Best Pull Up Bar Workouts & Exercises

If you cannot perform a full pull-up, start with Scapular Pulls by hanging and shrugging your shoulders down to build initial strength. From there, use Eccentric Negatives where you jump to the top of the bar and lower yourself as slowly as possible. This builds the strength required for the lifting phase faster than assisted bands do.

The pull-up is the absolute gold standard for vertical pulling strength. It targets the Latissimus Dorsi or lats for back width, but also heavily recruits the biceps, rear delts, and core. Because it is a closed kinetic chain movement where your hands are fixed and your body moves, it requires significantly more core stability and coordination than a lat pulldown machine.

The bar is excellent for spinal decompression via Dead Hangs and core training with Hanging Leg Raises or Toes-to-Bar. You can also perform the Chin-up with palms facing you to bias the biceps, or the Neutral Grip Pull-up with palms facing each other which is friendlier on the shoulders. Advanced athletes can train the Front Lever for immense core strength.

Training pull-ups two to three times per week is the sweet spot. The back muscles are large and resilient, but the elbows and shoulders are delicate, so you don't want to overwork more sensitive muscle groups. You should stay away from failure to avoid developing medial epicondylitis, also known as Golfer's or Tennis Elbow.

Once you can perform 10 to 12 strict pull-ups, you can progress the movement. To target muscular endurance, you can increase the volume of sets and reps. To target strength and muscle growth, you can progress by adding external weight using a dip belt or weighted vest and dropping the rep range back down to five to eight.