How girls pull themselves up. Pull-ups on the bar: a girl’s real experience. Weak back muscles: what to do

A gymnastic apparatus is an ideal option for girls to correct their shape, outline the contours and curves of the body. Exercises on the horizontal bar do not require the purchase of a subscription or expensive equipment, and the effect is comparable to the result of intensive training in the gym.

From a biomechanical point of view, sit-ups are comparable to vertical rows, where body weight is used instead of weights. Despite the variety of versions, are involved to varying degrees: lats, biceps, triceps. chest, deltas, teres major, brachialis, serrated, radial.

First the body needs to be prepared. It’s better to start with a free hang, trying to stay in an uncomfortable position for 2 minutes (until muscle failure). To hang on the bar for a long time, your arms must be strong. Will help strengthen muscles.

Option for the unprepared:

we approach the wall by about 70 cm;
on the chest line we rest our hands on the surface;
Without lifting your feet, move your upper body forward.

A few days later We do push-ups from the floor, standing on bent knees. Place your palms wider than your shoulders on the mat and lower your chest down. Having adapted, we take the lying position.

Carpal expanders will also help increase strength.

Pull-up technique for girls

Before training, jogging and a set of warm-up exercises for 10 minutes are important. The effect depends on the quality of execution.

For beginners, correct hand position is important. When gripping the bar, turn your palm away from you, holding your thumb from below.
Smoothly lift your body up until your chin exceeds the height of the bar.
Slowly straightening our arms, we lower ourselves down. The rise and fall times are the same.

In order for a girl to learn how to do pull-ups on the horizontal bar from scratch, the following points must be observed:

In the positive phase, we move our elbows slightly to the sides.
A maximally tense press will not allow the body to sway.
Let's watch our breathing. An even rhythm will save physical resources and allow you to stay on the apparatus longer.

How to teach a girl to do pull-ups on the horizontal bar from scratch in video format:

If the technique seems difficult, we master the principle of negative repetitions. The method is relevant if a girl cannot do even one pull-up. Thanks to the static-dynamic load, practice greatly loads the muscle fibers.

to eliminate the moment of getting up, we stand on a stool;
with bent arms we cling to the base;
we lower ourselves onto the support.

The duration of the negative phase is at least 5 seconds. The value increases with each subsequent workout. At first, 5 times in 3 approaches is enough.

We master the technique. Having secured the crossbar 80 cm from the floor, we cling to it with a direct grip and hang. Over time we raise the bar.

How to help yourself

Using the elastic band of the expander, it is easy to improve the biomechanics of movement and the number of repetitions.

We choose depending on body weight - medium, strong tension, fix it on the crossbar.
We insert the crossed and bent limbs into the loop. You can move your feet.
When lifting, the elastic band will provide maximum tension and partially compensate for the body weight, thereby simplifying the process.

The higher the resistance, the easier the lifts, so we choose an accessory depending on the physical progression.

Alternative– rubber loops of different lengths and tensions.

We stand with our knees and feet on a spring band suspended from both ends of the crossbar.
By pushing from below, we fly over the horizontal bar.

The work (of the simulator) in the gym is based on an identical principle. We start working with a tight loop. When you manage to do 5 repetitions, replace it with an analogue with less resistance.

Types of grips

The width of the arms shifts the load.

By placing palms slightly wider than shoulders (pronated grip), we perform lifts due to the efforts of the muscles of the arms and back.
Neutral (distance of brushes up to 60 cm) safe for joints, loads the upper back.
With a wide hand position biceps are “turned off” from the process. Slow rises are realized by the back muscles.
Supinated Great for developing strength and giving your arms shape. The wrist-to-biceps movement loads the biceps tendons.
If you grab the bar like a bar, mixed grip will provide adhesion to the base. As a result, it is permissible to increase the number of repetitions.
With a narrow setting We try to touch the reiki with our palms.

You can grab the bar from above (direct) and from below (reverse) and place your hands on different sides (combined). In the first case, the shoulders develop, in the other, the flexor muscles.

Advice! There is no need to distance your arms widely, otherwise, due to the reduction in the range of motion, the muscles will not receive optimal load. It is better to prefer the pronated (classical) position.

We train every other day. We bring the number of takes to 20 x 4. You can achieve this result in 5-6 months. There is no point in forcing achievements - 20 convulsive movements will bring less benefit compared to 6 lifts performed technically correctly.

My own observations/thoughts about pull-ups (applies mainly to girls). Quite obvious things, but can be useful.

