Build A Buff Body With This Home Pull Up Workout

This pull up workout is a fantastic way to build muscle in your upper back, arms, shoulders and even your core. Pull ups are high intensity body weight exercises requiring a lot of strength to complete them. Because they are so difficult, they will build muscle fast.

Tom has a door pull up bar permanently installed outside his bedroom. He does this pull up workout first thing in the mornings... which you can tell because he's still got "bed-hair".

 

Pull Up Technique

There's just a little bit of technique you need to know before starting on the pull up workout. Don't worry though, it's a piece of cake.

Start and end your pull up movement with almost fully extended arms. They should be straight but not locked at your elbows.

Breathing is important for any exercise, including pullups. The correct way to breathe during your pullups is:

  • Inhale on the way down.
  • Exhale on the way up.

This will make the pull up workout a lot easier. But if you're still finding the exercises too difficult...

You can use kipping to help you out.

This is basically just swinging your legs to give you a bit of momentum. Remember to cut the kipping once you're strong enough though. This way your muscles will grow faster because they're having to work harder.

Something you can do to build even more muscle is to use "negative training". This is when you only do the lowering part of the exercise.

There's a couple of ways of getting to the top of the bar without using too much effort.

  1. Use someone else's muscles :) Position yourself under the bar and pull yourself upwards while someone else helps you. They can let go once you're at the top so you get to do the rest of the movement by yourself.
  2. Get a chair and stand on it to help you get to the top.

One last thing. To get the most benefit from this pull up workout make sure you go right to the top. Your chin should go over the bar. This ensures that you're getting the full range of motion possible.

 

The Exercises In This Pull Up Workout:

     

  1. Basic Pull Ups
  2. Basic Chin Ups
  3. Knee Lifts
  4. Chin Up Straight Leg Lifts
  5. Knee Up Twists
  6. Pole Grip
  7. One Arm Pull Ups
  8. Opposing Grip Pull Ups
  9. Left Lifts/Holds

 

1. Basic Pull Ups

The photo's below show a very narrow grip and then a very wide grip. They work different muscles so try them both and anything in between.

The more variation you have in your pull up workout the better.

 

  1. Choose your hand position and grip the bar with palms facing away from you.
  2. Hang in the start position.
  3. Lift your body up until your chin is above the bar.
  4. Lower back down again.
  5. Repeat x10.

 

narrow grip pull upnarrow grip pull up

wide grip pullupswide grip pullups

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2. Basic Chin Ups

These work different muscles than pull ups do. They engage your biceps more rather than your lat's.

As with pull ups the width of the grip can be changed.

 

  1. Choose your hand position and grip the bar with palms facing you.
  2. Hang in the start position.
  3. Lift your body up until your chin is above the bar.
  4. Lower back down again.
  5. Repeat x10.

 

Tom doing chin upsTom doing chin ups

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3. Knee Lifts

These work your abdominals and your hip flexors. Try not to swing your knees up. Make the movement as controlled as possible to get the greatest gains.

 

  1. Hang from the bar with straight arms.
  2. Bend your knees behind you so they don't touch the floor.
  3. Lift your knees up as high as they will go.
  4. Lower your knees back down.
  5. Repeat x10.

 

knee lifts on the pull up barknee lifts on the pull up bar

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4. Chin Up Straight Leg Lifts

These are a very intense exercise for what feels like your entire body. Make sure that you don't use the momentum of your legs to swing yourself upwards. Your abdominals should be doing all of the work lifting your legs.

 

  1. Position your hands at about shoulder width apart with your palms facing you.
  2. Hang in the start position with your legs behind you so they don't touch the floor.
  3. In one movement do the following 2 steps.
  4. Lift your body up until your chin is above the bar.
  5. Lift your legs up as high as you can while keeping them straight.
  6. Lower your legs and body back to the start position.
  7. Repeat x10.

 

chin up straight leg liftschin up straight leg lifts

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5. Knee Up Twists

These are a fantastic exercise for your obliques.

 

  1. Hang from the bar in whatever position feels comfortable.
  2. Lift your knees up as high as you can.
  3. Turn your knees out to the left.
  4. Move back to the center.
  5. Turn your knees out to the right.
  6. Move back to the center.
  7. Lower back to the start position.
  8. Repeat x10.

 

pull up oblique exercisepull up oblique exercise

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6. Pole Grip

Just another variation affecting different muscles. The more muscles you use in your pull up workout the stronger your upper body will be.

 

  1. Hold your hands as shown in the photograph.
  2. Lift your body up.
  3. Move your head to the left of the pole.
  4. Lower your body back down.
  5. Lift up again and move your head to the right of the pole.
  6. Lower back down.
  7. Repeat x10.

 

pole grip pull upspole grip pull upspole grip pull ups

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7. One Arm Pull Ups

This is a difficult exercise. There's a lot of variation in the difficulty though depending on how you do it.

  1. The hardest way to do it is with just the one arm pulling you up.
  2. Easier is when you grip your forearm close to the elbow with the other hand.
  3. Even easier still is to grip your forearm closer towards your wrist.

You can always practice the one arm pullups by using negative training as we discussed before. This will allow you to build up strength so you can at least do a few proper repetitions.

 

  1. Grip the bar using one hand.
  2. Grip your forearm using your other hand.
  3. Hang in the start position.
  4. Lift your body up until your chin goes over the bar.
  5. Lower back down again.
  6. Repeat x5 each arm.

 

One arm pull upsOne arm pull ups

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8. Opposing Grip Pull Ups

A bit of a wierd one... But a good exercise all the same...

 

  1. Position your hands at about shoulder width apart with one palm facing you and one facing away.
  2. Hang in the start position.
  3. Lift your body up until your chin is above the bar.
  4. Lower back down again.
  5. Repeat x10 and then swap hand positions.

 

opposing grip pull upsopposing grip pull ups

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9. Straight Leg Raises and Holds

These are fantastic abdominal strengthening exercises. They work similar muscles as the best abdominal exercise.

 

  1. Position your hands at about shoulder width apart with both palms facing you.
  2. Hang in the start position.
  3. Keep your legs straight and raise them out to horizontal.
  4. Hold this position for 10 seconds and lower back down.
  5. Repeat x10.

 

pull up leg raises

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Use this pull up workout regularly and you will see some amazing results. You will be blown away by the amount of muscle you can build in your upper body and core with such a simple piece of equipment. And it won't take you long either. The intensity of these pullups means you see results fast.

 

 

 

 


Get into shape in your spare time!