How to Do Your First Pull-Up: A Beginner's Pull-Up Programme

Everyone would love to be able to do a pull-up.

It's one of the simplest and most satisfying expressions of strength: hang from something and pull your entire body upwards until your chin clears the bar.

No machines. No complicated equipment.

Just you versus gravity.

And there's something deeply satisfying about knowing that, should you ever find yourself hanging from the edge of a cliff, you've at least given yourself a fighting chance.

More realistically, pull-ups are a fantastic way to develop your back, arms and grip, while giving you an extremely clear performance goal to work towards.

I've helped plenty of personal training clients achieve their first pull-up over the years.

If you currently look at the bar and think:

“There is absolutely no chance I'm getting up there.”

Don't worry.

That's where plenty of people start.

Can Anyone Learn to Do a Pull-Up?

Not literally everyone—injury, disability and individual circumstances matter—but for a huge number of people, a first pull-up is a realistic training goal.

How long it takes varies enormously.

Your current pulling strength matters.

Your grip matters.

Your bodyweight matters.

Your training history matters.

And, most importantly, how consistently you practise matters.

Somebody who is already strong might get their first rep relatively quickly.

For someone starting from scratch, it could take months.

That's absolutely fine.

The objective isn't to get there quickly. It's to get there.

Does Losing Weight Help With Pull-Ups?

Potentially, yes.

A pull-up is a relative-strength exercise. You're producing force to move your own bodyweight.

If two people possess exactly the same pulling strength but one weighs considerably less, the lighter person has less mass to move.

That's one reason pull-ups can be a nice performance goal for somebody who also wants to lose body fat.

But I wouldn't say pull-ups themselves particularly encourage fat loss.

Fat loss is primarily determined by maintaining an appropriate energy deficit over time.

Instead, a pull-up gives you something positive to chase alongside it:

Rather than:

“I want the number on the scales to go down.”

You can work towards:

“I want to get my chin over that bloody bar.”

I much prefer that.

What Does a Good Pull-Up Look Like?

There are lots of perfectly legitimate variations, but for the purposes of this programme we're going to establish a consistent standard.

1. Start from a dead hang

Hang from the bar with your elbows straight.

You don't need to aggressively force your shoulders as far away from your ears as physically possible. Allow the shoulder blades to move naturally while maintaining control of the position.

Keep your body relatively still rather than swinging yourself into the rep.

2. Pull yourself upwards

Drive your elbows down as you pull until your chin clearly passes the height of the bar.

3. Lower under control

Return to the starting position under control until your elbows are straight again.

That's one rep.

You don't need to make your body perfectly rigid, but we're trying to develop a strict pull-up rather than generating momentum by kicking and swinging.

How Often Should I Train Pull-Ups?

For most beginners, I'd start with 2–3 focused pull-up sessions per week.

That gives you regular practice while allowing recovery between harder sessions.

You can practise some of the easier elements more frequently—particularly comfortable hangs and technique work—but you don't need to smash slow negatives every day.

More training isn't automatically better training.

Consistency + recovery + progressive overload is what we're after.

Warming Up for Pull-Ups

You don't need an elaborate warm-up.

Spend around 5 minutes getting generally warm. A rowing machine or SkiErg works nicely because you're already involving the upper body, but walking, cycling or another form of light activity is absolutely fine too.

Then perform a few comfortable hangs, scapular movements and easy rows before beginning the harder work.

The aim is simply to arrive at your working sets feeling ready to pull.

The First Pull-Up Programme

I've divided the session into three elements:

A — Grip and trunk

B — Shoulder-blade control

C — Pulling strength

The final element is where most of the progression happens.

ELEMENT A — GRIP & TRUNK STRENGTH

A pull-up requires you to transmit force through your whole body while hanging onto a bar.

We're going to practise both.

1A. Hollow Hold

10–30 seconds

1B. Dead Hang

10–30 seconds

Perform these as a superset for 3 sets, resting approximately 60 seconds between rounds.

Start with a duration you can perform properly.

If 10 seconds is challenging, that's your starting point.

Gradually build towards approximately 30 controlled seconds.

You don't need to turn either exercise into a competition. We're building useful capacity for the pull-up that follows.

ELEMENT B — SCAPULAR CONTROL

Scapular Pull-Ups

Hang from the bar with straight arms.

Without bending your elbows, gently draw your shoulder blades down and use them to slightly elevate your body.

Then return under control.

Perform:

3 sets of 5–8 reps

Rest around 60 seconds between sets.

The movement is small.

That's intentional.

We're practising control of the shoulder blades from the hanging position rather than trying to turn it into a miniature pull-up.

Optional: Row Hold

You can also include a static row hold:

2–3 sets of 15–30 seconds

This gives you additional time producing force through the upper back without having to support your full bodyweight from the bar.

ELEMENT C — BUILD YOUR PULLING STRENGTH

This is the important bit.

The following exercises become progressively more specific to the pull-up, but don't think of them as levels in a computer game that must be perfectly completed before you're allowed to touch the next exercise.

They're tools.

Choose the variation that allows you to train hard while maintaining control, and progress it as you become stronger.

Stage 1 — Ring Rows

3–5 sets of 5–8 reps

Ring rows are an excellent starting point because we can easily change their difficulty.

