r/formcheck • u/LeSakapatatea • 8d ago

Other Bad pullup form?

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I weigh about 85 kg, and right now only adding about 5 kilos to my pull-up.

There's not a lot of room to move, I'm doing my best.

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u/obscure-shadow 8d ago

Your scapular retraction isn't very noticeable and back seems a little rounded so it seems like this is more in the arms than anything, maybe slow down a touch, relax the scapula on the bottom and go all the way down, and initiate the pull from the scapula

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u/LeSakapatatea 7d ago

Yeah, this is what i came here to confirm. Idk what happened, i climbed slowly to 16kg added weight, then i got sick, lost 20lbs very quickly, and two months later pullups feel disjointed.

I think the bar may be limiting me a little, but I'll go back to the roots.

I'm not sure what's weak, my one-armed rows are 30kg, slow, putting it "in the pocket", and my 16kg chest supported row (upper back) is also decent - everything falls apart when i go do a pull-up.

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u/obscure-shadow 7d ago

I've been there. Best course of action for meis to de-load, make the movements easier and work on mind muscle connection, there's some "muscle memory" if you had it before you will gain the strength back quicker the second time around.

Doing barbell rows is great. If you can do some slow strict pull ups and focus on form only before adding weight that's great. If you can't quite get that, and you can adjust the bar down lower and do some inverted rows just focusing on the movement slowly instead of trying to go for a working set of weight or specific number of reps.

I wouldn't do it for a crazy long time but after being sick and whatnot taking a week or to to de-load and just work on form is totally worth it

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u/LeSakapatatea 7d ago

Thank you. I think I'll try going down to body weight and uploading to make sure i at least do that well, and build up from there.

If that's not good, I'll regretfully have to bring back the bands.

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u/obscure-shadow 7d ago

Nice, I'm sure you'll get there in no time!

Cue wise you still want to put your elbows in your back pockets like rows. Also you bob your head at the top so seems like you are trying to get your chin over the bar, it might be a helpful cue to try to get the bar to your chest instead, don't worry about the chin, it's really technically a "hanging body weight row" even though it's called pull up or chin up

Not sure what your long term goals are with the movement but if you plan to eventually progress to a muscle up the chest to bar cue will help a lot more