1. They say that only 5% of women can do pull-ups. It's simple, 95% of it is simply not necessary - other interests in sports or in life in general. The only limitation is excess weight. Your body type also matters. If specifically for women (hips wider than shoulders), it will take more time and work.

2. Hard exercise for girls. It is better not to set a specific deadline. It might happen in a couple of months, or maybe in six months. But it will work out 100% if pull-ups are your priority.

3. Australian pull-ups prepare the muscles for regular pull-ups, but not the head. As soon as something starts to work out in the vertical plane (negative, partial, pull-ups with an elastic band), it’s better to move the Australian pull-ups to the end of the workout, and in the meantime, use fresh energy to do what you can do on the horizontal bar.

4. The key point is crossing the right angle at the elbows. Then it’s just an increase in amplitude, things will go faster and more fun.

5. Rubber loops are very good helpers. The elastic band allows you to fully feel the movement, understand what and how to include at a particular moment, this helps in the transition from elastic pull-ups to independent ones.

6. Elastic is a rather insidious thing. With its help, do things that the body is not yet ready for, primarily ligaments. You can get injured, or rather get accumulated injury. All you have to do is listen to your body’s signals.

7. By choice of elastic band. Two main options - And . The numbers in parentheses indicate the resistance force of the loop at different stretches. The first is 50 cm, the second is 150 cm.

Green - 100% guarantee of pull-ups for a more or less trained girl. But there may be problems with getting into the loop; it is very tight, and there may not be enough strength to pull it back to the level where you can put your foot down. It’s better to look for a place where you can climb into the loop from above (wall bars + horizontal bar design).

The downside may be that you outgrow it quite quickly; it does too much for you. Ways to reduce support are to stand in the loop with two feet, one foot, two knees, then one knee.

The purple one gives much less support, it is possible that you won’t be able to pull yourself up right away; shortening the loop will help here - two or three turns around the crossbar before threading the long part into the short one. Then remove the additional revolutions, and then, as in the case of the green one - two legs, one leg, etc.
The downside is disappointment at the first unsuccessful pull-up attempts.

8. Amplitude. There was a mistake when transitioning from rubber band pull-ups to independent ones - incomplete straightening of the arms below. If it weren't for the video, I would not have understood sooner.

9. Statics to help. Statics helps - fixation on the arms bent at the elbows on a horizontal bar or under a low crossbar. Several approaches for maximum time at the end of the workout, before the cool-down.

If you are a girl, reading this article, want to learn how to do pull-ups, but you still have questions, then be sure to write them in the comments. We will try to help!

The basis for building a beautiful, toned female body is strength exercises. There is nothing better for shaping your upper muscles than pull-ups. However, not every girl is able to do at least one pull-up on the horizontal bar. With perseverance and a competent approach, you can very quickly achieve good results in this direction.

Where to begin?

To learn how to do a pull-up, you need to develop good grip strength. To do this, you need to master hanging on the bar (bringing the exercise time to two minutes). Therefore, answering the question of how to teach a girl to do pull-ups from scratch, we can give recommendations for initially strengthening the forearms and wrist muscles. The best and most accessible way at home is the push-up exercise.

Let's start doing push-ups

Girls who cannot perform standard push-ups are recommended to start with lightweight options:

wall push-ups;
push-ups from the floor with emphasis on the knees.

Once these modifications of the exercise are mastered, you can move on to the full version - with an emphasis on the toes. Doing push-ups will allow a girl to learn how to do pull-ups on the horizontal bar, as well as strengthen and make her muscles more toned.

Negative pull-ups

After several weeks of training with push-ups, when the level of strength increases and the muscles become stronger, you can move directly to pull-ups. However, you may not have enough strength to complete the exercise. Therefore, you need to start mastering it not completely, but from an easy, negative phase. For this:

Stand on a stand (bench, chair, stepladder) in front of the horizontal bar so that your chin is at the level of the bar.
Grab the bar with both hands in a position slightly wider than your shoulders, with your elbows out to the sides.
Lower yourself down as slowly as possible, maintaining working tension in your muscles.
Repeat the exercise as many times as necessary (5-6 times in one approach, about three approaches in total).

Correct pull-up technique

As you regularly master the negative phase of the movement, in a few weeks you will have the strength to perform the exercise in full amplitude. Therefore, the question here will be not about how to teach a girl to do pull-ups from scratch, but about how to do pull-ups correctly.

