Do More Pull-ups with Negatives

A lot of people want to do pull-ups (if you don't want to, then you should). But there is a steep learning curve to doing one or more pull-ups. So where do you start? Negatives.

I had a friend recently who could barely do 1 pull-up but wanted to do more. She trained using Jumpstretch bands to make it easier, but nothing worked. So I taught her how to do pull-up negatives and had her train for two weeks on them. After a week off, she tested and did 5. That's 4 more in 3 weeks.

How to do Negatives:

• You need a step or box to help you easily get your chin over the bar.
• Use the step or box (or just jump if you don't have a step) to get up over the bar (halfway through the pull-up)
• Slowly lower yourself back down all the way
• Then step or jump back to the top and lower yourself again.
• Do 5 of those. Rest. Then do 2 more sets. 
• Be sure to stretch out your forearms and biceps really well or you will struggle to move your arms the next day.

If you do this twice a week, then you'll see a huge improvement in your pull-up totals in just a few weeks.

Why does this work?

When you lengthen a muscle against resistance, then you actually stress it the most. So when you lower yourself slowly from a pull-up position, then you are stressing your muscles more than during the pulling part. After a few weeks of stressing your muscles this way, you're muscles will be ready to tackle the seemingly more difficult part--pulling up to the bar.

If you try this, let us know your results. What other tips do you have for doing more pull-ups