

A common guideline: once you can do 8 to 10 clean pull-ups in a row, you can start training with extra weight. Below that, adding reps is still the best way to progress.

The weight goes on a pull-up and dip belt: a wide, padded belt with a steel chain and a D-ring from which you hang a plate or a kettlebell. You adjust it with the chain itself, so it fits any waist.

• Start light, 2.5 to 5 kg, with short sets of 3 to 6 reps.
• Keep your technique: if the weight makes you swing or do half reps, it is too much.
• Increase it little by little and alternate weighted days with bodyweight days.

The same belt works for parallel bar dips, the natural partner to pull-ups.

Mistakes that stall your progress

• Half reps: if you do not straighten your arms at the bottom or your chin does not clear the bar, the rep does not count.
• Swinging: momentum takes work away from your back exactly where it should be doing it.
• Shrugged shoulders: hang with your shoulders engaged, not glued to your ears.
• Going to failure on every set: it tires you out more than it builds you up.