The hands are placed on the bar with the palms facing away from you with a closed grip at a level slightly wider than shoulder width.
The body is lifted slowly, without jerking, until the chin crosses the level of the bar.
The elbows should be spread to the sides, the abdominal muscles should be tense, breathing should be rhythmic with the movement (inhale when lowering, exhale when rising).
The speeds of the positive and negative phases are approximately equal.

Pull-up assistant

Not everyone can learn how to do pull-ups right away, especially if they learn the exercise at home and on their own. Therefore, you can use an elastic expander (rubber band) or loops. Their upper part is tied to the crossbar, and their lower part serves to support the user’s bent legs with the feet or knees. The length of the tape is selected in such a way that the trainee receives an additional impulse when lifting.

Types of grip

Another important aspect of the question of how a girl can learn to do pull-ups on a horizontal bar concerns the types of hand grip. There are several options:

Pronated (classical). Palms away from you at a level slightly wider than shoulder width. The back and arms work.

Neutral. Palms facing each other. Safest for joints.

Wide. The grip is more than 60 cm. Mainly the back muscles work.
Supinated. Palms facing yourself. The muscles of the arms are mainly loaded.

When mastering pull-ups, it is better to use a classic grip. This will allow you to quickly learn this exercise and understand how the muscles of the body work.

Traditional version of pull-ups. It is considered one of the least traumatic. Therefore, be sure to include it in your set of exercises for the back muscles.

Back muscles
Forearm flexors

Technique:

Grab the bar with an overhand grip equal to shoulder width.
Pull yourself up, squeezing your shoulder blades and trying to touch the bar with your upper chest.
At the lowest point, for better stretching of the back muscles, fully straighten your arms.

In this embodiment, the maximum load falls on the arm muscles, namely the biceps. Therefore, in addition to overhand grip pull-ups, always do 3-4 sets of this exercise so that your arms are always in good physical shape.

Latissimus dorsi muscles
Biceps

Technique:

Grab the bar with an underhand grip equal to shoulder width.
Hang with your back slightly arched and your legs crossed.
Pull yourself up. At the very beginning of the movement, focus on moving your shoulders back and down.
At the top point, the head should proudly rise above the bar.

We believe that this option is the most useful for training the back muscles. Unlike other types of pull-ups, in this exercise the biceps plays the smallest role and due to this, the back muscles receive maximum load.

Paired round
Top of the lats
Trapezius muscles

Technique:

Grasp the bar with an overhand grip much wider than your shoulders.
Without straining your biceps and squeezing your shoulder blades, pull yourself up, trying to touch the bar with your upper chest.
Arch your back and look straight up.
Pause for a second at the top and return to the starting position.

I remember very well the moment when I was able to perform my first pull-up without any help! It was early 2008 and I was (unfortunately) awaiting knee surgery, oh those old sports injuries... The extent of the injuries kept me from being able to train my lower body, I could only manage some of the lungs lying exercises.

I'm someone who likes to run, jump, and be active, so my injuries were a huge limitation, but there was a hidden benefit: it encouraged me to focus more on strengthening my upper body, something I had previously paid less attention to. .

During this time, I put a lot of emphasis on exercises such as pull-ups, push-ups and hanging presses (performed while hanging upside down). To do this, I used suspenders (belts) and the help of friends in order to somehow be able to raise my chin above the border of the horizontal bar. To be honest, I would hardly be able to start this without help and support.

One day the thought came to me: “I wonder if I can do this?!” I love moments like these in which you learn the most amazing things about yourself, your strengths and your abilities. There is no attachment to the outcome, just curiosity and playfulness, in the spirit of “I can do this.” I decided to give up my auxiliary “braces” and test my strength, grabbed the horizontal bar with an underhand grip... Yes, and it worked!

A few of my favorite exercises: weighted pull-ups, kick-up push-ups, hand balancing

When I first did pull-ups on the horizontal bar myself, I felt unstoppable. I realized that everything I told myself about what I could or could not do was a lie - after all, there is something greater in me than I can imagine. And this was the beginning of my “path of strength.” The first pull-up really confirmed me in answering the question - WHY am I on this path. One simple exercise, lifting my body above the bar, had a profound effect on me that affected the rest of my life.

Being strong on the outside helped me become strong on the inside. My indomitable spirit helped me accomplish this difficult feat.

It was the first pull-up that triggered a deep self-affirmation within me. It took away my feeling of being doomed by how my body looked now and instead allowed me to realize what I could do with my body.
If I can do a pull-up on a bar without any help, what else can I do? What obstacles can I overcome?!

