Exercises to improve your pull up repetitions.

[PariahCarey]

From nothing to 5 in 10 days? Are you sure dude, that sounds rather extreme.

He had to do 3 chins to pass a strength test(wound up doing 5) and 10 days before nada. 3 work-outs all negatives. Sometimes these things can have a psych. factor too. Once you get over the bar and get into a rthym you realize you CAN do it and are able to push yourself farther. I don't know if negative training is blasphamey amongst the functional strenght crowd but give it a try...your strength goes UP...

 

[Ted-P]

Starting at the finished position and gradually lowering yourself down.

Wow sounds gier than distant running.

Why does it improve your pullups exactly?

 

[PariahCarey]

Cause its putting incredible amounts of stress on the back muscles thats why it works.Try it. You'll be breathing just as hard as if you did tabatas. It'll build your back,bi's, forearms, and abs up like you won't believe. I have my friend spot me by holding my feet and pushing me up. I start off in the contracted position and then he lets go. This is of course after doing as many positives as possible (for me currently 7,i weigh 266lbs/5'10). I then let myself down slowly.After the about 5th rep i'm dropping like a rock and thats when i call it quits ..as for being gy i'll say this...IF IT WORKs AND ITS GY IT ISN't GY...I'll tell you whats gy...doing something that you want to do/exploring diffenrent training methods for yourself AND WORRYING ABOUT SOME DUDE THINKING THATS GY. The dude i described above was in below average physical shape and decided to go back into the Marines after being out for some time. He went from 0 to 5 reps in 10 days. Thats a 500% increase. Thats not flash thats function.I know of other former/current marines with poor upperbody strentgth who used this trick to pass the PT test.

 

[Abraham]

I had this problem as well. I did a number of things that worked for me. Firstly I aimed for 3 sets of ten reps. Although you can only pull out 3 reps, do this, then after a short recoup do as many as you can again, until you have done 10 reps. Thats your first set. On it goes. Obviously you end up doing 30 reps by the end of your '3 sets'. You will find that over time, you will get more pull ups out in each attempt at failure as the weeks go by. You really need to knuckled down and push yourself.

Another thing I used was that eventually I hit a number of pull ups that seemed to be my sticking point. To break this I started wearing a backpack and placing weight discs (small ones) in it. After doing this for a while (and reaching your sticking point no. of reps with weight on, add more weight). For a surprise, then do a set of bodyweight pull ups. Waaaaay more reps than you'd expect. This is just the common sense approach I used that worked, I don't know if its a technical training solution advised by experts though.

 

[Ted-P]

I have decided Pullups are my top priority in my workout.

So I'm going to do them everytime I'm in the gym opposed to doing it only once a week.

 

[slayer36]

one thing you can do is tweak the rest times in between sets.

say your goal is 10 pullups, as you said you can only do 3.

do as many sets as you need to get to 10, say 5 sets. you coul do 5 sets of 2 pullups.
rest as long as you need to to make sure you get the reps, even if it is 5 minutes.
your workout make look like this
2 pullups
2 minute rest
2 pullups
2 minnute rest
2 pullups
2 minute rest
2 pullups
3minute rest
2 pullups

the trick is, the next time you do pullups, shoot for 90 second rests insted of 2 minute rests.
basically every time you do them, decrease the rests between sets.
and yes, negatives will help you.

 

[philthy]

In my opinion pullups should be treated as more of a skill than an exercise... what i mean by that is the best way to get good at pullups is to do pullups. If you can only do 1 pullup you should do 20-30 singles everyday(4-5 days like this a week). Pretty soon you'll be able to do 2, then do 20x2 everyday, then 3, etc Also once a day try to maxout, however many you can do add 1 or 2 negatives to that.



Using this method i went from being able to do 1 or 2 pullups to 44 last time i tried to maxout. It wasn't over night but i would say in 6 months if your starting out doing 1 or 2, you should be able to do 15-20 doing this method. Assuming your weight stays about the same.

I haven't specifically trained pullups in months but i can still bangout 35 like nothing just going through the motions.

 

[Madmick]

From nothing to 5 in 10 days? Are you sure dude, that sounds rather extreme.

That's because it's pure AA: Anatomical Adaptation. He's not getting stronger, his CNS is being programmed to fire more synapses.

Negatives (eccentric) WILL NOT help you get stronger as quickly as focusing on...I guess I'm supposed to call them positives (concentric). Negatives will get you bigger, which is a good start (as a two week microcycle, for example) as part of periodization.

 

[PariahCarey]

That's because it's pure AA: Anatomical Adaptation. He's not getting stronger, his CNS is being programmed to fire more synapses.

Negatives (eccentric) WILL NOT help you get stronger as quickly as focusing on...I guess I'm supposed to call them positives (concentric). Negatives will get you bigger, which is a good start (as a two week microcycle, for example) as part of periodization.

It still worked! He got over the chin-up bar 5 more times then he did 10 days before and his goal was 3. I'm not so sure he could have achieved the same result by just concnetrically training. I find it amusing that it pains you to use the term "positives." Oh well back to your textbook.

"My style is no style."-Bruce Lee

 

[Tankard]

Well I guess Ill say something too...

