Pull-ups

Who it's for

Everyone who climbs, at every level. It's the plainest measure of pulling strength there is, and it keeps paying off from your first year to your tenth. If five clean reps aren't there yet, the catalog tells you what to do instead, and doing that for a few months is the right answer rather than a compromise.

Common mistakes

• Stopping short at the bottom. Straight arms every rep. Half reps let you count more of them while training less, and the bottom quarter is where climbers are usually weakest.
• Chasing a number instead of quality. The set ends when the reps get sloppy, even if that's at six of eight. Kicking and lurching trains kicking and lurching.
• Shrugging into the pull. Set your shoulders down and back before the first rep and keep them there. Hanging off the top of your shoulders is where the neck and elbow niggles come from.
• Adding weight before the reps are clean. Bodyweight, controlled, full range first. A belt on top of a sloppy pull-up just loads the sloppiness.

How to progress

Reps first, inside the 5 to 8 range, until all four sets are comfortable at eight. Then add a small amount of weight and drop back to five. Twice a week alongside climbing is plenty, and the 2 minutes rest is the part people cut first and shouldn't: shorter rest turns a strength set into a conditioning set.