How to Do Pull Up Negatives

Pull up negatives are a highly effective way of developing enough strength and muscle functionality to complete a dead-hang pullup, while at the same time increasing your body's resistance strength. To ramp up your pulling ability, find a bar and simply follow these steps.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Jump up to the bar. Getting up to the bar is the first step of pull up negatives. If you're afraid that it might be too difficult, begin with a low bar at a children's playground, for example. For regular height bars, jump up and grab the bar with your palms facing out. Use the momentum of your jump to pull yourself to the top of your bar so you can get your chin above it.
2. Hold at the top. To do pull up negatives most effectively, you should hold yourself at the top of the bar. The ideal time to hold is five seconds; however if you can't complete that time shoot for something less. Either way, the squeezing tension of holding there will give you a good workout.
3. Slowly lower down. The difficult part of the negatives come in the lowering phase. As with most training exercises, form is key. Lower yourself in a very slow, controlled motion. Lowering should not take less than five seconds. Continue to lower yourself until your arms are fully extended and you are in a dead hang position.
4. Raise back up. You have two options on the raising part of the exercise. The more advanced version requires that you go straight from your dead hang to explosively lift yourself up until your chin is above the bar. If you cannot do this, let go of the bar and without taking a break jump back up as you did the first time to get to the top of the bar. Start from there to do the next pull up negative.