Bout 2 years ago (in late May), I was at 185lbs and unable to do pullups.
I started doing them daily - I would jump little (giving me some starting speed) and do a rep...Repeat for maybe 5 times, then do some slow negatives - Repeat that 1-2/day, add day off if needed
Soon I could do 2 reps from dead hang, so i dropped jump starting,did singles, kept slow negatives
3 months later I did 2x6

After that I stopped doing them (got lazy,fall came, gym again, started doing lots of O-squats, deads,rows, benches), always saying "AAAW I did alot of rows, too tired to do them"....
...So another year passes:
Im 210...May again...I can do three reps...Slowly work up to bout 8 reps...fall comes...

...Another year passes:
Im 230...May again...I can do three reps...
;-)

As you can see I started from scratch 3 times...Best bet is GTG metod, slow negatives and *consistency*...Maybe I stick with it this year LOL

 

[Madmick]

Cause its putting incredible amounts of stress on the back muscles thats why it works.

This isn't science. So far your evidence is purely anecdotal. You said this guy was in shape before. Well, what was his max reps on pull-ups before? Studies have indicated that one regains previously achieved (but lost) strength three times as quickly as developing unprecedented strength. So if he'd ever been able to do 5 pull-ups before, then getting back to that in 10 days is roughly equivalent (if these studies have any validity, and I don't know that they do, I haven't reviewed them or their methodology) to a newcomer going from zero to 5 pull-ups in a month. That's not that impressive.

He went from 0 to 5 reps in 10 days. Thats a 500% increase.

Whoa, there Dexter! That's an incalculable increase. From 1 to 5 is 500%.

 

[Magma99]

how can you improve pullup without pullup bar and with just bodyweight ?
is there any form of pushup which can improve pullup ?

 

[Foulsmeller**]

Ted, just for that post, I will never bring up our little secret again.

RUNNING FOR MORE THAN 100 YARDS/METERS IS RY OF THE ABSOLUTE HIGHEST ORDER.

Maybe you should just gargle some of Lance Amrstrongs sweat from his cute little spandex shorts.

Endurance athletes-Gazelle's. Gazelle's are REALLY gayish animals ya know. Only endurance athletes don't get to have horns. They'd probably tear their pussies all up trying to fuck themselves with those horns, best to leave them out.

CS...well now that I'm in the Army, I sort of have to run...

 

[oyaji poi]

Sherdoggers really like to complicate the fuck out of everything. First post by Urban answered the questions. Then a bunch of crap. Then another poster sort of explains how the Grease-the-Groove method works. Then some more crap. And now this post, flaming people. Typical.

 

[PariahCarey]

This isn't science. So far your evidence is purely anecdotal. You said this guy was in shape before. Well, what was his max reps on pull-ups before? Studies have indicated that one regains previously achieved (but lost) strength three times as quickly as developing unprecedented strength. So if he'd ever been able to do 5 pull-ups before, then getting back to that in 10 days is roughly equivalent (if these studies have any validity, and I don't know that they do, I haven't reviewed them or their methodology) to a newcomer going from zero to 5 pull-ups in a month. That's not that impressive.



Whoa, there Dexter! That's an incalculable increase. From 1 to 5 is 500%.

Training is an anecdotal experience! I would argue that alot of your "methodology" goes out the window when it is applied through an individuals personal schemata. He had been able to do chins before in the marines yes but so what, that was 4 years ago. i never said he couldn't. "Impressive" is a subjective word. Both he and i were impressed that he went from 0-5 in 10 days and thats enough for us. He achieved his goal and unfortunately (for his friends and family) he's back in the marines.
If science is numbers and charts no this isn't science <SEE POEM: When i Heard the Learn'd Astronomer (Walt Whitman i belive or maybe Emerson i forget)>, if science is finding the solutions to a problem rationally MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Get your unscarred nose out of the texbook,wipe the lipstick off your lips and get into the world.

 

[Fedorable]

Whoa, there Dexter! That's an incalculable increase. From 1 to 5 is 500%.

zing!

 

[NYMMAfan]

first off pull up/chin ups are an excellent exercise.

first thing...identify what part of your body is stronger...you're biceps or your back (during the process work both though so you can gain strength in both areas). if your biceps are stronger, work your biceps hard and have an inboard grip with your hands when doing pullups. if your back is stronger, work your back hard and have an outboard grip with your hands when doing pullups.

second...i was a marine (not trying to brag), and as a marine, pull ups/chin ups are a requirement. i went in doing like 3 or 4. at best, i did 23 during my service. now i'm in the best shape of my life and i can either match that or do better. THE ONLY WAY TO INCREASE PULLUPS/CHINUPS IS TO DO MORE PULLUPS/CHINUPS.

third...set a challenging but obtainable number of pullups to do within a part of your workout session (i started out with 100). keep doing max pullup sets until you've done that total number. once you've started doing more each set and acheiving that max number quicker...raise it to a higher #.

fourth...everyone's got their own program to get better at this. so, listen to me or to someone else as far as specifics are concerned. either way, the more you do them and the more ofthen you do them...the quicker the max # you can do in one set will rise.

 

[3Is]

to improve your pull-up? is that a goal?

to improve your pull-up, get bigger arms jerky! that or lose about 50 pounds.

maybe your question should be "how do I get huge arms so I can do mad pull ups?" or "how do I lose weight so I can do pull ups easier?"

 

[Fedorable]

to improve your pull-up? is that a goal?

to improve your pull-up, get bigger arms jerky! that or lose about 50 pounds.

maybe your question should be "how do I get huge arms so I can do mad pull ups?" or "how do I lose weight so I can do pull ups easier?"

don't be silly, bigger isn't stronger, only stronger is stronger. Get a stronger back would be more appropriate than arms also sucka.

 

[Ted-P]

Wow that post was incredibly dumb.