The more upright you stand, the easier they become.

Move your feet further forwards and make your body more horizontal to increase the challenge.

Pull your chest towards the rings, pause briefly and lower yourself under control.

When these become easy, make the angle harder rather than simply doing endless repetitions.

Stage 2 — Top Holds

Use a box or step to get yourself into the top position of a pull-up, with your chin above the bar.

Hold yourself there.

Start with:

3–5 sets of 5–10 seconds

Don't worry if you initially drop quite quickly.

The fact that you can't yet pull yourself into this position doesn't mean you can't become stronger by practising holding it.

Stage 3 — Negative Pull-Ups

This is where things get interesting.

Start at the top of the pull-up using a box or step.

Then lower yourself as slowly and smoothly as you can until your arms are straight.

Aim initially for roughly 3–5 seconds rather than insisting upon an arbitrary 10-second negative.

Perform:

3–5 sets of 1–3 reps

Rest for around 2 minutes between sets.

These can be surprisingly demanding.

Quality beats quantity.

If your first negative takes five seconds and your final one consists of immediately falling towards Earth, you've probably done enough.

Stage 4 — Paused Negatives

Once ordinary negatives are controlled, we can make them considerably harder.

Start above the bar and lower yourself in stages.

Pause briefly near:

The top

Upper-middle

Around 90° at the elbow

Lower-middle

Just above the bottom

Then finish in a controlled hang.

Try:

3–5 sets of 1 rep

with approximately 2 minutes rest.

This builds strength at different points throughout the movement and exposes the positions where you're weakest.

Don't Forget to Actually Try a Pull-Up

This sounds obvious, but it's something people get wrong.

You can become extremely good at preparing to do a pull-up without ever actually trying one.

As you become stronger, periodically attempt a strict pull-up while you're fresh.

Not twenty attempts.

One or two good ones.

You may be surprised.

One day you'll pull...

keep pulling...

reach the point where you normally stop...

and suddenly your chin goes over the bar.

Congratulations. You can do a pull-up.

What If I'm Stuck?

This is where individual coaching becomes useful.

If you're struggling to progress, we can look at what's actually limiting you.

It might be:

Grip strength.

Strength from the bottom position.

Strength near the top.

Overall pulling strength.

Technique.

Training volume.

Recovery.

Or simply that you haven't been training it consistently for long enough.

There's no reason everybody needs exactly the same solution.

What About Assisted Pull-Ups?

They're useful too.

An assisted pull-up machine can be an excellent way to practise the full movement while gradually reducing assistance.

Bands can also help, although the assistance they provide changes throughout the movement—generally helping you most near the bottom where the band is stretched furthest.

I don't consider either cheating.

They're simply additional tools.

The aim is eventually to need less assistance.

After Your First Pull-Up

Getting your first rep isn't the end.

It's the beginning of another progression.

1 pull-up → 2 → 3 → 5 → 10.

Eventually you might add weight.

Change grips.

Use rings.

Climb ropes.

Or decide that one pull-up was enough and retire undefeated.

But that first rep is special.

I've coached plenty of big lifts over the years, but watching somebody achieve their first ever pull-up is still one of my favourite things.

It's incredibly clear.

Yesterday you couldn't lift yourself over the bar.

Today you can.

That's strength.

Muscle Groups and Movement Patterns: What Do You Actually Need to Train?

The human body contains hundreds of muscles.

Fortunately, you don't need to learn all their names before you're allowed to pick up a dumbbell.

For most people who simply want to become stronger, fitter and more capable, it's much more useful to understand the major muscle groups and the movements they help you perform.

That's how I generally approach training.

Rather than trying to individually train hundreds of muscles, we can organise exercises around a handful of fundamental movement patterns.

Get reasonably strong across those movements and you'll train an enormous amount of your body without needing a degree in anatomy.

Your Muscles Work Together

Very few exercises genuinely use one muscle in isolation.

Your muscles work together to produce movement and stabilise your body.

Take a squat.

Your quads are working.

Your glutes are working.

Your hamstrings contribute.

Your trunk helps control your torso.

Your feet, calves and hips all play a role.

That's why I generally find it more useful for clients to think about movements first and individual muscles second.

You don't need to consciously contract every muscle involved.

Your nervous system is quite capable of organising most of that without you micromanaging it.

What is useful is understanding roughly what an exercise is supposed to achieve and what good execution looks like.

Do You Need to “Balance” Every Muscle?

You'll often hear fitness advice about muscle imbalances, poor posture and supposedly dormant muscles.

There's usually a grain of truth buried underneath it, but it's easy to take too far.

If you spend all day sitting down, it doesn't mean your glutes have forgotten how to work.

Likewise, having one muscle stronger than another doesn't automatically mean you're going to get injured.

Human beings aren't perfectly symmetrical.

However, regularly exposing your body to a variety of movements, loads and ranges of motion is a sensible way to develop well-rounded physical capacity.

That's what we're trying to achieve.

Not perfect muscular symmetry.

A body that's strong and useful in lots of different situations.

Compound vs Isolation Exercises

You'll also hear exercises divided into two broad categories.

Compound Exercises

A compound exercise involves movement at multiple joints and usually requires several muscle groups to work together.

