Full Pull - Are you working towards your first full pull-up? Share support and resources here!

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

The initiation of this thread was inspired by @angeleyz21 's post in the Feedback Forum on this topic, and additional points made in that thread by @HellYeah and @EnbyFitness .

I think working towards a full, unassisted pull-up is a goal many of us here have. It's a big goal! And the journey towards it can be long and take a variety of different forms for different people. There are many great resources on DAREBEE to help us all work towards our first full pull-up. But finding them all may be a task as daunting as that elusive first pull-up itself. Hence this thread.

My goals here are twofold:

1. to pull together a comprehensive listing of the main resources on DAREBEE to help us achieve our first full pull, along with some guidance on how to use them.
2. to provide a space where Bees working towards their first full pull can gather together to share inspiration and ideas and to cheer on one another's progress.

To this end, I will post 5 replies to this initial post:

1. DAREBEE Pull-Up Challenges
2. DAREBEE Pull-Up Workouts
3. DAREBEE Pull-Up Programs
4. Other DAREBEE Pull-Up Resources
5. Offsite Resources

EDIT: The above replies have been created, and I've posted my initial thoughts and findings in most of them. Please chime in with your own ideas, and I will edit the appropriate posts as needed. Also: if you are on your own Journey to Full Pull, please join this thread so we can all share ideas and cheer one another on. (I need to step out for a bit to get some other work done. I'll post my own current progress soon.)

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

DAREBEE Pull-Up Challenges

Hanging Challenge Progression:

Dead Hang​

Active Hang - not an official DAREBEE Challenge at present, but perhaps helpful if one has mastered the dead hang but cannot yet hold a flexed hang for the lengths of time needed for the Flex Hang Challenge. I think there would be value in training holds at various heights, particularly if there are points on the path one finds especially challenging. (@HellYeah would you like to weigh in here?)​

Flexed Hang​

​

Pull-Ups Challenges - this link filters the database for Challenges which focus on pull-ups. These all include full pull-ups. But one could certainly work through the challenges using assistance--either in the form of a resistance band, or a pull-up machine with an assistive weight stack, if one has access to such tools.

Upper Body Challenges - this link filters the database for Challenges which focus on upper body strengthening in general. You'll find chest and triceps work here, as well as back and biceps. But there is a much greater variety of exercises represented than in the Challenges which specifically include pull-ups, including many more beginner-friendly options. (You can filter this list further by difficulty level in the filter menu.) All of this work is helpful in the Journey to Full Pull. The most important thing is to do something. So pick a challenge that's at an appropriate level for where you're at now, and give it a try!

Power Grip Challenge - a great add-on specifically for strengthening one's grip. But holding one's arms overhead during these exercises helps to strengthen our backs too.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

DAREBEE Pull-Up Workouts

There are a lot! Any workout that focuses on strengthening one's back and/or biceps is going to help us on our Journey to Full Pull. Grip strengthening work helps too. I'm not going to list every individual workout in the database that would apply here. (There are length limits to forum posts!) But I will list the main resources, along with suggestions for specific workouts individual Bees have found particularly helpful.

First Pull-Up Workouts Collection - This is a great place to start! Eighteen individual workouts that all focus on key areas we need to strengthen in order to achieve a Full Pull. Some of these workouts can be done with bodyweight only. Many of them utilize dumbbells. A few require bars for dips, rows, and/or hanging.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

DAREBEE Pull-Up Programs

In truth, most of DAREBEE's Programs will help on the Journey to Full Pull. My best suggestion is to load the Program Filter and then filter for the Difficulty Level that is appropriate to where you're at currently in your fitness journey. From there one can further filter for program type, such as programs specifically focused on strength training.

But don't exclude the other training type categories. All of those hooks, elbow & hand strikes, and punches we throw in combat programs are excellent exercises for strengthening the upper body, including all of the muscles we need to recruit to achieve a full pull-up. (Not feeling it? Check out DAREBEE's Guide to Punching to help you get the most out of this powerful exercise.) Mixing in combat training with exercises we perhaps more traditionally envision when we think of calisthenics can provide welcome and helpful variety to a long-term training journey.

The RPG Fitness programs will show up on a search for strength-focused programs too. But most of the interval training programs do not, yet they all include great upper body strengthening work too. Even the cardio and running programs include some upper body strengthening work (all of that arm waving we do in jumping jacks and their variations absolutely strengthens our backs!) So don't discount these programs--especially if you're at an earlier stage in your Journey to Full Pull, and strength-focused programs have too high a volume of upper body work for where you're at right now.

