Try the pull-up counter without a camera
Three sample sets, drawn by the same stick figure the drill pages use, and read by the same counting rules a filmed set goes through. Watch what gets counted, and what does not.
These are made-up movements, not footage of anyone. They show how the counting rules read a clean movement. They are not a clinical assessment, and they are not evidence of how accurately the camera reads a real person — a real clip has blur, bad light and joints out of frame that these do not.
There is nothing to do here but watch. No camera, no pose model download, no account: the figure and the counter run in this page. Nothing is saved, no phase test is passed, and there is no pain advice, because nobody did these sets.
A set of scapular pull-ups
Five scapular pull-ups from the front: from a relaxed hang, the body rises a little with the arms kept straight, then settles back down.
What the counter read
5 scapular pull-ups with straight arms.
- Reps counted: 5
What the joints can show: The hips rising towards the bar while the elbows stay straight, measured against the relaxed hang at the start, in torso lengths. A rise where the elbows bend is not counted.
What they cannot: The shoulder blades themselves, or which muscles did the work. A straight-arm rise is what a scapular pull-up looks like from outside; the camera cannot confirm what happened underneath.
A timed hang
A twelve-second dead hang from the front: hands on the bar, arms straight, body still.
What the counter read
Longest hang: 12 seconds.
- Longest hold: 12 seconds
What the joints can show: That the hands are above the shoulders and the elbows straight, frame by frame. The hold is the longest unbroken stretch of that, and a moment shorter than a second is not a hold.
What they cannot: Grip, effort, or how the shoulder feels. The timer says how long the position was held, not whether it was held well.
A pull-up set with a hip swing
Four pull-ups from the side. The first two start from a still hang; the last two start with the hips swinging back and the knees driving up, the way a kip does.
What the counter read
2 strict pull-ups, plus 2 with a swing.
- Pull-ups counted: 4 — strict: 2, with a swing: 2
- 2 reps had a hip swing or knee drive at the start and are not counted as strict.
What the joints can show: A rep from straight arms to elbows bent past a right angle. In the second before each pull, the hips moving forward and back, the hip angle changing, or the knees rising: any of those, and the rep is counted but not as strict.
What they cannot: Whether the shoulder blades started the pull, or whether it hurt. "Strict" here means only that no swing was seen — it says the hips and knees were still, not that the shoulder worked the way it should.
Trying it with your own clip
The drills above are part of Shoulder: kipping works, strict pull-ups do not. Before filming yourself, read who it is and is not for.
It is not for you if:
- Any of the warning signs below apply to you.
- You cannot raise the arm overhead at all, or hanging is too painful to try.
- A clinician has already given you a plan — follow theirs, and use this only as a log if it helps.
Warning signs: see a clinician first
Do not start, or stop, if any of these apply to you:
- The pain started with a fall, a dislocation, or a sudden pop or tear, and you cannot lift the arm since.
- Numbness, tingling or pins and needles running down the arm or into the hand.
- Weakness that is getting worse, or the arm suddenly much weaker than the other.
- Pain that wakes you at night and does not ease when you change position.
- Swelling, redness, heat or a fever with the pain.
- Pain in the chest, jaw or left arm with breathlessness or sweating — call emergency services.
- A visible lump, change in shape, or the shoulder looking different from the other.
These are general reasons to have a shoulder examined. They are not a complete list.
Practice is free and works without an account. When you film a set, the pose model runs in your browser and the video stays on your device; what is kept is the position of twelve joints, with no face.
- Scapular pull-up: Try this drill with your own clip· how to do it
- Relaxed hang: Try this drill with your own clip· how to do it
- Strict pull-up: Try this drill with your own clip· how to do it
Never logged a set? Try your first set walks through one with your own clip or typed-in numbers.