Expert: Ken Alan - 7/27/2007

Question
I was wondering what's the best way to incorporate pull-ups/chinups into a workout routine, especially if you can only do a few reps.  Say for example, you're doing upper body.  You pick to do pull-ups/chinups for your back exercise.  Say your workout calls for doing something in the 6-12 repetition range for all exercises, but on the pull-up/chinup you can only do 1-3 reps.  How do you incorporate this, especially if you are doing higher reps with "all other" exercises?  Will you still build muscle if you can only do 1-3 reps?  I thought pull-ups/chinups are supposed to be one of the best all-around upper body exercises for building muscle.

One other issue I have is with shoulder exercises.  In my upper body workout I do bench presses first in my workout.  Then I do a back exercise.  Then I do a shoulder exercise, usually overhead presses.  Problem is, when I get to that shoulder exercise, I can't do a lot of weight, or as many repetitions as I'm supposed to be doing.  My shoulders are either weak, or they are too fatigued.  I get so mad at myself because I can't crank out the repetitions that I'm supposed to be doing.  It's not like I'm not trying.  What's going on here and how do I correct this?  Is this normal?  Thanks very much for your help.


Answer
Pull-ups and chin-ups are the best all around upper body exercises for the back and biceps.  It's fine if you can only do 1-3 reps.  How much do you weigh?  That's how much weight load you're lifting.  See why you can only do a few!  If you were doing a lat pull-down with that much weight, how many reps do you suppose you'd be able to crank out?

Takes time to build strength.  Stay at it, you'll eventually be able to do more reps.  Change your routine around periodically.  Do your pull-ups first instead of bench press for a few weeks (or longer).  You want to your max energy for your weaker body parts.  You save pull-ups for last and no wonder it's always a struggle.  It will still be a struggle doing them first, but at least you'll be fresh instead of pre-exhausted, so you'll get a more intense effort in.

After you do your set of 1-3 reps, do a cheat rep.  Hike yourself up or have someone hoist you up to the top position of your pull-up, then just lower yourself down slowly.  That one (or two) negative rep will be your stepping stone to improving your pull-up strength progressively.

Do shoulders next.  In other words, hit your weaker muscle groups first if that's your priority.  Your shoulders and back will never catch up if you don't change your exercise order around.

Again, don't worry about the amount of weight lifted.  As long as it feels heavy and as long you maintain strict form, that's what counts.  Number of reps doesn't critically matter as long as you hit temporary failure somewhere less than 12 reps.  The whole objective of strength training is to do as few reps as possible with perfect form and hit failure (before 12 reps max), not as many reps as possible to hit failure.  Believe it or not, you're getting more strength stimulus doing 3 pull-ups slowly with good form as long as that last rep is an all-out effort, then doing 20 reps going fast.

Hope this helps.