One of my lifelong goals has been to be able to do a “true” pull-up. As in, the kind that starts from a dead hang.
I have a pull-up bar on one of my doorways, and I can yoink myself up when my grip is neutral (easiest) and supinated (doable) but when my grip is pronated? Forget about it. The other issue is that I can only do the neutral/supinated pull-ups when starting from a position where my elbows are slightly bent (which I can do with at-home pull-up bar since it’s low enough that my feet can touch the ground). When I’m starting from a dead hang, I can’t seem to overcome that the very bottom portion of the pull-up in ANY grip variation. My S.O. says that it’s a probably technique issue since it “looks” like the musculature exists (by visual inspection, hah!) and that I’m likely not recruiting/activating the right muscles. I’ve tried various pull-up programs (you know the type - do these other types of back exercises/progressively use thinner bands/start with negative pull ups until you can do it in the other direction, etc.) to no avail when it comes to getting out of that bottom starting position. I know pull-ups are harder for women, but I’d really like to be able to do them. So what do? Am I simply doomed to plunge off a cliff?
For context, I’m a 35 y.o. woman in reasonably good physical shape (5’3”, 115# and most recent DEXA scan - for whatever these things are worth - spat out a 17% bf) and what I would generously call a “casual” lifter (115# squat, 160# deadlift, and admittedly relatively weak upper body as evidenced by a very sad 65# bench and 55# OHP).
Hi there! This is a good question, and not just because pull-ups are cool. There’s a bit of detail in here that I think about all the time.
First, the easy part: it makes sense that pronated (pull-up) is hardest, neutral easiest, supinated in between. The pronated grip gives you a bit less biceps and puts you at more of a mechanical disadvantage, so that ranking is expected.
The bottom of the range being your sticking point is also normal. The dead-hang start is the hardest position, and it can be challenging to train directly. Most of the usual advice includes lat pulldowns, band-assisted pull-ups, and negatives. They’re fine and often work, but they all bias the top and middle of the movement and largely skip the exact position you’re stuck in. I often recommend people train the bottom directly, via partial pull-ups (the first few inches out of the bottom) if people can do them, slow negatives + a pull out of the bottom,
and hanging work where you have to control your own bodyweight, like hanging leg raises or knee raises, knees to elbows, or similar to build the grip, body control, and specific hanging-position strength that the bottom of a pull-up demands.
Now, to a pet topic of mine: technique-versus-muscle. If strength is muscular force production measured in a specific context (e.g. a specific exercise, movement velocity, etc.), and gaining muscle mass increases the amount of force produced, then an increase in strength represents the muscle’s force production is highly coordinated in a specific way. For example, someone could do a bunch of leg extensions and increase the muscle mass in their legs, but not see an increase in their 1RM squat because the new hardware (muscles) don’t have the right software (coordination).
In your case, “you have the muscle but aren’t recruiting it right” and “you need to get stronger in this position” are mostly the same problem viewed from two angles.
Hopefully this helps.
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