Few exercises test your raw strength like the pullup. While seemingly simple in nature, this upper body exercise forces you to counteract gravity just to complete it. They’re so difficult, in fact, that most branches of the military look to them as a key indicator of upper-body strength. 

Although most people can do at least one pullup, if you truly want to build muscle—specifically in your arms, shoulders, and back—you’ll have to up your numbers. To help you get from beginner to bootcamp ready, we tapped former US Navy SEAL and tactical fitness coach Stew Smith. 

To accelerate your pullup numbers, Smith suggests increasing your volume every week while also giving yourself enough recovery time between workouts. 

“The max I usually go with is three days a week with pullups, pushups, or whatever exercise for calisthenics,” Smith says. “We slowly progress the volume just like you would slowly progress the volume of running miles per week.”

Related: The Simple Trick That Personal Trainers Swear By to Make Pushups 10X More Effective

Whether you’re heading to training camp or just want to level up your fitness, the pyramid structure is the best way. This structure progressively increases the number of repetitions in each set, then decreases them in the same pattern. It’s not a new technique by any means, but it’s still around for a reason. 

“One pullup, two pullups, three pullups, four pullups…you work your way up till you fail, and then you work your way back down. That is a way to build great volume, and a lot of it is sub-max rep volume. “

How to Perform a Pullup Pyramid

1. Start with a number of reps you can easily complete.
2. Slowly increase the number of pullups you do in each set by 1 to 2 reps until you reach failure.
3. Decrease the number of pullups in each set by 1 to 2 reps until you reach the number you began with. 
4. Repeat your pyramid for 2 to 3 more rounds. 

Sample Beginner Pyramid

• Set 1: 2 pullups
• Set 2: 3 pullups
• Set 3: 4 pullups
• Set 4: 5 pullups
• Set 5: 6 pullups
• Set 6: 5 pullups
• Set 7: 4 pullups
• Set 8: 3 pullups
• Set 9: 2 pullups

Related: The Fitness Hack Personal Trainers Swear By to Get Better at Pushups

The PT Pyramid

According to Smith’s website, you can mix countless exercises with this specific workout, but first, you have to learn this method with the basic pullup, pushups, and situps. 

How to Do It

This will yield 100 pullups, 200 pushups, and 300 squats in 19 sets, he says.

• Set 1: 1 pullups, 2 pushups, 3 squats
• Set 2: 2 pulups, 4 pushups, 6 squats
• Set 3: 3 pullups, 6 pushups, 9 squats…keep going up to set 10
• Set 10: 10 pullups, 20 pushups, 30 squats
• Then repeat in reverse order from 9 back down until 1 (set 19). 

“The 1-10-1 Pyramid (or 1-10 double ladder) will do what you seek—build strength and endurance (aka muscle stamina) to enable you to reach higher repetitions in calisthenics exercises,” Smith adds. 

Related: The Lumberjack Trick That Builds Core Strength Without a Single Situp

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