Pull-UP or Shut UP

“For thepast 12

weeks, myback-trainingregimen hasconsisted ofpull-ups andnothing but

pull-ups. Ithink you’dagree that

they’ve doneme right.”

—David Kennedy

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If you’re not happy with the wayyour back looks and do not per-form pull-ups, then you have noroom for complaint.

By Senior Science Editor David Kennedy

Back in the old days, before therewas such a thing as HammerStrength Iso-Lateral High-Rowmachines, building a strong, V-shaped back was pretty basic. Youdid pull-ups and, well … you didmore pull-ups. That was it. Andyou know what? That was all youneeded to do to develop an unbe-lievable backside. For proof, justtake a look at the pictures of old-time fighters who were famous forpumping out pull-ups as part oftheir training regimens. RockyMarciano, for instance, would rou-tinely perform 30 pull-ups at atime. By no coincidence, “TheRock” sported a granite-hardupper back with which he used togenerate bone-crushing power inhis punches. Similarly, accordingto old training logs, Jack Dempseywould grind out hundreds of pull-ups a day. He, too, had a chiseled,heavily muscled back and packedone helluva wallop.

Unfortunately, however, some-where in the evolution of resist-ance training, pull-ups fell out offavor. Thanks in part to the market-ing efforts of enterprising exercise-equipment manufactures and thesissy excuses from lifters who saythey weigh too much, it’s rare tosee anyone performing the time-honored pull-up these days. And itshows, particularly in the patheticback development of today’s typi-cal weight trainer.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’tmind throwing in the occasionalcable pulldown for the sake of vari-ety. What I do have a problemwith, however, is focusing a back-training program around exercisesother than pull-ups. Why? Threereasons come to mind …

First, studies show pull-upsinvolve more motor units in yourlats and rear delts than do pull-downs. For any given number ofreps, pull-ups will always createmore demand on the muscle fibersof your upper back because, unlikewith pulldowns, you cannot“cheat” and use your lower back tomove the load.

Second, the strength gainsachieved from performing pull-upsare functional. They spill over intocertain real-life tasks, such aspulling yourself over a fence or upa steep rock face.

Third, there’s something to besaid for “pulling your own weight.”It’s strength displayed in its purestform. It’s the mark of a real man orwoman. After all, U.S. Marinesaren’t required to perform pull-downs or one-arm iso high rows aspart of their PFTs (Physical FitnessTests). They’re to do pull-ups froma “dead hang.”

With that in mind, isn’t it a goodidea to pay a little more attentionto pull-ups? I think so, and here’show to use ’em to build a greatback.

Before We Get Started

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A few words need to be saidbefore you begin pumping outpull-ups—up and down, up anddown—like some mindless humanpiston. First of all, you need to getclear on your reason(s) for per-forming pull-ups and trainingyour back with renewed vigor.Very often people don’t have acompelling reason for trainingtheir backs—or training at all, forthat matter—and after a fewweeks, without having that rea-son to fuel their fire, they fall backinto their old patterns of action,e.g., opting for easier exercisessuch as pulldowns (or opting tosay to hell with working out alto-gether). To be successful at build-ing a strong, chiseled back, youneed to identify your reasons fordoing so. If you can’t think of anygood ones, let me help you out …

• Ignoring your back leaves thishuge muscle group weak andopen to injury. Most “average”people just don’t train their backslike they should. Consequently,it’s no wonder that 6 million indi-viduals will see a doctor this yearbecause of back-related condi-tions.

• Your back muscles come intoplay whenever you swing a golfclub, throw a football or swim alap. Building these muscles willimprove performance in everysport you can imagine. And it’snot hard to develop these mus-cles; just start doing pull-ups.

• As weight trainers, we workon our bodies constantly, but werarely get to show anyone thefruits of our labor. After all, youcan’t go around shirtless all thetime, hitting poses for anybodywho’ll look. However, the onebody part which shows throughour clothes, the body part that’sa testament to our hard work,

regardless of what we’re wearing,is a strong, V-shaped back. It’s likea big, “extra-wide” sign whichsays, “I push iron.”

Once you’ve identified yourreasons for disassociating your-self from the “average” folk whowould rather coast through theirworkouts (and life) than challengethemselves with something asphysically and mentally taxing asperforming pull-ups, write thosereasons down and put them ina place where you’ll see themevery day. They’ll be a constantreminder of why you’re doingwhat you’re doing. A decision tochange can only be as strong asthe reasons for making it.

