Again, like last time this post won’t be caulked full of scientific studies but instead will attempt to use more anecdotal and some scientific evidence to back my claim that pull ups play a huge role in an any strength athlete’s abilities.
Pull Ups & Your Deadlift
According to Dr. Stuart McGill, probably the worlds most renowned back specialist, has said, “Pull ups are the fucking bees knees.” Ok, well he didn’t say that but in this video he walks Brian Carroll through his deadlift set up. Brian, a stupidly strong geared powerlifter, was complaining of back pain when pulling. After Dr. McGill pinpointed a lack of back tension he resolved the issue near immediately simply by walking the athlete how to properly contract the lats. Brian called these “anti shrug and corrective exercises.”
You can find Brian Carroll’s article on EliteFTS, here
This begins to make sense if you could imagine your lats as a suspension bridge between your hips and the shoulders. If the cables of that bridge do not have the sufficient tensile strength then under stress the bridge itself will sag. And that’s what happens to your back when your lats are not properly engaged.
Now on to the one and only Mike Tuchscherer, who in this video goes over how he contracts the lats before starting his pulls. Mike gives the cue to “tuck your shoulder blades into your back pocket” or scapular depression. By doing so he is ensuring that the power he forces into the ground as he starts his pull isn’t robbed by a collapse in position. When the lats are not properly contracted prior to a pull often times a lifter’s hips will rise earlier than their shoulders, which in can result in a stiff legged deadlift, where the lower back is playing the major role in the completion of the lift.
But Maybe You Should be Doing More Rows Too
In this study researchers gathered (an admittedly small) group of 12 males and worked them through a variety of pulling exercises: Wide Grip Pull Down, Reverse Grip Pull Down, Seated Row Shoulders Retracted, and Seated Row Shoulders Slack.
Through EMG data collection and analysis the researchers determined that the often-heralded wide grip pulling movement did not in fact result in any significant recruitment of the lats when compared to the supinated pull down. Interestingly they found that the seated row variations were more or equally effective as the lat pull down for Latissimus dorsi and biceps brachii; however the seated row options also provided more middle trapezius/rhomboid recruitment.
So if pull-ups aren’t your thing you should be doing more rows.
I would however like to see a similar study with closed kinetic chain pulling movements versus the open kinetic chain ones that were performed in the study. Think pull ups of different grips vs. pull downs of similar grips and inverted rows vs. seated rows.
In this post bearded badass Greg Nuckols identifies some weak links in you chain, your posterior chain that is. The first two weaknesses he points to is a lack of back strength.
“If your back rounds instantly (lumbar), it may just be your back is weak, or it may be weak hips (making you need to start the lift with your back instead of your hips)” His next identifier, “If your lockout is weak because you can’t get your shoulders back, your lats and traps are weak.”
According to Greg your deadlift sucks because of a few possible reasons, your back is weak, your hips are weak, or you’re just weak period. If you’re one of those powerlifting purists that only train the big three chances are it’s not your hips being weak that’s holding back your deadlift- it’s probably your lack of back strength.
In a piece briefly mentioned in an edit of my original post, this T-Nation article written by Eric Cressey, who is probably the world’s greatest sports performance shoulder guru, goes over extensively how important the lats are to damn near everything!
“…we’ve got a muscle that a) has a huge cross-sectional area, b) has a broad spectrum of attachments, and c) has a unique fiber orientation that accommodates diverse movements.”
In laymen’s terms, your lats can do a lot. So take their development seriously.
I’m only going to quote the conclusion of the article, but I encourage you to read the entirety of it because it stands as one of the best things ever to grace the T-Nation web page:
- « Most people need to pay more attention to vertical pulling movements, as doing so will increase squat, deadlift, and bench press poundages; improve shoulder, upper back/neck, hip, and lower back health; enhance running speed; and wallop loads of quality mass on the upper back. »
- « The only exception to this rule would be the individual who fails the test of latissimus dorsi ROM. He’ll need to work on tissue length and quality before he can « get after it. »
- « In addition, people need to appreciate that the lat is doing a lot more than just working on the humerus; it’s probably the single-most influential muscle in the entire body, if you really think about it. »
- « Learning to activate it isometrically in the squat and deadlift will enhance lumbar spine stability. Learning to pull the bar down on the eccentric component of the bench press will enhance stability, improve leg drive transfer, and help the lifter breath correctly during the lift. »
- « Don’t overlook the role of the fascial system in human function. Specific to this discussion, pay close attention to the spiral line (shoulder to opposite hip and ankle) and thoracolumbar fascia, both of which are intimately related to the latissimus dorsi. Regular soft-tissue work can make a big difference in how you feel and perform. »
Seriously Though. Maybe Pull Ups Aren’t for You.
Eric Cressy, author of the above praised article also wrote a pretty damn good rebuttle to it. In this post he goes over why sometimes more pull ups are a bad thing.
He doesn’t demonize the pull up, but instead goes over some very specific situations where an athlete should avoid that type of pulling exercise. Namely, causing elbow pain, overpowering the lower traps, and making your shoulders cranky. To resolve the issue he has about a thousand videos going over corrective exercises so you can again train the pull up (or pull down) safely. Again, like the T-Nation article above you should read the second Cressey article and watch all those videos.
If pull ups hurt you, they shouldn’t, and you should fix yo’ shit.
So Maybe You Suck at Pull Ups and Want to get Better
The Armstrong Pull Up Program is probably the most popular method of going about increasing your pull up ability. You can also simply go about training your pull up by “greasing the groove” or more simply, do them frequently- like several times a day frequent.
In this article Zach Even-Esh discusses how he went about increasing his pull ups by doing sets of high rep pull ups multiple times per day. Furthermore, Chad Waterbury (forgive the awful tribal tat in the picture) discusses how he performed 13,064 pull ups in five months…
Measured out scientifically, that’s a fuck ton of pulling everyday.
He discusses briefly how doing pull ups that frequently, with that sort of volume, isn’t too much for your upper back as it is damn near made of tank armor, yet it can potentially wreck your elbows and shoulders. He then provides potential solutions: Rings or TRX straps to accommodate wrist rotation, and if that’s not available neutral fat grip bars. I’ve personally seen great success with each of those options, save the fat grip thing. No access to that.
Don’t have a neutral grip option at your gym? Take the v-bar grip from the cable row and hang it over the top of your pull up bar. Voila.
Really, what it boils down to is that if you suck at pull-ups just do more of them and try to do them everyday.
A man who is probably a Soviet spy that goes by the code name Pavel Tsatsouline wrote a pretty damn good pull up program that goes over how someone can increase their pulling ability whether their max is three, five, or 25.
I’m personally of the opinion that you can never be too good at pull-ups and frequently perform them myself. Almost as a daily ritual, and have been doing so for a decade now.
Conclusion
Do your pull ups (and rows) and do them often because they play a major role in your ability to perform as an athlete. Whether you’re a sprinter or a powerlifter, stronger lats mean faster times and heavier pulls and squats. Also, big lats mean that as a man you’ll get that ever so coveted arm gap, which we all know is the male equivalent of the female thigh gap.
Höf-day 