My first encounter with official pull-ups came in elementary school. At a random P.E. class, our teacher lined us up to try out pull-ups. I remember two lines of kids lined up at two rusty wall mounted pull up bars that were wrapped in white athletic tape. There wasn’t much instruction on how to do a pull-up, but our teacher jumped up on the bar and easily banged out 10 reps to our amazement. After the demonstration, we went through the lines one kid at a time. Most of the kids failed to do a full pull up with one kid doing 5 reps. When it came to my turn I vividly remember jumping up onto the bar and struggling with all my might to pull myself making it up about 2 inches complete with a pained face, curved back, and bent legs.
It was at that point I knew that the inability to complete a pull-up wasn’t right and it was something that I needed to work on. It took a lot of time to get my first pull-up under my belt as a kid, but once achieved it was a nice strength milestone. I would continue to incorporate pull-ups into my workouts as an adult eventually getting too many reps and even included weighted pull-ups in my workouts. Pull-ups are a foundation strength exercise where the ability to pull your body through space can come in handy in everyday life.
I knew that the ability to do proper pull-ups was a foundational skill that I wanted my kids to have so that when it came to their turn at the bar, they’d be ready to knock them out. Read on to learn more about pull-ups and how to teach your kids how to do and achieve their first pull-ups.
What are pull-ups?
Pull-ups are a body-weight upper body strength exercise. The exercise involves grasping a bar two-handed with the palms facing out and feet off the ground. The exercise is executed by utilizing the upper body to pull oneself up towards the bar until the chin is over the bar. The movement is then reversed by lowering back into the starting position.
What muscles do pull-ups use?
Pull-ups are an excellent strength exercise that works the entire upper body. The primary muscles used are the upper back, arms, and shoulders. In addition to primary muscles, just about every other muscle in the upper body is tensed and worked throughout the pull. Pull-ups help build overall core strength and core strength leads to the ability to perform more pull-up reps.
What is the difference between a pull-up and a chin-up?
There are different variations of pull-ups including wide grip, narrow grip, neutral grip, and even one-handed pull-ups. One variation that often gets confused with pull-ups is the chin-up. The primary differentiator between pull-ups and chin-ups is the grip position. With pull-ups, the palms face out and with chin-ups, the palms face in towards the body. With chin-ups, you can have a narrower grip and more muscles in the arms are utilized primarily in the biceps.
What are the benefits of pull-ups?
Pull-ups are a functional exercise that works the entire upper body and strengthens the cores. If you get into a situation where functional strength is needed you most likely won’t be relying on a single muscle group but instead, the body will respond by working as a unit just as it does throughout a pull-up. The ability to pull your entire body weight through space repeatedly is an asset that you can rely on throughout your kids’ entire life.
Another benefit is the development of grip strength. When it comes to the amount of weight one can pull one of the first failure points is the hands and the ability to maintain a grip. Performing pull-ups requires you to hold your entire body eight up by your hands strengthening your hands, fingers, and forearms. The more pull-ups you practice the stronger your grip will become and the more weight you can handle. Strong hands and grip can come in handy for kids who do sports helping with actions like catching a football and gripping a bat.
What is a proper form pull-up?
The pull-up starts standing under a bar and begins by either gripping the bar if it is reachable or jumping up and grabbing the bar. The width of the grip for a standard pull-up should be shoulder-width or slightly greater than shoulder-width apart. For foot position, you can either keep your legs straight or crossed. With crossed legs, you will have more stability and with them straight your core will have to do more of the stabilization. Both are good options, crossed if you want to work more back, shoulders, and arms and straight legs if you want more core work. Once you are on the bar, the proper form includes a full range of motion from hanging, chin over the bar using strength and not momentum, and back to hanging in a controlled manner. The movement starts by retracting the upper back scapula then pulling with the arms until at least the chin moves above the bar. There are a couple of schools of thought when it comes to back and body position with pull-ups. Pull-ups can be performed with a straight back or an arched back. The jury is out on which is better and I like to perform pull-ups in between an arched and straight back. The movement is then reversed in a controlled manner back to the starting position.
Proper Form Points to look out for:
Full range of motion: arms straight at the begging and returned to the straight position before next rep
Use of strength and not momentum: Only force generated by the pulls should be used for proper pull-ups. Kicking the legs to assist would constitute improper form for a standard pull-up.
