For years I struggled to achieve my first body weight pull up. I couldn't even do one without assistance. Today I'm going to show you how I went from zero unassisted pull ups to being able to perform several pull ups with proper form. Before you can do your first pull up, there are a few fundamental exercises you need to master. First off, I suggest that you practice doing Australian pull ups.
The greater the angle, the harder the pull up. You will keep your hands at approximately shoulder width. Again, you can make this exercise progressively harder by lowering your body. From there you will want to move on to a simple bar hang to develop your grip strength.
Challenge yourself to hang from the bar for as long as you can while maintaining a strong grip with your hands. The third movement builds on the bar hang. As you are hanging, begin to engage your scapulae. These are called scapular pull ups.
This is actually the first movement of the pull up, so building strength here will be a good foundation for when you begin to do unassisted pull ups. Fourthly, we have what is called the jumping (or eccentric) pull up.
As you are jumping, pull yourself to the top of the bar and then control yourself on the way down as opposed to simply allowing gravity to do all the work. Once you're able to do this, you're ready to move on to the final exercise, which is the band assisted pull up.
Engage your scapulae at the beginning of the movement, pull yourself up to your chest, and then come all the way back down with your arms straight. Aim for three sets of three reps, three days a week.
A final thought. Probably the most underrated way to get your first pull up is to lose excess body fat. Obviously, if you are carrying around extra weight, this is definitely going to make doing pull ups harder for you. That's not to say that you can't start practicing pull ups before you lose that weight. But pull ups are going to be a lot easier if you are able to get your weight under control.
Hope this helps. You CAN do a pull up, my friend. For better or for worse, you are the only YOU that you will ever have. What you decide to do with you is up to you. But if you are persistent, patient, and consistent, an amazing transformation will begin to occur. Your wonderfully adaptive God-given body will begin to cooperate. It will happen, of course, in your own time and at your own pace. But the transformation will take place.
Have a wonderful day!