Posted: 4/21/2012 8:18:20 PM EDT
Me and Depidy_Dawg, since he won't post the thread. 
|
|
Ok. First things first: Quit doing pulldowns THINKING that you'll eventually get good at pullups. This does not work. Pulldowns are for training specific muscles, whereas a pullup is a movement. It's like saying "Yeah, I can legpress 800... I DEFINITELY can squat at least 600!..." Bullshit. Go Highfive your crew of Jersey shore rejects. I know It's easy to sit there and do xxxx reps of pulldowns and say "It's the same movement as a pullup, I'm getting there!" What's easy is not always whats right. Use it for what it's for... working specific muscles. Second. Can you do 'any' pullups? No? then negatives are your best bet/friend right now. Jump your big ass up there hold, and slowly lower yourself. Rinse and repeat 10 sets of 5. Eccentric movement builds huge amounts of muscles... HUGE) Yep. you're gonna look like a dumbass at the gym. It's the price we pay. My 280lb ass started doing them this way (same with dips. I couldn't do a single dip at one point). Can't jump high enough? Go do some squats to work on your verticle... Or grab a bench, Step on it to get you up there, Dangle for a few seconds, then slowly drip down like the chocolate fudge you put on your ice-cream sundae that got you here in the first place. Another thing that can help with the concentric (going up) portion of the lift is Band assistance. BUY SOME BANDS EFS bands are great, as are Woody's and jumpstretch. I prefer EFS because they support weightlifting sports like a champ. Hook these to the bar (which tension is up to your chocolate fudge-dripping ass- I use Monster minis, lights and averages depending on the person) and put your knee or foot through the loop. These will give 20-120lbs of support depending on length and tension. I STILL prefer doing band assisted pullups to ANY sort of pulldown. These are KING for garage gym owners... as avoiding a proper lat pulldown machine saves a ton of $$$. Sweet. Now you can do a pullup after X weeks of chocolate fudge dripping? cool. DO pullups now. Do NO LESS than 30 pullups/wk for the next month. I don't give a damn if it takes you 30 sets over 6 days. Do them. After that, and forever more, Do NO LESS than 50/wk. Once again... Sets/days doesnt matter (but the less the better). Change your grip often. Wide, narrow, Supine, Prone, neutral. Add in fat gripz, towels, etc. IF you have a "back day" do them then... otherwise mix them in with your pressing days. Once you're here, you're no longer a wad of chocolate fudge-drip. I do 100pullups/wk at a bodyweight of 260-280 & 6'1"? or so. I do 20-25 before every pressing workout, and 5-10 between each heavy pressing work set (overhead or flat). I can, if pushed, bang out a set of 15-20 strict pullups. Kipping I can get to mid 30's. Once you can do 5-10 for a couple sets, then you can start getting creative and adding weight to your pullups to get HOODGE. Chains, a dip belt and weight plates, body armor, your wife, etc... My best is a double with 100lbs of chains... Then you can start with variations... like learning to do a muscleup... or a 1hand kipping pullup (my current goal...) Harry Selkow's articles, which I've loosely based the above on and use when I coach... Part 1 Part 2 (for fatties) |
|
I started out just doing 30 in the least number of sets as possible. Started at 2-3 in a row, year later I'm at 16-17. There was a time I was doing 50 (total) 5 days a week, but I think that may have been hurting me. Now I'm at 35 total, 3 days a week.
If you stall a bit, add some weight for a week or two. Lat pull downs help too. |
|
Serious thread.
