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So the last few articles were all trash talking on kipping pullups.  We went over several reasons why kipping pullups might be causing injuries.  If you missed these articles you can find them here:

• Part 1
• Part 2

Now I wouldn’t be spewing so much pullup venom for no reason.  I actually enjoy kipping pullups.  I’m just very much interested in learning why kipping pullups cause injury so that we can learn how to make this exercise safer.  If you’re a competitive crossfitter or coach then you’re most likely interested as well.  So without further ado, 6 ways to make kipping pullups safer.

1. Build strength slowly

I love pullups, they’re a phenomenal exercise.  It used to be extremely impressive when you saw someone bang out 20 strict dead hang pullups.  Back in my personal training days I’d rejoice when I had a long time client finally completed their first pullup.  Now with the advent of crossfit you’ll regularly see workouts with 50+ pullups to be completed in a matter of minutes.   With these workouts comes the necessity of getting better at pullups, and FAST!  Enter the advent on kipping pullups, a way to complete more pullups in less time and finish those workouts faster.

However, because of the kipping action we may have skipped a step in the stages of learning how to do pullups properly.  We might be missing out on a key pillar, strength.

As we discussed in the first article, there are several reasons why performing kipping pullups before building prerequisite strength is bad.  If someone does not have the prerequisite strength to control the descent of their body from a pullup with bodyweight, then jumping into a kip may be inviting injury.

My favorite fix? Good old strength work.

Strength work can …read more