How (and Why) to do Slingshot Pull-Ups

Doing 10 pull-ups is a plateau that few reach and that is hard to break through. To do that, you have to push in one of several ways-endurance pyramids, high reps, max sets, and/or weighted pull-ups (I call them slingshot pull-ups).

After a while, pushing through the plateau with long sets and pyramids can get pretty boring. To keep things fun and blast through your plateau, try slingshot pull-ups.

You can add weight to pull-ups with a dip belt, chain, and plates. You can add weight to them with a weighted vest. Or you can add weight by holding a dumbbell between your feet. The benefit to using a dumbbell is that you can let it go at the end of your set and do a few more reps without the weight. The other methods would require stopping to take the weights off.

When you drop the weight and try another pull-up, you feel shot out of a cannon because it so much easier. The slingshot effect is really cool feeling after the monotony of doing regular sets. And you'll feel like a beast because you're pulling more than your bodyweight.

An example: Grasp a 25 lbs dumbbell between your feet and do 5 normal pull-ups. After the 5th, let the dumbbell go and do as many extra pull-ups as you can. The slingshot name comes from how easy those unweighted reps feel. (some people call them drop sets). If you add another 3 unweighted reps, then those 8 total reps you did come much harder than a normal 8 reps. Then, when you return to doing unweighted pull-ups, the first 5 feel so easy and you can keep going further than you would have before.

Benefits:

• You have a lot of fun and feel awesome
• Increased performance on pull-up max tests
• Extreme grip and back development
• Increased muscle mass all across your back 
• More stability in your shoulders and spine because of the development of the stabilizing muscles required

Try a few slingshot pull-ups and tell us about that slingshot effect.