Want to find out if you’re MHFit? Try our Friday Fitness Test, the overhand pull-up!
Purpose: Measure pulling strength and power.
Equipment: Pull-up bar.
Goal: Max amount of pull-ups with correct form.
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Take The Test
Hang from a pull-up bar, with your palms facing away from your body (overhand grip) and roughly 65cm apart. The start position is from a full hang with your arms straight. With each rep, your chin must reach above the bar, and then your arms must be fully extended on the return down to the starting position. At the bottom you need to pause for 1 second before doing the next rep.
You also need to have your knees pulled up (at 90 degrees) in front of you for the whole movement, or the rep does not count. This is done so that there’s no swinging motion and so that you don’t arch your back. This test requires you to keep going until you can longer lift yourself up above the bar. If you release either hand off the bar at any stage, that’s the end of the test.
Training Tip:
The pull-ups should recruit your back muscles in this move, and you shouldn’t focus primarily on your arms to pull up you up. To make sure your back is used, focus on retracting your shoulder blades and keeping your chest up at the start.
Also, activate both your core and latissimus dorsi muscles (the ones that run down the sides of you back, starting near your armpits). That’ll help you to recruit your back, and stop relying totally on your arms to get your chin above the bar.
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Reasons for Disqualification:
1. Failure to fully extend your arms at the bottom of the pull-up.
2. Failure to pause for 1 second at the bottom of the pull-up.
3. Failure to lift chin above bar.
4. Failure to keep your knees at 90 degrees in front of your body.
5. Using momentum (swinging) to lift yourself up.
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Level 1 – 0-1
Level 2 – 2-3
Level 3 – 4-5
Level 4 – 6-7
Level 5 – 8-10
Level 6 – 11-13
Level 7 – 14-16
Level 8 – 17-20
Level 9 – 21-24
Level 10 – 25+
To workout your final score, add up your seven totals to get one number. Then divide that number by 7 and times by 10. That will be your final MH Elite score for the leaderboard.
(Total score ÷ 7) X 10 = MHELITE score
