Letter of Recommendation: The Pull-Up

My favorite exercise! Wish for more pull-up bars in public -- for kids and adults, various heights. Just hanging relaxes the spine. Lift knees for abs. So much can be done on a bar. Thanks for the great article!

Condescension about perfect pull-up form is much more admirable than arrogance and bullying about muscle size and pull-up numbers!

Good article. I was a non-athletic nerd, a Brooklyn boy of the 1950s and 60s who could not climb the dreaded rope dangling from the ceiling or do a single pull-up. I was not proud of this non-achievement – but neither was I ashamed of it. There were other pale scholars and slackers with whom I would sit by a wall, chatting and waiting for the bell to ring. I was not hostile to exercise, or scornful of it – just indifferent.
In middle life I discovered weight lifting – with free weights, that is -- a beautiful, quiet centering – utterly non-competitive. Lift a weight over your head – not an excessive weight, but a weight with some heft – and your mind is emptied of any thought but lifting the weight. Your body balances itself. A poor man’s Zen. And – like Sam in the park – I found my fellow lifters to be friendly, helpful, quiet.
And now in old age I have a chin-up/pull-up contraption that sets in a doorway at home. (It allows you to hang with your palms facing each other, if you want. What’s that called?) I merely hang from it – not lifting – just hanging – and letting my body go as limp as I can, especially my back. Hang for ten, fifteen seconds, twenty seconds -- backbone stretching without effort. If I try to lift my knees, core muscles exercise themselves thoroughly. A complete cure for sciatica. More important: a pleasure. A pleasure without pressure. In fact, an exercise that relieves pressure.
Thank you for your pleasing article.

"Now that's a pull-up"? Yeah that didn't happen

truly motivating.

I started exercising when I retired after a small gap of 25 years. My goal was core strength and flexibility. Pull ups, I was told by my trainer, were the most difficult exercise one could do. When I could finally do one, it was like winning the Super Bowl. My pull up goal at 70 is to still be able to do four perfect ones at 80.

Thank you for an exquisite piece of writing - beautiful and evocative on so many different levels!

beautiful article

Hey Sam. Now THAT'S an article!

Awesome story, I loved it. Thanks for the inspiration, I will give it a try!

In addition to pull ups just plain hanging is very beneficial.

beautifully written article. a Sunday morning treat.

Some of this hits too close to home, even over the decades. What is it about this exercise that has that effect?
In my case, it wasn't a sadistic gym teacher, but a nice one in 8th grade who mistook my-then competency in basketball for the ability to do a dip in front of everyone on parallel bars. Different motivation; same sad result.
This also reminds me of an essay I did in the 7th grade on "My Goal" to do a chin-up.
Thanks, I needed these flash-backs. Don't even have the basketball to fall back on now.
Still, in the low-60s now, maybe it's time to get there.
So, Sam, thanks for the inspiration for what better be temporary, if self-imposed humiliation.
Hope those lat pull-downs carry over, but I doubt it.
Don't suppose machine-assisted ones count?
Back straight, though, helps, huh?

For those who can't do even one pull-up, a good way to start is to do angled pull-ups with feet resting on something (bench or chair) so there is less weight. Increase the angle until you're ready to support all your weight. Excellent article. Thanks.

I can do a pull-up about as well as any T. rex. I think.

While I commend your dedication, a monomania on one exercise is not a fitness program. And judging from your derision of the culture and your penchant for smoothies, I doubt you ever were a gym rat.

Pull-ups are hard to do and extremely effective. I do pull-ups and yoga planks and that’s it for my upper body training. Forget about expensive gyms and even pricier gimmicks. A few sets a couple days a week and you’re ready for the beach.

The Times a while back had an article that taller people have a different advantage/disadvantage with regard to pull ups. Something about the length of the lever arm. Does anyone remember it? Which had the advantage?

However the fascination with numbers, reps, the good ole "how many can you get?" mentality infects the arm-yarding public from the president's little athletes on up. This conspires to destroy the finest form of the fit arts. As a rookie substitute teacher in Everett Washington and longtime pull-up aficionado I was called upon to offer my services at the local high school as a gym teacher for the day. A football coach with biceps the size of my quads handed me a clipboard as a group of young men and a few young women entered the weight room. Intro to weights, test day. "They'll bring you their paper, just mark down how many they get", he growled, jerking his head up at the bar. Simple. Or not so simple? "Great sure, but, ah, coach?" I asked. "How about form, can they use legs? Momentum?" Coach Biceps' eyes rolled. I might have asked for wine at a beergarten. "If the chin gets above the bar, it counts!" he said. He spun and left to police the standing long jump station. I dutifully took up the clipboard, "Ok who's up I need your sheet." I said. I watched from first to last, legs swinging, short-arming, machine-gun fast, flopping and flailing. At the end, as the last test taker took their turn and I tallied, my head shook ever so slightly and I murmured under my breath, "Those weren't pull-ups."

