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.

[120mm]

I've found that cheating/kipping helps a little bit with increasing your count, when alternated with dead hang pullups. About 6 months ago I was up to 3 sets of 40 pullups.

However...

Do not be concerned with the number of pullups you can do. It really signifies nothing, imo. I've found that doing one pullup work out a week, and one lat pull down machine work out works really well for building up that kind of strength.

Personally, I have about a 3 month cycle I use to improve my pullups as well. at the peak I am doing 3 sets of some ridiculous amount of pullups, but at the valley I'm doing 3 sets of 10. Each 3 month peak has been higher than the one before, so it must work for me, I guess.

I'd recommend against alternating pushups and pullups. Once upon a time I did this very thing, and now have a wonderfully persistent injury prone elbow caused by injuring some of the musculature doing this.

What I do is isolate all my back and arm workouts, so similar muscles get worked. Right now I am doing around 3 sets of 15 overhand wide, 3 sets of 10 underhanded.

Don't forget to get your gut hard. My huge pullup numbers usually are associated when I peak my ab and pullup work out together. I tend to do lots of leg lifts on pushup days, and lots of hanging leg lifts on pullup days, making sure to hit the obliques.

Good luck. Don't try to do your max all the time, is pry the most important part of my advice.

[Ga Shooter]

If you can do 8 straight in a row then do 3 sets of 4 resting 90 seconds between sets. Every week take 10 seconds away from your resting time and in 2 months you should be doing 1 set of 12. Repeat this process until you get where you want to be. Do this 2-3 times a week so your muscles can rest and recover. Eat lots of whey. Get plenty of sleep.