For many of you, pull-ups and chin-ups may feel damn near impossible. It’s not as simple as just pulling yourself up; mastering the proper engagement of your upper body makes a significant difference. Today, I’ll share some effective tips, tricks, and benchmarks to help boost your pull-up game.

Let’s start with the basics of simply starting by hanging from a bar. The straight arm hang is low-hanging fruit for the beginner. Start by placing your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart, then with an overhand grip tightly grasp the bar and think about pulling your scapulas down into the middle of your back. This engages the middle and lower trapezius muscles to stabilize the scapula. Then, imagine you’re trying to bend the bar in half. Lats are lit up and you’re off and hanging! 

Standards for the Straight Arm Hang

Beginner: 5-15 seconds

Intermediate: 16-45 seconds

Standard (good job, you did it!): 46-60 seconds

Once you have surpassed the one minute Straight Arm hang, we move up to the Flexed Arm Hang. Now you will have hands in an underhand grip and slightly narrower than the previous test. With the chin-up grip (used in this case), you will have more activation of the biceps and pectorals, and more leverage to hold yourself up. The trick to a successful flexed hang is to pull yourself up, chin above the bar, squeeze your arms tightly to your sides like you’re trying to juice an orange, and follow the same rules as the straight arm hang when it comes to scapula positioning. 

Standards for the Flex Arm Hang 

Beginner: 5-10 seconds 

Intermediate: 15-20 seconds (congratulations, you’ve met the Marines minimum requirement ladies)

Standard: 30+ seconds 

Once you have passed the one minute Straight arm and 30-second flexed arm hang, you’re ready to try and build up your pull-up/chin-up. Again, when it comes to the actual movements, most people try to overuse their traps (upper back/neck) and biceps to pull. This is no good! As mentioned before, you need to pull your scapulas into the middle of your back, engaging your stabilizing muscles and locking in your lats from the armpit to your sacrum. Tense your core muscles, then squeeze your elbows towards your sides as if you are squeezing all the juice out of an orange. Then the magic happens.  

Standards for Pull/Chin-up for Women

Beginner: Under 2

Intermediate: 2-5

Well Done!: 5+

Standards for Men

Beginner: 1-5

Intermediate: 6-15

Well Done!: 16+ (Marines require 22 boys)

We will have the pleasure of doing a lot of hanging and pull-ups in October, so get ready to meet the standards and get a scary ripped upper back for Halloween! Who knows, maybe there will be a prize for reaching some of these milestones….

Yours in strength, 

Tom and Nick 

Check out this video for proper pull-up form.