Many people struggle with body weight exercises such as push ups and pull ups. It’s not uncommon to see people in CrossFit using bands to assist them in a WOD with pull ups. Once you start, you will have a hard time quitting. For beginners I still agree there are much better ways to how to do a strict pull up when you are focusing on building the proper muscle recruitment to effectively do a pull up.
One of the biggest reasons I am against the use of bands for beginners is that they provide inconsistent assistance. Bands assist most in the bottom of the movement and least in the top as the band becomes parallel to where you placed it. Imagine someone is spotting you on a bench press and he yanks on the bar for you in the bottom position. Then, at the top of the press just lets go. The banded pull up is similar in how it assists people. It will get you going but then you still need to know how to fire the right muscles to finish it off and most of the time you are adding so much assistance those muscles are not even working.
This inconsistent assistance prevents beginners from gaining strength as quickly as you could. Once you start using bands you will find that even a whole year later you are still stuck. So how can you build more muscle and strength doing pullups without a band ??? A better option is to do a jumping pull up followed by a slow negative movement. The negative or eccentric movement will be able to build your muscles much quicker. This is great for your body to learn how to hold your own body weight and control the movement as you are descending. You can also add in accessory movements such as bent over row, lat pull downs or pull overs and rear flyes.
As you advance, you can use bands to change the load and build strength in the top position, which is where most people are weakest.By attaching light bands to the ground, you now challenge the top portion of the pull up and force you to be more explosive.
Here is how to do that !!
- Tie the bands to pins at the bottom of the rack or loop them through kettlebells to secure. You will want two bands, one each side of where you will be doing your pull ups.
- Pull your arm and head through the band on one side and do the same on the other side to create a harness around your upper body.
- Perform a pull up, making sure you are explosive at the top to counteract the increase in band tension as you ascend.
- If it’s too easy to get to the top, you can use heavier bands or add weight.
You need to have the muscle to pull your body weight up. You need to challenge your muscles and body and stop using assistance due to it being “easier” for you to do. To get better you must do !