Fact checked by Nick Blackmer
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Health-GettyImages-HowManyPull-UpsShouldYouDo-1fad47e18831472f968f6b6acce0e6ae.jpg "Young adult woman exercising pull-ups on a horizontal bar in an outdoor fitness park")
- Pull-ups are a demanding full-body exercise that requires strength in the back, arms, core, and grip while lifting your entire body weight.
- Most people cannot perform a pull-up, and anyone who can complete multiple reps is stronger than average.
- Building pull-up strength takes time and consistent training with pulling exercises, assisted variations, and grip-strength work.
One of the biggest fitness feats is the ability to perform a set of perfect pull-ups. Some people can make pull-ups look easy, but they’re actually very challenging for the average person. Which raises the question: how does your pull-up ability (or lack thereof) compare with other people’s?
Why Pull-Ups Are So Challenging
While many gym-goers tend to program pull-ups on “back day,” considering them just a back exercise is a bit of a misnomer. When done properly, a pull-up is actually a full-body exercise.
“The greatest emphasis comes from your back muscles, but your shoulders, biceps, and forearms are working, too,” Francine Delgado-Lugo, CPT, co-founder of FORM Fitness in Brooklyn, told Health. “And your abdominal muscles, glutes, and adductors all play a supporting role in keeping the necessary tension to pull the body upward.”
The exercise also requires solid grip strength. If your goal is to complete a full set of pull-ups, you have to be able to hang from the bar for at least that long.
Pull-ups are a tough exercise not only because they recruit so many muscles, but also because you have to lift your entire body weight off the floor with minimal use of your biceps. They tend to be more challenging than chin-ups: With pull-ups, you use a pronated grip, where your palms face outward; with chin-ups, you use a supinated grip, where your palms face inward. Chin-ups recruit slightly more of your biceps than pull-ups, and the grip puts you in a more advantageous position, allowing you to get more pull out of the movement, according to Delgado-Lugo.
How Many Pull-Ups Can Most People Do?
Pull-ups are an advanced exercise—they’re not something most people can just do. “If you can do them at all, then you are stronger than the average person,” said Delgado-Lugo. For that reason, it’s difficult to find published “normals” for pull-ups.
That said, the Marines—a branch known for high fitness standards—have some enlistment requirements. As part of their initial strength test, male recruits must complete at least three pull-ups (or 34 push-ups) in two minutes; females must complete at least one pull-up (or 15 push-ups).
Based on her experience training clients, Delgado-Lugo said the following ranges can be considered based on fitness level for young adults 18–40:
| | Men | Women |
| Beginner | 0–5 | 0–1 |
| Intermediate | 6–10 | 2–5 |
| Advanced | 11–15 | 5–8 |
| Elite | 15+ | 8+ |
You tend to lose muscle as you age, so exercises like pull-ups become harder. Therefore, the ranges can narrow for people over 40, according to Delgado-Lugo.
Other factors like body weight, grip strength, and strength of supporting muscles, limb anatomy, technique, and experience with the exercise also influence how many pull-ups you can do, or if you can do them at all.
What If You Can’t Do a Pull-Up Yet?
You're not unusual. Even though pull-ups have recently been popularized by training methods like CrossFit, most people are still unable to do one, said Delgado-Lugo.
You absolutely can work toward mastering one if that’s your goal. Work on strengthening the muscles involved in a pull-up using similar pulling motions. These include exercises like seated cable rows, TRX rows, bent-over rows, T-bar rows, inverted rows, and lat pull-downs, according to Delgado-Lugo.
Modified pull-ups also strengthen the same muscles and provide the added benefit of familiarizing your body with the pull-up motion. These include:
- Negative pull-ups: Starting at the top of the pull-up with your chin over the bar, slowly lower yourself down until you’re hanging with your arms straight.
- Band-assisted pull-ups: Secure a resistance band around the bar, then carefully tuck your knees or feet into the loop. This helps offset some of your body weight.
- Assisted pull-up machine: Adjust the weight stack to provide more or less counterbalance as needed.
Aim to include pulling exercises in your workout routine—use a rep range of 8–12—at least twice a week, said Delgado-Lugo. Shoot for 12–15 working sets each week. You should also include moves in your workout that improve your grip strength, like dead hangs, farmer carries, or heavy barbell deadlifts.
Lastly, don’t expect a pull-up to pop up overnight. Even with a smart pull-up progression plan, it can take weeks, months, or even longer, according to Delgado-Lugo.
Are Pull-Ups Actually Important for Health?
“Pull-ups are only necessary for overall fitness if you’re training for the military or if you train CrossFit, gymnastics, or a weightlifting sport,” said Delgado-Lugo. “Otherwise, you can be fit and have a strong back with all of the other pulling exercises above.” Additionally, if you have certain pre-existing injuries, like shoulder problems or wrist issues, they might not be the best bet for you, either.
That said, pull-ups do provide some functional life transference. “If you can pull yourself up to a bar, then you can pull yourself off the floor or stop yourself from falling by grabbing something and not get hurt,” said Delgado-Lugo.
