Introduction

Overview of Module

In this module, we look at vertical pulling, which is essentially all pull up variations. The most common variations include:

• Strict pull up
• Strict chin up (underhand grip)
• C-kip pull up (‘classic’ kipping pull up)
• Butterfly pull up

These pull up styles are also the first part of muscle-up variations and can be extrapolated to apply to those.

The most common area of complaint during vertical pulling is the shoulders (as you could easily guess). The most common way to correct this issue, however, is not always so obvious.

Typically athletes with shoulder pain during vertical pulling will look for a quick fix by rolling out their shoulders and stretching.

What they are unfortunately neglecting is the importance of building capacity and strength in their shoulders that is required to support the joint during pull ups. Additionally, during kipping, there can frequently be improvement by tightening up the kip (which essentially decreases shoulder joint motion and may be improving the muscle activity around the joint).

There are also progressions that are typically skipped during pull up development.

There are arbitrary ‘benchmarks’ in vertical pulling:

• chin over bar
• chest to bar
• muscle up

But there is no step between ‘hanging’ and ‘chin over bar’. That leads to athletes who should be training a shortened range of motion doing whatever it takes to get their chin over the bar.

As you will see in this module, there are many ways to progress athletes into different pull up variations and ranges of motion that will do much more for them than just more stretching.

From this module, we want you to take away the following:

• Difference in pull up variations
• C-Kip progressions
• Butterfly pull up progressions
• Building capacity
• Lat stretching
• Tightening the kip
• Changing range of motion requirements