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Can-t Do Pullups (REAL REASON WHY)

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

t do pullups and it actually doesn-t have to do with your biceps not helping as much as they do on the chinup. The pullup is an exercise that works your back but happens to require a heavy involvement from the arms to do so. Most back exercises are similar in this regard. That said, when attempting to lift your own bodyweight against gravity, it becomes increasingly challenging. You may find however that by simply flipping your hands underhand that you can do way more chinups than you could of the overhand pullup variation. There is a good reason for this. In the pullup, your forearms (specifically your brachioradialis muscle) is required to contribute much more than it is in the chinup. This muscle, if not trained enough, can become your weak link in performing more reps of the pullup exercise. The brachioradialis is most active when the forearm is pronated when the elbow is flexed. If you think of the position of the arm during a pullup you will quickly realize that this is the exact position that you are in. In order to get better at doing pullups you will undoubtedly have to have more strength in your brachioradialis muscle. The best way to do this is with hammer curls, zottman curls, or reverse forearm curls. Each of these flex the elbow with the elbow in either a pronated or neutral position. If you are just starting out and don-t have good strength to do any of these variations however, you can curl the dumbbells up with a supinated grip to maximize the biceps and then rotate to a pronated position and lower (as in the zottman curl. Slowly build up your strength in these forearm exercises and you will find that your pullups will improve. Even if you can-t do one pullup right now, you can start to increase the number that you can do by working on this little worked arm and forearm muscle. The best way to do this is by including movements into your normal biceps or arms workout so you don-t have to do added days or volume. For a complete workout program that tells you exactly how to train like an athlete and overlook nothing in your training, be sure to head to and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start doing more pullups and build ripped athletic muscle in just 90 days
Date: 2022-04-22

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Comments and reviews: 10

Ace
Yo guys I've trained for about 1 year now (at home) and I dramatically improved my push strength (from 0 clean pushups to 3 one arm pushups each side) but pull up wise I have plateaued at 5-7 reps for months now.
Every time I workout I can do 5-7 reps in my first set but then even though I take very long breaks between sets I go to 2-3 in the second set to actually being unable to do one in set 4 als can't even do a quarter of a pullup in set 5. I feel like it has to do with my grip endurance but it hasn't seemed to improve over my training period.
Can anyone please help me with that?
Thanks, Max
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Mark
Thanks, Jeff! I'm 61 and used to be pretty good at pull-ups (up until about 50) unfortunately after years of sitting in the office and getting away from doing pull-ups the lapse in judgment has taken its toll. I've been doing lat pulldowns but have noticed the same forearm issue so doing the pullup motion with some assistance and using a pronated grip with a dumbbell I think is good advice that I'm going to try. Thanks!
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Chun
For me when I do pull ups, after a few reps I feel like I still have the energy and strength to keep going but I can-t pull my self up, then when I let go I feel like I could have done that and I wasn-t even tired. And as I exercise more and more, I-m not even doing it intensely so I am barley sweating but the amount of reps I can do from just starting working out to like then end where I-m not tired half-s
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audrz
hmmm. if i do all muscles types and i want also raise pull ups. is it worth trying do pull ups 5days a week? because i mean i do standart thing MONDAY pull ups chest, bicep WEDNESDAY pull ups, shoulders, triceps FRIDAY: pull ups legs. so is it worth going in between just for pull ups? because my goal is to do 25pull ups. now i can do 14-17- depends how i feel. (my record was 23 but now i'am fat. :)
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Stefan
Hey Jeff, I am on your workout program (beast x, base level, and I have real trouble getting to the necessary amount of chin ups. Any advise you have for me in that department? What can I do to build up to getting better with my chin ups? Thanks a lot, and thanks for being just insanely awesome, love your work and videos. You are doing a lot of good man, really appreciate it.
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MOHAMMAD
i can't do a assistant pull up
i have Been doing hanging for 28 sec 10 reps in a day, and inverted row 40 times. but can't reach the top of bar by hand with assistant band. please i am being concern that whether i will able to do pull up or not, please dear big brother advice me something kindly for this confusion of mine. thank you so much
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Jason
This is true. I used to o ly be able to do 10 to 12 strict pull up reps. I tired some boat rope around a heavy sandbag and started imitating farm work at the ends of my work outs and randomly through the day. My focus was on rotational strength but I soon noticed my forearms going nuts and I could soon double my pull up reps to match my chins
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Mario
Why can-t I do pull-ups anymore I maxed out at 8 and then had a very intense workout and felt like I destroyed my muscles and now I can-t do 1 it seems impossible that I did 8 two weeks ago and now I can-t do anymore. Can anyone please answer as to why this is happening? I was making progress and now it seems like I-m back at the beginning
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Strich
This and the video about how to do a right pull up really helped
A couple of days ago I started doing negatives and my teres minors and majors still are sour
But after watching your pull up checklist video I tried to do it as right possible and I realized that it is my brachioradialis
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Report
Jeff Cavalier please help me! I can't do pull ups and biceps curl at all I have big pain for many years I still train but never pull up or biceps. Please help me I have pain in biceps and mostly in bone bellow wrist just bellow big finger
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