How to do the Pull-Up
Step by step
- Grip the bar with palms facing away (overhand), hands a bit wider than shoulders.
- Start from a dead hang with arms straight and shoulders active.
- Pull your chest toward the bar, driving your elbows down and back.
- Keep pulling until your chin is clearly over the bar.
- Lower yourself slowly and fully back to the dead hang.
The thing people get wrong
Start each rep from a true dead hang and finish with the chin clearly over - avoid short bouncy pulls. Keep your core tight to stop swinging.
Coaching cue
Squeeze your glutes and keep your legs still so your whole body rises as one piece.
Stay safe
Check the bar is solidly mounted and can hold your full weight before you hang from it.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Do chin-ups, or use a band under one knee.
- Harder: Pause for two seconds with your chin over the bar.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Lats, Upper Back
- Secondary: Biceps, Core, Forearms
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.