OK, I think we’ve prefaced thisenough. Let’s get down to busi-ness of building a strong, V-shaped back. I’m going to presentyou with a whole bunch of pull-upexercises, each targeting differentmuscles of your back. If, for somereason, you decide to do workingsets of all the exercises I’ve listedin one workout, you might as wellplan on wearing your sweatytraining T-shirt for a few daysbecause the soreness of your backwon’t allow you to lift your armsto take the damn thing off.

Instead, I recommend choosinga select number of exercises fromthe “menu” I’ve provided anddoing them until your bodyadjusts to them. In other words,you’ll need to change the workoutperiodically if you want to keepon growing. How many pull-upexercises you do will depend onyour conditioning, your goals andhow many sets and reps you do ofeach. I’ll suggest a few workoutslater, but let’s talk about somespecific pull-up exercises first,starting with the basics.

#1 The Classic Pull-Up

#2 Sternum Pull-Ups

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Starting position: Before youhave at it, let’s establish your propergrip; this grip will ensure biome-chanical efficiency. First, standupright and stretch out your armsso they’re at a 90-degree angle fromyour body and parallel with yourshoulders. In other words, you’remaking a “T.” Now, while keepingyour upper arms in the same posi-tion, bend your lower arms at theelbow at a 90-degree angle so you’reimitating a goal post. This is the gripyou should use for basic pull-ups.

Contrary to popular belief, awider grip doesn’t necessarilyequate to a “wider” back. (Youshould, however, vary your grip toactivate different muscle fibers.We’ll go over some of these differentgrips later.)

Using the grip we’ve just estab-lished, reach up and grab the bar ina pronated or palms-forward posi-tion. Try to start the exercise withyour upper body angled slightlyback so your shoulders allow yourbody to move up and down withoutany kind of impediment.

The exercise: Slowly pull yourbody up to the bar so that yourchin just “clears” the bar. As youmove upward, focus on pullingyour elbows down at an angletoward your rib cage. Once yourlats have completely contracted atthe top, slowly lower yourself to

the starting position.For starters, try doing three or

four sets to failure—with a one-minute rest in between—in placeof pulldowns. When performingpull-ups, take two seconds to raiseyour body and then, without paus-ing, take three seconds to loweryour body.

In the beginning, doing pull-upswith just your body weight shouldsuffice, but as you progress, youmay want to hang additional weightbetween your legs with a weightlift-ing belt and a chain. As a guideline,if you can do more than 10 to 12reps, it’s time to add some weight.

TIP: If you have trouble getting 10pull-ups by yourself, don’t use thatas an excuse to revert back to pull-downs. Instead, ask someone for aspot. When hanging from the bar,keep your knees bent. During theascent, the spotter should supportyou by holding your ankles. Don’tbe afraid to employ the help of aspotter until you’re able to grind outpull-ups unassisted. Keep after it;you’ll progress quickly.

TIP: When performing pull-ups,try to keep your lower body still.Some guys swing their legs inorder to make the exercise easier.You don’t have to follow their lead.This is resistance training, notgymnastics.

A favorite of the legendary fighterJack Dempsey, this compound exer-cise is sure to chisel your lats withoutdelayed gratification. For this backblaster, your hands may either faceyou or face away from you, and youmay vary your grip from narrow toshoulder width. Beginning withyour arms fully extended, pull your-self to the bar, extend your headback as far away from the bar aspossible, and arch your spine. Yourback will be at a 45-degree angle tothe floor. Keep pulling until yourcollarbone passes the bar and your

sternum touches the bar. This, alongwith the classic pull-up, should be astaple in your back routine.

TIP: To really fry you subscapu-laris muscles, which are locatedunder your shoulder blades, try thisnot-so-pleasant variation: At thetop of the movement, after yoursternum has made contact with thebar, push yourself away from thebar and lower yourself under con-trol. This is definitely not for sissiesor those who have a low thresholdfor pain.

#4 Narrow PronatedPull-Ups

#3 Wide-Grip Pull-UpsWith your palms facing away

from you, grip the bar at least twoto three inches wider than shoul-der width. This extra-wide gripwill stretch your back, allowingyou to work on the entire shouldergirdle, with a primary focus on theupper and outer regions of yourlats. At the start position, yourarms should be straight and yourshoulder blades elevated. Startwith your lower back slightlyarched, keeping your chest heldhigh. Try to pull your chest to thebar. Once your lats have complete-

ly contracted at the top of the exer-cise, slowly lower your body to thestart position.

TIP: Once you’ve pulled yourselfup until your chin is over the bar,lower your body as slowly as youcan, focusing on giving your lats agood stretch on the way down.

TIP: If you can, try doing wide-grip pull-ups using a chinning barwith the ends bent down slightly,which gives you a different pull onyour lats.

