Proper Pull Ups

Another often skimmed over exercise in the world of weightlifting I’m often very surprised at how difficult or impossible pull-ups are for athletes that can snatch and clean & jerk so heavy. Maybe this is from my CrossFit background but I truly believe proper pull ups should be an integral piece of any strength program. More than just being able to lift your self up, pull ups are a great test of relative strength, can be scaled down or weighted and progressed, and can be programmed to build phenomenal shoulder, scapula, and back strength and stability. Just like with the bench though, pull ups must be performed correctly to get the most out of them.

A post shared by Anatomy Of Training (@anatomyoftraining) on Apr 18, 2016 at 7:42pm PDT

In this video Kush, our resident physiotherapist, explains how the scapula should move in a proper pull up. a lot of people struggle with correct scapula downward rotation when performing pull-ups, and it can sometimes have something to do with their thought process. They think because they are moving up, they need to upwardly rotate. The correct way to think about this is that in a pull up, you are actually pulling down on the bar, so the scapula should downward rotate.

It might make a bit more sense if you watch the video below. Please share this with your friends!