How to Do a Proper Pull-Up

As part of his plan to make America healthy again, Robert F. Kennedy wants you (yes, you) to take part in the “Pete and Bobby Challenge” (“Pete” being US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth). That’s one hundred push-ups and 50 pull-ups in under 10 minutes. Can you do it? Kennedy and Hegseth can. There’s video evidence. Except … neither of them correctly complete one single correct pull-up. Neither, it seems, can Representative Marjorie Taylor Green. Or FBI Director Kash Patel. None of them go through the full range of motion required for a pull-up. They start, as they should, at a dead hang—hanging from the bar, arms fully extended—but once they pull themselves up, they never return to the starting position. Instead, they’re doing partial reps: pulling themselves above the bar, but only going back down with their arms bent around 90 degrees before pulling themselves back up.

“When we [judge against] military fitness standards, the politicians try to show how many pull-ups they can do, and we’re looking at it being like, ‘Well, yeah, but you’re doing half pull-ups,” Mike Dewar, MA, CSCS, USAW2, FRCms, Pn1, a strength and conditioning coach, says.

We asked Dewar to walk us through how you should actually do a pull-up, as well as some common mistakes you might make while attempting it. You still might not be able to do the Pete and Bobby Challenge, but at least you’ll say you can do something that the Secretary of Health can’t.

How to Do a Pull-Up

First, get yourself up to the bar, jumping up if you can, or using a stool if you can’t. Next, “hook your hand around the bar like monkeys in a barrel,” Dewar says. “Once you’ve done that, you’re starting in a dead hang.” Whether you use an overhand or underhand grip is up to you, but for a standard pull-up, which will target the lat muscles, go for an overhand grip (palms facing outward) with your hands shoulder-width apart. Finally, it’s time to pull.

“Think about dropping your shoulders down away from your ears, which is going to trigger the shoulder blade,” Dewar says. “Then simply pull your chest or chin to the bar, focusing on pulling back and pulling through the pinkies, almost trying to break that bar down towards the torso.”

Once your chin (or, for the more advanced, your chest), is level with the bar, slowly lower yourself back to the starting position, the dead hang. There you have it: Your first pull-up rep.

Common Mistakes

It’s easy to do a poorly performed pull-up. People tend to make the most errors during the eccentric—when you’re lowering your body back to the dead hang. If you’re pulling yourself back up to the bar before your arms are fully extended, you’re cutting yourself short and only doing a partial rep.

“The goal is to grow the lats,” Dewar says. “Research shows taking the muscles through the longest ranges of motion, while it’s harder, allows a lot of the muscle growth to happen. It’s just the optimal way to train the muscle. Obviously you won’t be able to do as many that way—but that’s fine.”