Weighted Pull Ups
Pull-up loaded with extra weight on a dip belt, adding resistance once bodyweight reps are easy.
How to do it
- Load a dip belt with the prescribed weight and fasten it around your waist.
- Take an overhand grip on the bar slightly wider than your shoulders and hang with straight arms.
- Brace your abs and squeeze your glutes so the load stops swinging.
- Depress your shoulder blades, then drive your elbows down until your chin clears the bar.
- Pause at the top with the lats fully shortened and the neck neutral.
- Lower under control to near full arm extension and repeat.
Key technique cue
No swinging: abs and glutes tight, lower under control to nearly straight arms.
Common mistakes
- ✕ Kipping the load up with the hips, which converts a strength rep into a swing.
- ✕ Overextending the lower back to shorten the range, which loads the spine instead of the lats.
- ✕ Adding weight before strict bodyweight reps are solid, which forces partial range reps.
- ✕ Dropping into the bottom position, which puts the loaded stretch on the shoulders without control.
Benefits
- ✓ Extends vertical pull progression once bodyweight reps are no longer challenging.
- ✓ Keeps the lats as prime mover while raising the absolute load.
- ✓ Trains bracing under load because the extra weight punishes swinging.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 5 You are here - Weighted Pull Ups
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Step 6
About the exercise
The weighted pull-up is the standard overhand pull-up with external load hung from a dip belt, so progression continues after bodyweight reps stop being hard. Mechanics do not change: you depress the shoulder blades, drive the elbows down and pull the chin past the bar. Surface EMG of pull-ups recorded the latissimus dorsi far above every other muscle measured, with the biceps brachii and infraspinatus next, then the lower trapezius, pectoralis major, erector spinae and external oblique, which is why the trunk has to stay braced rather than swinging.
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