increasing pull up#1576

Hello there, I had a quick question about increasing pull up reps. Currently I can do 7 pull ups but on my second set I can only do around 3. I was wondering if maybe doing more sets and less reps would help me to increae my reps in the future? My goal is to reach the requirement of 12 pull ups to achieve a muscle up. Do you think this would be suitable?

Heya, Chrys here—one of the trainers at Hybrid!

If you can hit 7 reps on your first pull-up set and drop to 3 on the second, your nervous system and pulling endurance are gassing out fast. A great fix is exactly what you’re thinking: more sets of sub-max reps. Shoot for sets of ~3-5 reps—well short of failure—spread across 4-6 sets. That keeps total volume high without frying you. You can also “grease the groove”: sprinkle in single pull-ups throughout the day, always fresh, never to fatigue. Over a few weeks that drives neural efficiency and bumps your rep ceiling.

Add accessory work too: controlled negatives, isometric holds at the top, scapular pull-ups, and rows. Give yourself 2–3 minutes rest between harder sets and make sure you’re eating and sleeping enough to recover. Run this for 4–6 weeks, retest, and those 7s should creep toward 10+—then 12 isn’t far off, and you’ll have the strength base for that muscle-up transition. If you have any questions on this, shoot me a message here and Ill walk you through it

Thank you so much!

Of course!