100 Days of Pull-Ups: What Happened & What I Learned

Imagine stripping your entire back workout down to just one movement.

No barbells, no machines — just you and a pull-up bar.

Could a workout this simple actually build muscle and strength?

For the past 100 days, I tested that question by ditching my usual routine and committing to pull-ups — and only pull-ups — to train my back.

Now, I’m sharing my workout routine, results, and lessons learned.

Understanding Exercises vs Sets

For me, this wasn’t just a random pull-up challenge. It was initiated by curiosity and induced by necessity.

In recent years, I’ve been interested in testing the boundaries of resistance training workouts.

I wondered, “How much, or how little, training do you really need to see progress?”

Traditional routines involve performing at least two exercises per muscle group per workout. Like doing leg press and squats on leg day.

However, a 2018 study showed that people who only did squats gained similar muscle and strength as those who did both squats and leg press when equal sets were performed.

That means the total number of sets is more important than the number of exercises.

Additionally, a 2022 meta-analysis observed a dose-response relationship with more volume leading to more muscle hypertrophy. Although the level over which there is a plateau is currently unclear.

To find my maximum training volume, I recently pushed upwards of 26 weekly sets for some muscle groups. Unfortunately, this led to overuse of my biceps between arm, back, and rear delt workouts.

Worse yet, too much training volume caused nagging bicep tendonitis, forcing me to take a break.

The Decision to Scale “Back”

My overtraining setback is what necessitated the scaleback in pulling movements and kicked off this experiment.

I didn’t want to pause all pull-day training. Instead, I decided to test a bare-bones workout routine that would allow me to train around the injury while it healed.

The pain in my left arm made rowing exercises nearly impossible. Fortunately, pull-ups didn’t aggravate the bicep tendonitis. And they’re one of the best all-around back exercises.

I thought to myself, “If I can only do one back exercise, pull-ups is it.”

Pull-ups are like squats for the upper body. A closed-chain compound movement targeting the lats, rhomboids, traps, rear delts, and even the biceps and core.

Plus, you don’t need a fancy gym setup — just a pull-up bar and your body.

So, I leaned into pull-ups 100% for the next 100 days.

Rules of the Pull-Up Challenge

To keep things simple and consistent, I followed a certain set of rules:

1. I trained my back once a week on Tuesdays, along with my biceps.
2. Each workout included ten sets of pull-ups.
3. I stuck with body weight and didn’t add any additional resistance.
4. But I did allow different grips — including overhand, underhand, and neutral.
5. I kept rest periods to 60 seconds between sets and maintained strict form: no kipping, no swinging, just controlled reps.
6. And most importantly, I didn’t perform any other back exercises during the 100 days.

The Three-Month Journey

I should also point out that the purpose of this program was not to build a massive back or set a pull-up record.

My overall goal was to maintain muscle and strength while letting my arm heal. I was also in a cutting phase, so making huge gains wasn’t a priority.

Month 1: Starting Out

Before the challenge, my typical back workouts included pull-ups, barbell rows, and lat pulldowns, totaling 10 to 12 weekly sets.

So, I chose ten sets of pull-ups for this new routine. I did six sets of overhand pull-ups and four sets of chin-ups. The reverse grip doubled as my first bicep exercise.

Initially, the simplicity of these workouts was refreshing. I loved not having to set up equipment or haul around weights. But it was definitely a mental adjustment to stay focused through ten consecutive sets on the pull-up bar.

Month 3: Keeping It Interesting

In the third month, I tried a different pull-up variation to shake things up. I started my workout with three sets of neutral grip pull-ups and three overhand, then finished with four underhand sets.

For the final set, I introduced a static hold. These changes brought new energy to the workouts and helped me push past mental and physical plateaus to complete the 100-day plan.

Pull-Up Only Workout Results

Throughout this process, I recorded physique update videos at least once a week to monitor physical changes in my back.

Here’s a short timelapse video showing how my back progressed throughout the process.

After 100 days, my back and arms were noticeably more defined. Admittedly, this could also result from losing body fat during the cut.

At the very least, I definitely didn’t lose any muscle in my back. That may seem unremarkable. But it is still a win, considering I was in a calorie deficit the entire time.

Also, it looks like my lats may have gotten a hair wider based on the before and after picture below.

I also tracked my repetitions on every set. Since my weight only changed by four pounds, the number of reps completed is a good indicator of changes in strength.

My max pull-ups increased from 10 to 13. Even more telling, my average reps per set went from 6.4 to 7.7.

By these measures, my strength increased by 20–30%.

Unexpected Benefits and Drawbacks

In addition to the muscle size and strength, I noticed some results I wasn’t expecting.

• Grip Strength: My grip strength noticeably improved after spending so much time hanging from a pull-up bar. I also attribute this to using a 2-inch diameter bar, which is more challenging to hold. However, I included pull-up bar static hangs as part of my forearm workouts. So, it’s possible the grip strength wasn’t entirely from pull-ups.
• Mind-Muscle Connection: Another unexpected benefit was gaining control over scapular retraction or pulling my shoulder blades down and back. As a result, I noticed a better with my lats when I reintroduced barbell rows and other back exercises.
• Lack of Resilience: The downside to the pull-up specificity was a poor recovery from other exercises. My back was incredibly sore after doing just two sets of reverse flies with 15-pound dumbbells. So much so that it was painful to take a deep breath for a few days! As great as pull-ups are, they still don’t hit every part of the back or engage the muscles like horizontal plane pulling movements.

Lessons Learned from 100 Days of Pull-Ups

This pull-up-only back workout showed that you don’t have to go overboard with exercise variation to get results in the gym. Ten weekly sets of a single exercise were enough to stimulate muscle and strength gains.

The experiment also reinforced the fact that aches and pains don’t have to completely derail your workouts. My tendonitis fully recovered even though I was still doing bicep exercises and pulling movements.

Depending on the nature and severity of the injury, it’s possible to work around it instead of avoiding all activity. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should blindly push through pain and make matters worse.

After concluding the program, I still do at least a few sets of pull-ups in every back workout. But I include one or two other movements to hit my back from multiple angles and engage more muscle fibers.

Using multiple exercises is probably better if your goal is maximizing muscle hypertrophy and overall physical resilience.

My plan for pull-ups going forward is to add some form of progression to keep my mind and body from hitting a wall.

I use a weight belt to gradually add five to ten pounds of resistance each week. Or incrementally increase the number of sets I perform, which is called progressive volume training.

Final Thoughts on Minimalist Workouts

Building muscle doesn’t require complicated machines or endless exercises. This experiment proved that sometimes less really is more.

A minimalist training style can be a game-changer for anyone with limited time or equipment — especially if your goals are strength, aesthetics, or functional fitness.

What’s your favorite minimalist workout? Let me know in the comments below!