As Arnold Schwarzeneggernotes in his autobiography, this isprobably the only exercise you cando without gym equipment tobuild impressive biceps, not tomention chiseled rear delts and anall-around eye-popping upperback. To start, grab a chinning barusing a narrow, pronated (palmsfacing away from you) grip withyour hands spaced about 6 inchesapart. Starting with your armsstraight, pull up until your chinclears the bar and your biceps are

fully contracted. Lower your bodyslowly until your arms are straight.When you reach the bottom, hangthere for a few seconds, ensuring afull stretch, then crank out anotherone (or 12) of these bad boys.

TIP: To really overload yourupper arms and tie them into yourback, you might try occasionallyswitching to a supinated grip,where your palms are facingtoward you.

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Body-for-LIFE 12-Week Pull-Up Plan

For your back and every other body part, I recommendthat you write down exactly which exercises and howmany reps of each one you’re going to do before you setfoot in the gym. Careful planning is what separates peo-ple who go to the gym three times a week for years andnever look any different from those who devote the sameamount of time and make continual progress.

For you Body-for-LIFERS out there, I’ve put together asample 12-week pull-up workout for you, to be used inplace of your usual sophisticated back exercises, e.g., pull-downs, high rows, leverage machines, yadda, yadda,yadda. Perform two pull-up exercises a week over a four-week period, switch to another two pull-up exercises andthen switch once again. During each sequence, rest forone minute between the first four sets, then complete thefinal two sets with no rest in between.

*NOTE: As described in Body-for-LIFE, you need to getthe feel of your own intensity levels. Generally speaking,think of level 5 as your warm-up and level 10 as the pointwhen you’re performing all out and can’t give anotherounce of energy (but can still maintain proper form). Toincrease intensity levels from set to set, I recommendusing additional resistance by either holding a dumbbellbetween your ankles or wearing a chin/dip belt withweights attached to it.

Exercise Number Intensityof Reps Level*

Weeks 1 through 4Classic Pull-Ups 12 5Classic Pull-Ups 10 6Classic Pull-Ups 8 7Classic Pull-Ups 6 8Classic Pull-Ups 12 9Sternum Pull-Ups 12 10

Weeks 5 through 8Sternum Pull-Ups 12 5Sternum Pull-Ups 10 6Sternum Pull-Ups 8 7Sternum Pull-Ups 6 8Sternum Pull-Ups 12 9Wide-Grip Pull-Ups 12 10

Weeks 9 through 12Wide-Grip Pull-Ups 12 5Wide-Grip Pull-Ups 10 6Wide-Grip Pull-Ups 8 7Wide-Grip Pull-Ups 6 8Wide-Grip Pull-Ups 12 9Narrow Pronated Pull-Ups 12 10

1. Sternum pull-ups (as many as possible)

2. Stretch your back by hanging from the

chinning bar for 10 seconds

3. Wide-grip pull-ups (as many as possible)

4. Stretch for 10 seconds

5. Classic (medium-grip) pull-ups (as many as

possible)

6. Stretch for 10 seconds

7. Narrow pronated pull-ups

8. Stretch for 10 seconds

Repeat steps 1 through 8 three times, with a two-minute break in between super sets.

Jack Dempsey’s 8-Step Pull-Up Plan

For those of you who are not fol-lowing the Body-for-LIFEProgram, you might want to givethis plan a try. This unpleasant reg-imen is inspired by the traininglogs of former heavyweight boxingchampion Jack Dempsey, who usedto brutalize his back by performinghundreds of pull-ups a day, using avariety of grips. Give this routine ago for just four weeks, and I thinkyou’ll see a nice improvement inthe strength and muscularity ofyour upper back—not to mentionyour deltoids and upper arms.

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ConclusionNow, some of you may wish to

completely “blow me off” here andgo about doing what you’vealways done when it comes totraining your back. You may alsotry to come up with excuses forwhy you shouldn’t focus your backworkout around pull-ups, such as,“I weigh too much” … “My gripisn’t strong enough” …“Pulldowns are just as good.” Ifyou want to talk yourself intobelieving that, then go rightahead. That’s your prerogative.But you won’t get the same results.The fact is, the pull-up is probably… no, make that it is the best all-around exercise there is. It condi-tions the latissimus dorsi, teresmajor, posterior deltoid, rhom-boids, the trapezius, biceps, tri-ceps—in other words, most ofyour upper body.

Regardless of what specific pull-up exercises you choose, the mostimportant thing is you actually dothem, often. And don’t ignore yourback simply because you can’t seeit without using at least two care-fully angled mirrors. It may not beas glamorous a body part as yourbiceps or chest, but your back isthe one body part that will go thefurthest in improving the overalllook of your physique.