How to Do a Pull-Up
A pull-up is a bodyweight pull on an overhead bar with your palms facing away. Start from straight arms, pull your shoulders down, then drive your elbows down until your chin clears the bar. It trains the lats most, with the biceps and mid back helping. Most lifters do 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 12 reps.
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How to do a pull-up with proper form
- Grab the bar with your palms facing away, hands a little wider than your shoulders and thumbs wrapped around the bar.
- Hang with your arms straight and your feet off the floor. Squeeze your glutes and keep your legs still, straight or crossed behind you.
- Pull your shoulders down, away from your ears, before your elbows bend.
- Drive your elbows down toward your sides until your chin clears the bar. With an overhand grip they travel down and a little out. Lift your chest to the bar instead of reaching with your chin.
- Lower over 2 to 3 seconds until your arms are straight again.
Grip width and hand position, what changes
Hand position changes the pull-up less than most guides say. In 19 strength-trained men, overhand, underhand, neutral and rope pull-ups drew similar activity in eight shoulder and arm muscles. Only the middle traps worked harder overhand than neutral (Dickie 2017). Pick the grip your elbows and shoulders tolerate and that you can do strictly, and log each grip as its own exercise, since your reps will differ.
Full hang or half reps?
Start every rep from straight arms and finish with your chin over the bar. The bottom of the rep, where the lats are stretched, is the part to keep. Over 8 weeks in 30 trained lifters, partial reps that kept the stretched end matched full reps for arm muscle growth and lat pulldown strength (Wolf 2025). No study has tested top-half pull-ups, where the arms never straighten, so count those as half reps.
A dead hang does not mean hanging loose. Straighten your arms, then pull your shoulders down a little before your elbows bend. In muscle recordings, the lower traps and chest fired first and the biceps and lats peaked later in the rep (Youdas 2010), so the first inch of the pull comes from your shoulder blades.
If the bottom hurts your shoulders, stop just short of locked elbows and keep your shoulders pulled down. Hanging with your arms overhead narrows the space above the rotator cuff (Prinold 2016). Wide and underhand grips moved the shoulder in ways linked with impingement in that study, so a shoulder-width overhand grip is the safer start.
Arms straight at the bottom, chin over the bar at the top, legs still. Log anything less as a partial or a different exercise, so your numbers stay comparable from week to week.
Pull-up vs chin-up vs lat pulldown
| Attribute | Pull-up | Chin-up | Lat pulldown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grip | Overhand, a little wider than shoulders | Underhand, about shoulder width | Any bar or handle |
| Muscles | Lats, with more lower traps | Lats, with more biceps and chest | Lats, biceps and mid back |
| Load | Your bodyweight | Your bodyweight | Any weight on the stack |
| Best for | Back strength anywhere with a bar | More arm work, or when overhand hurts | Beginners, and extra back volume |
Lat activity was the same in the pull-up and chin-up (Youdas 2010), so pick the grip your elbows prefer and train both. Pulldown strength predicted pull-up strength in men but not in women (Johnson 2009), so practise the pull-up itself if a pull-up is your goal.
Pull-up myths the research does not support
"A wide grip builds a wider back." In 14 trained men, a grip 20% wider than shoulder width gave the same one-rep max, reps to failure and power as a shoulder-width grip (Ortega-Rodríguez 2021). A computer model found the lats took relatively more of the load with a wide grip (Urbanczyk 2020). We found no training study comparing pull-up grip widths for back growth.
"Chin-ups do not work the lats." The lats were the most active muscle in the pull-up and the chin-up, and did not differ between them (Youdas 2010). The chin-up added biceps and chest activity, and the pull-up added lower trap activity.
"Kipping pull-ups work the same muscles." A kip moves work from the arms to the hips and core. Biceps activity dropped, while abdominal and hip flexor activity rose (Dinunzio 2019). Kipping can get you more reps, not more back and arm work per rep.
"You need to lat pulldown your bodyweight before you can do a pull-up." College men's one-rep pulldown was 93% of their bodyweight, while their one-rep pull-up was 116% of it (Johnson 2009). Pulldown numbers run lower than pull-up numbers, so a pull-up can come first.