How to teach your kids how to do a pull-up
To teach kids pull-ups I like to start by doing a demonstration and teaching them the different components of the exercise as I’m demonstrating. First, start by explaining that grip width should be shoulder or a little wider than shoulder-width apart once on the bar. It is ok to adjust once on the bar. Most kids naturally will have a good grip width when jumping on the bar. Next talk about the foot position. I like to start kids with crossed legs as the added stability helps in the learning process. The next step of engaging the upper back is one of the most important and one of the harder steps for first-timers to get. For this one, I like to tell my kids to imagine that there is an egg in the middle of their upper back and they need to try and crush it with their shoulder blades before pulling up with their arms/shoulders. It makes for a good coaching cue “crush the egg!” when needed. Then show them the pull by bending your arms and pulling the chin over the bar. This is a good time to mention keeping control of the body and not using momentum during the pull-up. When lowering down back to the starting position reinforce the importance of controlling the descent and not just dropping full force into the start position.
Progressing your kids to their first pull-up and beyond
Starting from scratch without being able to do a pull up is hard for adults and kids alike. Strength will vary among kids and progression should be used to get your kids to their first perfect form pull up. Below are some variations that you can use with your kids to have them progress to their first full-fledged pull-up.
Pull up progression 1: Hanging
It may be difficult for a kid to just hold their hanging weight. Just hanging on the bar is a great way to start towards a pull-up progression. Hanging on the bar will help develop grip strength, arm strength, and shoulder strength. Have your kid simply hang on the bar with a grip shoulder width or slightly wider for as long as they can for a few reps.
Pull up progression 2: Assisted pull-up
For progression number two have your child do complete pull-ups with an assist. Assist can come in the form of your spotting or the use of a stretching band. To spot your kid doing a pull-up, stand behind them while they are hanging and place your hands around their waist. As the child pulls their chin up towards the bar modulate the amount of help you give by assisting them up with your hands. If your child is using the cross legged pull up you can their shins and push them up as you assist the pull-up. The cross leg assists can be helpful as it allows you and your child to modulate how much assistance is given during the pull-up. When spotting you want the child to slowly pull themselves over the bar in a smooth continuous movement so give just enough assistance to achieve that.
Another way to do an assisted pull-up is with the use of an elastic stretching band. For this, you loop the band around the bar and through itself so that it attaches securely to the bar. Once secured to the bar pull the band down and step with one foot onto the band and straighten your leg out. At this point, I like to cover the foot with the band on it with my other foot as a safety measure in case the band flies off the foot during the exercise. The band acts as an assist as you pull up and lower yourself down. There are different bands available that offer different resistance. You have to be careful with this method making sure that your child knows and can keep the band on their foot throughout the exercise. If it does fly off it can snap painfully. I prefer to spot my kids myself, but after practicing a few times they can use the band on their own.
Pull up progression 3: Negative pull-up
Progression three is a great way to rapidly get the body use to the stress that pull-ups require to be performed. Negative pull-ups involve starting over the bar and lowering the body to the hanging position as slow as you can. Two ways to start the negative is to use an object or a spotter to get the chin above the bar before performing the negative. Your child can use a chair, box, or even a work out bench to start the exercise. First, stand on the object (make sure a sturdy object is used), grip the bar, place your chin over the bar, and bend your knees so you are holding your weight above the bar, and then begin to slowly lower your body going as slow as possible.
Using a spotter is the same as an assisted pull-up, but the spotter gives a lot of assistance on the pull up towards the bar and no assistance as the kid lowers themselves.
Pull up progression 3: Upper back scapula pull up
A movement essential to good form pull-ups is the engagement of the upper back muscles and the scapula. The progression involves just practicing firing the scapula. Have you kids hang on the bar and just practice the engagement of the upper back by squeezing the shoulder blades together, holding it for a couple of seconds, releasing, and repeating. Remember to give the coaching cue “crush the egg!”
Pull up progression 4: ¾ pull-up
Once your kids have gotten used to hanging, assisted pull-ups, negatives, and scapula pull-ups it time for them to begin working on their pull-ups by starting with ¾ pull-ups. For the ¾ quarter pull up you start with bent arms and pull yourself up the rest of the way and lower at a regular consistent pace. To start in the ¾ position you choose a bar that is set at that height, use an object to stand on, use a spotter, or jump up towards the bar gripping it and pulling while you are ¾ of the way there. As a bonus progression, you can add a negative on the way down from a ¾ pull-up.
After your kids have gone through the progression for a few weeks a single proper full hang pull-up should be achievable or at least on the near horizon. Once your child achieves the milestone of their first pull up take the time to celebrate as pull-ups are no easy task when first starting. Once your kids can easily do a set of 5-10 pull-ups you can start looking at different variations of pull-ups including grip variants, wide grip, narrow grip, chin-ups, and even kipping pull-ups.