The one arm pullup is a rare feat of pulling strength that can take from six months to several years to achieve depending on your starting strength.
It’s a skill I’ve been training on and off since 2012, I’ve lost it just about as many times as I’ve gotten it back over the years.
My first legit one arm pullup on my right arm at least.
A one arm chinup these are hard to do from a deadhang unless you start with a hammer grip(neutral grip)
Probably my cleanest one armer to date.
Before you start training for the one arm pullup you should have a good base of pulling strength at least 15 pullups and a half bodyweight weighted pullup would be my recommendation. I started with only 12 pullups and a 40% bodyweight attached weighted pullup and I got hurt in the process.
The next thing you need to be able to do is hang from a pullup bar for 15 seconds off one arm without much effort.
Remember I mentioned weighted pullups earlier well in my opinion these are the bread and butter of one arm pullup training. For these work in the 3-5 rep range for 3-5 sets. Start off with a weight you can do for 3 sets of 3 (3×3) without swinging or kipping or craning your neck over the bar (chicken necking). Then build up to 5 sets of 3(5×3) when you get to 5×3 you are going to reduce the number of sets back to 3 and add a rep so now you’ll be doing 3×4 build back up to 5×4 and repeat until you get to 5×5. This is a slow way of progressing but it will reduce your chance of injury. Besides you can’t make gains when your injured. I would train using this protocol 2-3x week. Training weighted pullups more frequent than that is over kill, your elbows will start to have you if train them more often than that trust me.
The next exercise I would recommend after you have at least 15 solid pullups and a half bodyweight weighted pullup is the finger assisted one arm pullup. For this you use the fingers of the assisting arm to help you pull yourself up. You start off by removing your thumb from the bar so you only have four fingers assisting you and work up to 5×5, remember to train both arms. When you can do 5 reps on one arm and switch immediately to the other arm and do 5 assisted reps and rest and repeat four more times you are good to progress. A lot of people say it is hard to measure progress on this exercise and that a rope or towel is better for assistance. If you find that to be the case then by all means use a towel or a rope for assistance.
Rope assisted one arm pullup.
This isn’t an exercise I used a whole lot. I built up my one arm pullup primarily using weighted pullups and then finger assisted one arm pullups to get the feel for the technique. For rope assisted one arm pullups I would use a rope with knots fist width apart tied to the pullup bar when you can bang out 5×5 move down a knot. Simple.
Negatives.
When I first started training for the one arm pullup I used negatives a lot, in fact I over used them to the point I got tendonitis. While negatives are great and I always say if you can do the negative you’ll be able to do the positive they are not something I’d recommend. If you decide to use negatives in your training for the one arm pullup use them 1-2x a week max and don’t do any more than 3×5. When you can do 5 consecutive 12 second negatives you’ll be easily able to do a one arm pullup. The key with negatives though is to control the movement from top to bottom. If you drop like a rock the first time you try them you aren’t ready for them. I’d only start using negatives when you can do one finger assisted one arm pullups or towel assisted one arm pullups with the assisting arm at shoulder level.
Recap
Prerequisites 15+ unweighted pullups and a +0.5x bodyweight weighted pullup.
Primarily use weighted pullups to build your pulling strength. Keep the reps low below 5 and use 3-5 sets. It’s said that a 80-90% weighted pullup is equivalent to a one arm pullup.
Assisted one arm pullups are great for getting the feel of the movement.
Negatives are also a good way to develop the strength for a one arm pullup but if over used can irritate the wrists shoulders and elbows.
For further information on the one arm pullup
https://www.dragondoor.com/articles/the-one-arm-chinning-guide/
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