Muscles worked
How to build up to your first pull-up
Strength relative to bodyweight decides your first pull-up. In college lifters, the average woman's one-rep pull-up was 73% of her bodyweight, so she needed help to do one, while the average man's was 116% (Johnson 2009). After a training program, the women who could do a pull-up had more strength for their body mass than those who could not (Flanagan 2003). Getting stronger and losing body fat both move you closer.
Sets, reps and progression
Stop each set 1 to 2 reps short of failure, with every rep from straight arms to chin over the bar. Train pull-ups 2 to 3 times a week.
If you can do fewer than 5 strict reps, do several sets of 1 to 3 with full rest, and add assisted reps or negatives after them. When every set reaches 12, add weight with a dip belt or vest, or move to a harder variation, and drop back to 5 or 6 reps.
Common mistakes
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Stopping short at the bottomStraighten your arms on every rep. The stretched bottom is the part of the rep worth keeping.
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Reaching with your chinCraning your neck makes the rep look complete. Pull until your chin clears the bar with your neck long, and lift your chest toward the bar.
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Swinging without meaning toSqueeze your glutes and keep your legs still. A kip moves work from your arms and back to your hips (Dinunzio 2019).
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Shrugging into the pullPull your shoulders down, away from your ears, before your elbows bend.
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Dropping from the topLower over 2 to 3 seconds. A fast drop skips the lowering half of the rep.
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Gripping too wideIf your shoulders pinch, bring your hands in to just outside shoulder width. A wider grip gave no more strength or reps (Ortega-Rodríguez 2021).
Pull-up variations and progressions
Questions people ask
How many pull ups can an average person do?
Among Gravitus lifters who log pull-ups, the median best set was 10 reps for men and 8 for women (Gravitus data from 20,000+ men and 2,400+ women, September 2026). The top 10% reached 16 and 12. These are people who train, so the average across everyone is lower.
How to build up to a pull up?
Hang from the bar, pull with assistance for 6 to 12 strict reps, add slow negatives, and test a full rep once 8 reps with 20% of your bodyweight as assistance feel solid. Getting stronger and losing body fat both help (Flanagan 2003).
Do pull-ups work shoulders?
Yes, but not as the main mover. The rear delts and rotator cuff help: the infraspinatus reached 71 to 79% of its maximum in pull-ups and chin-ups (Youdas 2010). The lats do most of the work.
What muscles does the pull-up work?
The lats most, with the teres major. The biceps, brachialis, lower and middle traps, rhomboids, lower chest and rotator cuff help, and the forearms and core hold you on the bar.
Does pull-up grip width matter?
Less than most guides claim. A grip 20% wider than shoulder width gave the same max and reps as a shoulder-width grip (Ortega-Rodríguez 2021). Wide grips move the shoulder in ways linked with impingement (Prinold 2016), so start with your hands just outside your shoulders.
Should you go to a full dead hang on pull-ups?
Yes. Straighten your arms on every rep, but keep your shoulders pulled down a little instead of hanging loose. If the bottom hurts, stop just short of locked elbows.
Is the pull-up better than the lat pulldown?
For a pull-up goal, yes. Pulldown strength predicted pull-up strength in men but not in women (Johnson 2009). The pulldown is easier to load in small steps, so most lifters do well using both.
Why can I do pushups but not pullups?
A push-up lifts only part of your bodyweight, because your feet carry the rest. A pull-up lifts all of it. In college women, the average one-rep pull-up was 73% of bodyweight, so a full rep needed help (Johnson 2009).
Log every set and Gravitus charts your reps, times and records from week to week.
Get GravitusRelated exercises
- Youdas et al. 2010. J Strength Cond Res 24(12):3404-3414.
- Dickie et al. 2017. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 32:30-36.
- Johnson et al. 2009. J Strength Cond Res 23(3):1022-1028.
- Ortega-Rodríguez et al. 2021. Res Q Exerc Sport 92(4):651-658.
- Urbanczyk et al. 2020. Scand J Med Sci Sports 30(11):2205-2214.
- Prinold and Bull 2016. J Sci Med Sport 19(8):629-635.
- Dinunzio et al. 2019. Sports Biomech 18(6):622-635.
- Wolf et al. 2025. PeerJ 13:e18904.
- Flanagan et al. 2003. Res Q Exerc Sport 74(1):52-59.