How to break your pull-up plateau

So you've started to take your pull-up training seriously. But you can't get past the 6 or 7 mark. You're thinking 10 would be a nice number to get to, especially as it's considered a good score for getting into the US Military.

I'm going to break down the exact principles you need to follow to push your pull-up numbers up. Most importantly, you need to keep perfect technique while doing so.

Yeah, I know, most of us just want to crank out reps, but trust me, that's not the way to go. Stick around and find out why.

Principle 1: Technique over reps

The common mistake

Let's correct a mistake everyone seems to be making: focusing on reps over technique.

Look, you can blast out pull-ups until your arms fall off, but if you're sacrificing form, you're not doing yourself any favours.

What do I mean by sacrificing form? I go through what perfect form looks like in my pull-up technique video. The essence is this:

• You need to be able to hold a hollow body while keeping the legs locked.
• A full pull-up moves from a dead hang, to chest to the bar, back to a dead hang. No exceptions.
• If any of the above aren't happening, you're sacrificing form.

If you do progress your reps by sacrificing form, you're reinforcing poor movement patterns and poor technique, which inevitably leads to a prolonged plateau.

The fix

Prioritise perfect technique over the number of reps.

This might mean you need to regress the movement and work back through the progressions. That's well worth doing, and it's exactly what we work through at my pull-up workshop.

If your form is compromised, your progress will be too. Simple as that.

Principle 2: Avoid failure

The trap

Reaching failure might seem like a badge of honour, but it's actually hurting your pull-up game.

We need to separate technical failure from absolute failure.

Absolute failure means your muscle can't do what it needs to at all.

Technical failure means that to do more reps, you'd need to cheat.

With pull-ups, it's very easy to ignore technical failure and start compromising technique to get the reps done.

There's an issue with this. To make progress, we want to hit the right movement pattern with enough volume. If we let technique break down, we're not giving the movement we want the volume it needs to progress.

So it's important that we work to technical failure, something I demonstrate in this video.

The fix

Go to about one or two reps shy of failure. Make sure your technique is on point for every rep.

If you're about to grind out a rep just for the sake of it, stop right there. Take a two-minute break and refocus on form.

Principle 3: Add sets, not just reps

The mistake

We often get obsessed with adding more reps to our sets, but there's another way to get more work in: adding more sets.

The strategy

Instead of pushing for more reps, focus on adding more sets of perfect reps. This increases your overall training volume and gets more quality work in, which improves your pull-ups significantly over time.

That doesn't mean reps aren't important. They absolutely are. If we're in a hypertrophy block, for example, we want to be hitting 6-10 reps. If we're in a strength block, we want to be hitting 3-5 reps.

The problem comes when, as is common, we're chasing a certain number of reps because we've set that as a goal. Then we're unlikely to progress training volume, because every pull-up session we're desperately trying to hit a 10th rep in every set. Combine that with working beyond technical failure and we have an issue on our hands.

To break your pull-up plateau, you're better off following a systematic protocol that guarantees progress:

Session	Target	Weight	Reps done	Next session
1	4 x 6-8	Bodyweight	8-8-8-7	Stay
2	4 x 6-8	Bodyweight	8-8-8-8	Increase sets
3	5 x 6-8	Bodyweight	6-6-6-6-7	Stay
4	5 x 6-8	Bodyweight	6-6-6-7-7	Stay
5	5 x 6-8	Bodyweight	7-7-7-6-6	Stay
6	5 x 6-8	Bodyweight	8-8-7-6-6	Stay
7	5 x 6-8	Bodyweight	8-8-8-8-8	Increase weight and drop to 4 sets
8	4 x 6-8	+5 kg	6-6-6-6	Stay

Principle 4: Use regressions

What are regressions?

If you find you can only perform three perfect pull-ups and the fourth one is questionable, use regressions. These are easier versions of the exercise that help you keep perfect form.

How to use them

If you sense you're reaching technical failure, switch straight to a regression (an easier version) such as supported pull-ups, single-leg supported pull-ups or band-assisted pull-ups. That way you stay short of technical failure and still hit the training volume you need.

These variations give you a bit of assistance and let you keep performing the movement pattern correctly, with a lighter load.

Principle 5: Get stronger with weighted pull-ups

The underused strategy

Here's the part no one ever talks about: if you can already do five perfect pull-ups, it's time to add some weight.

I think the most obvious reason people aren't increasing their pull-ups is that they're not strong enough to. Doing more and more reps isn't getting stronger. Adding load to the movement pattern is.

Why it works

Adding load drives adaptations you can't get by simply going for reps, including better neural efficiency and stronger connective tissue.

When you add weight, even a small amount, you're essentially telling your body, "We need to step up here." That builds bigger, stronger muscles and improves your overall pull-up performance, because you can handle more reps and more load over time.

Once you add weight to your pull-ups and get stronger in that variation, hitting higher rep numbers gets a lot easier.

Time to break that plateau

Now you have the roadmap to go from 5 pull-ups to 10, 15 or more, all with perfect technique. It's not just about adding reps. It's about getting the exercise right from every angle.