Mastering the Pullup...  Step 3...

Today we're going to concentrate on negatives.  From the perspective of pull-ups this is where, rather than attempting to pull yourself towards the bar, you're going to instead focus on lowering yourself away from the bar.  Put very simply, for reasons to do with the way muscle fibres contract, you can lower more weight than you can raise.  We're going to use this neat neuromuscular peculiarity to get you well on your way to becoming a pull-up expert.

First find a sturdy platform high enough so that when you stand up on it your collar bones (or equivalent) are approximately level with the horizontal portion of the pull-up bar.  If you cannot manage this, simply get your chin over the bar.  Now grip the bar and draw yourself forcefully towards it.  Raise your knees so that you are now carrying your full body-weight on the pull-up bar.  Slowly, to a count of three seconds, lower yourself towards the ground so that you finish with your arms fully extended and the elbow joints straight.  If you've never done this before you may be surprised by how much force you have to generate to control your descent.  Take a few seconds, a deep breath, and give it another go.  Once you're comfortable with this basic motion, set yourself a practise schedule of a few negatives every few hours each day.  If you find your arms and lats are sore, take a day's rest between each session.  You want to also think of holding a few static positions as you descend, primarily holding yourself at the bar, one-quarter, half and three-quarters the way down.  Try to work up to a five second descent with a static hold at one of each position for one second.  This will give you a descending pull-up of eight seconds upwards.  Keep that up for a few weeks and pretty soon you'll be pulling the door frame off the wall.

In the beginning focus on single attempts.  As your confidence and strength grows begin doing double and triple attempts.  Give yourself plenty of time to recover between attempts, remembering that the more training you clock up the more your body will need to rest.  If at all possible try to begin each descent with your chest rather than your chin pulled up to the bar.  This is much harder but pays greater dividends in the long run.  Until next week, work hard, train smart and most importantly enjoy it!

A Note on the Kipping Pull-up.