You are doing pull-ups not just for yourself, but for you father and your father's father! You conquered the bar!

Excellent composition- even by NYTimes standards- love it.

I have a pull-up bar in my room and during stretches when my very physical occupation doesn't leave my muscles aching I will do pull-ups, push ups and sit-ups just to be prepared for a return to the normal physical demands of my job.

Now I'm worried that my door frame is too low to have a bar that allows me to do pull-ups without bending my knees. I will settle for doing them with a straight back and arms fully extended on the way down. Thanks for the tips.

One day my four year old Grandson looked at me very seriously saying, "Bobby, you are VERY, VERY, VERY old."

Quite taken aback, I asked, "Gerry, why do you say that?" To which he promptly replied, "Because you have grey hair and a grey moustache and then you will be dead."

Well, I wasn't about to dye my hair, but how to change his opinion of me?

Pull-ups? I hadn't done them in years but managed one or two and he was impressed. I've been doing them ever since; have greatly improved my reps and on occasion passers-by make impressive comments.

I have it all on a continuous video I'll give him in a year or so as my testament that you can't stop Father Time but you don't have to lie down and just give up.

Great article. One additional thing to note is the role played by social media in the creative sharing of exercise knowledge and techniques and, even more importantly, in the friendly spirit of mutual support and encouragement that the author found in his parks in New York City. An informal worldwide movement—often called street workout—has arisen in the past decade or so thanks to people such as Eduard Checo of Barstarzz, Al Kavadlo, and many others who work out in parks in New York and elsewhere and share what they do online. Though I live far away, I have learned much from their websites, YouTube videos, and Instagram feeds. The highlights of a couple of business trips I made to New York in recent years were side visits to Fort Tryon Park, where I happened to run into Ed Checo, and to Tompkins Square Park, where a dozen people of all ages and backgrounds were working out on the bars on a balmy autumn afternoon.

Nice piece. I've always known Pull Ups were important, but that hasn't made them any easier.

I've been using the Graviton at the gym, which gives you a little help so you can try and keep good form when you're not quite able to do an unassisted one.

There are bands that you can use on outdoor bars, that give you a little boost as well. I would highly recommend not trying to "wrestle" that last one or two out if you can't do it with good form. I've had a few neck and shoulder strains from that struggle to get my chin over the bar.

Form-wise, also worth mentioning is slow, controlled movement. Use muscle, not momentum. I'm reminded of the obnoxious bros who hang at the portable chin-up stations at military publicity booths. They have made the goal into propelling a chin above a bar, rather than exercising the body.

Pullups are the are the perfect measure of the ratio of strength to weight, the only thing that counts.

A man has to be a able to carry his own weight. Nothing more important than working your way towards pull ups.

Nice job. And beautifully written. Inspiration for this soon to be senior citizen to focus on form on the pull up in the coming months.

I signed up for the Marine Corps many, many years ago as a skinny young man. I was aware of all the requirements that I would need to meet during boot camp and knew that pull-ups would be my biggest challenge. At that time, the minimum requirement was 6. Months before I needed to report, I could do 2. I worked diligently on a one inch diameter bar on a playground and could do 11 by the time I reported for training. The diameter of the bar at boot camp was four inches in diameter. For some reason, this upset my rhythm. I could only do 9 on my second day in boot camp. My Drill Instructor was obsessed with pull-ups and we did them three times a day, unlike other platoons which did them every other day. My arms weren't ready for this and I became weaker rather than stronger. A bad head cold during the last week didn't help. On my last test, I managed 6, the magic number to be a Marine.

I set the pull up record in my high school gym class. Just saying . . . !

Experiencing working hard and getting better at something is one of life's joys, and add on that the kind guidance support of your diverse group of pick up coaches and on top of that, the various gorgeous unlikely spots, fabulous! What a contrast to the taunting nasty school experience of your grandfather. Here's to more of the former and less of the latter for all of us. Thank you for sharing this in such a beautifully written essay.

