Rocky Pull-Up
Trains the Lats.
- Equipment
- A pull-up bar
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Hang from a pull-up bar with an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders.
- Set your shoulders down away from your ears and let the body settle.
- Pull yourself up until your chin clears the bar in front of your face.
- Lower part-way, then pull up again bringing your head in front of the bar so the back of your neck approaches it.
- Alternate front and back on successive repetitions.
- Lower under control to a straight hang at the end of each pair.
Common mistakes
- Taking the behind-the-neck half further than the shoulders allow. That half asks for external rotation and abduction at once, and how much is available varies a great deal — the range ends at the shoulder, not at the bar.
- Craning the head forward to get behind the bar. If the head has to move out of the way, the body is not travelling far enough for that half.
- Doing it before a clean strict pull-up. Alternating positions on a movement that is not yet controlled is two problems at once.
- Expecting the alternation to train something a pull-up does not. The lat shortens the same way whichever side of the head the bar passes; what changes is the shoulder position it happens in.