Shadowing Practice: How To Pull Up High As F*** - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Want to get your pull -ups high as f*?

Well, if you don't learn these things, you'll be stuck pulling to your neck for years.

Because after perfecting my pull -ups for over a decade, I've narrowed down the techniques that actually work and the only things that really matter.

This is my friend Spence.

He's never done a high pull -up before.

I'm going to show him the five most important techniques that you need, and he's going to try them live.

You ready?

Before we get started, I just want you to go for a high pull -up.

I want you to just pull up as high as you can.

Okay, ready?

See what you got.

Okay, let's see.

Okay, just pull as high as you can, yank the bar.

Not bad, but we're gonna make it even better.

Starting with technique number one, the first thing you do and most important, your grip and hand placement.

You're gonna use many grips throughout your fitness journey, but when you first get started, it's gonna be most efficient to use a more narrow grip.

Okay.

Check this out, imagine I'm doing pull -ups.

If I wanna pull up even higher, I have to get away from being under the bar and start pulling being in front of the bar.

If you use a more narrow grip, it allows you to keep your elbows in and bring them in front of you as you pull higher.

Now, to make this even more efficient, if you use a false grip and wrap your wrists over the bar,

now you'll have an even smoother and greater range of motion that will help you transition from pulling, actually, to pushing.

Interesting.

That's what's going to get your pull -up super high.

Now, before wasting your energy on pull -ups, just try it with this bar.

Go with a wide grip and try bringing it as low as you can, and then try it with a false grip, closed grip.

And you can see how much easier it's going to be to bring it all the way down. So here.

You'll feel it kind of get stuck, like right around here.

Yeah, for sure.

Versus this.

All the way up.

Ah.

The movement path is completely unobstructed.

Versus when you're coming like this, you're going to hit your chest first.

And then you'll have to turn, if anything.

Yeah, exactly.

All right, you ready to put it to the test?

Let's do it.

All right, very first thing, we're going to go for the hang you want to have hands closer apart this time exactly okay

and if you can have a false grip

and get keep your thumbs in there as well and just really false grip as much as you can all

right perfect let's see what you got remember keep your elbows in front

when you pull this god okay pull straight up look up

there you go it felt like i got a little higher

you got like an inch higher all right let's go every inch counts maybe every inch counts you ready

Ready to optimize this one?

Yeah, definitely, let's go.

All right, here we go.

To really take advantage of this technique, you wanna be able to take advantage of your false grip.

As you can see, if you're all the way down below, it's gonna be hard to get the greatest advantage point for that false grip,

so having a higher position to grab the bar, you're gonna be able to get a more efficient and effective false grip.

Now you're gonna be able to really squeeze on hard, keep those elbows tucked in from the very beginning, and give it a go.

There we go.

There we go, we're already getting higher.

Yeah, let's go.

Already getting higher.

Technique number two, unlocking the perfect movement path.

You wanna practice your movement path on a bar before wasting all your energy on the actual pull -up bar.

So starting from your narrow false grip, instead of a dead hang, you wanna have an active hang.

And while you hang, lean back, and that's going to help you squeeze and keep your elbows in front of your body.

Remember, when we're doing our movement path,

we want it to happen all in front of our body versus right through our body and getting stuck halfway.

Got it.

Now remember, with a more narrow grip, it's going to allow you to pull in front of your body,

keep the elbows in front, and get really low.

But when you get down to right around here, like you did before, you may feel some restriction.

And what's going to help this is if you have a false grip.

Now it can just easily go even lower.

Got it and it clears up that entire movement path.

Now to take this technique even further, no one's gonna tell you this, but if you rev the bar like this,

that's actually gonna give you more power and more height on the bar as you push.

So you're not just going with a false grip and going straight down like this, but once you get to right around here,

you're pushing and revving, you see?

Got it.

So it's gonna bring you here, and then you're pushing it down like that.

So it's a mix almost of a pull to a push.

Got it.

Okay, cool.

So that means that this is not just the average pull -up movement path,

but really it's a mixture of a lat pull -down and a pull -up at the same time.

So when your arms are in front, you're going to initiate half of a lat pull -down as you lean back

and then half of that pull -up as you begin to gain that height.

Got it.

Then you're gonna, instead of pulling all the way to your chest from this position, you're gonna engage a little more of that lat pull down.

Keep your elbows in.

That's gonna allow you to engage more of your lats.

and push down, rev the bar here as you begin to pull the bar closer to your body and lat pull down.

A lot of you watching already have the pulling strength to do this, you're just not applying the right techniques.