I've done pull ups with proper form by means of an upside down bucket that I step up to, then use so a portion of my weight is on the bucket as I sit down to air with my back straight and full extension of my arms. As I get stronger, I use my legs less. As I tire, I use my legs more. I cheat. But I work everything without strain.

You don't need to go anywhere to do pull-ups; just get a pull-up bar that hangs in your doorway at home. Then you can do them several times a day if you so wish.

Of course the view wont be as nice, nor will you get any encouragement or coaching. I also suggest you wear a bicycle helmet, in case it falls down (this happened to me once when I was a kid, but then again I was swinging on it.)

Nice writing, about a real journey of self, body and comraderie. I'm 65, I can do maybe 2 or 3 properly - if my 9 y.o. isn't watching. Time to take your gentle advice and get back on it.

Nice. Thanks. I'll try that tomorrow.....always thought I might have been cheating when I didn't keep my back perfectly straight.....the time-honored saying "if it makes it easier you are probably doing it wrong..."

good for you. you should also strengthen your upper back & rear shoulder muscles by doing sets with your head in front of the bar.

Nothing wrong with lifting the knees on a pull up. And a pull up is not nearly as complex as you portray it.

Beautiful. Almost makes me wish I could do a single pull-up

Pull ups are my favorite. I'm sorry that your grandfather was bullied and mocked.

It love doing pull-ups done right though I've needed a coach to assist. Still, at 63 it makes me stand out from the crowd. But it is only a part. Skipping rope has been this year's big challenge. Together they keep you trim & fit

Sam, not sure what I admire most about you...your physical determination or your writing skills.

My gym has an assist device on a pull-up/chin-up machine. It takes varying amounts of weight off so you can work on your form and build strength. Over time you reduce the assistance until you can do one clean. Then the world is your oyster. Head for the outdoor bar.

The presidents council on youth fitness formed during the Eisenhower administration and the award began in 1966 under President Johnson. Bush's contribution was reenergizing an old program with Arnold Schwarzenegger as leader. Obama improved the program by adding nutrition and by giving all participants a trophy, not just the top 15 percent.

Bar dips are good too.

Unfortunately it has become difficult to find pull-up bars. I suspect that kids twirling around the bars were falling on their head.

There is a really good Brady Bunch episode in which Bobby beats his older brother Greg in a pull-up contest.

I enjoyed your article very much.
Pull ups are my favorite exercise
Your correct in your noting about keeping a straight back,very difficult to maintain.
Congratulations on your" now that's a pull up "accolade.
Thanks again, I'm heading out to a bar right now!

I'm 75 and a few years ago my Grandson looked at me seriously and said, "Bobby, you are Very, Very, Very old."

Somewhat shocked, I asked, "Why do you say that Gerry?" He responded, "Because you have grey hair and a great moustache and then you will die."

Well, that got my attention! I wasn't going to dye my hair but thought about what I could do to change his mind. I hadn't done Pull-ups in years but gave it a try and did two. When I showed him he said, "Cool!"

With that, I was on my way. I now do a good deal more reps, at times to the positive comments of strangers and it's all recorded on a small video camera that I'll give him in a year or two. It will be my Testament to him that you can't stop Father Time but you don't have to lie down and just give up.

Very nice article. Getting back to the basics is something I'm looking to do myself as well.

Not sure I agree with this article. Can someone with professional experience chime in? 1) Doing a pull-up with palms forward puts a twisting pressure on the wrists. Once many years ago, while doing one of these pull-ups on a tree branch, I heard something click in my right wrist, and suffered severe tendinitis in my hand for the next several months (a problem, since I'm a piano player). 2) Going all the way down to locked elbows doesn't feel good, and I suspect it is working different muscles and stretching tendons in a way that may not be so helpful.

Facinating article, I started trying pull-ups at age 74. I got to 4 or 5 palm in pull ups, and one palm out. This took about 3 weeks. I also added 3/4" inches to my height which I had lost. Not easy to maintain the conditions.

That js a lovely and inspiring story.
And practical!
Pullups are indeed the among most admired, feared, and misunderstood transactions in gym-world. I stopped attempting them because I was too paranoid about witnesses ... still am, but there are quiet times when I can practice unobserved. Ah, the male ego.
I'm heading to the gym in a couple of hours &
will have this on my phone.

Thank you! I'm inspired.