A little background. I will be 48 next Sunday, eat right (Haven't always), work out 5 times a week for at least an hour a day (We get paid an hour to work out) and have made great gains in all areas EXCEPT pull-ups. I've tried negatives, pullup machine, pullup "cheaters" (Low hanging bar and hold onto it with my body at a 45 degree angle and pullup to failure, etc.) I can do 2 sometimes 3 in a row. I am 6'3", 240 pounds, and have long ass arms. I am sloooooooooowy getting better at pullups, but getting rather frustrated. My workout is a mixture of aerobic/anerobic and I am running a Spartan Race May 5th. I want to get perfect scores on my SRT test in 2 months and need to do at least 4 pull ups to do that. I want to be able to do at least 8-10. Any tips will be greatly appreciated. |
|
Quoted:
I started out just doing 30 in the least number of sets as possible. Started at 2-3 in a row, year later I'm at 16-17. There was a time I was doing 50 (total) 5 days a week, but I think that may have been hurting me. Now I'm at 35 total, 3 days a week. If you stall a bit, add some weight for a week or two. Lat pull downs help too. Yeah, lat pulldowns do seem to help. The guy I work out with does 3 sets of 6 with a plate hanging from a chain around his waist. Someday...............someday. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
I started out just doing 30 in the least number of sets as possible. Started at 2-3 in a row, year later I'm at 16-17. There was a time I was doing 50 (total) 5 days a week, but I think that may have been hurting me. Now I'm at 35 total, 3 days a week. If you stall a bit, add some weight for a week or two. Lat pull downs help too. Yeah, lat pulldowns do seem to help. The guy I work out with does 3 sets of 6 with a plate hanging from a chain around his waist. Someday...............someday. Honestly, it was mostly just doing them consistently that helped me. I never included them in my routine before (did them a few times just because). Once I made it a goal to do 20 in a row, I made sure I fit them into the workouts. It is a bit tiresome sometimes, but that's what willpower is for. |
|
Consistency. Pull-ups to failure are part of my workout once a week. I went from being able to do 5-4-3 six months ago to 10-7-5 yesterday (a few minutes of rest in between sets). You should expect about monthly progress. Take a look at this program. I haven't tried it, but it may be able help you out. ETA: At least one guy I know is happy with the results he's seeing from using that program. |
|
Quoted:
Consistency. Pull-ups to failure are part of my workout once a week. I went from being able to do 5-4-3 six months ago to 10-7-5 yesterday (a few minutes of rest in between sets). You should expect about monthly progress. Take a look at this program. I haven't tried it, but it may be able help you out. ETA: At least one guy I know is happy with the results he's seeing from using that program. THANK YOU! |
|
2 workouts come to mind
1st is Tabata pullups. AMAP 20 seconds, 10 second rest repeat 10's 2nd is 1 minute pull up, do 1 pullup rest until the top of minute, at the top of the minute 2 pull ups, at the top of the next minute 3 pullups and so on for 20 minutes or failure... |
|
I just started with chin ups and general lifting. Was able to do 8-10 no problem so I made it a daily thing that every time I went by the bar(in the garage) I would crank out as many as I could. I was up to 50 a day spread out. Eventually in a month my max started climbing and I was doing sets of 20-25.
I've got big monkey arms too so it was harder and as I lost weight it obviously got easier too. For absolute craziness check out bar stars on YouTube. The main guy is insane on the bars and make regular pull ups look wimpy and girlish. |
|
First post and all that.
Old guys, have hope. I always struggled with pull-ups. Even as a young Marine I could only do 18-20. Now, at 40, I can do 25+ dead hangs with a pause at the bottom. The key for me was consistency. Do pullups at least 5 days a week, to the exclusion of your normal workout if needed. Mix your sets up any way you like, working each workout into the rotation. Small sets= total number: 1X 50=50, 5X10=50 or 7X7=49 Increasing/Decreasing sets: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. Work up til failure, then back down to one. Max Sets til failure. Weighted Pullups. If you tire out, jump, use bands, or do negatives. Switch your grip, over/under, wide/narrow. Did I mention doing them consistently? Oh, every pound you drop is a pound that you don't have to pull. Good Luck. |
|
