Description
If you’re a trainer, sooner or later you’re going to hear this from a client:
“I want to be able to do a pull-up.”
And I’m always a little cautious when I hear that.
It’s a great goal to have. But part of our job as trainers is helping people understand whether their goals are realistic based on where they’re starting.
Pull-ups and chin-ups are a perfect example because you’re dealing with strength relative to body weight.
Let’s say someone needs to improve their pulling strength by the equivalent of 60 pounds before they’re strong enough to perform one chin-up.
Think about what that actually means.
If I told you that person needed to add 60 pounds to another lift, you’d probably expect that to take a while. Yet we can sometimes look at going from zero pull-ups to one pull-up as if it’s just a matter of finding the right progression.
That’s why one of the first things I look at is how far away the person actually is.
If they’re relatively close, losing some body fat while continuing to improve their pulling strength can make a huge difference. Losing 20 pounds is essentially like taking a 20-pound backpack off when you try to pull yourself over the bar.
If they’re really far away, I may encourage them to focus on some other goals first.
Get stronger on your lat pulldowns. Improve your dumbbell presses. Get better at push-ups. Improve your squats and deadlifts.
Those exercises give us opportunities to make smaller, measurable improvements and allow the client to see that they’re making real progress.
Because the last thing I want is someone getting stronger and fitter across the board while feeling frustrated because they still can’t check off this one specific goal.
That’s an important coaching lesson.
Our job isn’t simply to help clients pursue their goals. It’s also to help them set realistic ones.
In this video, I break down how I think about the pull-up goal, why it can be much harder than people realize, and how I approach it with my own clients.
I also explain why I’m not a big fan of band-assisted pull-ups for progressing toward the real thing and what I’d focus on instead.