But you're gonna see, if you just try one or all of these techniques in combination, you're gonna immediately increase the height of your pullup.

Before you go, I'm gonna give you a tiny bit more technique to really optimize this high pullup.

Get it.

As you go for your pullup, I want you to start with a really nice false grip

and make sure your elbows are already in front of your body and you're kind of leaning back into that position, ready to yank up.

So now as you let go, you're going to find because you're leaning back, you might have like a small momentum forward.

And as you feel like, use that.

As you feel like your momentum starts to come back a little bit, that's when you're going to yank.

Exactly.

It's explosive and compressing your body from your lats as well.

This is half of the pull and this is half of the pull.

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Got it.

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So I'll show you one more time.

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Narrow grip, try to get a really nice good false to make sure it's locked in do what I said,

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rev from the very beginning as well to lock in that grip.

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So lock in the grip.

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I'm revving.

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My elbows are in front.

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I start with that little momentum.

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Boom.

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Nice.

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Elbows in front, all the way up, all the way down.

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Rev, squeeze the bar.

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The grip is everything.

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Yank.

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Boom.

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There we go.

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That already felt way better.

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Exactly.

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That already felt way better.

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And you did a lot of the lat engagement.

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Yeah.

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Combine pull with the lat.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Because you went high, but the bar was kind of far from your body.

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Now just combine them both.

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In fact, I'm going to show you before you jump the gun.

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Two techniques and exercises that you can use to improve that.

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So I want you to just do the lat pull -down part.

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Don't even pull.

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So you're going to go like this.

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Forward.

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Pull back.

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Rev and pull back.

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Now this is all very intense.

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This is like heavy lifting, so don't do many reps.

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Just do one on your free time training you'll do more

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that's it stop i don't want you to get tired we're also battling fatigue yeah for sure

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so we got to get there before you get too fatigued

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that was for lat strength

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now i'm going to give you an exercise for explosive pulling strength this is called x

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and i pull -ups

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so this nice got it nice there all right yeah

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you're going to use the same technique

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you're going to get in the same way start with the closed grip completely out elbows in front

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Same technique, then you're gonna pull and pull with your knees.

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Got it.

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At the same time.

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Catch that air, open up and come down.

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Come up, catch the air, and close.

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Got it, okay.

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Go for it.

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Yep. Be explosive.

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Knees in.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Yank the bar.

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Woo.

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Oh, yeah.

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See?

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Yeah, yeah.

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That's cool.

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Technique number three, top secret, ballistic reps.

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Starting from the top, using that momentum to come down and pop it up.

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Okay.

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So basically, this load, when you come down,

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you're going to use that as potential energy and momentum to bring that back up and snap that up.

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Don't use too much of your lats where you'll go too far away.

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Remember the X pull -ups.

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The switch.

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You do be explosive and you use both.

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So lat and pull in at the same time and make sure the target is towards your belly button and boom, then go up, boom, yes!

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Yeah, that felt good.

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That was way better.

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Yeah, that felt good.

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Way better.

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Go!

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That was amazing.

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Instantly upgrades your pull -ups.

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That's already a massive improvement, but let's keep going.

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You ready?

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Get it.

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This time, instead of using momentum, we're gonna be eliminating momentum with technique number four, dead pulls.

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We're gonna get down seated so that we cannot cheat and use absolutely zero momentum.

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From here, we're going to pull straight up and come right back down.

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Nice.

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This is also going to be a great test to see how high you can actually pull.

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And if you're going to be making improvements over time by pulling higher and higher.

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Boom.

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That's already insane of a high pull.

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Now, don't waste your energy.

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Wow, we are almost at that belly button length, which is insane.

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The goal is actually to like hit your lap and if you can even stick it there.

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Oh, boom.

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Woo!

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Nice, yeah.

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Now to specifically train this, especially if you can't get it as high as Steven just did on your first try,

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you can always use a resistance band.

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But definitely pull as high as you can first set so that you're doing a drop set.

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Even if your highest pull without the band is only up to your chin or your neck, do that first, then go with a band.

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Keep the false grip, have the band under your waist, Go all the way down, sit, and go for reps.

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As you get stronger, you can go from a thicker band to a thinner band to no band.

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Let's go.

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Now when you use it try to uh, try to maintain a straight left position now.

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Do it So you want to lean too far back and lift like you're flat.

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God do keep like a seated position.

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God point your toes

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Let's go for it Yank the bar

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There we go

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Right, every single rep you want to start back to the seated calm and position ready to just yank it

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Technique number five, preloading your high pull -up rep.