Quoted: I've seen a lot of people make a lot of progress using these techniques, or variations of them. Ok. First things first: Quit doing pulldowns THINKING that you'll eventually get good at pullups. This does not work. Pulldowns are for training specific muscles, whereas a pullup is a movement. It's like saying "Yeah, I can legpress 800... I DEFINITELY can squat at least 600!..." Bullshit. Go Highfive your crew of Jersey shore rejects. I know It's easy to sit there and do xxxx reps of pulldowns and say "It's the same movement as a pullup, I'm getting there!" What's easy is not always whats right. Use it for what it's for... working specific muscles. Second. Can you do 'any' pullups? No? then negatives are your best bet/friend right now. Jump your big ass up there hold, and slowly lower yourself. Rinse and repeat 10 sets of 5. Eccentric movement builds huge amounts of muscles... HUGE) Yep. you're gonna look like a dumbass at the gym. It's the price we pay. My 280lb ass started doing them this way (same with dips. I couldn't do a single dip at one point). Can't jump high enough? Go do some squats to work on your verticle... Or grab a bench, Step on it to get you up there, Dangle for a few seconds, then slowly drip down like the chocolate fudge you put on your ice-cream sundae that got you here in the first place. Another thing that can help with the concentric (going up) portion of the lift is Band assistance. BUY SOME BANDS EFS bands are great, as are Woody's and jumpstretch. I prefer EFS because they support weightlifting sports like a champ. Hook these to the bar (which tension is up to your chocolate fudge-dripping ass- I use Monster minis, lights and averages depending on the person) and put your knee or foot through the loop. These will give 20-120lbs of support depending on length and tension. I STILL prefer doing band assisted pullups to ANY sort of pulldown. These are KING for garage gym owners... as avoiding a proper lat pulldown machine saves a ton of $$$. Sweet. Now you can do a pullup after X weeks of chocolate fudge dripping? cool. DO pullups now. Do NO LESS than 30 pullups/wk for the next month. I don't give a damn if it takes you 30 sets over 6 days. Do them. After that, and forever more, Do NO LESS than 50/wk. Once again... Sets/days doesnt matter (but the less the better). Change your grip often. Wide, narrow, Supine, Prone, neutral. Add in fat gripz, towels, etc. IF you have a "back day" do them then... otherwise mix them in with your pressing days. Once you're here, you're no longer a wad of chocolate fudge-drip. I do 100pullups/wk at a bodyweight of 260-280 & 6'1"? or so. I do 20-25 before every pressing workout, and 5-10 between each heavy pressing work set (overhead or flat). I can, if pushed, bang out a set of 15-20 strict pullups. Kipping I can get to mid 30's. Once you can do 5-10 for a couple sets, then you can start getting creative and adding weight to your pullups to get HOODGE. Chains, a dip belt and weight plates, body armor, your wife, etc... My best is a double with 100lbs of chains... Then you can start with variations... like learning to do a muscleup... or a 1hand kipping pullup (my current goal...) Harry Selkow's articles, which I've loosely based the above on and use when I coach... Part 1 Part 2 (for fatties) |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
I've seen a lot of people make a lot of progress using these techniques, or variations of them.
Ok. First things first: Quit doing pulldowns THINKING that you'll eventually get good at pullups. This does not work. Pulldowns are for training specific muscles, whereas a pullup is a movement. It's like saying "Yeah, I can legpress 800... I DEFINITELY can squat at least 600!..." Bullshit. Go Highfive your crew of Jersey shore rejects. I know It's easy to sit there and do xxxx reps of pulldowns and say "It's the same movement as a pullup, I'm getting there!" What's easy is not always whats right. Use it for what it's for... working specific muscles. Second. Can you do 'any' pullups? No? then negatives are your best bet/friend right now. Jump your big ass up there hold, and slowly lower yourself. Rinse and repeat 10 sets of 5. Eccentric movement builds huge amounts of muscles... HUGE) Yep. you're gonna look like a dumbass at the gym. It's the price we pay. My 280lb ass started doing them this way (same with dips. I couldn't do a single dip at one point). Can't jump high enough? Go do some squats to work on your verticle... Or grab a bench, Step on it to get you up there, Dangle for a few seconds, then slowly drip down like the chocolate fudge you put on your ice-cream sundae that got you here in the first place. Another thing that can help with the concentric (going up) portion of the lift is Band assistance. BUY SOME BANDS EFS bands are great, as are Woody's and jumpstretch. I prefer EFS because they support weightlifting sports like a champ. Hook these to the bar (which tension is up to your chocolate fudge-dripping ass- I use Monster minis, lights and averages depending on the person) and put your knee or foot through the loop. These will give 20-120lbs of support depending on length and tension. I STILL prefer doing band assisted pullups to ANY sort of pulldown. These are KING for garage gym owners... as avoiding a proper lat pulldown machine saves a ton of $$$. Sweet. Now you can do a pullup after X weeks of chocolate fudge dripping? cool. DO pullups now. Do NO LESS than 30 pullups/wk for the next month. I don't give a damn if it takes you 30 sets over 6 days. Do them. After