Pulling without a pull-up

Pressing is easy to train anywhere. Pulling is the part people skip, and skipping it is how you end up with cranky shoulders and a posture you blame on your desk.

Start with rows, not pull-ups

A horizontal row is to pulling what a knee push-up is to pressing: the accessible version that actually builds the thing. Lie under a sturdy table, grip the edge, keep your body in one line, and pull your chest toward it. Bend your knees to make it easier, straighten and elevate your heels to make it harder.

If you have no suitable table, a towel looped around a door handle and a lean-back row gets you most of the way there.

Then hang

Before your first pull-up, you need your hands and shoulders to tolerate hanging. Accumulate sixty seconds of dead hang per session, in whatever chunks you can manage. This single habit fixes more shoulder complaints than any stretch.

Then negatives

Jump or step to the top of a pull-up and lower yourself as slowly as you can. Five singles with a five-second lowering phase, twice a week. Most people get their first full rep within eight weeks of starting these.

Don’t neglect the back of the shoulder

Add face-pulls with a towel, or a simple prone lift where you lie face-down and raise your arms into a Y shape. Two sets of fifteen, twice a week. It’s boring and it is the difference between pressing pain-free at forty and not.

If you press twice a week, pull twice a week. The ratio matters more than the exercises do.