Training Equipment Level 2 - The Pull-up Bar

I often talk about how strong I got "back in the day."

Yet despite how strong I was with lifting weights, guess how many pull-ups I could do?

1.

And that's if I really tried.

I think hanging and pull-ups are often overlooked in the beginner gym goer. I only say that because I assume the amount of people that can do a decent amount (5-10) is small. That's sad because we're missing out on a huge chunk of upper body strength and another "movement" pattern.

I put "movement" pattern in quotes because it's not really moving. If you get a pull-up bar and just hang, it's really about still-strength (a term I just made up). Our bodies share a lot of biology with monkeys. What can they do for long periods of time? Hang. What is a way to get a strong grip? Hanging.

For how much I rave about using the ground and Original Strength, hanging is one bodyweight move where you need an external piece of equipment…unless you have a sturdy tree nearby.

20 Bucks for Strong Arms and Back

I just Googled (or Amazon-ed?) for one of those door frame pull-up bars. You can snag one for about 20-30 bucks (that's the American dollar) and it can be delivered to your house fairly quickly. Not bad for a simple addition to your home gym that you can use for the rest of your life.

So after building the habit and using your own body (you are doing that, right?) the next logical piece of equipment to get would be a simple door frame pull-up bar. You can't mimic doing a pull-up with anything else. Plus you can buy a small set of rings to do dips as well.

Hanging and pull-ups are awesome for a lot of reasons. Let's list a few.

• Our bodies are designed to hang. Just like being able to squat down, walk often, sprint a few times and just sit on the ground, if we honor what are bodies are designed to do, then our bodies will start to give us back the strength we look for. It's just about loading basic human movement patterns.

• Improves posture and grip. Sitting is horrible but done too much in the modern day, and the only time we use our hands is to type on a keyboard or a phone. Hanging is a way to start to decompress the often squished upper back and to develop a strong grip without having to get one of those grip training contraptions you can use while sitting at your desk.

• Working hangs can aid your pull-ups. If you're stuck at 0 in your pull-up game or want to increase your reps, hanging can come to the rescue. It primes your body (shoulders, arms and hands) to be "ready" to pull yourself up. It similar to how holding the squat through the day gets your body ready for squatting with a barbell or doing tons of pushups helps you later on in dips or the bench press.

• It makes you look good. What do people do when someone asks them to flex? It's probably going to be something like a double-bicep pose from bodybuilding. We recognize strong looking arms and backs as a symbol of strength in general. The best bang for your buck to do that is to just do pull-ups. They're more functional, since it's just you vs your own bodyweight, and a lot simpler than having to worry about a bunch of fancy curl variations.

• It's simple. As I just hinted, working on hanging, chin-ups and pull-ups can give you gains for a long time. No need to worry about putting on different weights on a ez-curl bar, or switching dumbbell sizes. That way you'll have a much more natural look to yourself. If you want to make things more intense, you can move to harder pull-up variations (like one arm…but I can't do them either). But if all you did was maintain 10 reps in a regular pull-up for the rest of your life, you'd be pretty strong.

The "I Just Have a Pull-Up Bar" Plan

Here's what you do:

Step 1: Get a Pull-Up Bar

• That's not a joke. You're going to have a few options, so I think it's important to talk about them.

• You can get one that goes in a door-frame. If your space is limited, then this might be your best option.

• If you have the space to set up a home gym, then get a squat rack that has a pull-up bar at the top. That's knocking out two birds with one stone.

• If you're really fancy, you can drill a pull-up bar into the wall in your garage. That way you can do bar muscle-ups later on.

Step 2: Hanging to pull up series

• We're going to have to skip doing bodyweight rows for now, but this is a simple plan you can follow a few days per week or even daily to get strong enough for pull-ups.

  • Hang for 3 sets of 30 seconds

  • Bent arm hang (top of the pull-up) for 3 sets of 15. You might have to jump or use a chair to get up there.

  • Negatives. Lower yourself as slowly as you can. 10 reps is enough.

  • Chin-ups. These are easier since the hand and arm placement are more natural.

  • Pull-ups. This is the holy grail. By now you should be strong enough.

  • Any other crazy variation you want to try. But 10 reps per day keeps the weakness at bay

Step 3: Optional Additions

• As an optional addition, you can also get a couple of gymnastics rings to do dips, ring rows, ring pushups or muscle ups as well. (If you try to do rows at a 45 degree angle I can't guarantee what will happen. You've been warned.) But that goes to show you how far you can get with just one simple addition to your workout gear.

One Bar to Rule Them All (and/or Two Rings)

I think having somewhere to hang from should be a high consideration for most people. It will greatly aid in spine health, improved grip and more strength, which all lead to longevity.

Yes, you can do a pull-up. Most healthy people can.

Work your back, arms and grip strength and get one today.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions feel free to respond to this newsletter or you can fill out this questionnaire.