Pull-up bars are some of the favorite pieces of equipment for any serious CrossFitter looking to enhance his workout. You can have pull-up bars anywhere in your house, and this means you don’t have to visit the CrossFit gym to do your exercises necessarily. Some of the places you can build pull-up bars include at the doorway right outside your house, at the ceiling in your garage gym or the backyard of your house. Pull-up bars are an incredibly efficient piece of equipment and depending on how you use them; you can make the best out of them. That said, some gyms do not have this old-school piece of equipment simply because they have no idea what a pull-up bar can do. To inspire you, the following are some of the exercises you can do with just a pull-up bar and nothing else. Pull Ups These are amazing exercises for the upper body which work out your back muscles. They also strengthen your core muscles and arms, particularly as you master them and your form gets improved. Doing pull-ups is simple. With straight elbows, begin from a dead hang with your palms facing away from you. Keep your shoulders back and your chest up while your core is tightened. Gradually, pull yourself up until your chest comes into contact with the bar. There are lots of variations you can do including jumping pull-ups and flex hangs. If you feel you are not ready for pull-ups, it is advisable you go through some pull-up preparation or mastery sessions first. Burpees Pull Ups Compared to the basic pull up above, burpee pull-ups are more advanced and work on your pull up strength. They also up your heart rate so that pumping of blood to the muscles can be faster. To perform this CrossFit exercise, stand in front of the bar and then drop into a squat position. Let your hands be on the floor as you kick your back into a push-up position. Gradually, lower your body to the floor and do a full push up. Finally jump back to the squat position and up into the air as you do a pull-up. How hard burpee pull-ups are depended on the height of your pull-up bar. Chin Ups These exercises are known for working on your latissimus dorsi muscles as well as your biceps. When you perform chin-ups, your body tends to work together to pull you up to the bar. For this reason, they are categorized as all-around exercises. Like pull ups, chin ups have lots of other variations such as negatives, flex hangs, and jumping chin ups that you can do. L-Sits This exercise is often viewed as a parallette bars exercise and not necessarily as a pull-up bar CrossFit workout. When done through the pull-up bar, they can help enhance your core strength. Other workouts you may do using the pull-up bar include the muscle ups, hanging leg raises, knees to elbows, and hanging knee raises.

The L-sit pull-up is a much higher challenge compared to the ordinary pull-up exercise. It changes your center of gravity thus making it a little bit more difficult to execute. On the core strength, this exercise increases the challenge as well, especially for the lower abs. Because of its difficulty, this CrossFit exercise is great for learning and practicing proper dead-hang pull-up technique. Compared to other difficult workouts, the L-sit pull-up is much easier to learn because it combines two main exercises which are pull-ups and the L-sit position. When you master these two exercises separately, putting them up together is much easier, and the below tips will help you do this. Doing L-Sit Pull-Ups While hanging from a pull-up bar with your shoulders packed down and elbows locked, get into a dead hang position. Then, raise your knees to a level where your thighs are parallel with the ground. Lock your knees and point your toes to extend your legs straight in front of you. While performing your pull-ups, maintain this L-sit position. Before you start pulling yourself up the bar, exhale forcefully. The extent of your pull-up should be where your arms are fully flexed, your chin at or above the bar, and elbows behind your ribs. Pause there for a moment and then slowly lower yourself down until you get a full elbow lock. As you descend, inhale. Tips for L-Sit Pull-Up Technique With L-sit pull-ups, repetition speed and tempo are very important. Perform your reps slowly and under control always. Do not jerk or kip your way through the movement. Do not allow your body to jerk down into the bottom dead hang position. Make the transition gradual and controlled so as to prevent shoulder and elbow problems. When you initiate the L-sit pull-up with a strong exhale, make sure you contract your entire core musculature hard. Tuck your tailbone forward and roll your hips up with a slight abdominal crunch. Squeeze your thighs and glutes as you keep your knees locked, and your toes pointed out. The L-Sit Pull-Up Progression Once you can do about 10 dead-hang pull-ups with good control and technique, you can now start L-sit pull-ups. This is how to work your way up to this phenomenal CrossFit workout. Phase 1 –Here, you combine pull-ups with knee raises. Do at least 10 reps of hanging knee raises, 30-second hanging knee raise isometric hold, and 10 reps pull-ups with a hanging knee raise. Phase 2 – In this phase, you combine pull-ups with knee raises. Do at least 10 reps of hanging leg raise, 30-second hanging leg raise isometric hold, 10 reps scap pull-ups with leg raise isometric hold and at least 10 reps pull-ups with a hanging leg raise. The above progression is just an experiment because there are many other variations you can come up with yourself. The most important thing is to keep on challenging yourself progressively as you take on harder exercises.