Admit it. When you see a guy banging out a set of one-armed pull-ups at the gym (while you wait your turn to do a few sets of the two-armed variety) you're impressed. Jealous even. There's just something about using one arm as a piston to jack your entire body up and down that screams power. And you want to be powerful; we all do. But first thing's first:
"One-armed pull-ups are very tough to do," says longtime M&F strength expert David Sandler, President and Co-Founder of StrengthPro in Las Vegas. "Especially if done truly with one arm."
This is because unlike two-armed pull-ups, your body is only connected to the bar at one point, so when you're yanking yourself up, all of the stabilizer muscles in your back and arm have to kick into gear to keep you balanced. Put another way: they're hard. If they were a ski trail, they'd be a double black diamond. With that disclaimer out of the way, Sandler has a three-step program to help you become the one-armed bodybuilding bandit you've always wanted to be.
