The Exercise Every Woman Needs To Learn To Do

If you haven’t already, of course.

So… Have you?

Pull yourself up by your…

There are a good number of reasons to do pull-ups, for example:

• They build functional longevity-linked strength: this movement develops grip, back, and core strength—all of which are key predictors of healthy aging, independence, and reduced mortality risk.
• Grip strength specifically is an important biomarker: studies (cited in the video, but there are plenty more out there too) show grip strength reflects overall muscle strength, bone density, fall risk, cognitive health, depression, diabetes, and even all-cause mortality.
  • We’ve written about this latter from time to time at 10almonds, by the way!
• Posture and pain prevention is a very good reason too: improving scapular control through pull-up work helps correct poor posture and prevents neck, back, shoulder, and other joint pains that otherwise become increasingly common with age.

As for how, here are 5 ways to work your way up to it:

1. Active dead hangs: hang from a bar and draw your shoulder blades down and together without bending your elbows to activate your upper back and grip.
2. Top pull-up holds: hold your chin above the bar with your shoulders down and chest lifted to strengthen your grip, back, abs, and arms; you can use a band or foot-push to help if needed.
3. Weighted back shrugs: hinge forwards holding dumbbells and pinch your shoulder blades together without bending your elbows, to target your mid and lower traps and rhomboids.
4. Peanut rolling: lie with a peanut* roller along your spine and alternate crunching and extending over it to relax your spinal muscles and improve thoracic extension.
5. Active foam roller star stretch: with one knee on a roller, rotate your upper body open and closed to mobilize your spine, chest, and shoulders for better scapular control.

*this refers to the distinctive shape, it’s one of these.

For more on each of these plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Hanging Exercises For Complete Beginners & Older Adults ← for more detail on that first one, in case you’d like to try those dead hangs first; they’re great too, in slightly-overlapping, slightly-different ways!

Take care!