Don't neglect the add-on programs either. Many of these won't show up if you filter for other program types, but they still include good back and biceps focused work. Back and Core is the program you'll find here most specifically focused on back and biceps work, and it's a great one! But there is some back & biceps in Epic Five, in Unbound, and in the yoga programs too (including Zen). (It's light. But it's there. And our primary key to success is to choose a training level that's appropriate for where we're at right now so that we train consistently and continue to progress.)

The DAREBEE Programs that include actual pull-ups are:

Spartan Trials (currently Difficulty Level 3--I'll update this if it changes with the currently in-progress updates)
30 Days of Strength (currently Difficulty Level 4--I'll update this if it changes with the currently in-progress updates)
Primal Strength (currently Difficulty Level 5--I'll update this if it changes with the currently in-progress updates)

All of these programs call for full pull-ups within the first three days of the program. But just as we can modify workouts that call for push-ups to do them at a level that's appropriate for us (kneeling, incline, wall, etc.) we can modify workouts that call for pull-ups to make them accessible to those of us who don't yet have a full pull. Spartan Trials specifically presents dumbbell work to do in place of the pull-ups. For 30 Days of Strength and Primal Strength, the pull-ups can be substituted with assisted pull-ups and/or rows. For anyone looking for a structured DAREBEE Program to follow on their Journey to Full Pull, it would certainly be possible to work through any of these programs multiple times, starting with Spartan Trials' dumbbells options on the first go-through, then progressing to rows, and then assisted pull-ups (with progressively decreasing amounts of assistance) until the coveted Full Pull is finally achieved.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Other DAREBEE Pull-Up Resources

DAREBEE Pull-Ups Guide - Lots of great info here on pull-up technique, exercise progressions, muscles to train, and suggested exercises for training them.

Pull Yourself Together - A community thread initiated by @HellYeah . This is a DAREBEE team challenge in which all Bees who do pull-ups--or exercises working towards a pull-up--come together to track our collective progress. Many on the Pull-Up Team are already doing full pull-ups. But you are welcome to join if you are not. Exercises in the progression to a full pull, such as hangs, rows, and reverse flys count too!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Offsite Pull-Up Resources - to be fleshed out soon.

 

[Montserrat]

Very inspiring, this!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

I have had my own eye on a full pull for many years. But I have not trained consistently towards achieving one.

Back when I had a gym membership I had access to a pull-up machine with an assistive weight stack. This was my favourite method of working towards my pull-up, and the one I found easiest to do consistently. I was using the machine three days a week at one point, doing sets of 10 standard grip, wide grip, and parallel grip pull-ups each time, and managed to reduce the amount of assistance I required by I think 20 lbs. during that time. Then I started teaching fitness classes, and was asked to take on more and more classes, until teaching took up pretty much all of my time at the club, and I didn't use the weight room at all anymore.

I've not had a gym membership for ~ 18 years at this point. I did live in a neighbourhood that had an outdoor fit park, with pull-up bars, for most of those years. But outdoor gym equipment is not accessible during the winter months in Canada. (The bars would typically be frozen for 3-4 months a year where I lived.) I did use them sometimes for dead hanging and flexed arm hanging, but not consistently.

A few years back I acquired a home pull-up bar of the type that hangs in a doorway. But I lived in a house with pocket doors. The only interior doorway that could support the pull-up bar was that leading to one of the bathrooms. So I could not leave the bar up, and the location was awkward for timing work and for working it into workouts that also included floor work, and I often got bitched at for leaving the bar up even for the few minutes between sets in the same workout.

And then life became extremely stressful for a couple of years. That was pretty crushing to my fitness plans in general.

Earlier this year I thought I would be moving into a very crowded living situation where I definitely would not have any space to hang my pull-up bar. But I had found an outdoor pull-up bar in the community and had planned to really work on my pull-ups by doing Primal Strength over the summer, doing the entire workout in the park by the bar. (I would not have had any space at all for working out indoors in the place where I was to be living.)

Well... those plans fell through. I lived through two more months of extreme stress. During which time I was physically separated from my pull-up bar. I occasionally hung from the bar in the public fit park, but only very occasionally.

And now I finally, finally, have my own space. I have plenty of space here in which to workout. (Once I finish unpacking and sorting everything I will have an entire room dedicated just to dancing and working out.) But it is a rental. So I cannot do anything about the fact that every single doorway has a fancy, super-high, super-wide wooden frame.



