Pull Over: Why The Way You’re Doing Pull-Ups Is Wrecking Your Shoulders, And What To Do About It

The pull-up is one of the go-to exercises for strength and strength-endurance. It’s a humbling maneuver too, many a strong bench presser finds that. When you mix proportional strength — strength measured against bodyweight — with the particular range of motion pull-ups require, you find out pretty quick that you weren’t all that ready after all. Add in the fact that pull-ups are the first upper-body exercise most people encounter that uses the whole of your bodyweight, and you can see why they’re a tough proposition.

They’re also famous as an upper body mass and strength builder, and rightly so. All you need is an overhead bar, and you’re away — so from commercial gyms, to serious strength facilities, to teenagers’ bedrooms, everyone is doing pull-ups.

Most people find out pretty quick that they can’t even do half as many pull-ups as they can push-ups. Why?

Firstly, because we’re built to be stronger in lateral than vertical planes. We can bench more than we can overhead press (usually; when that’s not the case it’s usually because one movement has been trained, and not the other), we can row more than we can pull down. Partly it’s because pull-ups use your full bodyweight where push-ups use only about two thirds of it. That’s not a huge difference if you’re already seriously strong, but if you’re not it can be all the difference in the world: many people approach the pull-up bar, grab it firmly — and hang, wriggling like a fish on a hook, face to face with the awful fact that they can’t even do one.

But here’s another reason: Stand erect and hold your arm overhead, as straight as possible. Most people will curve their spines to achieve this, either by Flexing the thoracic spine or by going into anterior pelvic tilt and putting the load in the lumbar spine.

Why Should You Care About That?

Basically because if you’re making a joint perform near its end range of motion, at loads near its maximum, when your form deteriorates your joint will be exposed to injury. At that point, either the joint itself will suffer damage or the body will transfer the load elsewhere, to the spine or the soft tissue structures surrounding the joint. That’s what tends to happen with pull-ups.

How Do I Find Out What’s Limiting My Range Of Motion?

Some people’s shoulders are more mobile than others because of the shape of the inside of the Acromio-Clavicular Joint -which for reasons that should be obvious is usually referred to as the AC joint. This is the joint formed by the head of the shoulderblade and the point of the collarbone. There are three major types of AC joint, divided by how much room there is inside them, from 1 — most roomy — to 3 at the least roomy. These could also be classified as "loaded overhead movements?" with the answer being: Type 1: always, type 2: sometimes, type 3: never. Without imaging and tests it’s hard to know which one you are, and there are other factors that limit your shoulder’s range of motion.

These include:

• Soft tissues in the upper back, including postural issues and local traumas and pulls. For instance, damaged rotator cuffs, poor scapular control or tight lats can all contribute to reduced shoulder mobility.
• Spinal mobility, which is related to the above — tight lats can also cause kyphosis, reducing shoulder mobility still further, but poor mobility is often a result of dyskinesia, not weakness or short muscle fibers. In other words, learning how to move better can result in better movements (who knew, right?)

See Also: The Cheap, Effective Training Tool You're Not Using

What Can You Do Instead Of Damaging Pull-Ups?

There are three options available to you, and the good news is that you can have your cake and eat it: you can do them all at once if you like.

First, substitute another upper-body pulling movement for pull-ups. Inverse rows are a great idea and can be weighted or — better yet — done one-handed as a badass core and upper back exercise. If you only have a pull-up bar, use a long towel or a length of rope and train a key limiting factor in pull-up performance — your grip — at the same time. If you’d rather use the weight room, try Croc rows — one-arm, high-rep heavy rows to full extension with a dumbell.

Specific exercises can work wonders too though, and here are the two you should be doing:

Lat Stretch

On the wall or on the floor, put your elbows higher than your shoulders and press forward gently into the stretch, keeping your spine neutral. This both stretches the lats and teaches you to move them independently of the spinal erectors.

Ab Wheel Rollouts

Stand up. Put the ab wheel on the floor. Roll it out. Roll it back in. Call an ambulance. Seriously, these are incredibly hard —  a five minute plank and a boyband 6-pack do not prepare you for these. Start on your knees; it’s where you’ll end up. What’s good about these is that they mimic the contraction pattern of a good pull-up with the loading in a safer place — laterally, not horizontally. They stretch out your lats dynamically, force you to stabilize your spine and work many of the same muscles as a pull-up does too.

Finally, Change The Way You Do Pull-Ups

Virtually everyone can do pull-ups safely — if they modify the movement to take you out of that end range of motion. One effective way to do this is to use a "neutral" grip - palms facing each other. Gyms often have provision for this. If not, try a TRX machine or rings, or even your trusty towel. Start at the top, and keep a few in the tank, working on form and lowering yourself very carefully into a more extended position. Let your shoulders ride naturally. Many trainers tell you to "pack" them, but this actually makes them less mobile and can help you to make a mess of them in the long run. As our reach extension, try to open your chest and extend your upper back. Keep your core tucked and a "banana" shape throughout your body — what gymnasts call a "hollow" — to protect your shoulders and spine from damage.

See Also: HIIT Training Works To Improve Your Stamina

If you’re having trouble with your pull-ups, or you used to until you found the magic bullet, share: I always check the comments!