Examples include:

Squats
Deadlifts
Bench Press
Overhead Press
Pull-Ups
Rows
Lunges

These exercises can be very time-efficient because a relatively small number of movements can train a large proportion of your body.

That's why compound exercises form a significant part of many strength programmes.

Isolation Exercises

An isolation exercise attempts to emphasise a particular muscle or joint action.

Examples include:

Biceps Curls
Triceps Extensions
Leg Extensions
Hamstring Curls
Calf Raises
Lateral Raises

Isolation exercises aren't just for rehabilitation or correcting an imbalance.

They're useful whenever we want to give a particular muscle more training without necessarily creating the fatigue or complexity of another large compound exercise.

They can be useful for building muscle, developing specific areas, managing training load or simply because you enjoy doing them.

There's room for both.

The Main Movement Patterns

For general strength training, I like to think about a few broad categories.

They aren't laws of human movement and plenty of exercises overlap between them.

They're simply a useful way of organising your training.

PUSHING

A push involves using the upper body to move yourself or an external resistance away.

Main muscles involved

Chest
Shoulders
Triceps

Examples

Bench Press
Press-Ups
Dips
Overhead Press
Dumbbell Press

We can further divide these into horizontal pushes, such as a bench press, and vertical pushes, such as an overhead press.

You don't necessarily need to worry about that distinction as a beginner.

Just get good at pushing things.

PULLING

Pulling involves bringing an external resistance towards you—or pulling yourself towards something.

Main muscles involved

Upper back
Lats
Biceps
Forearms

Examples

Pull-Ups
Chin-Ups
Ring Rows
Bent-Over Rows
Cable Rows

Again, we can broadly divide these into horizontal and vertical pulling.

Pulling is also where grip strength starts becoming particularly important.

If you're working towards your first pull-up, I've got a complete first pull-up programme elsewhere in this glossary.

SQUATTING

Squatting involves significant movement through the knees and hips and is one of our fundamental lower-body patterns.

Main muscles involved

Quadriceps
Glutes
Adductors, alongside several other muscles contributing to the movement.

Examples

Back Squat
Front Squat
Goblet Squat
Split Squat
Lunges
Step-Ups

Different exercises and techniques will change how much work individual muscles contribute.

You don't need every squat variation.

You need one or two appropriate ones that you can progressively train.

HINGING

A hinge involves producing movement predominantly through the hips.

Main muscles involved

Glutes
Hamstrings
Back and trunk musculature

Examples

Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Good Morning
Kettlebell Swing

Learning to hinge is particularly useful because it gives us access to an enormous range of exercises—from controlled Romanian deadlifts to picking up awkward objects from the floor.

And I quite like picking up awkward objects from the floor.

CARRYING

I'd actually add this to your original article.

Loaded carries don't fit particularly neatly into push/pull/squat/hinge, and they're a significant part of how you actually coach.

Muscles involved

Lots of them.

That's rather the point.

Examples

Farmer's Walks
Suitcase Carries
Sandbag Carries
Front Carries
Overhead Carries

Carries challenge your grip, trunk, legs and upper body while requiring you to actually move through space with a load.

They're simple, scalable and incredibly useful.

They're also a good example of why trying to assign every exercise to one muscle can become silly.

Sometimes your entire body just needs to get something heavy from A to B.

YOUR TRUNK

I generally prefer trunk to “core”, although everyone knows what core means.

Your trunk musculature helps produce and control movement between your pelvis and ribcage and transfer force throughout your body.

And it does considerably more than just create a six-pack.

Examples of trunk training include:

Planks
Side Planks
Hollow Holds
Rollouts
Loaded Carries
Rotational exercises

Heavy squats, deadlifts, carries and awkward-object exercises also place considerable demands on your trunk.

GRIP

Your hands are your connection to whatever you're lifting.

If your grip fails, the rest of you doesn't get much opportunity to demonstrate how strong it is.

Grip is trained during:

Deadlifts
Pull-Ups
Rows
Farmer's Walks
Sandbag work
Stone lifting

And we can train it directly when necessary.

As someone who spends a fairly unreasonable amount of time lifting stones and carrying heavy things, I'm particularly fond of having strong hands.

CALVES

Don't forget them.

Your calves contribute to walking, running, jumping and controlling your ankle.

They get plenty of work during everyday movement and many exercises, but they can also be trained directly with calf raises and other loaded movements.

They're not just there to fill the gap between your shorts and your shoes.

Do You Need to “Feel” the Correct Muscle?

This needs a little nuance.

Feeling an exercise in the intended muscle can sometimes provide useful feedback.

But you don't need to feel an enormous burn in a muscle for an exercise to be working.

Likewise, feeling another muscle doesn't automatically mean you've performed the exercise incorrectly.

A squat doesn't become ineffective because you felt your glutes more than your quads.

A row doesn't fail because your biceps got tired.

Compound movements involve multiple muscles.

However, unexpected pain or discomfort is different.

If an exercise repeatedly hurts, or you're feeling significant discomfort somewhere you weren't expecting, that's worth investigating rather than blindly continuing.

Should You Train Every Muscle in Every Workout?

You don't have to.

There are lots of perfectly effective ways to organise training.

You could use:

Full-body training

Upper/lower splits

Push/pull/legs

Body-part splits

or countless other arrangements.

