Pull-ups

Last updated Dec 28, 2025 Edit Source

I have been trying to get better at pull-ups since personal fitness class in highschool. It’s like all exercise-related activities - you pray once again each year that you’ll hit your goal of 10 confident pull-ups. Not 3 sets of 10, but just a one time show of 10.

The worst year was 2021, when it was the peak of COVID life and working out was nonexistent. My chest was pulling my shoulders in as I reached for my mouse and keyboard hoping that would change my life. One day I woke up with a knot under my left scapula (shoulder blade). It was by far the worst pain I’d felt - half my back was swollen. I got up, walked 3 steps, then quickly retreated to the bed as I realized I was fainting from the pain shooting up my spine. I’d probably massaged my back too much, and the weak spot sprouted a knot. All that reaching for my machine resulted in imbalanced muscles.

I purchased a pull-up bar that hung on my door. It forced me to do them more often - the most I got to was about 5 honest ones and 3 fart-propelled ones. I was back to no pull-ups again later that year.

The cycle repeated. It was hard to start doing pull-ups since it was hard to see a sense of progress.Doing 3 sets of pull-ups and maybe a sprinkle of negative pull-ups was not helping. The idea of eventually reaching my goal kept me coming back, but it did not keep me consistent. Progress is hard. It doesn’t feel rewarding.

Sometimes you don’t need to know the end potential. Maybe it’s better that way. Let progress lead you there. However, in this case, it’s very obvious where progress leads… more pull-ups.

I took a step back recently in Dec 2025. How do I feel good about each week of doing pull-ups? Break progressive overload into such small steps that each step feels rewarding. Along with that, take a video of yourself doing it. This helps you see how you’re doing along the way.

What I did:

• Started with 3 sets of 4 reps each.
• The catch is each rep is a negative pullup with a 5 second duration down, holding more at the top half since that tends to be my weaker spot.
• Each week increase just duration by 1 second till you reach 10 seconds.
• Once each rep is 10 second negative move onto increasing reps across all sets by 1.
• Once you reach 3 sets of 10 reps for 10 seconds each. Finally then flip to normal pullups.

This is what it looks like: weeks 1–12 stick to negatives so you can focus on the eccentric control.