I went for a max chin-up attempt the other day and got 11 good reps with the form I was aiming for. Going over 10 reps was a milestone for me as I was stuck on around 7 or 8 for ages! However, once I had broken through that particular plateau, progress was faster and […]

You don’t have to be able to do muscle-ups and front levers to benefit from training with rings. They make even old favourites like push-ups and dips more challenging because you have to work to stabilise them. You’ll probably be surprised at how much more difficult an exercise can be on the rings – I […]

I like going to the gym, but sometimes I wish I could have my own gym at home. A power rack in the basement, a pull-up bar in the lounge, maybe some gymnastic rings and a rope on the tree outside.
Except that I don’t have a basement. Or a garden, let alone a tree. I […]

The girl in the video clip below has excellent pull-up form, doing full range of motion every time. I can’t always say the same for myself!
Pull-up clip
A popular method to train pull-ups is to use negative reps, i.e. you are only completing the negative portion of the exercise, the down phase. Use a chair […]

There is absolutely no reason why you, dear reader, can’t train to do a pull-up. It’s not easy, but it is achievable.
Men are usually slightly better equipped for pull-ups as they naturally have more muscle mass and upper body strength but most of them find pull-ups one of the toughest exercises as well. Although women […]

I saw a snippet about the Tactical Strength Challenge competition in Ultra Fit magazine. There are three events: deadlift, pull-up and kettlebell snatch.
According to the website, the purpose of the Tactical Strength Challenge is to test absolute strength (deadlift), bodyweight-relative strength (pull-ups), and cardiovascular endurance (kettlebell snatches). The three events test a trade-off between these […]