I've considered trying pull-ups like this with 1 giant set like the Super Squat program by Randall Strossen which I have liked for squats and bench press. Any input to the difference between a giant set of 20 reps hanging between reps vs the 5 sets? I would need to use a band to do a giant 20 rep set hanging between reps.
I wouldn't do a 20-rep set of pullups with longish hangs between. There's a
big difference.
Although I am not well-acquainted with these protocols, I did get to try one for the first time a few weeks ago when Derek Toshner and I were playing on a pullup bar in Italy. I did 8 pullups at a rate of one every 15 seconds, so I did 1 rep to start, and after the 8th rep, hung for 15 seconds, bringing my total on the bar time to 2 minutes. Derek had done it earlier, after doing the 6 reps on 15-second hangs Pavel had suggested to him, for 1:30 total.
Afterwards, I told Pavel what I'd done and he said I'd wasted my time, since this protocol didn't address anything I was interested in improving. He was right - it wasn't really a challenge for me. Let's call that one of the benefits of being light and having good grip strength relative to bodyweight.
I would imagine this would be good in the same way a GS athlete might do 10 minutes of snatches but at a rate of 6 per minute (something I've also played with). The idea, it seems to me, is to make going the full length of time trainable without it being a maximum effort. I suspect there's more to it than that, but I think that's at least a part of it.
So, for someone hoping to do 2 minutes of pullups at a TSC, this sort of paced training makes sense to me. OTOH, if you're not someone with already good pullup numbers who is also trying to improve them, I wouldn't bother with this - I think it would take more from you than it would give. I'd say the person who already has at least 15 pullups is a good candidate for this sort of pullup training to increase their max reps for a TSC or otherwise.
For hypertrophy purposes, however, I can't comment.
What if someone did, say, a single push up (weighted or not) or kettlebell squat, then “rested” at the bottom for ten to thirty seconds before attempting to do another single?
That sounds like a similar idea, and might be worth a try, but I think training effect induced would either be more GS reps at a given weight, or hypertrophy. Typical SQ hypertrophy protocols have you rest at the top - my guess is that both ways could work, and perhaps even together, pausing at both places. For a pushup, you'd want to wait at the top - the bottom would be like waiting at the top of a pullup, too much tension/effort and not the point.
-S-