"The day after my neck is sore."
"I only feel my arms and shoulders."
"I just can't budge from the bottom of my pull up."
"I always end up with a shoulder or elbow injury when doing pull ups."
Guess what?
These things can all be caused by the fact that your back isn't activating and engaging the way it should.
That is why ACTIVATION is a key, and often MISSING PIECE, from our pull up workouts!
If your back, especially your lats, aren't engaged and working correctly, you are missing out on a HUGE muscle helping you to pull yourself up.
Not surprisingly, if your back isn't working, you are asking just your arms to pull you up, which is why you continue to struggle.
You are also risking injury as smaller muscles try to take over and compensate.
Because most of us sit way too much or even hunch over our phones during the day, we create imbalances and a forward posture that often causes our lats and the other muscles of our back to not engage correctly.
This forward, rounded posture can also cause our shoulder blades to become less mobile.
And that means we compensate and recruit smaller muscles that can't handle the load.
That is why ACTIVATION is Key #1.
You must first get your back working and engaged so you can use those stronger, bigger muscles to help pull you up!
You should start your pull up workouts with Activation Exercises. Use more ISOLATION MOVEMENTS to help build that mind-body connection and get your lats working and shoulder blades mobilized.
You need to be able to retract and depress your shoulder blades as you use the muscles of your back if you expect to achieve that 1st, or even that 15th pull up!
So Key #1?
Include Activation Moves aka isolation movements that use little to no resistance that get the shoulder blades moving and your back starting to work.
Then after your back is engaged and working, you'll be able to truly strength it with more compound moves OR even all of your pull up work.
After you get your back activated and working, you then need to make sure you include Eccentric Pull Ups in your routine!