1 minute of pull-ups
1 minute of rowing
1 minute of pull-ups
2 minutes of rowing
1 minute of pull-ups
3 minutes of rowing
1 minute of pull-ups

Post total number of pull-up reps and calories rowed to comments.

Open the Hips

One of the main components of an effective kipping pull-up is taking the hips from a closed to an open position. Opening the hip on the way up takes some of the work away from the arms. In the video above, you’ll see how the athlete closes the hips (by bringing the feet in front of the body and the knees slightly up) but never opens them back up to utilize the stored energy. 

Cameron Soden uses the cue that the feet should end behind the hips. This helps guide the athlete to violently push the hips forward and to an open position. The hips cannot open if the feet remain in front of the body.

Pause the video at the following places to get a good visual of what to do and what we want to avoid. A better hip extension means faster pull-ups that use less arms overall allowing the athlete to do more reps!

:18 seconds – Visual of the back of the kip prior to the pull. Shoulder angle is closed and knees have driven up.
:19 seconds – Visual of the athlete at the top of the pull-up but the hip has never opened violently. The feet remain in front of the athlete’s hips.
:30 seconds – Cameron demonstrates a great example of what the athlete is doing wrong. We call this a “working man or woman’s” pull-up because from this position, the athlete is basically doing a strict, almost L position, pull-up, never opening their hip.
:48 seconds – Good visual of Cameron at the desired top finish position of the pull-up
1:04 – Visual of the athlete fixing the top finish position. This is what you want to look like at the top. 

Today we’ll work on opening the hips in the kipping pull-up.