Pull-ups are an incredibly empowering, effective, and exciting exercise to do! While pull-ups are challenging for people of all genders, ages, and backgrounds, achieving one or many consecutive pull-ups is a realistic goal for MANY!
If you are performing effective exercises in relation to your goals, and are doing them consistently and mindfully, good coaching and cueing can be what it takes to help you reach your full potential. This is no different with pull-ups.
I’m here to help as I have extensive experience in this area! My pull-up program The Ultimate Pull-Up Program has helped THOUSANDS of people of all genders from at least 86 countries worldwide achieve their pull-up goals. My pull-up program was also recently featured in The New York Times (How To Master The Pull-Up). In my close to 19 years of being a coach, I’ve worked with many clients in person and online who dramatically improved their ability to perform pull-ups.
Here are 3 of my go-to coaching cues that will help you excel at pull-ups.
To be clear, when it comes to coaching cues, the effectiveness of cues will vary from person to person. There is no one size fits all optimal cue. Therefore, try out these different cues and see what works and feels best for you. When it comes to pull-ups, these are just several of many cues I use.
#1) “Pull The Bar Down To You“
When countless people do pull-ups and are initiating and performing the “pull” component, they think about pulling their body up to the bar. This is a very common mindset, and is something many have been taught. Can you relate?
If you purely think about pulling yourself up to the bar, your shoulders will likely shoot up towards your ears, and your shoulder blades will elevate. Your shoulders and shoulder blades will be traveling in the opposite direction as desired, and valuable tension will be lost. This will result in you “jerking” the pull, and you will feel a lot of slack around your shoulders and elbows. This will lead to a less efficient, and sloppier pull.
During the pulling component, your shoulder blades should move in towards your spine and down towards your opposite hip, and your elbows should be simultaneously driven in towards your sides and down towards the floor. This will help give you the power, elasticity, and smoothness you need to get to the top position of the pull-up with ease. You can really observe this if you watch my video above.
Try Incorporating: “Pull The Bar Down To You”
A game-changing cue is to imagine you are pulling the bar down to you, rather than pulling your body up to the bar. This cue will help you get the correct shoulder blade and arm mechanics, and will help you take the “jerk” or “slack” out of your pull. I liken this to a barbell or trap bar deadlift from the floor as you always want to remove the slack from the bar before you press away from the floor. If you don’t, the weight will feel significantly more daunting, and your body might not feel overly happy! The same applies to pull-ups as you are moving your bodyweight to the bar, versus pressing a weighted object away from the floor.
Give this cue a try and I think you’ll be amazed at the difference!
#2) “Crush Oranges In Your Armpits”
When you are completing the pull-up, your elbows and torso should form around a 45 degree angle (or slightly greater depending on hand width, or body structure). In the top position of the pull-up, your arms and torso should form an arrow shape.
However, when many people are trying to complete the rep and are traveling towards the bar, they do not sufficiently use the muscles in their back and around their shoulder blades, they do not get the proper/complete shoulder blade movement, and the elbows flare out. As a result, the arms and torso will more closely resemble a “t shape” instead of an “arrow.”
During pull-ups do you feel your arms working more than your back? This could explain why! Mechanics matter!
This point ties into cue #1. Remember, during the concentric/”pulling” component of the pull-up, your shoulder blades should move in towards your spine and down towards your opposite hip, and you should simultaneously drive your elbows in towards your sides and down towards the floor.
In more technical terms, your shoulder blades should retract, depress, and downwardly rotate.
Try Incorporating: “Crush Oranges In Your Armpits!”
In addition to thinking about pulling the bar down to you, as you are traveling towards the bar, imagine you are trying to crush oranges in your armpits. While this is a cue some use during deadlifts, it can also be helpful during pull-ups. By “crushing oranges in your armpits,” you will essentially be tricking yourself into getting the correct shoulder blade and arm movements without overthinking. The end result should mean you are using more back, and are getting a stronger pull to the bar. Give this cue a try!
#3) “Wrinkle The Front Of Your Shirt“
When many people are doing pull-ups, you will commonly see them arch their back and flare their ribs. To be clear, I am not referring to when people are performing pull-ups using a deliberate arch but while maintaining tension and the same body position. I am talking about when people do not have the requisite level of tension around their torso, spine, and hips (lumbo-pelvic stability) so you will see them arch their back and flare their ribs. This typically occurs when they are in the bottom position and go to initiate the pull-up (or are approaching the bottom position if consecutive reps are being done).
If you have this breakdown in form you will lose very valuable tension and rigidity around your torso, spine, and hips.
As I talk about all the time, when it comes to pull-ups, moving a stable object will be significantly easier than moving an equally weighted but unstable and floppy object. I use a rigid board versus equally weighted sandbag/slinky analogy a lot! You want to be an intentionally rigid board!
With pull-ups, I coach people to use a slight hollow body position (not quite as rainbow-shaped as a regular hollow body). Your head, torso, and hips should be in a stacked position, legs fully extended, and feet slightly ahead of your torso. If you do not have the option of fully extending your legs, you can keep your knees bent, and feet behind you.
As rigidity/tension in the lower body also plays an important role, if your legs are fully extended you want to contract your glutes and quadriceps. Conversely, if your knees are bent you want to contract your glutes and hamstrings.
Try Incorporating: “Wrinkle The Front Of Your Shirt“
When you are in the bottom position of the pull-up, before you initiate the “pull” and during the lowering/eccentric component right before you reach the bottom position, imagine you are trying to gently wrinkle the front of your shirt. I incorporate this same cue with great effectiveness during dead bugs, hollow body holds, and many other exercises.
The goal of this cue is to help you maintain the ever-important stacked/”canister” torso and hip position, and for your ribcage to remain down. You should not achieve this “wrinkled shirt” by rounding your mid/upper back and bringing your head and neck forward. Rather, your head, torso, and hips should remain stacked, and the movement should be fairly subtle.
If your shirt remains wrinkled it can signify that your body positioning is good, and that you’ve generated and maintained enough tension to perform pull-ups more efficiently. If the canister body position is lost and the back arches/ribs flare, the body more closely resembles an open pair of scissors and the shirt often smooths out. If you are a coach, pay attention to this when you are working with your clients.
Try doing a set of dead bugs or a hollow body hold and incorporate this cue. You’ll be amazed at the difference. You should feel your anterior core muscles significantly more!
Give all of these cues a try, and I think you should notice a positive difference in your pull-up performance! Remain consistent, don’t skip from A to Z, perform each rep mindfully, and I bet you’ll be very pleased with your progress!
If you want a more detailed pull-up training blueprint (more like an incredibly elaborate full body pull-up program to follow), check out my Ultimate Pull-Up Program.
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