Yeah. My pull-up bar doesn't fit over that.
(Also: the fuzz on the above image is due to my cracked camera lens. )

So no pull-ups at home for the foreseeable future.

The closest park I have found with dedicated pull-up bars is over 4km away. There are many playgrounds with monkey bars that are closer. But grip options at such locations are often not awesome, and some may be limited access (i.e.: if they're on school grounds). There may well be fit parks closer to me than what I have discovered thus far. (The City of London web page that purports to list amenities available at the various city parks does not mention outdoor fitness equipment for either of the two parks I have found thus far that I know have them.) So the hunt for the best place to practice pull-ups here continues. Meanwhile, we're nearing the end of September. And I'm pretty de-conditioned at this point for attempting actual pull-ups--even assisted ones.

I definitely need assistance to complete a pull-up at this point! I have a resistance band appropriate for this purpose, which I can take to parks with me. But with my current efforts to set up our new home, re-build my community in this town, get my writing back on track, and otherwise settle in here in general, trying to do Primal Strength in a park on a regular basis right now would be too much. (Plus I'm really not at an appropriate conditioning level for attempting that program right now in any case.)

So I have decided to work through Power Builder for now. Power Builder includes full body strength-training exercises every other day, primarily using dumbbells. So it's easy for me to do this program at home. (I don't have the heaviest of dumbbells. But the ones I do have are heavy enough that I'll get decent benefit from the program.) I may add in one of the hanging challenges later, once I find a good location for public hanging. (LOL. I really need a different phrase for describing that!) But for now it's just Power Builder.

I am doing Power Builder 6 days per week. So it will take me 5 weeks to complete the program.
After that? I'm not sure yet.
If I stay on track as planned, I should complete Power Builder on November 2. That may already be too late to begin a program that would require me to hang from outdoor bars. But I can likely get something set up for doing body rows at home, and substitute those for pull-ups during the winter months. We shall see.
For right now though, the plan is just to complete Power Builder over the next five weeks.

 

[EnbyFitness]

Woah. This is an amazing resource. Thank you, Laura, for compiling all of this!

You said in a different post that a pull-up program wouldn't make sense, as getting there is different for everyone. I wonder, though, if there could be a non-traditional type program that can be created that could "loop"--a seven day loop of dead-hanging until you can do so for ten seconds, and only then can you make it to the second seven-day loop.

Additionally, I wonder if the community could perhaps put together their own progression from the resources you've provided. Maybe something like:

Step 1: Dead hang and grip challenges, with three days a week dedicated to upper body exercises
Step 2: Spartan Trials with Unbound add-on
Step 3: Attempt full pull...

It's just a thought. Seriously, though, this resource is amazing, and everyone in the community should see it. It's inspired me to attempt the dead hang challenge. Thanks again!!!!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Woah. This is an amazing resource. Thank you, Laura, for compiling all of this!

You're very welcome.

You said in a different post that a pull-up program wouldn't make sense, as getting there is different for everyone. I wonder, though, if there could be a non-traditional type program that can be created that could "loop"--a seven day loop of dead-hanging until you can do so for ten seconds, and only then can you make it to the second seven-day loop.

As well as the Programs, DAREBEE does have some Training Plans which work more like this. They're a bit hidden away. And there isn't one at present specifically designed for working towards a pull-up. But they do follow the method you describe here, of essentially following a 7-day program that each person progresses at the pace that's right for them. (The existing ones require more effort on the user's part to put together than a Program, as the Training Plans just tell you the type of workout to do each day, and leave it to you to choose the suggested type and appropriate level of workout from the database.)

A specific Program, that explicitly suggests looping as you suggest I think could work too. Many of us do this already when we see a Program or Challenge we want to try but know it will take us longer than 30 Days to get from Day 1 to Day 30. Others, I think, need the permission to do this explicitly built in.

Additionally, I wonder if the community could perhaps put together their own progression from the resources you've provided.

Yes! This is definitely a part of what I hope we can do together here!

It's inspired me to attempt the dead hang challenge.

Yeah! Good luck!

 

[JohnStrong]

First Pull-Up Workouts Collection - This is a great place to start! Eighteen individual workouts that all focus on key areas we need to strengthen in order to achieve a Full Pull. Some of these workouts can be done with bodyweight only. Many of them utilize dumbbells. A few require bars for dips, rows, and/or hanging.

Had no idea this existed, thanks! Bookmarked.