For many of my general personal-training clients, though, full-body training works extremely well.

If somebody trains two or three times per week, we can practise the major movements regularly without having to dedicate an entire Tuesday to their chest.

A session might contain:

A squat

A hinge

A push

A pull

A carry

with additional exercises selected around that person's goals.

But that's a programming choice—not a biological rule.

Don't Train Like Someone With Completely Different Goals

There's nothing wrong with looking at how professional athletes or bodybuilders train.

We can learn plenty from them.

But copying their programme doesn't mean you'll get their results.

Their goals, training history, available time, recovery and sometimes entire lifestyle can be completely different from yours.

A competitive bodybuilder might have an excellent reason to dedicate substantial training volume to an individual muscle.

Someone who can realistically train twice per week probably doesn't.

Your training should be built around your goals and your life.

Not somebody else's Instagram account.

The Bottom Line

You don't need to memorise hundreds of muscles to understand strength training.

Start with the major movement patterns:

Push.

Pull.

Squat.

Hinge.

Carry.

Then make sure your programme provides appropriate work for your trunk, grip and any other areas relevant to your goals.

From there, progressively get stronger.

The human body is complicated.

Your training doesn't necessarily need to be.

Muscle Soreness (DOMS): Should You Train When Sore?

Ever had a great training session and then, two days later, discovered that sitting on the toilet has become a carefully planned manoeuvre?

That's Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS.

It's the soreness and stiffness that can develop after training, usually appearing several hours afterwards and often feeling worst around 24–72 hours later.

It's particularly common when you're new to training, return after some time off, dramatically increase your workload, or do movements your body isn't accustomed to.

And although it can be uncomfortable, muscle soreness doesn't automatically mean you need to stop training.

WHY DO MUSCLES GET SORE?

You'll often hear that soreness is caused by tiny "micro-tears" in your muscles.

The reality is more complicated.

Unaccustomed or demanding exercise can cause microscopic muscle damage alongside a temporary inflammatory response and changes within the tissues. These processes can contribute to DOMS, but soreness isn't simply you feeling your muscles tearing and repairing themselves.

One thing we do know is that certain types of exercise are particularly good at producing soreness—especially movements involving lots of eccentric muscle action, where a muscle produces force while lengthening.

Think slowly lowering a heavy weight, walking downhill or doing far more lunges than you had any business doing.

SORENESS DOESN'T MEAN PROGRESS

Some people love DOMS.

If they wake up the next morning unable to straighten their arms, they assume yesterday's workout must have been brilliant.

Unfortunately, soreness isn't a particularly useful measure of training quality.

You can have a fantastic training session and experience very little soreness.

You can also absolutely destroy yourself, spend four days walking like you've been hit by a bus and achieve very little beyond making Wednesday unnecessarily difficult.

If your goal is getting stronger or building muscle, look at things that actually reflect progress:

Are you getting stronger? Are you performing more work? Is your technique improving? Are you building muscle?

Not:

Does it hurt when I sit down?

CAN I TRAIN WHEN I'M SORE?

Usually, yes.

Mild-to-moderate muscle soreness doesn't automatically require a rest day.

Moving and warming up can temporarily make sore muscles feel considerably better, and you may find that you're perfectly capable of having a productive training session.

But there's some judgement involved.

If you're slightly sore but moving normally and your performance is good, there's probably little reason to change your session.

If you're extremely sore, your movement is significantly restricted or your performance has fallen off a cliff, hammering the same muscles again probably isn't going to achieve much. Train something else, reduce the workload or take some additional recovery.

Training more frequently can actually help here too. As your body becomes accustomed to a particular type of exercise, the same session generally produces less soreness.

This is sometimes called the repeated-bout effect.

Essentially, your body gets better at dealing with things you've asked it to do before.

WARM UP AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS

Rather than deciding whether you can train while lying on the sofa feeling sorry for yourself, start your warm-up.

Move around. Get warm. Gradually practise the movements you're planning to train and see what happens.

DOMS will often feel much less dramatic once you've started moving.

If everything begins moving normally and your strength feels reasonably good, crack on.

If you're still moving like Frankenstein after ten minutes and your warm-up weights feel inexplicably heavy, that's useful information too.

Adjust accordingly.

WHAT HELPS MUSCLE SORENESS?

Unfortunately, there's no magic recovery technique that instantly gets rid of DOMS.

The fundamentals are considerably less exciting:

Sleep well. Eat enough. Get sufficient protein. Stay reasonably active. Give your body time to adapt.

Light movement can make you feel better, although that doesn't necessarily mean you've accelerated the underlying recovery process.

Massage and some other recovery techniques may temporarily reduce perceived soreness too. That's perfectly useful if they make you feel better, but you don't need an elaborate recovery routine every time your legs ache.

Consistency is probably the biggest solution.

The person who trains regularly tends to experience much less disruptive soreness than the person who annihilates themselves once every fortnight.

SORENESS OR INJURY?

This distinction matters.

DOMS is generally a dull, aching soreness within muscles that develops after training and gradually improves.

A sudden sharp pain during an exercise, significant swelling or bruising, loss of function, severe weakness, pain around a joint, or symptoms that continue getting worse aren't things I'd automatically dismiss as DOMS.

If something feels genuinely injured, treat it differently.