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Even hanging with extra load for just 10 seconds before your rep is going to make a big difference.

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Ready?

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Now let's get them.

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Now of course, you should be training weighted pull -ups as well, and even trying all these techniques with some weight.

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And when you take it off, you're gonna be fine.

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Alright, see what you got? That was sick.

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That was sick.

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That was super hot.

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Hold on, let's do that one more time.

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I was barely watching.

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Oh, you need one, baby!

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Let's see what you got.

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Let's do it one more time.

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That was crazy.

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Okay.

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All right.

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Remember, grip together.

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All the piece together.

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Elbows in front.

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Knee back over it started.

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Boom.

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What?

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Insane.

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Let's go.

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Let's go.

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That is so freaking crazy.

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Let's go.

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Yo, it's all on the technique.

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Let's have a quick replay and watch the before versus the after.

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And if you thought these techniques were golden, we have way more on the Thenx app.

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Download it right now in the app store for free.

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And we now have the biggest calisthenics community in the world on the Thenx app.

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The brand new social media feature is dropping in just a couple weeks.

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So download it right now, start posting, grow your following, and you could be the next Thenx athlete.

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Thanks so much for watching.

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Comment down below right now how many times I said the word high pull -ups.

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And just like every video, you have a chance to win a Thenx weight vest.

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Much love.

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Make sure you subscribe.

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See you next week.

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Mad love.

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Peace out, baby.

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If you're still struggling with pull -ups, try adding this right after your next set.

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As soon as you finish, go straight into lat pull -downs.

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Your lats can keep going, and by reducing the load on your biceps from the movement, you can push your lats even closer to failure,

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which not only strengthens your back, but even increase your pull -up reps.

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You can do this with your own body weight like I just showed you, but it's going to be a lot harder.

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I'd suggest using a cable machine.

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It's more precise and it's easier to progress.

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And for that, amp is my number one choice.

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You can instantly change the weight with the turn of a dial and even modify the type of resistance like band mode,

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concentric, and eccentric mode while tracking your reps and performance.

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For more info, I'll tag them below so you can check them out and get one yourself.

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But remember, make sure to add lat pulldowns after your next set if you're still struggling with pull -ups.

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41 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How To Pull Up High As F***”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pull, grip, technique, lat, bar. This video has 263 sentences and 2484 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:16. The speaker talks fast, about 187 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
grip noun	/ˈɡɹɪp/	A hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand.
technique noun	/tɛkˈniːk/	The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements.
elbow noun	/ˈɛlboʊ̯/	The joint between the upper arm and the forearm.
momentum noun	/ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/	Of a body in motion: the tendency of a body to maintain its inertial motion; the product of its mass and velocity, or the vector sum of the products of its…
bind verb	/ˈbaɪ̯nd/	To tie; to confine by any ligature.
boom verb	/bum/	To make a loud, hollow, resonant sound.
narrow adjective	/ˈnæɹəʊ/	Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
rep noun	/ɹɛp/	A fabric made of silk or wool, or of silk and wool, and having a transversely corded or ribbed surface.
lean verb	/ˈliːn/	To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
versus	/ˈvɝsəs/	Against; in opposition to.
explosive adjective	/ɛkˈspləʊsɪv/	Able to, or likely to, explode.
efficient adjective	/ɪˈfɪʃənt/	Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.
insane adjective	/ɪnˈseɪn/	Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
knee noun	/ni/	In humans, the joint or the region of the joint in the middle part of the leg between the thigh and the shank.
squeeze verb	/skwiːz/	To apply pressure (to something) from two or more sides at once.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pull up verb	/ˌpʊl ˈʌp/	To lift upwards or vertically.
pull down verb		To make (something) lower (especially of clothes).
come down verb		To descend, fall down, collapse.
pull back verb		To retreat.
back down verb		To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have.
back up verb		To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
clear up verb	/klɪəˈɹʌp/	To clarify, to correct a misconception.
come back verb		To return to a place.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Not bad, but we're gonna make it even better.
Check this out, imagine I'm doing pull -ups.
All right, you ready to put it to the test?
There we go, we're already getting higher.
Alright, see what you got?

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 84 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, gonna, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, thick /θɪk/, smooth /smuːð/, athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, restriction /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/, initiate /ɪˈnɪʃ.i.eɪt/, shank /ˈʃæŋk/
Long words — get the stress right: momentum /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/, eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/, initiate /ɪˈnɪʃ.i.eɪt/, calisthenics /ˌkæ.lɪsˈθɛ.nɪks/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like grip, technique, elbow.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How To Pull Up High As F*** - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?