How Many Pull-Ups You Need to Do to Prove Your Upper-Body Strength

It requires great strength to do a pull-up, making it a challenging move for many, but it's a powerful exercise to master because pull-ups strengthen multiple muscle groups, improve grip, and help with posture. Pull-ups are a great compound exercise to engage a variety of muscle groups across your arms, shoulders, back, and core. The work done on your back, shoulders, and core helps to improve posture, while the lifting of your entire body weight strengthens your grip. Lastly, pull-ups are great for building muscle endurance.

Pull-ups are effective for many reasons, but how many should you do to test your upper-body strength? I'm Josh York, Founder and CEO of GYMGUYZ, the world's largest in-home and on-site personal training company, and I will walk you through how many pull-ups to aim for, how to build endurance, and what a perfect pull-up looks like.

6 Pull-Up Alternatives That'll Help You Build a Bigger, Stronger Back

Why Pull-Ups are the Ultimate Test of Upper-Body Strength?

Pull-ups are the ultimate feat of upper-body strength due to the emphasis it places on your upper body. By solely using your upper-body muscles, you are forced to lift your entire body weight. It is a comprehensive workout that uses your lats, biceps, shoulders, and core in pulling strength and total body control. Pull-ups are also great for mimicking everyday activities like lifting objects, plus they are adaptable for all fitness levels.

What Makes a Perfect Pull-Up

• Proper grip: An overhand grip with your hands shoulder-width apart facing forward.
• Active hang: Shoulders retracted by engaging your shoulder blades before starting the pull.
• Core engagement: Activate your abs throughout the exercise to keep your body straight and aligned.
• Elbow position: As you go up, pull your elbows back and down towards your sides.
• Chest to bar: Aim to pull up until your chest is nearly hitting the bar.
• Controlled descent: Focus on controlling your body down back to the starting position.
• No swinging: Avoid extra movement by swinging throughout each rep.

How Many Pull-Ups Prove You Have Excellent Upper-Body Strength

-Beginner: A beginner should aim to complete one to four reps.

-Intermediate: As an intermediate, you should be able to complete eight to 15 reps.

-Advanced: At an advanced level, you want to be able to hit 15 or more reps.

Best Exercises to Improve Pull-Up Strength and Endurance

Pull-downs: Similarly to doing pull-ups, this exercise engages the same muscles – lats and biceps – through a controlled movement that progressively builds strength. These are a great stepping stone for beginners due to being able to adjust the weight of the machine rather than relying on your bodyweight. This also allows for muscle isolation and improved form to allow you to focus on your workout.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

-Hold the bar with an overhand grip.
-Squeeze your shoulder blades and lower the bar to chest level in a controlled manner.
-Keep your chest and chin out. Hold your back in a straight line.
-Return the bar to the starting position in a controlled raise.

Bent-over rows: The primary muscle for pulling movement, lats, are heavily utilized in both bent-over rows and pull-ups, also simulating a similar movement pattern. Bent-over rows will also activate your core and improve grip strength to help with doing more reps when doing pull-ups.

-Bend at your kneed and lean forward from your hips.
-Keep your spine aligned and straight.
-While holding the dumbbells in a neutral grip, raise your elbows to just below your shoulders.
-Slowly lower back to the starting position.

Deadlifts: One thing most people don't think about is how pull-ups target your back and glutes. Doing deadlifts strengthens these muscles along with your grip and core. This will help when it comes to form and endurance in doing pull-ups.

-Begin with feet shoulder-width apart.
-Grab the barbell with your hands just outside of your leg width.
-Keep your spine straight and sit back on your heels.
-Raise your body up while lifting from your legs and pushing from your hips.
-Control the weight back down from your hips.

Farmer's Walk: Critical elements of a pull-up include grip, core, and upper back strength. Farmer's Walk is a simple yet effective workout to increase all three elements. This exercise challenges your grip endurance and strength by using heavier weights or holding for a prolonged period of time. These will also stabilize your core to keep your posture right throughout the hold.

-Hold the dumbbells in a neutral grip.
-Engage your core to hold your body in a line.
-Pull your shoulders back through your lats.
-Walk or hold the weight for a selected distance or time.

Inverted rows: Inverted rows highlight the same muscle groups as pull-ups to allow for targeted strength gains. Unlike pull-ups, the starting position is best for beginners to improve scapular retraction, which is a crucial movement in pull-ups

-Lay flat on your back under the barbell.
-Grab the bar with an overhand grip.
-With your heels on the ground, pull yourself up and squeeze your shoulder blades.
-Slowly descend to the start position.

Hanging leg raises: Core engagement, grip strength, and muscle activation are the keys in hanging leg raises. The biggest muscle worked during this exercise is your core to maintain correct form during this workout while helping to avoid swinging during pull-ups.

-Hold the bar with an overhand grip
-With your arms fully extended, raise your legs straight in front of you to 90 degrees.
-Hold as long as you can.

Hollow holds: This is highly regarded as an excellent workout to improve pull-up strength and endurance. The hollow hold position emphasizes core strength and lat activation to hold the position for a prolonged period.

-Start by lying on your back.
-Push your lower back into the floor and flex your abs.
-Raise your feet off the ground three inches.
-Lift your arms straight up behind your head. Hold for a select period of time.

How Often You Should Test Your Pull-up Ability

Pull-up ability should be tested every four to six weeks. These testing periods offer progress reports to gauge how you are improving. The goal here is to ensure enough rest between how often you test. Proper rest time between testing allows for strength building and recovery, ultimately improving your reps each testing period. The less experienced you are, then the less you may test compared to an advanced person.