IN CLOSING

Muscle soreness is a normal consequence of training, particularly when you do something new or considerably more demanding than you're accustomed to.

You don't need to chase it and you don't necessarily need to fear it.

If you're sore, warm up and see how you move.

Sometimes you'll realise you need an easier session.

Sometimes you'll realise you genuinely need a rest.

And quite often you'll realise that you're absolutely fine—you just made the mistake of sitting still for twenty minutes before trying to stand up.

Train consistently, progress your workload sensibly and let soreness become something that occasionally happens rather than something you use to judge whether your training is working.

Drop Sets: What They Are & How to Use Them

A drop set is a technique where you perform a hard set, reduce the weight and then continue exercising with little or no additional rest.

For example:

Dumbbell curls — 15kg × 10 reps

Immediately reduce to:

12kg × 6 reps

Then:

9kg × 8 reps

Congratulations. Your previously light dumbbells will now feel considerably less light.

DO YOU HAVE TO TRAIN TO FAILURE?

No.

Drop sets are often performed at or very close to muscular failure, but you don't necessarily need to reach absolute failure before every drop.

You might perform a hard set with only a rep or two left in reserve, reduce the weight and immediately continue.

The important part is that the initial set is sufficiently challenging for reducing the load to actually make sense.

If you finish ten reps and could comfortably have performed another fifteen, dropping the weight isn't going to achieve much.

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU DROP THE WEIGHT?

There's no single correct amount.

Something around 10–30% is a useful practical range in many exercises, but the appropriate reduction depends on the movement, equipment and how close to failure you've trained.

Drop too little and you might only manage another couple of repetitions.

Drop too much and the next set may become unnecessarily easy.

You're looking for enough of a reduction that you can continue performing useful repetitions despite the fatigue you've accumulated.

KEEP THE TRANSITION QUICK

The point of a drop set is to continue working while you're already fatigued.

So don't spend three minutes reorganising the gym between drops.

If you're using dumbbells, have the lighter weights nearby.

If you're using a machine, move the pin.

If you're using a barbell, a training partner can help remove plates.

You can also change to an easier variation of the same movement.

For example:

Bench press → press-ups

or

Weighted dips → bodyweight dips

The resistance has dropped even though you haven't necessarily changed a weight.

WHAT ARE DROP SETS GOOD FOR?

Drop sets are particularly useful for hypertrophy training.

They allow you to accumulate additional hard repetitions in a relatively short period and can be a very time-efficient way of adding training volume.

They're less useful when your primary objective is practising maximal strength.

If you're trying to improve a heavy squat, repeatedly stripping plates off the bar and grinding yourself into the floor isn't necessarily going to improve your ability to produce maximum force.

Use the technique for the job it actually does well.

DON'T DROP-SET EVERYTHING

Drop sets are hard.

That's part of their appeal.

But that doesn't mean every exercise needs three drops performed until you can no longer move your arms.

They can create a lot of local fatigue, so they're often best used selectively—particularly towards the end of an exercise or session.

Simple exercises and machines are especially convenient because the load can be changed quickly.

HOW WE WRITE DROP SETS

If your programme says:

Drop Set × 2 (-25%)

Perform your initial working set, then complete two additional sets, reducing the load by approximately 25% at each drop.

For example:

100kg → 75kg → approximately 55–60kg

If it says:

Drop Set × 3 (-10kg)

Perform your working set followed by three drops, removing 10kg each time.

For example:

60kg → 50kg → 40kg → 30kg

The exact repetitions aren't necessarily prescribed—you continue until you reach the intended level of effort for that set.

IN CLOSING

Drop sets are simple:

Perform a hard set.

Reduce the resistance.

Keep going with minimal rest.

They're an effective and time-efficient way of extending a set and accumulating more hard repetitions, particularly when building muscle is the goal.

Just don't confuse making an exercise absolutely horrible with automatically making it more effective.

Sometimes one drop is plenty.

Rest-Pause Training: What It Is & How to Use It

Rest-pause training is a technique where you perform a hard set, take a very short rest, and then continue using the same weight for additional repetitions.

Because you've only partially recovered, you'll normally perform fewer reps each time.

For example:

12 reps → short rest → 5 reps → short rest → 3 reps

Same exercise.

Same weight.

Increasingly unpleasant experience.

HOW DOES REST-PAUSE WORK?

Perform your initial working set to a high level of effort.

Then rest for approximately 10–30 seconds before continuing with the same weight.

Perform another short set.

Rest again.

Then repeat for however many rest-pause sets are prescribed.

Those short breaks allow you to recover just enough to squeeze out additional repetitions that you wouldn't have been able to perform continuously.

DO YOU HAVE TO REACH FAILURE?

Not necessarily.

Rest-pause training is often associated with muscular failure, and you can use it that way.

But repeatedly reaching absolute failure isn't required for the technique to work.

You might stop the initial set with approximately 0–1 reps in reserve, take a short rest and continue.

Exactly how hard you push should depend on the exercise, your goal and how much fatigue you're willing to create.

There's a fairly substantial difference between taking a machine curl to failure and doing the same thing with a heavy barbell squat.

HOW LONG SHOULD YOU REST?

We used to prescribe 10 deep breaths.

That still works perfectly well as a practical method.