that, and forever more, Do NO LESS than 50/wk. Once again... Sets/days doesnt matter (but the less the better). Change your grip often. Wide, narrow, Supine, Prone, neutral. Add in fat gripz, towels, etc. IF you have a "back day" do them then... otherwise mix them in with your pressing days. Once you're here, you're no longer a wad of chocolate fudge-drip. I do 100pullups/wk at a bodyweight of 260-280 & 6'1"? or so. I do 20-25 before every pressing workout, and 5-10 between each heavy pressing work set (overhead or flat). I can, if pushed, bang out a set of 15-20 strict pullups. Kipping I can get to mid 30's. Once you can do 5-10 for a couple sets, then you can start getting creative and adding weight to your pullups to get HOODGE. Chains, a dip belt and weight plates, body armor, your wife, etc... My best is a double with 100lbs of chains... Then you can start with variations... like learning to do a muscleup... or a 1hand kipping pullup (my current goal...) Harry Selkow's articles, which I've loosely based the above on and use when I coach... Part 1 Part 2 (for fatties) An aside question, what's fish oil do for you? |
|
Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I've seen a lot of people make a lot of progress using these techniques, or variations of them. Ok. First things first: Quit doing pulldowns THINKING that you'll eventually get good at pullups. This does not work. Pulldowns are for training specific muscles, whereas a pullup is a movement. It's like saying "Yeah, I can legpress 800... I DEFINITELY can squat at least 600!..." Bullshit. Go Highfive your crew of Jersey shore rejects. I know It's easy to sit there and do xxxx reps of pulldowns and say "It's the same movement as a pullup, I'm getting there!" What's easy is not always whats right. Use it for what it's for... working specific muscles. Second. Can you do 'any' pullups? No? then negatives are your best bet/friend right now. Jump your big ass up there hold, and slowly lower yourself. Rinse and repeat 10 sets of 5. Eccentric movement builds huge amounts of muscles... HUGE) Yep. you're gonna look like a dumbass at the gym. It's the price we pay. My 280lb ass started doing them this way (same with dips. I couldn't do a single dip at one point). Can't jump high enough? Go do some squats to work on your verticle... Or grab a bench, Step on it to get you up there, Dangle for a few seconds, then slowly drip down like the chocolate fudge you put on your ice-cream sundae that got you here in the first place. Another thing that can help with the concentric (going up) portion of the lift is Band assistance. BUY SOME BANDS EFS bands are great, as are Woody's and jumpstretch. I prefer EFS because they support weightlifting sports like a champ. Hook these to the bar (which tension is up to your chocolate fudge-dripping ass- I use Monster minis, lights and averages depending on the person) and put your knee or foot through the loop. These will give 20-120lbs of support depending on length and tension. I STILL prefer doing band assisted pullups to ANY sort of pulldown. These are KING for garage gym owners... as avoiding a proper lat pulldown machine saves a ton of $$$. Sweet. Now you can do a pullup after X weeks of chocolate fudge dripping? cool. DO pullups now. Do NO LESS than 30 pullups/wk for the next month. I don't give a damn if it takes you 30 sets over 6 days. Do them. After that, and forever more, Do NO LESS than 50/wk. Once again... Sets/days doesnt matter (but the less the better). Change your grip often. Wide, narrow, Supine, Prone, neutral. Add in fat gripz, towels, etc. IF you have a "back day" do them then... otherwise mix them in with your pressing days. Once you're here, you're no longer a wad of chocolate fudge-drip. I do 100pullups/wk at a bodyweight of 260-280 & 6'1"? or so. I do 20-25 before every pressing workout, and 5-10 between each heavy pressing work set (overhead or flat). I can, if pushed, bang out a set of 15-20 strict pullups. Kipping I can get to mid 30's. Once you can do 5-10 for a couple sets, then you can start getting creative and adding weight to your pullups to get HOODGE. Chains, a dip belt and weight plates, body armor, your wife, etc... My best is a double with 100lbs of chains... Then you can start with variations... like learning to do a muscleup... or a 1hand kipping pullup (my current goal...) Harry Selkow's articles, which I've loosely based the above on and use when I coach... Part 1 Part 2 (for fatties) An aside question, what's fish oil do for you? |
|
Quoted:
Serious thread. A little background. I will be 48 next Sunday, eat right (Haven't always), work out 5 times a week for at least an hour a day (We get paid an hour to work out) and have made great gains in all areas EXCEPT pull-ups. I've tried negatives, pullup machine, pullup "cheaters" (Low hanging bar and hold onto it with my body at a 45 degree angle and pullup to failure, etc.) I can do 2 sometimes 3 in a row. I am 6'3", 240 pounds, and have long ass arms. I am sloooooooooowy getting better at pullups, but getting rather frustrated. My workout is a mixture of aerobic/anerobic and I am running a Spartan Race May 5th. I want to get perfect scores on my SRT test in 2 months and need to do at least 4 pull ups to do that. I want to be able to do at least 8-10. Any tips will be greatly appreciated. Far from being an expert, at 47 yo negatives have helped me progress the most since I started working out. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