After some time, my success in push-ups and pull-ups became significantly better. I went through the stage where I wondered “if I could do this even once” and reached the result of sixteen regular pull-ups; with an additional weight of 22 kg and even sometimes did exercises with my small child hanging on my back. I did pull-ups on rings, cables, horizontal bars almost anywhere and everywhere. Pull-ups are my favorite exercise. And you know, one thing about pull-ups that makes me feel even better is being able to help other women learn how to do pull-ups.

The reason I write this blog and make YouTube videos is to help other women find the strength to start. Secretly, I hope to build an army of strong and incredible Lady Warriors. Strong women can fundamentally change the landscape of our modern world, and I am glad that I can be a part of this movement.

1) Choose the right grip!

Often disappointments befall us precisely because of the incorrect grip of the horizontal bar with our hands.

For beginners. Using an underhand grip (palms facing your face) or an overhand grip (classic, palms facing away) gives you stability in your hands. This moves most of the muscles, allowing you to perform the pull-up correctly and making it easier to do.

You also need to make sure that your grip isn't too wide or too narrow: for most people, "just shoulder-width" is the optimal width. Shop around until you find the perfect distance for you.

And finally, when I say capture, I mean CAPTURE. Because you need to hold on to the horizontal bar, he is not a small puppy whose leash you hold with two fingers. This is a signal to the brain that your body is starting to work.

2) Try to do more pull-ups

Yes, more! When I first started doing pull-ups seriously, I only did pull-ups once a week out of fear of overtraining or getting injured. And, as you can imagine, my progress was painfully slow. The good news is that you can do pull-ups several times a week and still keep your joints healthy without the risk of injury.

The key to this is change (variability) and rest (recovery). Vary the grips, loads, loads and intensity - and by no means, do not load yourself with tons of exercises and loads every time you work out, sometimes even use more help from others than usual. Take it a little at a time so that you can give your joints time to adjust and rest. And of course, give your body the time, attention and nutrition it needs to recover.

3) Don’t rush to set records!

I know I know. You want to be good at it, I understand that, BUT the best thing you can do to improve your results is to promise yourself that every lift will be “hard”. That is, when you have your last strength left, don’t waste it for the sake of a record, wait….

Real strength comes from developing skill and practice, not rushing to achieve a record and giving 100%. When you train your skills, you are preparing your body for success. But if you train your body for reputation (show off), you are already doomed to failure.

Be patient. Everything has its time.

4) Use full range of motion

When it comes to pull-ups themselves, nothing is more important than the right foundation.
In other words, the proper foundation is using the full range of motion. Start from the bottom: arms FULLY extended, shoulders collected. Try to raise your chin above the horizontal bar when pulling up.

When you have the right foundation, performing strength movements will be more effective.

5) Use different types of help

When I just started training (at that time it took place in a small gym in Los Angeles), we did not have modern sports equipment, instead there was an old Graviton exercise machine, which provided a little resistance but at the same time helped with pull-ups.

And do you know what happened as a result of such training? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing! This continued for

Not the best choice!

for 5 years, until I started using auxiliary belts and the help of loved ones, only then I was able to truly feel the surge of strength.

Look, “Graviton” is definitely better than nothing. But you know what's even better - spend a small amount of money on braces (belts) that you can bring with you to the gym to make the process of pulling up easier. Nowadays, most modern gyms provide the opportunity to use such braces, distributing them directly in the gym, so you may not even need to buy anything.
A simple loop around the horizontal bar and that's it, your lift is ready. You put your leg (which is easier) or your knee (more difficult) into the bottom loop and everything you need to get started. This technique, when pulling up, will help you rise up with the help of a leg push.

Another effective way is the help of friends. I’ll tell you the example of training with my youngest son. Here's how we do it: first, he grabs the horizontal bar, I, in turn, grab his feet (thus creating some kind of support for him) or simply grab his ankles. When he starts to pull himself up, I help him a little to overcome gravity, and when his chin is above the horizontal bar, I release him, thereby giving him the opportunity to hold out on his own as long as he can. True, when he runs out of strength, he screams hysterically for me to help him down, =) “well, you understand that it’s better for you not to scream like that in the gym”?!

You will succeed, I believe in you! Share your achievements with friends, send them to me on Instagram, Twitter! I want not only to see your progress, but also to be there to help you on your path to strength.

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