The pull-up is one of the very best exercises for the back. One thing that helps to show that this is the case is the fact that so few people can do a single set of 10 pull-ups. It is difficult, to be sure. It is especially challenging now, when we don't have a gym we can go to and most of us do not have a pull-up bar sitting in the corner of our bedroom.
While there are some technique items that can help improve performance with pull-ups, that is not the purpose for today's article. Instead, we are looking at some variations that you can do at home. If you have some form of pull-up bar or something that can be used as one, great. If not, we will have to get a little creative.
For the standard pull-up, if you have nothing at home that you can use as a bar, there may be a couple of options. On idea is, if you have two doors that are close enough to lay a broom handle across, you could try that. Just make sure it's thick enough to hold a human being. We don't want anyone getting hurt. If that isn't an option, you can just grab the top of the door itself and do pull-ups that way. There are two things to keep in mind for that method. First, throw a towel over to the top of the door so you don't hurt your hands. Second, and this is VERY important, put something under the outer end of the door. You don't want to hang off a door and pull the hinges out or bend them. That could cause you injury or, at the least, damage the door.
What if you can't do more than two or three pull-ups? Or any at all? If that's the case, take that broom handle and put it across the backs of a couple of chairs, get under the "bar" with your legs out so you're pretty much laying on your back. Pull yourself up to the bar until your chest touches it. If that's still too hard, you can bend your knees and set your feet closer to your body. If that still doesn't do it, you can find taller chairs (or something else) to raise the "bar" a bit higher. That will allow your body to be closer to vertical which will make it easier to pull in that direction.
If you've gotten past these types of pull-ups, the next step is similar to a normal pull-up, in that you are pulling yourself straight upward. However, you can make this a bit easier by resting your feet on something (a chair, for example) so that your legs are out in front of you, heels resting on the chair and your body is making a big 'L' shape. This takes a significant amount of body weight off the bar so you're not pulling ALL of your weight. Alternatively, if you have a band that you could use, you could hang it over the bar and loop it around a foot to assist you on the way up.
Those are some ways to make pull-ups easier until you can move on to the standard pull-up. But what if you already can knock out a bunch of pull-ups and want to make them more difficult? The easiest thing is to add weight. Use a backpack full of books or something to increase the weight you're pulling.
Archer pull-ups are a good challenge, as well. For these, keep your hands a bit wider than normal on the bar, but when you pull your body up, pull yourself up toward one of your hands, leaving the other arm reaching out to the side. Alternate which hand you pull yourself to on every rep. This is not quite a one-handed pull-up, but with one hand way out to the side like that, it only takes a small portion of your body weight while you pull most of your weight with the closer hand.
With the Commando pull-up, you set up with your body sideways under the bar, so the bar goes over one shoulder from your front to back. Grab the bar with both hands like you're holding a baseball bat over your shoulder and pull yourself up until the shoulder touches the bar. Make sure you do both sides.
For a pull-up that really helps you with your grip strength, take the bar with one hand and grasp your wrist with the other. The lower hand helps, but does not take an even amount of your body weight. This is a good step toward doing the last variation we're going to look at.
Finally, we have the one-handed pull-up. Grab the bar with one hand and try to aim for it being as directly over the center of your body as possible. After all, you don't want to be swinging side-to-side doing this because that will really hinder your progress. Pull yourself up until your shoulder is about even with the bar and your triceps are pretty much against your chest. The full range of motion for this can differ depending on your build. Once your arm is pressing against your sternum, you can't really move it any further, even if you feel like you should be a bit further over the bar.
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