Pullup Tips?

[BushmasterFanBoy]

I've been working on my pullups for a while now, starting from not being able to do any this March, to doing 1 in April. After that, I did only "cheating" pullups without coming down to a dead hang. Doing that, I progressed to about 8, but I knew that cheaters never win so I decided to do it the right way and practice exclusively with full dead-hang range of motion.

The problem is, for the last 3-4 months, I've been stuck at 5 dead hang pullups MAX. I'm not usually one to make excuses, but it certainly isn't for lack of trying. I typically average about 30 pullups a day, 4 days a week. It's hard to do 'em in one workout considering my relative weakness, unless I work on singles.

I've done weighted pullups (20lb or so, lucky to get 1 out like that, I mostly do weighted negatives) normal bodyweight pullups, negatives, more negatives, and for some reason, the most I've ever done is 6, and my consistent max is 5.

I've looked at some pullup regimens online, but it seems like they're either geared for people working towards one, or capable of 10 or more looking to make 20 or so. Is there anything for someone who's struggling to hit 10?

So, has anyone else been there and pushed past it? I'm starting to think it might be a weight issue, as I'm not exactly lean at 175-180, 5' 11".

[Heartbreaker]

I only do them once a week (on the day I do my other back/shoulder exercises), went from being able to do 8 to doing 3x15 (unweighted), most I've done is 24 from a dead hang but I don't normally do that kind of stuff, was just out of curiosity. In my opinion the best thing you can do is 3 sets to fail every 3 days or so, eat a lot of protein (a whey shake right after your workout), if you start to stall out add weight and get up to the same rep range. Doing a bunch every day doesn't really give your muscles any time to grow/recover. I don't know if you lift weights but that obviously helps a ton, pullups use a lot of muscles especially in your back and lats, so any exercise with those muscles will help your pullups.

[chuckman]

Negatives...when you 'max' out, stand on a chair and place your chin above the bar and s-l-o-w-l-y let yourself down. I also like pyramids...1 pull-up, one push-up, one dip, two, etc up to 5, then back down. You won't be able to do it to start, but these two things helped me a thousand-fold.

[mkmckinley]

The guys that can do the most pullups are usually like wrestler type builds. Not bulked up like bodybuilders but strong for their size. Anything you can do to move toward that category will help with bodyweight movements. I improved my pullups quite a bit last year by adding some ring pullups and focusing on form. Another big thing that was holding me back was shoulder and upper back mobility. A lot of people have mobility and muscle recruitment problems and aren't able to do exercises properly. A good physical therapist can diagnose it or you can treat it empirically and just work on mobility. There are a lot of books on the subject but I suggest a DVD sold on atlargenutrion.com. FWIW their protein is really good too.

http://atlargenutrition.com/nutritio...products_id=44

[spamsammich]

Negatives...when you 'max' out, stand on a chair and place your chin above the bar and s-l-o-w-l-y let yourself down. I also like pyramids...1 pull-up, one push-up, one dip, two, etc up to 5, then back down. You won't be able to do it to start, but these two things helped me a thousand-fold.

I second this, the benefits of negatives are often overlooked.

[Littlelebowski]

Go slow up and down. Set a workable goal. Try something like 2 wide grip overhand, rest, 2 wide grip underhand, rest, 2 close grip overhand, rest, 2 close grip underhand, rest, and finish with 2 pull ups, touching the back of your head/neck to the bar.

If you cannot complete a portion of the above workout, drop and do PROPER pushups to make yourself pay for missing the pull ups then rest and continue. Do 10 proper pushups. If regular pushups are easy for you, do diamonds.

A variation on the above (with more differing grips and configurations) got me (5'10", 200lbs) to 35 overhand, dead hang pull ups.

[militarymoron]

i was a real upper body weakling in college because all i did was race bicycles. to build up my upper body strength slowly, i started to do pull ups (i started out only being able to do 1). i used the pyramid method (1-2-1, 1-2-3-2-1 etc) until i worked up to a pyramid of 7 (total 49) in a single session. then i switched to 5 sets of 10. i didn't do it more than 3 times a week.

nowadays, i only do pullups about twice a week, still 5 sets of 10 (on one of those gym things that has 4 different bars for hand positions) , just to maintain some level of strength. i'm 42, of 'average' build - not particularly muscular or fat, but can still do about 20-25 dead hangs at any given time. and remember, i could barely do one to start with. you'll get there.

[Armati]

In my heyday, I could do 15 dead hangs in a row. To get out of Jump School I only had to do 4.

Here are some suggestions:

It is ok to cheat. Build up where you can. Get a chair. Do as much as you can unsupported then use the chair to get the last bit out.

If you can't do anymore pull ups, switch to chin ups (with your palms facing you).

Arnold says do 50 pull ups. Even if you can only do one at a time, do 50 - even if it takes you an hour. In general you should do a set and rest only as long as it took you to do that set.

[panzerr]

So, has anyone else been there and pushed past it? I'm starting to think it might be a weight issue, as I'm not exactly lean at 175-180, 5' 11".

I am 6' 195 and I do pull-ups regularly simply because they are the single best exercise for your upper body and if I can do it you can do it. I started doing sets of 3 to 5 reps, varying my hand position for each set. For example, set one I would do 3 to 5 as wide as the bars allowed. The next set I would bring my hands in a few inches. The next set, I would bring them in some more. After four or five sets, I worked my hands back out to the wide position. Be sure to give yourself 2-3 minutes break between each set.

By alternating your hand position you will work your muscles in different ways, giving your lats and traps a bit of a break as you move your hands closer to your midline.

This method worked great for me.

I did this once or so a week for a month or two before I moved up to doing sets of 10, then 12, then 15 and 20. I got up to doing 6 sets of 20 with 2-3 minutes break between simply by doing as many fugging pullups as I could on my pull-up day. Now I just set a number -say 100, and pull until I reach it, while doing other exercises between sets. It's a great workout.

[rdbse]

Lots of good information here. FanBoy should keep in mind that people respond differently to workout stimulus.
Some factors include body type, age, and previous experience (working out, manual labor, etc).

Some people can do pull-up sets day after day, while others need adequate rest days before their next workout. Stick with a plan for awhile, but if you're not seeing proper gains then try something new.
Always striving for improvement.