But breathing speed varies considerably between people, so somewhere around 10–30 seconds gives you a clearer guideline.

The rest should be long enough that you can perform some additional useful repetitions, but short enough that you're still carrying substantial fatigue from the previous set.

If you rest for five minutes, you've just done another set.

HOW MANY REPS SHOULD YOU GET?

Your repetitions will normally fall with each mini-set.

If you initially perform 12 reps, you might get:

12 → 5 → 3

Or:

12 → 6 → 4

There's no requirement to hit exactly half of the previous number.

The number you manage will depend on the exercise, load, how hard you pushed the previous set and how long you rested.

The important thing is maintaining the intended effort and sensible technique.

WHAT ARE REST-PAUSE SETS GOOD FOR?

Rest-pause training is particularly useful when building muscle.

It allows you to accumulate more hard repetitions with the same load without requiring several full-length rest periods.

That can make it a very time-efficient training technique.

It's also useful when equipment makes changing the load inconvenient.

Unlike a drop set, you don't need to reduce the weight.

You simply:

Work → briefly rest → work again.

REST-PAUSE VS DROP SETS

They're similar techniques, but there's one important difference.

With a drop set, you reduce the resistance so you can continue.

With rest-pause, you keep the resistance the same and briefly recover so you can continue.

Both allow you to extend your work beyond what you could have performed continuously.

They're simply different ways of achieving it.

DON'T USE IT FOR EVERYTHING

Like drop sets, rest-pause training can generate a lot of fatigue very quickly.

That doesn't mean it should be attached to every exercise.

I'd generally favour it on movements where reaching high levels of fatigue is relatively easy to manage:

Machine exercises.

Curls.

Triceps work.

Lateral raises.

Leg extensions.

Hamstring curls.

Certain dumbbell exercises.

I'd be considerably more selective with highly technical exercises or heavy compound lifts where fatigue has much bigger consequences for how you perform the movement.

HOW WE WRITE REST-PAUSE SETS

If your programme says:

Rest-Pause × 2

That means you perform your working set followed by two additional mini-sets, separated by short rests.

For example:

Working set: 16 reps
Rest: 10–30 seconds
Rest-pause 1: 7 reps
Rest: 10–30 seconds
Rest-pause 2: 4 reps

The exact repetitions don't matter.

The declining reps are simply a consequence of performing hard work with incomplete recovery.

IN CLOSING

Rest-pause training is simple:

Perform a hard set.

Rest briefly.

Use the same weight and go again.

Repeat as prescribed.

It's an effective way to accumulate additional high-effort repetitions in relatively little time, particularly when building muscle is the goal.

And if you somehow get more reps after your 15-second rest than you did in the first set, you probably weren't trying particularly hard the first time.

Supersets: What They Are & How to Use Them

A superset is when you pair two exercises together and perform them one after the other, usually with little or no rest between exercises.

Once you've completed both exercises, you rest before repeating the pair.

For example:

A1. Dumbbell Bench Press — 10 reps
Straight into:
A2. Dumbbell Row — 10 reps

Rest 90 seconds

Then repeat.

The exercises don't have to train the same muscles, and there's no single correct way to construct a superset.

WHY USE SUPERSETS?

The biggest advantage is time efficiency.

Instead of performing an exercise, resting, repeating it several times and then moving onto something else, you can perform another useful exercise during what would otherwise have been part of your rest period.

This can allow you to fit more training into the same amount of time.

Depending on how they're programmed, supersets can also increase local muscular fatigue and make a session more demanding from a conditioning perspective.

OPPOSING MUSCLE SUPERSETS

One of my favourite ways to use supersets is to pair exercises that train broadly opposing muscle groups.

For example:

Bench Press + Row

Biceps Curl + Triceps Extension

Leg Extension + Hamstring Curl

While one muscle group is working, the other gets some recovery.

This can make supersets particularly useful when you want to save time without completely destroying your performance on the second exercise.

SAME MUSCLE SUPERSETS

You can also pair two exercises that train the same muscle group.

For example:

Dumbbell Bench Press + Press-Ups

or:

Leg Press + Leg Extension

Because the same muscles are being challenged repeatedly with very little recovery, fatigue accumulates quickly.

These can be useful when building muscle, but don't expect your performance on the second exercise to be particularly impressive.

That's rather the point.

UNRELATED EXERCISES

Exercises don't even need to train opposing or identical muscles.

You might pair:

Squats + Pull-Ups

or:

Romanian Deadlifts + Shoulder Press

This can be an efficient way of organising a full-body session because one movement doesn't substantially interfere with the other.

The important thing is considering how much fatigue Exercise A creates and whether that compromises what you're trying to achieve with Exercise B.

SUPERSETS AND STRENGTH

Supersets can absolutely be used within strength training, but they aren't always the best choice for your most important heavy lifts.

If maximal performance is the priority, adequate recovery between sets matters.

Doing 20 burpees immediately before your heaviest deadlift probably isn't an ingenious exercise pairing.

It's just going to make you tired.

For major strength exercises, I often prefer either traditional rest periods or pairing them with something that creates very little interference.

For accessory work, supersets can be brilliant.

YOU DON'T NEED ZERO REST

Going directly from one exercise into another is common, but you don't need to panic if it takes 20 seconds to change equipment.

