From Ring Rows to Real Reps: How to Actually Build a Pull-Up

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Alright, it’s time we had the talk—about pull-ups.

Let’s set the scene:

Scene 1: You check the workout. Pull-ups. You sigh, grab the rings, and mentally prepare for your 734th ring row this year. “One day,” you whisper, “one day I’ll be on that bar.”

Scene 2: Pull-ups are programmed. You could kip them… but your shoulder politely reminds you of that time you kipped like a wild salmon upstream and paid for it for three weeks. Ring rows, it is.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the deal: neither scenario means you’re “bad at pull-ups” or destined to scale forever. But it does mean we need to talk about why you’re doing what you’re doing—and when kipping, scaling, or strict strength work is actually the right move.

Spoiler: it’s not just about checking the RX box or avoiding pain. Let’s break it down so you can start building pull-ups with purpose—and leave the endless ring row loop behind.

The Pull-Up Identity Crisis

Let’s be real: when pull-ups show up, some of us go full existential. Am I a ring row person? Should I kip? Should I fake an old shoulder injury and bike instead?

The confusion is real—and we see it in two classic roles:

Act One: The athlete who's been doing ring rows since 2019. Faithfully. Endlessly. Like a CrossFit Groundhog Day. And listen—we love a good ring row. But if your goal is to get a real pull-up, you might be rowing in the wrong direction. Ring rows build general pulling volume, sure—but they don’t magically unlock strict strength. At some point, you’ve got to level up.

Act Two: The athlete without strict strength who thinks, “Meh, I’ll just kip.” Then flings themselves around like a caffeinated spider monkey. Friendly reminder: kipping is a progression, not a shortcut. If you can’t control the top and bottom of a pull-up, adding momentum is just pouring gas on a fire… that’s already in your shoulder.

So what’s the move?

Glad you asked.

The Kipping Pull-Up: Not Just Wild Flailing

Let’s clear something up: a kipping pull-up isn’t just a wild flail that magically turns into reps. It’s a combo move—part rhythm, part raw strength.

At its core, the kipping pull-up is a blend of two things:

• The beat swing – a controlled arch-to-hollow movement powered by your lats and shoulders.

• The strict pull-up – aka actually being strong enough to pull your chin over the bar without the help of momentum, magic, or hopes and prayers.

If you’re missing one of those pieces, your kip is either useless… or dangerous.

And this is exactly why we sound like broken records during warm-ups when we say things like, “Show me actual, controlled scap pull-ups,” or “Give me long, tight beat swings—no bending your knees like flailing fishtails.” That part of class isn’t just filler time while we wrap up the Question Of The Day. It’s the foundation.

If those positions aren’t sharp during warm-ups, they won’t magically show up mid-workout when you're under fatigue and fighting for reps.

The good news? You don’t need to master it all at once. You can train the pieces—beat swings, scap work, strict drills—and build strength and shoulder resilience over time. That’s how we do kipping on purpose, not just on momentum.

It’s not about skipping steps. It’s about training the right ones—with purpose. Confidence (and safer shoulders) follows.

Ring Rows vs. Pull-Ups: The Great Mismatch

Let’s go back to where we started.

Ring rows are a great movement—but they are not your express ticket to Pull-Up City.

They’re more like… a detour. Still in the fitness map, just not the direct route.

That’s like trying to get better at running by riding a bike—it’s kind of the same, but not really.

Both ring rows and pull-ups are legit bodyweight movements, but they hit very different parts of the pulling game. Let’s break it down:

Factor	Ring Rows	Pull-Ups
Pulling Plane	Horizontal pull (rowboat vibes)	Vertical pull (climbing a rope)
Muscle Focus	Mid-back, scapular control	Lats, grip, core
Grip & Stability	Rings move with you, easy on joints	Fixed bar, high joint demand

Both movements are legit. They just serve different purposes. If you’ve been ring-rowing your heart out and wondering why the pull-up fairy hasn’t visited yet… it’s not you—it’s physics.

Let’s build a better bridge from where you are to where you want to be.

The Wild World of the Kip Swing: Science, Not Magic

Let’s talk physics.

(Wait—don’t check out. This is Barbell Bill Nye territory, not textbook snooze-fest.)

Here’s what you need to know: That smooth-looking kip swing? It can actually load the bar with 3 to 5 times your body weight. Seriously. You might weigh 150 pounds, but when you’re mid-swing, your shoulders are dealing with 450–750 pounds of force.

And guess what’s absorbing most of that? The part of your body you’ve been ignoring on strict pull-up day.

