How To Break My Pull-Up Plateau?
So you’ve started to take your pull up training seriously. But you can’t get past the 6 or 7 mark. You’re also thinking 10 would be a nice number to get to as as a man who takes his strength seriously. Especially as it’s considered a good score for getting into the US Military.
I'm going to break down the exact principles you need to follow to skyrocket your pull-up numbers. Most importantly, you need to ensure perfect technique whilst doing so.
Yeah, I know, most of us just want to crank out reps, but trust me, that’s not the way to go.
Stick around and find out why.
Principle 1: Technique Over Reps to break your pull up plateau
The Common Mistake
Let's correct a mistake everyone seems to be making: focusing on reps over technique.
Look, you can blast out pull-ups until your arms fall off, but if you’re sacrificing form, you’re not doing yourself any favors.
What do we mean by sacrificing form?
I go through what constitutes perfect form here.
The essence is this:
You need to be able to hold a hollow body, whilst keeping the legs locked.
A full pull up moves from a dead hang, to chest to the bar, back to dead hang. No exceptions
If any of the above are not adhered to, you’re sacrificing form
If indeed you do progress your reps by sacrificing form, you’re just reinforcing movement patterns and poor technique, which inevitably leads to a prolonged plateau.
The Fix
Prioritize perfect technique over the number of reps.
This might mean that you need to regress your movement and work through the progressions again…something well worth doing
For those who need a refresher on what perfect technique looks like, check out my technique video.
If your form is compromised, your progress will be too. Simple as that.
Principle 2: Avoid Failure to break your pull up plateau
The Trap
Reaching failure might seem like a badge of honor, but it's actually hurting your pull-up game.
We need to differentiate between technical failure and absolute failure.
Absolute failure means your muscle can't do what it needs to at all.
Technical failure means in order to do more reps, you need to cheat to do so.
When it comes to pull ups, it’s very easy to ignore technical failure and start compromise technique in order to get the reps done.
There’s an issue with this.
In order to make progress, we want to ensure we are hitting the right movement pattern with enough volume to progress.
If we allow technique to break down, we might not be exposing the movements we need to the volume required to make progress.
So it’s important that we work to technical failure, something I demonstrate in this video
The Fix
Go to about one or two reps shy of failure.
Make sure your technique is on point for each rep.
If you're about to grind out a rep just for the sake of it, stop right there.
Take a two-minute break and refocus on form.
Principle 3: Add Sets, Not Just Reps to break your pull up plateau
The Mistake
We often get obsessed with adding more reps to our sets, but there's another way to get in more work: adding more sets.
The Strategy
Instead of pushing for more reps, focus on adding more sets of perfect reps.
This increases your overall training volume and allows you to get more quality work in, thereby improving your pull-ups significantly over time.
Now, this does not mean reps are important, they absolutely are.
If we’re in hypertrophy block, for example, we want to be hitting 6-10 reps.
If we’re in a strength block, we want to be hitting 3-5 reps.
However, the issues arise when, as is common, we’re trying to hit a certain number of reps, as we’ve set that as a goal.
This then means that we are unlikely to progress training volume, as every time we do a pull up session, we’re desperately trying to hit a 10th rep in every set.
Combine that with the fact that we’re working beyond technical failure, we have an issue on our hands.
To break your pull up plateau, you’d be better to follow a systematic protocol that guarantees progress
Progression Protocol to help you to break your pull up plateau
Principle 4: Utilize Regressions to break your pull up plateau
What Are Regressions?
If you find that you can only perform three perfect pull-ups and the fourth one is questionable, use regressions.
These are easier versions of the exercise that help you maintain perfect form.
Supported pull up. A regression of a pull up that may help you to break a pull up plateau.
How To Use Them
If you sense that you are reaching technical failure, one strategy to ensure you don’t whilst helping you to hit the required training volme, is to immediately switch to a regression (easier version) such as supported pull-ups, single-leg supported pull-ups, or band-assisted pull-ups.
These variations give you a bit of assistance and allow you to continue performing the movement pattern correctly, but with a lighter load.
Principle 5: Get Stronger Through Weighted Pull-Ups to break your pull up plateau
The Underused Strategy
Here's the golden nugget no one ever talks about: if you can already do five perfect pull-ups, it's time to add some weight.
I think the most obvious reason why people aren’t increasing their pull ups, is because they are not strong enough to.
Doing more and more reps is not getting stronger.
Adding load to the movement pattern is.
Weighted Pull Ups- a gamechanger in breaking your pull up plateau
Why It Works
This allows for adaptations that you can’t achieve when simply going for reps.
These adaptations include improved neural efficiency, and enhanced connective tissue strength.
When you add weight, even just a small amount, you're essentially telling your body, "Hey, we need to beef up our game here."
This not only helps in making those muscles bigger and stronger but also improves your overall pull-up performance by increasing your ability to handle more reps and load over time.
Once you add weight to your pull-ups and get stronger in that variation, hitting higher rep numbers becomes a breeze.
Conclusion: Time To Smash That pull up Plateau
Alright, so now you have the roadmap to go from doing just 5 pull-ups to crushing 10, 15, or even more—all with perfect technique.
It's not just about adding reps; it's about mastering the exercise from all angles.
So go ahead, implement these principles, and let's start pulling some serious numbers.
