How to Get Your First Pull-Up: A Strength Training Guide for Women
Getting your first pull-up is primarily a strength problem, not a technique trick. To pull your chin over the bar, you need enough upper-body strength to move your entire bodyweight through a vertical pulling movement.
That makes the pull-up a great measure of relative strength, or how strong you are relative to your bodyweight. The good news is that relative strength is trainable!
At Iron and Mettle, we're currently working on pull-ups three times per week in our strength classes. Rather than doing one huge pull-up workout, we're increasing exposure to the movement and training different parts of the pull-up throughout the week.
Here's what we're working on this 6-week strength cycle and why!
What Muscles Do Pull-Ups Work?
The latissimus dorsi, or lats, are one of the primary muscles responsible for a pull-up, but they're not working alone.
Pull-ups also require your:
Biceps and other elbow flexors
Trapezius
Rhomboids
Rotator cuff
Forearms and grip
Abdominal muscles
This is one reason getting your first pull-up requires more than simply doing lat pulldowns. You need enough pulling strength, but you also need grip strength, shoulder stability, trunk control, and practice coordinating all of those things while hanging from a bar.
The Best Exercises for Getting Your First Pull-Up
1. Assisted Pull-Ups
Assisted pull-ups are one of the most useful exercises because they allow you to practice the actual movement through a full range of motion before you're strong enough to move your entire bodyweight.
The amount of assistance matters. If you can easily perform 15 or 20 reps, you're probably using too much assistance.
We generally want the resistance to be challenging enough that you're building strength while still performing clean reps. As you improve, progressively reduce the amount of assistance.
2. Eccentric Pull-Ups & ISO HOLDS
Isometric holds and eccentric pull-ups are two of our favorite ways to build full-bodyweight pulling strength before you can perform an unassisted pull-up.
For an isometric hold, start with your chin over the bar and hold that position for 5 to 10 seconds. You can also practice holds around the midpoint of the pull-up, where your elbows are approximately 90 degrees. Isometric training builds strength at and around the joint angle you're holding, which makes it useful for strengthening specific portions of the pull-up.
For an eccentric pull-up, start at the top and slowly lower yourself all the way to a dead hang. Your muscles can produce more force eccentrically than concentrically, so you may be able to control your full bodyweight on the way down before you're strong enough to pull yourself up.
For eccentrics, aim for a controlled 3 to 5 second descent. For isometric holds, start with 5 to 10 seconds. Both can be progressed over time by increasing the duration or improving your control with your full bodyweight.
3. Lat Pulldowns
Lat pulldowns strengthen many of the same muscles used during a pull-up and have one major advantage: they're very easy to progressively overload.
If you're currently pulling 50 pounds, you can work toward 55, then 60, then 65.
You don't need your lat pulldown strength to exactly equal your bodyweight before getting a pull-up, but becoming substantially stronger at vertical pulling will improve your ability to perform one.
4. Rows
Pull-ups are a vertical pulling movement while rows are a horizontal pulling movement, so rows aren't a substitute for pull-up practice. They're still valuable for building the upper back and shoulder strength that supports the movement.
We use dumbbell rows, cable rows, inverted rows, and barbell rows throughout our programming.
5. Dead Hangs and Scapular Pull-Ups
If your grip gives out before your back does, you're not going to finish a pull-up.
Dead hangs build the grip endurance required to support your bodyweight from the bar. Scapular pull-ups add another important component by teaching you to control your shoulder blades while hanging.
In a scapular pull-up, your elbows stay straight while you pull your shoulders down away from your ears and slightly elevate your body.
The movement is small, but it teaches you to initiate a pull-up from a strong shoulder position.
6. Biceps Training
We train our biceps for pull-ups.
The biceps and other elbow flexors contribute significantly to the movement, and stronger arms can help you finish the top portion of a pull-up.
Curls aren't going to get you a pull-up by themselves, but they're useful accessory work when they're combined with vertical pulling and actual pull-up practice.
Why We're Training Pull-Ups Three Times Per Week at Iron and Mettle
Pull-ups are both a strength exercise and a skill, and specificity matters.
If you want to get better at squatting, you need to squat. If you want to get better at pull-ups, eventually you need to spend time hanging from a bar and practicing pull-ups.
This strength cycle, we are training pull-ups during classes three times per week and distributing the work across the week - meaning, one session might emphasize assisted pull-ups, another might include eccentric work, and another might use hangs or accessory pulling exercises.
This allows us to accumulate more high-quality pulling volume without trying to cram everything into one workout.
How Many Sets and Reps Should You Do for Pull-Ups?
For someone working toward a first pull-up, a good starting point is 2 to 3 pull-up-focused sessions per week, with at least one day of recovery between harder sessions.
A simple week might include:
Day 1
Assisted pull-ups: 3 sets of 5 to 8 reps
Rows: 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
Day 2
Eccentric pull-ups: 3 sets of 3 to 5 reps
Isometric holds: 3 sets of 10-15 seconds
Lat pulldowns: 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
Day 3
Assisted pull-ups: 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps using less assistance
Dead hangs: 2 to 3 sets
You don't need to take every set to failure. For most strength work, stopping with approximately 1 to 3 good reps left is enough to create a training stimulus while allowing you to maintain technique and recover.
Progressive Overload Matters for Pull-Ups Too
If you've been doing the same band-assisted pull-ups for six months, you're probably not following a progression.
Your pull-up training should become more difficult over time.
That could mean:
Using less assistance
Performing more reps with the same assistance
Increasing your lat pulldown weight
Increasing your row weight
Controlling a longer eccentric
Hanging for longer
Performing more of the movement with your full bodyweight
How Long Does It Take to Get Your First Pull-Up?
There isn't a useful universal answer because your starting point matters.
Pull-up performance is affected by your current upper-body strength, bodyweight, grip strength, training history, and how consistently you practice the movement.
Instead of focusing on a deadline, look for measurable changes. If you're using less assistance, performing stronger negatives, increasing your vertical pulling strength, and improving your grip, you're moving closer to an unassisted pull-up.
The Bottom Line
If you want your first pull-up, prioritize the things that actually improve pull-up performance: vertical pulling strength, grip strength, upper-back and arm strength, specific pull-up practice, and progressive overload.
You also need to practice often enough to improve.
That's why we're currently training pull-ups three times per week at Iron and Mettle. We're giving our clients repeated exposure to the movement while systematically building the strength required to eventually perform it without assistance.
If you're looking for women's strength training in San Francisco and want to work toward your first pull-up, this is exactly the kind of skill we teach in our strength program.