There are lots of benefits of pullups. I could literally go on about the importance of this exercise all day, but today we’re going to discuss the top 6 benefits and I’m also going to give you guys a few tips.
Convenience
Pullups are one of the most convenient exercises around. You can do this exercise pretty much anywhere. All you need is a bar and your body. When I first started working out I took a metal pole that I found in the garbage and hung it my laundry room. Voila! I now have a sophisticated piece of modern muscle building exercise equipment .
Fundamental Compound Upper-body Exercise
I’ve stressed the importance of compound exercises in the past. Compound exercises are important for a number of reason, such as targeting several muscle groups and releasing a large amount of growth hormone.
I’ve also talked about squats and what a great lower-body muscle building exercise they are. Well, pullups are like squats for your upper body. There is no other excise that will cause upper body growth quite like pullups will. Specifically, pullups do a great job of targeting the back and biceps.
Can Easily Increase Intensity
Progressively increasing the intensity of your workouts is one of the secret ingredients to the magic muscle building recipe. Some exercises require your to get fancy with your workouts in order to increase the intensity, but not pullups. You can boost the intensity of your back workout simply by strapping a weight plate to your waist or hanging a kettlebell from your foot while you perform your pullups.
Many Variations
One of the best benefits of pullups is that there are many different variations of the pullup. The best thing is that one version doesn’t require any additional equipment than another variation. All you’ve got to do is switch your hand placement around.
My favorite variation is the regular old wide, overhand pullup. This is the best variation for getting your lats to grow. Some other good variations are close grip pullups , and reverse grip pullups (also known as chinups). I find that all of these variations do a great job of targeting my back, but reverse grip pullups (chinups) place more emphasis on the biceps. I saw a lot of progress in my bicep development once I started doing chin ups.
Grip Strength
If you’re a serious bodybuilder, than having good grip strength is a must. Fortunately, hanging from a bar and supporting and lifting your body weight does a great job
Fat Loss
It’s not quite like running on a treadmill or jumping rope, but pullups will get your heart rate up and really kick your butt. If you want to boost the fat loss capabilities of doing pullups you could decrease the time in between sets and also super set your pullups with another exercise.
That’s it. Those are my top 6 benefits of pullups. Below you can find a list of pullups tips that should help you out in your quest to build a bigger upper body and do more pullups.
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Pullups Tips:
1. Pullups are superior to pull downs – Go to the gym any day of the week and I guarantee your chances of finding a free pull up bar is much higher than finding a free pull-down machine. People are lazy these days, they would rather do what’s easy and comfortable than what’s hard, but more beneficial. Pull downs are O.K. but they should be added to supplement your pull ups, not replace them
2. Assisted pull ups are superior to pull downs – Get out of your comfort zone. Even if you can’t do a pullup, try ditching the pull-down machine for the assisted pullup machine. It’s not as embarrassing as you think. Each week you’ll make a little bit of progress and before you know it, you won’t have to use the assisted pull up machine. You’ll be able to do a real pullup.
3. Even if you can only do 1 or 2 pullups, do it – Practice makes perfect. If you can only do 1 or 2 pullups, but decide never to do them, how will you ever reach 10 pullups? Stop making excuses and start doing pull ups. When I could only do 1 or 2 pullups I would perform 3-4 sets of assisted pull ups, and then do a couple of sets of body weight pullups,, even though I could only do 1 or 2.
P.S. The quickest way to get good at doing pull ups is to have a plan. Like they say “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. The best plan I know for getting good at pull ups is The Ultimate Pullup Program <= Click Here To Check It Out.
Thanks for the great post! I love doing pull ups!
I have a iron gym and it rocks!
Have you ever herd of or done “corn-cob” pull-ups?
Also, that be great if you had a newsletter of some sort. My sisters wedding is coming up. I want to look ripped so I can attract this girl that I’ve like for awhile.
Plus looking good and be fit, and having a LOT of energy is great.
But a mailing list would be great. Some great content about getting big muscles. Maybe some motivation too. Maybe some products too. Anything that relates to getting bigger muscles – because, well that my goal and that’s why I came to you site. I’ll do what ever it takes. Thanks Anthony!
Thanks Mike,
I appreciate the suggestions.
Iron Gym is a great tool. It’s really simple, inexpensive, and effective.
I have heard of corncob pull-ups, but I find that they are more entertaining than effective
That’s not to discount their effectiveness at all. I’m sure they are quite the workout. I just prefer
to do the basic pull up variations and so far have seen nothing but great results with them.
With that being said… I’ve never seen an out-of-shape person do corn-cob pull-ups. So that’s
got to count for something, right? lol.
Also, I’m actually in the middle of setting up the newsletter now! Glad to hear people are looking forward to it.
P.S – Congrats to your sister!
Hey thanks Anthony!
Would I would like to see is more step by step gym stuff. Like easy to do routines, If easy is possible when working out…
I guess I want to do the least amount of work and get the most gains.
Looking forward to your newsletter. And hopefully a product or two also!
Thanks again for all your hard work!
I’ll share this with my friends that need to get in shape!
Great advice.
Thanks Frankie!
It’s encouraging to hear positive feedback on my advice/articles.
I’ll keep pounding out the great advice!
