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Old Forum How far do you straighten your elbows when doing pull-ups?

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I wonder if it would be good to do dead hangs on that between pull-up sessions in order to develop a bit more mobility.
 
There is nothing wrong with having your elbows straighten out completely in pull ups.

One thing you should be aware of is that the tenderness you feel at your elbow is almost certainly the onset of tendonitis. You want to nip this in the bud now and not later when it gets harder to fix. I would back off volume or weight to the point that the tenderness goes away and then build slowly back up.
 
One thing I noticed for myself is that when I found out about shoulder packing and started doing that I noticed that Pull Ups were alot harder than. It really takes some adjusting to when you have been doing it in the uncorrected way for a couple of years.

 

This is very true. Took me a little while to adjust, but now I love em. I'm helping a friend with pull-ups, and he is having a hard time doing them with packed shoulders. Says they "feel weird." :)


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I had two comments eaten up in this box. This site still needs work....

If your extensor origin at the elbow hurts, chances are you are missing shoulder ROM. I would not focus on the elbow, but instead on the shoulder ROM and scapulothoracic mobility. JMO (I am not a pull up guru).
 
There are several possible strategies I could take.  Horizontal rows are an option, but this would cause me to work a partial range of motion and probably reinforce my lack of mobility.

 

how about if I did dead hangs with no weight and began pulling myself up as much as I could with no pain?  Over time I would develop the full range of the movement.  The concentration would be on making sure my elbows were straight at the bottom, my arms were directly overhead, and my shoulders were packed.
 
My advice.....

 

1. Stop the pull ups. Take a few days off.

2. Start with dead hangs maintaining the hollow position, start packing and unpacking the shoulders. Suck the shoulders into the socket, this will cause your whole body to lift (this is your pull up range of motion right now). Maintaining the hollow position work on reps of these and hold for time in the packed position. Your elbows should be fully extended at all times doing this.

3. Once you are strong and happy like this... Assume the bar, pack the shoulders and start with singles (full pull ups maintaining the packed shoulders all the way up and down). Once you return to the bottom unpack and fall from the bar.  Can't do a single pull up while maintaining packed shoulders. Work shorter range of motion. Still struggling, do horizontal rows and practice the shoulder packing drills.

4. Don't rush it. The strength and power that will come from getting this right will be evident in the future and you will be thankful you worked it properly.
 
Do completely straighten your elbows or keep them slightly bent?

I have been doing weighted pull-ups and have a bit of irritation where my forearm muscles tie into the elbow. I think that leaving my elbows slightly bent would help, or I could reduce the amount of weight around my waist. Which would be preferable, to keep my elbows slightly bent or to use less weight?
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Personally I see value in both. But as with most exercises, I tend to think that full ROM should be applied most of the time.

You might want to try to vary your grip - it's a very underrated thing when it comes to chins and might help with your problem.

Good luck.
 
Can't offer advice. Personally I straighten all the way out, unpack, relax, and then repack every single rep.
 
I quit doing pull-ups about the time of this thread, but sure enough, I have tendinitis in my left elbow now.

Here are a few options for me now.  Let me know if any of these make sense or if you have another suggestion.

1. Do the more gentle upper body pushing/pulling movements from CC, but continue with the heavy zercher squats.

2.  Do the PM With a 12 kg kb for the TGU's, and do alternating one handed swings with either the 16 or 24 kg kb.  I find that the one handed swings feel better than the two handed variety for my elbows and shoulders.  I think that is because the ability slight shoulder rotation.

Regards,

Jeff

 
 
3.  Or maybe better still, is there a way that I could do the PM and also program in zercher squats?  It looks to me like swings and zercher squats would complement each other very well.
 
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