GETTING YOUR FIRST pull-up is a milestone. Building up to double figures is another challenge entirely. Unlike most exercises, pull-ups become harder the heavier you are, because every rep means lifting your own bodyweight.
That’s why pull-up standards are often best judged relative to bodyweight rather than using a one-size-fits-all target. Here are the rep benchmarks to aim for.
How Many Pull-Ups Should You Be Able to Do?
The following pull-up benchmarks take your bodyweight into account, but they don’t consider factors such as age, training experience, injury history, limb length, muscle-to-fat ratio or genetics, so it’s important to take them with a pinch of salt.
How to Do Pull-Ups
- Grasp a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Lift your feet from the floor, hanging freely with straight arms.
- Pull yourself up by flexing your elbows while pinching your shoulder blades together.
- Once your chin passes the bar, pause briefly before lowering under control to the starting position.
6 Ways to Improve Your Pull-ups
If you’d like to increase your number of pull-up reps, you’ll need to nail a few key fundamentals in your training and lifestyle, including:
Enough Weekly Volume
Include pull-ups in your programme at least two to three times a week to build the movement pattern and increase total practice.
Rep Quality
Use a full range of motion with every rep and control the lowering phase as much as possible, rather than rushing through it.
Recovery
Make sure you leave enough time between sessions for your muscles to repair and adapt, especially if you’re training close to failure.
Exercise Variation
You don’t need to only do pull-ups. Strengthen weak points with accessory exercises such as assisted pull-ups, rows, dead hangs, lat pulldowns and core work.
Bodyweight Management
If fat loss is one of your goals, reducing excess body fat can make pull-ups easier by lowering the amount of weight you need to lift. That’s why pull-ups are one of the best performance- and physique-based goals you can have.
Progressive Overload
To keep improving, gradually increase your reps, sets or resistance over time, rather than repeating the same workload each week.
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