Any on advice on how to get more from pull ups?
Or how much intensity should I go?
I usually think I don’t want to go too hard and hurt myself – I think that blocks me from building the muscle I want. But I don’t know…
Use varying pull-up methods. Wide grip, close grip, reverse grip, etc. That way you will hit all the different areas of your back. You’ll also get some bicep-benefits from doing close grip and reverse grip.
If you can do more than 15 pull-ups, you could also try strapping added weight around your waist to increase the intensity. Your body will tell you when you’re pushing yourself too hard.p
let me know how it goes.
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for all great stuff.
More people will take a look cause this site is simple , clean of ads and cool, having great stuff.
I appreciate your efforts,
I am beginner and want to have smart body muscles and good look. If you can give me some complete home exercise thing I am and I shall be so thankful to you. Gonna advise some people also and hey if u could let me know about e.g, people say bodybuilding stops growth to tall and remains short etc is is true.
Thanks again.
Hey Azhar!
Thanks for the kind words, that means a lot. Comments like this keep me motivated to continue writing.
The best home exercises are pull-ups (all variations), push-ups (all variations), dips (you can use a bed or chair for these), jumping squats, and some good-ole cardio like
jump roping.
Also, bodybuilding will NOT stunt your growth. It’s simply nothing more than a myth!
Do u hav a gold mine you are mining from? Thats Great! Thank
I wish I did, then I wouldn’t have to work!
- Anth
I have a pull up bar in my and my wife’s bedroom that I break out every day, and absolutely love it. I always do some as soon as I wake up(so I can have breakfast after) and before dinner(again, so there is food after). It’s become a daily routine and I love it!
this is a great article… thank you for your hard work writing these motivators… i am doing wide grip pull ups for 2 years now and i can do 12 pull ups… its a great progress … when i first started i can only do 2
Hey Junmar,
Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it.
Comments like these motivate me to keep writing
Hey knuckle heads,,lol,m all the way from south africa n I find this article interesting,,I’m a very skinny guy iv been doing pull ups bt instead of growing muscles I jus end up looking like bruce lee,,fit but skinny,,,I wana look like hulk hogan,,considering supplements,,advice please
Hey. Dang, all the way from Africa? I had no idea I readers out there
It sounds like you’re a hardgainer. Which has it’s pros and cons. The pro is that you’ll probably always be lean.
The con is that it’s hard to hold onto weight.
You’ve got to eat A LOT and you’ll grow past that Bruce Lee look.
Hey Anthony,
Thanks for the blog. I’m new to pull up and after my first time, the next day my upper body hurts. Should I keep doing it or rest until the pain is gone? What is your suggestion? Thanks from China.
Hey!
Definitely listen to your body, if you are sore then give your body a day off. However, don’t baby yourself. As long as it’s not uncomfortable to train, I would go to the gym.
I hope this helps!
Thanks for your input. It’s going well. It’s amazing how much it has help my overall upper body strength. I like its simplicity. Best.
Great article. I have a question. If I only do wide pullps with wide pushups will it eventually cause muscle imbalance?
Hey Allen,
You won’t develop muscle imbalance, but I still recommend doing other variations of pull ups. The other variations offer a lot of benefits that you’re missing out on if you simply skip them.
Close-grip reverse chin ups for example are a great bicep exercise. I take them over curls any day.
HI, will regular pull-ups increase my height. or suggest some other exercise at home to increase height.
Hey Assish,
I don’t know of any exercises that will increase your height. Sorry :/
Nice job Anthony! Thanks for some of the advice. If I’m not sore the next day would you advise me to do more until I am sore? I’m 19, I can do 16 close grip chin ups. My wide pull ups lack though
. Thanks again in advance! How many sets would you recommend of max pull ups?
Hey Taylor,
Soreness is not a good indicator of whether or not you had a good workout. If you’re not sore, it doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t train your muscles properly.
I’ve been lifting for years now and I just don’t get those painful days where I can’t even move anymore, lol. Looking back on it though, I kind of miss those days
Remember, close grip chin ups involve more bicep than wide pulls ups, so perhaps you’ve got some strong arms and it’s helping you do so many chin ups.
Generally I’d only do 3 sets of pull-ups, but if it’s something you want to improve on I’d say 4-6 sets of 8-12 reps would be perfectly fine and should help
bring up that lagging muscle group nicely.
from pullups height will icrease?
No, unfortunately you cannot increase your height with pullups
I went from 1 body weight pull-up to 6 pull-ups with 8kg on my belt in 3 months.
I’m not sure if that is fast or not, but I like the fact that I am one of few people who I’ve seen doing pull-ups with added weight…
By the way, my body weight is 66kg, so I guess that means I’m doing pull-ups with 1.12x body weight.
Awesome, great work dude.
I started off with the assisted pull up machine, and gradually I was able to do 1 or 2 pull ups.
Now I can put weights around my waist. Feels good, right!?
Definitely about the grip strength too. Weighted pull-ups really make my forearms pump, especially when combined with seated rows.
It’s quite surprising that my arms can go from having movable skin, to being solid as a rock.
What is the optimum about of times to do pull-ups per week? I usually do it 2-3 times, so my lats have time for recovery.
That’s perfect. 2-3 times is plenty