The important distinction is that you're pairing the exercises together rather than taking a complete rest period between them.

Your programme might even deliberately prescribe a short rest between A1 and A2.

As always, the structure should serve the training—not the other way around.

HOW WE WRITE SUPERSETS

You'll often see supersets written as:

A1 — Exercise One
A2 — Exercise Two

Perform A1 followed by A2.

Then take the prescribed rest.

For example:

A1. Bench Press — 3 × 8
A2. Row — 3 × 10
Rest — 90 seconds

You would perform:

Bench Press → Row → Rest

Bench Press → Row → Rest

Bench Press → Row → Finished.

If you see B1/B2 later in the programme, that's simply your next superset.

IN CLOSING

Supersets are a simple way of pairing exercises together.

They can:

Save time.

Allow you to accumulate more training in a session.

Increase muscular fatigue when that's desirable.

Make accessory work considerably more efficient.

But don't superset exercises simply for the sake of making your workout harder.

Pair movements that make sense for what you're trying to achieve.

The goal isn't to remove rest. It's to use your training time effectively.

Training to Failure: What Does It Actually Mean?

Training to failure means performing repetitions until you can no longer complete another repetition despite giving your best effort.

In simple terms:

You try to do another rep. You can't.

However, there are a couple of different ways people use the word "failure", and the distinction can be useful.

MUSCULAR FAILURE VS TECHNICAL FAILURE

Momentary muscular failure is when you physically cannot complete another repetition through the required range of motion.

Technical failure is when you could potentially continue moving the weight, but you can no longer perform the exercise with the technique or movement standard you're trying to maintain.

These aren't necessarily the same point.

Imagine performing a set of rows.

You might reach the stage where you could technically get another repetition by throwing your entire body backwards and turning the exercise into something resembling an aggressive standing limbo.

Your muscles haven't reached absolute failure.

But the exercise you were actually trying to perform has effectively finished.

In many situations, that's a perfectly sensible place to stop.

DO YOU NEED TO TRAIN TO FAILURE?

No.

You can build strength and muscle without taking every set to failure.

What matters is that your working sets are sufficiently challenging.

For muscle growth in particular, training reasonably close to failure can provide an effective stimulus without necessarily requiring you to squeeze every possible repetition out of every set.

Sometimes we deliberately train to failure.

Sometimes we stop with:

1 rep in reserve (RIR) — you probably could have completed one more rep.

2 RIR — you probably had another two.

And sometimes we stay considerably further away from failure because the goal is practising a movement, developing power or managing fatigue.

Failure is a tool, not a requirement.

FAILURE AND REP RANGES

Rep ranges give us a useful way of selecting and progressing loads.

Imagine your programme says:

3 × 8–10

If the intention is to take the final set to failure and you achieve:

7 reps — the weight may currently be too heavy for the prescribed range.

9 reps — you're within the target range.

12 reps — the weight is probably light enough to increase next time.

This gives you useful information for future sessions.

But remember: this only works neatly when failure is actually prescribed.

If the programme says:

8–10 reps @ 2 RIR

then getting 10 reps doesn't mean you should keep going until you fail.

The target is 10 reps while still having approximately two good repetitions available.

PROGRESSING WITH A REP RANGE

A simple progression might look like this:

Your target is:

8–10 reps

Week 1: 50kg × 8
Week 2: 50kg × 9
Week 3: 50kg × 10

Once you're comfortably reaching the top of the range at the intended effort, you increase the weight.

Perhaps next time:

52.5kg × 8

Then you gradually build the repetitions again.

This is sometimes called double progression—progress the repetitions, then progress the load.

Simple.

Measurable.

Effective.

FAILURE FEELS DIFFERENT BETWEEN EXERCISES

Taking a biceps curl to failure is not the same experience as taking a heavy squat to failure.

The consequences of misjudging your final repetition are also considerably different.

Failure can be particularly easy to use on:

Machine exercises
Curls
Triceps exercises
Lateral raises
Leg extensions
Hamstring curls

With heavy compound exercises, we may deliberately leave more repetitions in reserve to manage fatigue and maintain the quality of the work.

That doesn't make the set easy.

A heavy squat performed with one or two reps remaining can still be absolutely horrible.

LEARNING WHAT FAILURE FEELS LIKE

One useful thing about occasionally training to failure is that it helps you understand what a genuinely hard set feels like.

People aren't always particularly good at estimating how many repetitions they have left.

Someone might finish a set and confidently tell me:

"One more, maximum."

Then somehow perform another six when encouraged.

Experience improves your ability to judge effort.

This makes concepts like RIR much more useful because you develop a better understanding of what your actual limits feel like.

MORE FAILURE ISN'T MORE PROGRESS

This is important.

If one hard set is useful, it doesn't follow that taking every exercise and every set to absolute failure is even better.

Failure creates fatigue.

That fatigue can affect later sets, later exercises and potentially subsequent training sessions.

The question isn't:

"How much suffering can I extract from this exercise?"

It's:

"How hard do I need to train to produce the adaptation I'm looking for?"

Sometimes the answer is failure.

Often it's slightly before it.

IN CLOSING

Training to failure means reaching the point where you cannot complete another repetition despite your best effort.

It's useful.

But it isn't compulsory.

