Marine Corps tips on increasing your pullups

Featured photo courtesy of Marine Corps Times

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — “I haven’t met someone yet who I haven’t been able to train to do a pull-up.”

Major Misty Posey, the plans officer for Manpower Integration, developed a pull-up training program to help all Marines improve their pull-ups no matter their starting point, and says she has yet to find a Marine she has not been able to help.

Posey, who teaches a pull-up class at the James Wesley Marsh Center at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, says it does not take a great deal of time to get a Marine from zero pull-ups to many.

“It does not take months and months and months to learn a pull-up; it does not take a year or two to learn a pull-up. It’s nonsense,” Posey said.

When Posey was a Midshipman in Navy ROTC, she trained on the obstacle course at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. The Midshipmen would navigate the course in preparation for Officer Candidate School.

“I’m four feet, 10 inches. I couldn’t reach the top of many of the obstacles let alone pull myself over them,” she said. “My [physical training] instructor didn’t care that I was short. He said, ‘Figure it out, Posey.’ So I had the need to do a pull-up and I had the expectation to get myself over the obstacles. That’s what started me on my pull-up journey.”

Posey’s class features four main exercises: partner-assisted, negative, jumping, and partial-range-of-motion pull-ups. Alongside these exercises, Posey explains how to engage certain muscles to help perform a pull-up.

Read more at the official website of the Marine Corps