One of the key things we’re working on with clients right now is their pulling strength. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it’s because pull ups are an awesome exercise. They work a tremendous amount of upper body muscles and also teach you to hold hollow position when done right. The ability to hold hollow position pays off in many other areas, from handstands to swimming.
One of the biggest problems people have when they first come into the gym is that they have weak posture. Their chest caves in, their upper back is rounded, and this is all caused by having become good at sitting still all day long. The problem with this is that the muscles in their upper back, which finish the pull up, are under-developed.
Going back to when I started in the industry, and there were no CrossFit gyms or other warehouse-type training facilities, the answer was simple. If people couldn’t do pull ups, we used the lat pulldown machine. That allowed us to use much smaller percentages of bodyweight and let them gradually develop some pulling power.
But then smart guys started noticing a few things. The first thing they noticed was that although people often became crazy strong at lat pulldowns, many still lacked the ability to do pull ups. Secondly, they noticed that with just vertical pulling, people often didn’t end up with any better posture than when they started.
The reason for this is simple. The lat is an internal rotator of the arm. What this means is that when added into a routine that is press-centric, as most gym routines are, there is usually a two or three to one balance between internal and external rotation. Vertical pulling can actually make your posture worse, which is one reason I don't emphasize it for pull up training.
But it turns out there are other drills that are even better for achieving your first pull up. Here are my top five: