Is it good to do pull ups everyday?

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cheeserman

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I heard from a few people that its good to do that everyday. I been doing them every other day when I started, but I wanted faster results so I did what they said, and I did them everyday for almost two weeks. But few days ago I couldnt even do one basic pull up and my back muscles felt too tired to even preform one.

What is the best way to improve the number of pull ups.
 
i was in the same boat as you - couldn't do a single pull-up.

started doing them assisted with my toes on my bench. did 5 sets x 10 assisted reps three days a week.

one day i noticed i felt strong and attempted to do some and i managed four full pull-ups which after, i completed the set with assisted.

fast forward a few weeks (last thursday) i was stuck on 5 reps on the 1st set for awhile and suddenly i did 6, 3, 3, 2 & 1 for 15 total pull ups.

that was from absolutely zero to that in a matter of a couple of months

one thing i noticed that helped was, on the last rep of each set, i let my self go down as slow as possible to get that negative.
 
cheeserman said:
Do you mean use different methods? I do different forms of pull ups, or do you mean like lat machines?
Click to expand...

what i mean is, pull-ups are not just how strong your arms are. your lats need to be 'engaged'. my brother in law is a rock climber and we were talking one day and he said this. this clicked in my mind and from then on i made sure to focus squeezing my lats and it made a noticeable difference from then on.
 
Cool Hand Luke said:
i was in the same boat as you - couldn't do a single pull-up.

started doing them assisted with my toes on my bench. did 5 sets x 10 assisted reps three days a week.

one day i noticed i felt strong and attempted to do some and i managed four full pull-ups which after, i completed the set with assisted.

fast forward a few weeks (last thursday) i was stuck on 5 reps on the 1st set for awhile and suddenly i did 6, 3, 3, 2 & 1 for 15 total pull ups.

that was from absolutely zero to that in a matter of a couple of months

one thing i noticed that helped was, on the last rep of each set, i let my self go down as slow as possible to get that negative.
Click to expand...

I keep that in mind thanks.
 
cheeserman said:
I heard from a few people that its good to do that everyday. I been doing them every other day when I started, but I wanted faster results so I did what they said, and I did them everyday for almost two weeks. But few days ago I couldnt even do one basic pull up and my back muscles felt too tired to even preform one.

What is the best way to improve the number of pull ups.
Click to expand...

No you shouldn't do pull-ups everyday, in the same way that you shouldn't do squats, deads or bench everyday.

What you most likely have is DOMS. You should always give your body sufficient time for recovery before continuing the exercise. If I were you, I'd take a week off from doing pull-ups in order to give your body a chance to recover.
 
cheeserman said:
I heard from a few people that its good to do that everyday. I been doing them every other day when I started, but I wanted faster results so I did what they said, and I did them everyday for almost two weeks. But few days ago I couldnt even do one basic pull up and my back muscles felt too tired to even preform one.

What is the best way to improve the number of pull ups.
Click to expand...

I usually take a day off, sometimes 2 in between and when I do them I switch around between a few different grips
 
Cool Hand Luke said:
what i mean is, pull-ups are not just how strong your arms are. your lats need to be 'engaged'. my brother in law is a rock climber and we were talking one day and he said this. this clicked in my mind and from then on i made sure to focus squeezing my lats and it made a noticeable difference from then on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is important to be using your back, not just your arms/biceps, which often is the case with beginners or people that haven't really ever worked on their form.

If you are feeling it almost entirely in your arms, you are probably doing it wrong. You should also be feeling in your back/lats (different areas depending on the grip you are using).

One trick that helped me is when you go to pull up, rather than thinking about pulling yourself up, imagine that you are trying to yank the bar and your elbows as hard as you can downward, like you are trying to elbow someone below you. It helped me think about using my back muscles not just my biceps
 
Like any muscle or exercise, it should not be worked everyday. You can prioritize and do it every other day, but adjust your other lifts accordingly and ease off a little. I got good at pull ups by starting with chins or neutral grip pull ups which are usually a tad easier. Make it so that the bar is as high as your hands when your arms are stretched out over head. Grab the bar while your feet are still on the ground, do explosive calf raises to get the pull going. This is good because A it still forces you to perform most of the ROM on your own, and B itl work your calves.
 
Keep your elbows flaired out at the sides of your body and don't let them slip out toward the front.....it is harder at first but it engages the lats.

Keep the elbows out to the side and imagine as you pull up that you're squeezing your elbows down the side of your body to your waist. Tuck your legs behind you and visualize your back muscles contracting.
 
stinkoman said:
try a "grease the groove" approach with pull ups.
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x 2,

'Grease the groove' is quite a popular method for improving pull ups, push ups etc, although probably not recomended with barbell movements.

IMO, there is nothing wrong with performing pull ups everyday. They are much easier to recover from in comparison to weighted movements. The best approach that worked for me was doing them more often.

However, just be careful your not over working.
 
i think if you can't do any, you're better off doing them whenever you can.
 
i did pull ups everyday through high school, when i enlisted in the army i did 43 pull ups. grease the groove did them in every break between classes and in the gym on weight lifting days with weights
 
AlVThom said:
x 2,

'Grease the groove' is quite a popular method for improving pull ups, push ups etc, although probably not recomended with barbell movements.

IMO, there is nothing wrong with performing pull ups everyday. They are much easier to recover from in comparison to weighted movements. The best approach that worked for me was doing them more often.

However, just be careful your not over working.
Click to expand...


I dunno....I GTG with dead lifts some times....

I never hd a problem.
 
You can train many lifts, including pull-ups, frequently or everyday. But you have to do it the right way - which includes being prepared for the training frequency - and it should fit with your overall goals. Just because you can train something that frequently, doesn't mean you should.

With pull-ups, this means starting with a low (for you) daily volume, and focusing on quality reps. On a couple days you might push the reps or weight more, but most of the days shouldn't feel especially taxing. You can't, for example, just double the frequency and weekly volume.

It sounds like you probably overdid it with how much you were doing each day, and that's the issue, rather than frequency itself.
 
Start with the negatives, then try chinups or neutral grip chin ups to get the lats engaged a little. I started by not being able to do one pullup to doing a set of 10 (and then 6,5,4,3) in a matter of 2 months
 
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