That’s why kipping pull-ups are not a scale for strict pull-ups. In fact, they demand more strength, control, and joint stability—not less.

If you don’t have the strict strength to control your body through the movement (especially the eccentric/negative portion), you’re just throwing your joints into the deep end with no lifeguard on duty.

Want to master your kip? Cool. Start with strict pull-ups. They’re the strength foundation that makes kipping safe, efficient, and way less sketchy. Pull before you swing. Trust science—and Bill Nye.

"Sure, give them a try. Rome was built in a day."

Banded Pull-Ups — Yay or Nay?

Ah yes, the great band debate. Let’s go there.

If you’ve been around CrossFit long enough, you’ve seen the rainbow: bands dangling from the rig like resistance-powered vines, ready to slingshot you to the top of a pull-up.

And sure—bands can have a time and place in someone’s journey. But at PUSH, we take a different approach.

Not because we’re anti-band or trying to be training snobs. It’s because we’re pro-progress.

Why Bands Don’t Build What You Think They Do

Imagine you’re squatting. You load 95 pounds on the bar but can only squat a quarter of the way down. No big deal—you’ll just keep grinding away at that partial range, right?

Wrong.

You wouldn’t stick a giant rubber band under your butt and bounce out of the bottom of a squat (visual). You’d take weight off and train full range with control. Why? Because that’s how real strength works.

Same goes for pull-ups.

Bands give you the most help at the bottom—where you need to build strength the most—and none at the top, where you’re typically already strongest.

So you end up repping out on banded pull-ups for months (maybe years), but never learning to initiate the pull yourself. The band does the work, and your strength plateaus.

When that stops working? Most people just grab a thicker band.

But that just increases the bounce, makes alignment worse, and gives more assistance where you already need to be stronger. All while pulling you forward out of position.

Now try turning that into a kip.

You’re adding force and speed to a movement you haven’t learned to control. That’s a fast track to shoulder irritation—or worse.

Most Injuries Don’t Happen on the Way Up

Here’s the kicker: most pull-up injuries happen on the way down—the eccentric phase—when your muscles and joints are under the most tension.

If you haven’t built full-range control (especially at the bottom), dropping and bouncing out of that position is just asking for trouble.

Bodyweight & Pull-Ups: Why It Feels So Damn Hard (Sometimes)

Here’s a not-so-shocking truth: the more you weigh, the harder it is to move your body through space. That’s not shaming—it’s just physics.

But here’s the nuance: “weigh less = do more” is a lazy oversimplification. The real metric that matters is your strength-to-weight ratio.

Take it from me:

I used to walk around at 167 with low singles body fat. Pull-ups felt fast and snappy—but I didn’t feel strong. Bars felt heavy. My quads looked like my calves. I didn’t feel like me. Sure, I could move well on the rig, but I didn’t have the horsepower to back it up, and I didn’t feel great outside of that one dimension.

Now I’m 205, sitting in the mid-teens for body fat. I’m stronger, more durable, and honestly, more comfortable in my own skin. But strict pull-ups during a spicy metcon? Still tough. Because the rules change when your body changes.

Your joints, tissues, and nervous system need time to adapt to that new load—whether that’s more muscle, more mass, or just a different composition. And while it took me longer to rebuild my gymnastics capacity at this size, I did—plus some. It just came with new training responsibilities, more intention, and a bit more patience.

So if you’re working hard and gymnastics still feels like an uphill battle, ask yourself:

• Have I built enough strict strength for my current size?

• Has my body had time to adapt?

• Am I training mechanics and control—not just chasing volume?

And let’s be real: there are heavier athletes out there repping out bar muscle-ups like it's brunch, and lighter athletes still chasing their first strict chin-over-bar. It’s not just about size—it’s about coordination, control, and capacity.

Make This Your Plan:

• Train your strength-to-weight ratio like any other skill.

• Don’t shame the scale—but understand what your body’s working against.

• Give yourself time to adapt. New body = new rules = new training demands.

Bottom line: if gymnastics feels hard, it might not just be the bands, the kip, or the grip. It might be that you're asking a different version of your body to do something it hasn't learned how to do—yet.

Want Help Putting This Into Action?

Download our free “Build Your First Pull-Up” PDF—complete with drills, progressions, and weekly structure to get you on the bar and moving with purpose. Click here.

Here’s the Bottom Line

Most fitness is good fitness—showing up and moving matters. But if your goal is to nail your first pull-up, think of training like cooking. Breaking the movement into parts is like gathering all the right ingredients—you need every one to make the meal taste amazing. No shortcuts, just smart prep for the win.

Stay Dope.