Ahhhh… pull-ups. They are now the only item on my New Year’s Resolution checklist that I’ve yet to crack. Read more – sorted, I read The Girl On The Train in Portugal and I barely spoke to Mark the whole way there and back because I so engrossed in it. Learn Photoshop and camera skills – I now use my camera on manual mode instead of auto, RESULT! Be more sensible with money – it was all going so well until a recent Cult Beauty order… but pull-ups? Well, they are still a work in progress.

You can see from the photos above that I can get myself halfway there but it’s the final push that I struggle with, so to get me over that final hurdle I thought I’d ask my fitness-mad, PT, hot-bod friend Zanna (who’s also a fellow blogger – I highly recommend checking out her blog and YouTube) for her top tips. It’s only polite to share – so for those who are also trying to master the pull-up this one goes out to you. Take it away Zanna…

“Pull-ups are super challenging exercises which even the fittest people can struggle to execute as they require a lot of upper body strength. However, that doesn’t mean they’re unachievable. You can build up to doing them, but you need to remain consistent with your training. There are two key things you need to do. The first is general back and bicep training to build up muscle and strength in these areas – essential for pull-ups and chin-ups. The second is pull-up specific exercises on a regular basis. I recommend adding in a couple of these exercises a minimum of twice a week to see rapid progression. Here are my top picks.”

Eccentric Pull-ups: These are essential! Hold onto pull-up handles with your chosen grip. Using a step, jump up so you’re holding your body above the handles. Stabilise yourself. Slowly release yourself down towards the floor, squeezing your back and biceps as you do so. Jump back up to the top and repeat. You can mix these up. Try doing 3 reps slow, one super duper long slow rep or even 5 reps a little faster.

Pull-up Holds: Hold onto pull-up handles with your chosen grip. Using a step, jump up so you’re holding your body above the handles. Stabilise yourself. Lower yourself so that your arms are at a little less then a 90 degree angle. Now hold. Stay here for as long as you can, count the seconds and try to increase your time! Once your arms extend to over a 90 degree angle, lower yourself to the floor.

Banded Pull-ups: Place a large looped resistance band around the pull-up handles. Pop one of your knees into it. Grab the pull-up handles with your chosen grip and lift your feet off the floor. From here use your upper body to pull yourself up so your chin passes the top of the bars. Then slowly lower back to the bottom, keeping your feet off the floor. Repeat until failure is reached.

ZANNA’S TOP TIP!

Start with underhand narrow grip chin-ups first, they are the easiest as they more heavily recruit your biceps. Then move to neutral grip, middle grip and wide grip as you get stronger. You don’t need to do loads of reps of these exercises. Try 3-4 sets of a few good quality reps and make sure you focus on time under tension and progression over time.

Photos by Lauren Shipley