The foundations of a pull up are three areas.

· Core Strength

· Grip Strength

· Pulling strength using your arm and back muscles.

For this we are going to start with three exercises that we can use as a benchmark starting point. Obviously if you already have a dead hang pull up then you can also use your number of reps of these as your benchmark. I want to see a full dead hang start position with fully straight arms working up to the chin comfortably over the bar at the top of each rep.

For most people who are yet to achieve a pull up we can start to test and build strength using the following three exercises.