Learn what failure feels like.

Learn how many repetitions you probably have left.

Use rep ranges and RIR to measure and progress your training.

And choose when failure is actually worth the additional fatigue.

You don't get bonus points for failing everything.

The goal is progress—not proving how miserable you can make every set.

Sets: Working Sets, Warm-Up Sets & Rest Periods

A set is simply a group of repetitions performed consecutively before you stop and rest.

For example:

3 sets × 10 reps with 60 seconds rest

would look like:

10 reps → rest 60 seconds

10 reps → rest 60 seconds

10 reps → finished

Simple.

How many sets you perform, how hard they are and how much rest you take between them will depend on what you're trying to achieve.

WORKING SETS

Your working sets are the sets that make up the main prescribed training for an exercise.

For example:

Squat — 3 × 6 @ 100kg

means three working sets of six repetitions using 100kg.

These are the sets we're particularly interested in recording because they allow us to monitor performance and progression over time.

Depending on the programme, you might record:

Weight
Repetitions
RIR or RPE
Time or distance

You don't need to record absolutely everything.

Record the information that's useful.

RESTING BETWEEN SETS

As soon as you finish a set, your rest period begins.

The purpose of resting is to allow enough recovery to perform the next set at the level required by your programme.

And this is important:

Longer rest isn't cheating.

The appropriate rest period depends on what you're doing.

Heavy strength work generally benefits from longer rest periods, because the aim is to recover sufficiently to produce high levels of force again.

Accessory or hypertrophy work can often use shorter rests.

Conditioning deliberately uses incomplete recovery in many situations.

So there isn't one perfect rest period for everything.

HOW LONG SHOULD YOU REST?

As a very rough practical guide:

Heavy strength work: often around 2–5+ minutes.

Moderate resistance/hypertrophy work: often around 1–3 minutes.

Isolation/accessory exercises: often around 1–2 minutes.

Conditioning: completely dependent on the workout.

These aren't laws.

If your programme specifies a rest period, there's usually a reason for it.

But if you're supposed to perform a heavy set of five and you're still seeing stars when the timer reaches two minutes, taking another minute isn't a moral failure.

The goal is to produce the intended training effect.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WHILE RESTING?

Mostly:

Rest.

Get your breathing under control.

Set up any equipment you need.

Think about what you're trying to achieve on the next set.

Review any useful technique cues.

Have some water.

Record your previous set.

Your phone isn't going to destroy your gains either.

If you're using it to log your training, time your rest or choose music, brilliant.

Just don't accidentally turn a three-minute rest into fifteen because you've become emotionally invested in an argument between strangers on Instagram.

WARM-UP SETS

Warm-up sets prepare you for your working sets.

They allow you to practise the movement and gradually expose yourself to the loads you're about to use without creating unnecessary fatigue.

For heavier exercises, this normally means gradually increasing the weight while reducing or keeping the repetitions relatively low.

For example, if your first working set is:

100kg × 5

you might perform something like:

Empty bar × 10
40kg × 5
60kg × 5
80kg × 3
90kg × 1–2
100kg × 5 — working set

That's just an example.

Someone experienced with the movement might need less.

Someone lifting considerably heavier weights might need more intermediate jumps.

Someone performing their third similar exercise of the session may already be thoroughly prepared and need very little.

WARM UP WITHOUT TIRING YOURSELF OUT

A warm-up isn't supposed to become another workout.

As the weight approaches your working load, you generally don't need loads of repetitions.

You want to reach your working set feeling:

Prepared.

Confident.

Familiar with the movement.

Ready to produce effort.

Not knackered because you performed four unnecessary sets of ten beforehand.

DO WARM-UP SETS PREVENT INJURY?

I wouldn't make that guarantee.

Warming up can improve readiness and performance, and progressively exposing yourself to the movement and load you're about to use makes practical sense.

But we can't say that performing a particular number of warm-up sets will prevent an injury.

Injury risk is more complicated than that.

Warm up because it prepares you for what you're about to do, rather than treating it like a protective ritual that makes you invincible.

DO YOU NEED TO LOG WARM-UP SETS?

Not necessarily.

For most everyday training, your working sets are the important numbers to record.

But there are situations where recording warm-up sets can be useful—particularly for heavy strength training where you develop a consistent approach to bigger lifts.

If knowing that:

180 → 210 → 230 → working weight

helps you reproduce a successful warm-up next time, write it down.

Again, record what's useful.

NOT ALL SETS ARE THE SAME

You'll see plenty of different types of sets throughout training:

Working sets — the primary prescribed work.

Warm-up sets — preparation for heavier work.

Drop sets — reduce the load and continue.

Rest-pause sets — briefly rest and continue with the same load.

Supersets — pair exercises together.

Back-off sets — perform additional work at a lighter load after heavier sets.

The word set simply describes a block of work.

How that set is performed determines what you're trying to achieve with it.

IN CLOSING

Sets are one of the basic building blocks of a training programme.

Perform your repetitions.

Rest.

Recover enough for what you're trying to accomplish.

Then go again.

Use warm-up sets to prepare for your heavier work and working sets to provide the main training stimulus.

And don't become so obsessed with a stopwatch that you forget why you're resting in the first place.

The rest period serves the training.

The training doesn't serve the timer.