How To Master A Pull-Up & Why Women Are Embracing The Challenge

For many women, the pull-up feels like an elusive milestone—a skill reserved for gymnasts or lifelong athletes. But Angela Gargano, a six-time American Ninja Warrior competitor, Miss Fitness America, and founder of the Pull-Up Revolution program, wants women to know it’s within reach.

“I think that the pull-up is such a powerful fitness benchmark for women,” Gargano says. So few women can actually do one, it shows real determination when it's a skill that's been mastered.

She notes that many women were conditioned early on to believe the movement was unattainable. “When we used to do the Presidential National Fitness Awards in elementary school, women were typically told to just kind of, like, hang on the bar and not actually attempt the pull-up. So we’re already kind of told we can’t do it.”

Most beginners turn to assisted bands. Gargano explains that this strategy can stall progress,and how to use them in a way that is actually helpful.

When bands are more resistant than someone needs, they can fling you upwards at the bottom of the pull-up. “Since it’s flinging you up at that point, you’re never actually strengthening it… you’ll see people taking the band, getting lighter and lighter with it, but then they keep trying to do it without it, and they literally cannot do it,” she shares.

Instead, people can opt for lighter bands from the start so that they don't overly rely on them. You just have to be honest with yourself—how much work are you doing, and how much work is the band doing?

Better yet, Gargano builds training around mobility, stability, and strength—three pillars that better prepare the body for the full movement, with the goal of ditching bands altogether.

• Mobility: She emphasized mobility isn’t the same as flexibility. Flexibility is “I can put my arm there.” Mobility is, “I can get my arms above my head, but I can now function in that movement.” Since most people spend their days sitting, their overhead mobility suffers. That makes it a crucial starting point.
• Stability: In order to work on the motion of pulling for pull-ups, you also need to be doing an equal amount of pushing exercises to maintain healthy shoulders and avoid injury.
• Strength: “It’s really important when you’re focusing on strength to focus from the bottom to the top of the pull-up. Focusing on strengthening the bottom piece first, and nailing that. Then the next part, nailing that. Then the next part,” Gargano explains. 

And we can’t forget about the importance of grip strength as an underlying piece of a solid pull-up. Hand grip strength has been correlated with total muscle strength1, and it's even been proposed as a valuable longevity metric, with low hand grip strength linked to increased hospitalization, nutritional status, overall mortality, and quality of life.

For Gargano, the pull-up is as much about mindset as it is about muscle. “Every single time that I’ve seen women get this pull-up, they come off the bar screaming, crying, so excited,” she says.

The pull-up, Gargano emphasizes, is a full-body movement. Yet many women approach it with shoulders shrugged and arms overworked. “Instead of just jumping up on the bar and pulling, it’s important to think about pulling more with your back than your shoulders,” she says.

Her favorite teaching cues include:

If you’re starting from scratch, Gargano suggests:

1. Start with mobility. Standing arm swings, shoulder pass throughs (using a broom or stick), high-to-low rows, and reverse flies are all upper-body specific mobility exercises, while cat-cows, torso twists, and leg swings are great ways to warm up the rest of the body.
2. Train stability. Planks, pushing drills with resistance, and push-ups are going to be helpful in training and gaining stability. As an added bonus, you’re also recruiting other muscles like your core, quads, and glutes in many of these exercises.
3. Get comfortable hanging. “Hanging is really great for you because it’s going to help you decompress the spine, it’s going to help improve your grip strength, and it’s going to help you with mobility,” Gargano suggests.

Ultimately, she says, the journey begins with courage. She sees the first step for many women is staring at the bar, wondering if they can actually do it. “Just getting yourself up there—hanging and starting to get used to that idea—is where it all starts.”