Scapular pull-ups

Who it's for

Climbers who are new to pulling or coming back from a break, and anyone who hangs off straight arms on steep ground and wants their shoulders to handle it better. It teaches the first part of every pull-up: setting your shoulders from a dead hang. It suits beginners well. Once you can do full pull-ups, train those and keep this one for warm-ups.

Common mistakes

• Bending the elbows. Arms stay straight the whole time. If they bend, it's become a small pull-up and the shoulder blades do less.
• Shrugging instead of pulling down. The shoulders go down and back, away from the ears. You should feel it in the mid-back, not the neck.
• Skipping the pause. Hold the top for a second, as the catalog says. That's where you learn what an engaged shoulder feels like.
• Swinging. Start from a still hang. Swinging uses momentum and hides what you came to train.

How to progress

Get three sets of 10 slow reps with a real pause at the top. Then pause longer, up to 3 seconds, and lower more slowly. After that, do them one arm at a time with your feet lightly on the floor, or move on to full pull-ups using the same shoulder set. Two or three times a week is fine, since it's low intensity and light on the fingers if you use a bar.