You know you give shitty advice, right? http://ts3.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=4838160937648674&id=12b6156d3afe2f899f50b781af0f6613&url=http%3a%2f%2fde-motivational-posters.com%2fimages%2fboom-headshot-2.jpg 
|
|
Quoted: Ok. First things first: Quit doing pulldowns THINKING that you'll eventually get good at pullups. This does not work. Pulldowns are for training specific muscles, whereas a pullup is a movement. It's like saying "Yeah, I can legpress 800... I DEFINITELY can squat at least 600!..." Bullshit. Go Highfive your crew of Jersey shore rejects. I know It's easy to sit there and do xxxx reps of pulldowns and say "It's the same movement as a pullup, I'm getting there!" What's easy is not always whats right. Use it for what it's for... working specific muscles. Second. Can you do 'any' pullups? No? then negatives are your best bet/friend right now. Jump your big ass up there hold, and slowly lower yourself. Rinse and repeat 10 sets of 5. Eccentric movement builds huge amounts of muscles... HUGE) Yep. you're gonna look like a dumbass at the gym. It's the price we pay. My 280lb ass started doing them this way (same with dips. I couldn't do a single dip at one point). Can't jump high enough? Go do some squats to work on your verticle... Or grab a bench, Step on it to get you up there, Dangle for a few seconds, then slowly drip down like the chocolate fudge you put on your ice-cream sundae that got you here in the first place. Another thing that can help with the concentric (going up) portion of the lift is Band assistance. BUY SOME BANDS EFS bands are great, as are Woody's and jumpstretch. I prefer EFS because they support weightlifting sports like a champ. Hook these to the bar (which tension is up to your chocolate fudge-dripping ass- I use Monster minis, lights and averages depending on the person) and put your knee or foot through the loop. These will give 20-120lbs of support depending on length and tension. I STILL prefer doing band assisted pullups to ANY sort of pulldown. These are KING for garage gym owners... as avoiding a proper lat pulldown machine saves a ton of $$$. Sweet. Now you can do a pullup after X weeks of chocolate fudge dripping? cool. DO pullups now. Do NO LESS than 30 pullups/wk for the next month. I don't give a damn if it takes you 30 sets over 6 days. Do them. After that, and forever more, Do NO LESS than 50/wk. Once again... Sets/days doesnt matter (but the less the better). Change your grip often. Wide, narrow, Supine, Prone, neutral. Add in fat gripz, towels, etc. IF you have a "back day" do them then... otherwise mix them in with your pressing days. Once you're here, you're no longer a wad of chocolate fudge-drip. I do 100pullups/wk at a bodyweight of 260-280 & 6'1"? or so. I do 20-25 before every pressing workout, and 5-10 between each heavy pressing work set (overhead or flat). I can, if pushed, bang out a set of 15-20 strict pullups. Kipping I can get to mid 30's. Once you can do 5-10 for a couple sets, then you can start getting creative and adding weight to your pullups to get HOODGE. Chains, a dip belt and weight plates, body armor, your wife, etc... My best is a double with 100lbs of chains... Then you can start with variations... like learning to do a muscleup... or a 1hand kipping pullup (my current goal...) Harry Selkow's articles, which I've loosely based the above on and use when I coach... Part 1 Part 2 (for fatties) Inspiring  I really need to start hitting my back more  |
|
Quoted: Uh, do more pullups. If you're having a problem with grip, that's really kind of a separate issue. You can treat grip training on it's own like you would back or legs, although there's certainly a lot that carries over. Straps and belts are for slackers. BZZZZZZ. Wrong. Belt Issue was beat to death in another thread Straps are good for allowing you to train specific muscles/groups/movements without having to worry about frying your grip. Lets see any normal person do 1) assload of pullups on monday, 2) heavy rack/conv deadlifts on Tuesday, followed by power cleans/shrugs, 3)farmers carries, holds, hangs or other implement work on Sat. You yourself said 'treat it like its own'... yet you want to abuse the piss out of it and not let it recover?... Grip needs recovery too bud. Straps allow this. Proper Tool. Proper Job. |
|
Quoted:
Pullup related: scrawny twig boy with his 'bodybuilding.com' tshirt strapped himself in doing seated military presses on the smith machine... Then yanked himself up with the help of his legs after each rep... Awesoooome. I can't even contemplate what was trying to be accomplished here... |