The Exciting Scapular Pull-Up For Climbing

Learn how to develop more muscular, injury-resistant shoulders with scapular pull-ups. Scapular Pull-Ups – Essential Workout at Hörst Gym!

Maintaining shoulder health and developing correct traction movement patterns requires forcefully pushing, rotating, and retracting the scapula. Performing this isolation exercise regularly improves your kinesthetic awareness of your scapular position and allows you to climb harder and longer in good condition despite increased fatigue. Additionally, the ability to quickly and powerfully engage the lower trapezius and lats provides the ability to keep the scapula in the correct position during training and lunges on campus.

 If you want to build muscle in your shoulders and back, pulling your shoulder blades is a great bodyweight exercise to add to your strength training program.Learn how to properly perform pull-ups for the scapula and complement the activity with other pull-up variations.

 What is a scapular pull-up?

The scapular pull-up is an upper-body exercise known as the scapular pull-up that uses less range of motion to activate the shoulder and back muscles than a regular pull-up. When done correctly, scapular pull-ups increase upper body strength. The main muscle groups targeted for scapular pull-ups include the lats, traps, rhomboids, and serratus anterior. To perform the scapula pull-up:

1. Start on dead hover with your elbows slightly bent.
2. Perform a reverse shrug, clasping your shoulder blades together and lifting your body slightly upward.
3. Hold in the upper position before lowering back to the starting position.

How to Perform Scapular Pull-ups

 For scapular pull-ups, we have to perform the following steps:

• Start with 2-3 sets of 5-10 reps. Choose sets and reps based on your ability to maintain good posture throughout.
• Overhand Pull Grip Grab the pull-up bar. The grips should be about shoulder-width apart or slightly wider than your shoulders. If you cannot hold the bar, stand on a plyometric box or a safe horizontal bench.

• Get off the crate and let your legs hang down. Keep your arms and legs long. Your elbows should be slightly bent. Contract your glutes and quads. Turn on the core. The ribs should be lowered, and the pelvis should be pushed in slightly.

• Roll shoulders outward and align with lats. The scapula should rotate upwards in the spine. The chin should be pushed in throughout the movement as if holding an egg under the chin. Alliterations must start from this starting position.
• With arms outstretched, pull your shoulder blades toward your lower back and gently bring them together to tighten your upper back muscles. Movement should occur only at the scapula. Pause in this position.
• With arms outstretched, shoulder blades rise and move away from the waist, slowly lowering to starting position. Your arms should end with long, slightly bent elbows, and your shoulder blades should be away from your spine.
• Repeat the required number of repetitions.

 3 Variations of Scapular Pull-Ups

If you are familiar with scapular pull-ups, try one of these scapular pull-ups.

• Scapular Pull-ups: If you are new to pull-ups, starting with an extra pull-up may be helpful. To practice the scapula pull-up, wrap an elastic band around the bar and place your foot on the other end of the expander before completing the exercise. The strap guides you gently up and down.

• Burpee Pull-ups: Try the burpee pull-ups to add Cardio to your pull-up workout. The burpee pull-up combines a burpee movement pattern with a pull-up. Perform a burpee pull-up by placing your hands on the floor and returning your feet to the push-up position. Raise your legs back and take a squat position. Use an overhead bar to pull your shoulder blades in. Return to the floor and repeat the exercise.
• Weighted Shoulder Lift: For a more advanced version, try the weighted shoulder lift. A weight pull-up is a strength exercise in which a weighted pull-up is performed. A weight belt or weight vest provides extra weight during workouts, and the excess weight helps you build more muscle during pull-up workouts. If you don’t have a weight belt or weight vest, you can do weight shovel pull-ups using a push-up belt equipped with resistance bands, dumbbells, or dumbbell plates.

How to Exercise Safely and Avoid Injury  

If you have a pre-or pre-existing medical condition, consult your doctor before starting an exercise program. While correct exercise technique is essential for the safety and effectiveness of an exercise program, individual needs may require modifications to each exercise to achieve optimal results. Always choose a weight that gives you complete control over your body through the entire movement. Pay close attention to your body during the exercise and stop immediately if you experience pain or discomfort.

 Incorporate proper warm-up, rest, and nutrition into your exercise program to keep track of your progress and build strength. Ultimately, your performance will depend on your ability to properly recover from exercise. For proper recovery, rest 24-48 hours before training the same muscle group.

Some Samples of a scapular pull exercise

Pyramid

• 3,5,7,9, sets .. etc.

• Keeps the number of sets odd. This is to ensure that peaks occur in the middle of your workout.
• You can change the iteration from 1 to 21, depending on your ability. Don’t forget to increase one iteration to the
• peak.
• Once the peak is set, reduce the number of contacts until the first number of connections is reached.

 Increase

• Increases once for each set.
• You can create odd or even statements.
• If you are a beginner, repeat once for the first set. Then repeat twice in the second set. Then continue until you get five iterations in set 5.
• For intermediate or advanced learners, start with 8-10 iterations and add one iteration for each next set.

 Decrease

• These are done in the same way as above, but 
• Start with the most contacts and end with the fewest.
• For example, if you run three sets and start with five iterations, you need the first five sets. Then the second set will be four times. Then continue to reduce the number of iterations until you get the minimum number of iterations you need.

Even sets

• These are how they sound. Repeat the same number of times for each set.
• If you are a beginner, repeat three times for three sets.
• For intermediate or advanced, perform 35 sets of 10 repetitions.

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