How I Progressed To A 1 Arm Pull UP

Pull ups rule! One of the best exercises you do for developing upper back/lat size and strength. The KING up upper body exercises if you ask me. I do them every way I can. Wide grip, narrow grip, neutral grip, double under hand. I do em weighted, slow and controlled, for volume and for Max reps. If I had to pick only one exercises to do for the back and lats… it be pull ups!

The past few months I have been putting more time and attention into my pull up game. Doing sets every time I hit the gym (3-4 days per week) My goal is to get back to setting a rep PR. I’ve just started fasting again and my body weight will slowly start coming down. As my body weight comes down and my strength is up- it’s a perfect time to go for a REP PR on pull ups. My best ever is 32 consecutive reps. I’d say 28-30 was A1 quality. A few “cheaters” in there to make 32. (Not full chin over the bar or full extended at the bottom)

While I was in between side raises the other day I said “Wonder I got the 1 arm pull up in me!?” Went ahead and gave it a try, and to my surprise I hit 2 sets of 1- one arm pull ups (with each arm!) I was pumped! I haven’t tried these in well over a year and they came super easy. I took a neutral grip- which is much easier then the 1 arm overhand grip- as well as the underhand grip (chin up style grip)

I shared this on twitter:

Good question from Stephen. Heres what my pull up progress has looked like lately.

As mentioned… I’ve being doing pull ups 3 times per week. Not a ton of volume of reps of recent tho.

Heres what I’ve been doing:

A lot of pull ups at 5-7 reps. I’d say I’m doing 5-7 sets each time I am in the gym 3-4 times a week. A lot of the reps are pause top and bottom. Explode up to the sternum (high as possible). Thats been a big take a way for me… I’ve been working to increase the range of motion on the pull ups to go AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE. While this does take some of the pressure (off) of the lats (and the way top)… and might not be the best play for building SIZE on the lats its been THE MOVE for increasing my PULLING strength. (I also think that is splitting hairs… the whole part of building *size on the lats. My lats have been growing and feel great. For the everyday guy who’s not bodybuilding It wont make much of a difference) - on this note. I’ve always trained for performance. To do feats of strength and big endurance efforts. The body adapts to the training and I’ve never been “displeased” with my physique when training this way.

Also been doing SLOOWWW eccentric and concentric for sets of 5-7… far up as possible. The slow reps on body weight training is a totally different ball game then banging out reps. It requires a ton more mind to muscle connection and focus. I can feel the body growing on these sets and reps

All this to say, I’ve increase my overall pull up frequency. Possibly, volume too, when stacking up all the sets and reps. The quality of the reps are A1. I believe this combination has lead to being able to do sets of 1 on one arm pull ups.

I’m looking forward to keeping this style of training going through the summer as I do much more drive way workouts and body weight training.

Are you interested in a Pull up training guide?

What I’ll do is go back through my notes the past few months and jot down the exact protocol I’ve been doing and share it with you in a PDF. I’ll include a beginner (someone who can’t do pull up) and Advanced (someone who can do 10+) into the protocol