How to Do Toe Touch Pullups: Complete Step-by-Step Guide
Approximate Reading Time: 7 Minutes
At their core, toe touch pullups function like all plyometric pullup variations do. That is to say, they are about explosive power.
The goal is to launch yourself as high as possible so that you can buy enough hangtime to release your hands from the bar, extend them out in front of you to touch your toes, and catch yourself on the way back down before your chin smashes into the bar.
In this tutorial, I’m going to break down exactly how you can do it. By the time you finish reading, you should understand how to do toe touch pullups by yourself.
The first thing I’m going to cover is hangtime and how to get more of it. This is arguably the most crucial aspect of pulling off a toe touch pullup. Therefore, it’s important to fully grasp it before moving on to the other concepts.
After that, I’ll review what other factors you need to take into consideration. I’ll also explain some progressions you can use before attempting the full expression of the move.
Finally, I’ll wrap it up with a really close play-by-play analysis of what the body is actually doing when you perform a toe touch pullup. This will help you understand how to execute it when you’re ready to do so.
How to Create Maximum Hangtime
The way you build up your hangtime is by practicing basic plyometric pullups.
In contrast to basic plyometric pushups (e.g., clapping pushups), the basic plyo-pullup doesn’t require you to release your hands from their point of contact (in this case the pullup bar). You can get all of the strength and power building benefits without ever releasing your hands from the bar.
Of course your ultimate goal is to release your hands from the bar, but my point is that you can train to get there without actually having to do it until you are ready to.
The way you do that is by doing explosive chest-to-bar pullups. As you get stronger, you can aim for below the chest and eventually your belly button. If you get really strong, it’s also possible to do crotch-to-bar pullups or shotgun muscleups. Although neither one of these is required to perform the toe touch. It just makes it easier if you get to that level.
Chest-to-Bar Pullups
These should be done in a very explosive fashion on the way up and with a semi-controlled free fall on the way down. The idea is that you don’t want to waste any energy on the eccentric (going down) portion of the rep. You also don’t want to let yourself fall so wildly that you end up dislocating a shoulder. Expend just enough effort as needed to come back to a starting dead hang position.
Keep in mind that due to their taxing nature on your fast-twitch muscle fibers, you won’t be able to go high volume on these – or at least you won’t be able to maintain the same level of power across your sets if you go high volume. For most people, anything more than 10 sets will see a noticeable drop in power generation. In many cases, even after the first 5 sets the ‘pop’ just won’t be the same.
My advice when doing these is to keep your reps per set low (no more than 5). This way you can maintain power for the duration of each set. Also, be mindful of how high you launch yourself on your first rep of your first set. If you can no longer maintain the same launch level, then take an additional break.
For example:
Let’s say that on set one you get chest-to-bar on all 5 reps, but then when you get to sex six, you can’t get chest-to-bar on your first rep anymore.
At that point, you should stop your set.
Rest for an additional 1 or 2 minutes and try again. If you still can’t get chest-to-bar then move on to either weighted pullups, normal pullups or some other variation.
As I mentioned earlier, the more you do these, the stronger you will get.
At some point, when you feel that you are ready, you can start aiming for below the chest and then your belly button.
As a pre-requisite to attempting the actual toe touch pullup, I would say that you should be able to do 2 or 3 below-the-chest pullups.
Ideally, with your legs in the same L-sit position that they would be in when doing the actual toe touch pullup.
Beyond Explosiveness
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about explosiveness. That’s because it is the foundation for being able to execute the move.
However, explosive power is not the only ingredient in the toe touch pullup recipe. They also depend upon hamstring flexibility and a good dose of confidence. After all, if your hamstrings are so tight that you can’t touch your toes while standing or sitting on the ground, then how do you expect to touch them while flying in mid-air? 🤔
Having said that, there is some margin of forgiveness here. This is due to the ballistic nature of the mid-air toe touch, which you don’t get with a standard reach-for-your-toes stretch on the floor. In practice, this means you don’t need the flexibility of a gymnast or a Yogi, but you do need to be able to at least graze the tips of your toes.
Final Progressions Before Trying The Real Thing
Once you have a good level of explosiveness and decent enough hamstring flexibility, the next step will bring you really close to the finish line.
That step is to simply try touching one set of toes at a time.
In other words, instead of attempting to release the bar completely to touch both toes simultaneously, try to let go of only one hand and touch one set of toes. You will still elevate both of your legs, but only reach across with one arm.
If you can do the one arm version with no problem, then it’s time to try releasing both arms. Aim for the tops of your knees first. Launch yourself, let go, touch your knees, and re-grab.
If this feels good, then take the hands a little further. Aim for the shins. Once you are confident there, then finally go for the toes.
Dissecting the Body Mechanics
In this final section, what I want to do is break down what the body is doing as you perform a toe touch pullup. In real life, the move happens within a split second. By breaking it up into screenshots, we can understand it better.
To begin the move, it is much easier to swing forward slightly rather than starting from a complete dead stop. This swing will enable you to generate more power because as the pendulum (the pendulum being your body) swings backwards, you will redirect its momentum upwards.
You will do that by pulling as hard as you can on the bar.
Visualize bringing your elbows down and back – but in an explosive manner. The name of the game is POWER.
As your body starts ascending up, keep pulling down on the bar. If you’ve ever played basketball, think of it like shooting a free throw and leaving your arms and hands up in the shooting position even after the ball has left your hands already. This is the follow through.
When you feel like you are really close to hitting your peak height – but still have a few centimeters / inches left to ride – that’s when you release the bar.
That tiny fractional second is the window of opportunity you have to touch your toes. If you time it right, you will make toe contact at the exact moment that you hit peak height. Then as gravity takes over you can catch yourself on the way back down.
This is why the progressions in the previous section are so crucial for being able to pull it off. They will give you the neuromuscular feedback you need to time everything correctly. After several practice runs of aiming for your knees and shins, you’ll eventually be able to extend all the way out to the toes.
Closing Thoughts
I’m guessing you probably landed here after seeing an Instagram, Tik-Tok, or YouTube video of someone touching their toes in mid-air while doing a pullup and you wondered how you can do it too. Well, now that you’ve read this tutorial, you have the tools in your hand. All that’s left is to put them into practice.
If you follow these progressions and you end up doing your first toe touch pullup, post it on Instagram and tag @kalisthenics_nomad and #CalisthenicsNomad for a possible repost.
