Bodyweight Can pull ups once a week be enough?

[Don Quixote]

Hi all,

I started S&S a few months ago from Monday to Friday with good results and I'm working towards the OAP in a GTG manner. I tried to buy a pull up bar but my door frames don't have the correct dimensions. Saturdays I have more free time and can go to a park with pull up bars. I've never been good at pull ups (2 pull ups and 5 chin ups are my max), so I'd like to improve that but I was wondering if one day a week could be enough and how could I aproach it in terms of sets and reps.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Hasbro]

Hi Don and welcome to the forum. You can do once a week and get results such as in some of the Convict Conditioning programming but I personally prefer a GTG approach.

 

[elli]

Train the muscles needed for a pull up on the other days

 

[Deleted member 5559]

I get quite a bit out of bent over rows. I think volume is important. Not necessarily single session volume but cumulative volume. GTG works really well because the cumulative volume is quite high. You can get a lot of pulling volume using bent KB rows in the place of pull-ups.

 

[Don Quixote]

Thanks for the answers, they've been very helpful. I will add bent KB rows along with S&S and work the muscles harder on saturdays. Let's see how it goes

 

[offwidth]

Don, welcome...
If your goal is the OAP, and your current max is 2 regular pull-ups; then I am thinking that once a week is not going to be the optimal strategy to get you there.

 

[Zack]

Progress may be slow, but better than nothing.

Try a few pull-up singles then short ladders of chins (1,2) x 3-5 and build volume bit by bit over time!

 

[Chrisdavisjr]

@Don Quixote Do you have space for a freestanding chin-up bar in your home? Another alternative, provided you've got somewhere to hang them, would be training pull-ups with gymnastic rings.

 

[Don Quixote]

@Don Quixote Do you have space for a freestanding chin-up bar in your home? Another alternative, provided you've got somewhere to hang them, would be training pull-ups with gymnastic rings.

I never even thought about the freestanding chin up bar, I do have some space and it's not that expensive...
Thanks everyone!

 

[offwidth]

Additionally, always be on the lookout for pull-up opportunities as you move through your day.
Tree branches, playgrounds, walls, open staircases, etc. Just make sure the structure is solid enough to support your weight, and that it's free from debris and sharp edges.
Never pass up an opportunity to do a pull-up...

 

[D-Rock]

Train the muscles needed for a pull up on the other days

In addition to this, I might suggest if you do any pushups or kettlebell presses to stress the active negative. This will help ingrain the grove you need for pulling. I have read of (not numerous albeit) reports of achieving a OAP from working HARD the active negative of a OAPU. I will point you to this article.

Pushing for a Better Pull? | StrongFirst

I have not gained a OAP but I would expect it would require more focus and frequency eventually. However, the advice on this thread will get you pretty far along in your training until you can figure out your pullup bar situation!

 

[Karen Smith]

Work your pullups on the day you can and try heavy PushPress and Overhead carries with a SLOW ACTIVE NEG back to the rack, as if doing a one arm chin a few other days during the week.