How I Finally Hit 20+ Pull-Ups in a Row (5 Practical Tips)

Stuck at 12

For over a year, I couldn't get past 12 pull-ups. Didn't matter how often I trained them. Always hit a wall at 12 and couldn't squeeze out another rep. Here's what I changed.

Tip 1: Get Stronger with Weight

This sounds counterintuitive. You want more bodyweight reps, so you add weight? Yes.

When I started doing weighted pull-ups with 20-25kg for sets of 5, my bodyweight pull-ups jumped from 12 to 16 within a month. Bodyweight suddenly felt light.

Tip 2: Grease the Groove

Instead of doing pull-ups only during training, I put a pull-up bar in my doorway and did 5-6 reps every time I walked past it. Multiple times a day, never to failure. This adds up to massive volume without fatigue.

Over a few weeks, my nervous system got more efficient at the movement. The pull-up started feeling automatic.

Tip 3: Fix Dead Hang Weakness

Most people fail at the bottom of the pull-up. They can't initiate from a full dead hang. I spent 2 weeks doing scapular pulls, just the first 5cm of the pull-up, engaging the lats from a dead hang. 3 sets of 10 daily.

This eliminated the weak point and made every rep feel stronger from the start.

Tip 4: Breathing Strategy

Sounds basic but it matters. Exhale on the pull, inhale on the descent. At high reps, most people hold their breath without realising it. Conscious breathing kept me from gassing out at rep 15.

Tip 5: Lose Body Fat

This is the obvious one nobody wants to hear. Every kilo of body fat is dead weight on a pull-up. When I dropped from 82kg to 78kg while maintaining strength, my pull-ups jumped from 16 to 22.

The Timeline

It took about 3 months of applying all 5 tips consistently. From 12 reps to 22 reps. Not overnight. But the progress was steady and satisfying.

The Takeaway

More pull-ups come from getting stronger (weighted), more efficient (greasing the groove), fixing weak points (dead hang), and reducing dead weight (body fat). Simple. Not easy. But simple.