Pull-ups without a bar: how to learn to do pull-ups from scratch at home

fighter of the “Our Cause” league, world and European judo champion, founder of the Judo League with Stars

Pull-ups are a great way to increase your strength and develop your upper body muscles. It’s a great exercise to build a powerful back, but it takes time to learn it. It is a very difficult movement not only for beginners, but also for people who are very overweight. After all, you will have to lift yourself up with only your back muscles and biceps.

To perform it you need a tourniquet, but not everyone has this sports equipment at home, and visits to the gym sometimes do not clash with a busy schedule or other life situations. Today we will talk about how to make the upper body stronger and prepare for mastering the bar.

Съдържание

Features of training with pull-ups

If you want to master pull-ups, start with basic exercises for beginners. What can you replace pull-ups at home, if there is no tourniquet? This is exactly the case when you need to look around at home and determine what can help you.

But before I tell you about the exercises, I will describe the basic rules of training.

Warm-up. Before doing pull-ups, remember to warm up your muscles. This will allow you to avoid injuries and increase the effect of the exercise. Make a special emphasis on the muscles of the chest, shoulder girdle, back, abs, biceps and triceps. Because these are the areas in your body that will be involved in the pull-up.

Types of Grips. You have the opportunity to exercise with different grip types. The main ones are the upper and reverse. They differ in the positioning of the hand. In the upper grip, the hands are directed with the back of the palm to your face, in the reverse grip – with the inside. Using different grip helps to change the load during training and prevent muscle adaptation.

Correct body position. Hands should be shoulder width apart if possible. During the exercise, the shoulder blades should be together, back straight, shoulders down.

Speed of execution. All movements during pull-ups should be slow and without jerks. After lifting, you need to stay at the top for a few seconds and only then return to the starting position. This is necessary to maximize the feeling of tension in the muscles of the chest, arms, back and abs.

Дишане. The main mistake is breathing incorrectly. Remember that you should exhale on exertion, inhale – on relaxation. With improper breathing, the muscles will not be oxygenated. This will reduce their strength and endurance.

Load distribution. If one side of the body receives more load than the other, a muscle imbalance will occur. This leads to the risk of joint injuries.

How to replace the tourniquet at home: a set of exercises

Horizontal pull-ups

The closest variant to the classic one. They develop the broadest muscles of the back, the posterior bundles of the delts, the trapezius muscle, the shoulder muscle, and also strengthen the stabilizers of the spine and biceps. To perform the exercise you will need a table, depending on its width will determine the grip – wide or narrow.

Техника

Put your legs and torso under the table, grasp the table top firmly with your palms – on top or on the sides. Keep your torso flat in a hanging position on straight arms.
With an exhalation, pull your chest up to the table by bending your elbows.
As you inhale, slowly unfold your arms, keeping your body line straight.
You can perform this same exercise on two sturdy chairs and a straight stick (broom, pin, and so on). With the help of them you will create an improvised bar. However, it must be fixed very well to prevent injuries.

Pulling dumbbells to the waist in an incline

In this exercise, most of the load is put on the broadest muscles. It also involves the rhomboids, round muscles, biceps, posterior deltoids and trapezius. As well as hips, glutes, spinal extensors and abdominal muscles as stabilizers. If there are no dumbbells at home, you can use any improvised weights, such as water bottles.

Техника

Starting position: holding dumbbells in your hands, bend forward. In this position your back should be straight. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.
The grip can be straight, with a horizontal position of the dumbbells, as when working with a barbell, and parallel, in which the hands move strictly along the body.
As you exhale, pull the dumbbells to your waist, bringing your shoulder blades together. It is very important to control the execution of movements, using the strength of only the widest muscles.
As you inhale, slowly lower the dumbbells without rounding your back.

Pull-up with a doorway

Only your own weight is used for the load without additional weights.

Техника

Stand in front of the doorway and grab both sides of it.
Place your feet a little closer to the doorway so that you can lean back with your torso.
Remember, the farther back your body is, the harder it will be to pull up.
Sit up comfortably so that you can shift your weight to your arms.
Perform pull-ups in this position.

Pull-ups with a towel and a door

For this method of pull-ups without a bar, you will need a towel and a doorway.

Техника

Tie the ends of the towel in a knot on both sides. Then throw these knots over the top of the door and close it tightly. Make sure that the door does not open in your direction. This can lead to falls and injuries. Remember to check that the knots are securely fastened before doing pull-ups.
Perform pull-ups in this position.

Learning to do pull-ups at home is possible. If you have nowhere technically and physically to perform pull-ups, the listed exercises will come to your rescue. Beginning athletes can raise their physical level to the ability to perform pull-ups, as well as easily conduct training for the target muscle group in case there is no opportunity to train on the bar.

By the way, even those athletes who are able to perform a small number of repetitions on the bar can additionally train their muscles by including these exercises in their training. So the process of development will go faster, muscles and ligaments will get stronger, the necessary endurance and strength will appear. Go ahead, and everything will work out!