Abraiz
Level 4 Valued Member
Hi all.
I cannot do pullups. Never have been able to do it. I didn't have a place to hang from when I was a kid. Maybe someone could argue the point that I didn't look hard enough, which might be true, but I have not done pullups. Squats, pushups, etc. yes, but no pullups. Ever. So, my huge overarching goal for 2018 is to be able to do pullups. No matter if it takes me the whole year to get there. I tried the CC pullup progression approach but got stuck in the middle. Another viable approach seems to be the one Karen Smith wrote about as an article some time back (How to Progress Yourself to Your First Pull-up). My question/s are about this approach. It would be real nice if Ms. Smith herself answered them, but any and all advice is appreciated.
1. How many times a week do I have to do these progressions? GTG is fine, but can't I fit this in the gym schedule, like 3 times a week or something of that sort?
2. Do I need to have heavy, medium and light days?
3. How do you decide a heavy, medium or light day for a bodyweight static movement? Is this decided as per time, like 60 secs worth of holds for heavy day, 45 secs for medium and 30 secs for light day or is it on the difficulty level of the movement? Something like straight arm hangs for light day, flexed hangs for medium day and weighted flexed arm hangs for heavy day?
4. The article quoted gives a time standard, like 45-60 seconds generally means a pullup. To build up the time, do you need to use meticulous methods like you do for bodyweight number standards? Allow me to explain this. If I want to hit 50 pushups, then I will see how much I can do right now. Halve that number and hit 50 in how many sets it takes. Then maybe 2 weeks later test myself again. Halve this number and hit 50 in as many sets as it takes and so on till I hit 50 in 1 set. Do I need to use something like this or simply adding a couple of seconds whenever I can will also work fine. But this seems really unstructured to me.
5. Can I use CC pullup progressions alongside this approach?
As I said, any and all advice is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I cannot do pullups. Never have been able to do it. I didn't have a place to hang from when I was a kid. Maybe someone could argue the point that I didn't look hard enough, which might be true, but I have not done pullups. Squats, pushups, etc. yes, but no pullups. Ever. So, my huge overarching goal for 2018 is to be able to do pullups. No matter if it takes me the whole year to get there. I tried the CC pullup progression approach but got stuck in the middle. Another viable approach seems to be the one Karen Smith wrote about as an article some time back (How to Progress Yourself to Your First Pull-up). My question/s are about this approach. It would be real nice if Ms. Smith herself answered them, but any and all advice is appreciated.
1. How many times a week do I have to do these progressions? GTG is fine, but can't I fit this in the gym schedule, like 3 times a week or something of that sort?
2. Do I need to have heavy, medium and light days?
3. How do you decide a heavy, medium or light day for a bodyweight static movement? Is this decided as per time, like 60 secs worth of holds for heavy day, 45 secs for medium and 30 secs for light day or is it on the difficulty level of the movement? Something like straight arm hangs for light day, flexed hangs for medium day and weighted flexed arm hangs for heavy day?
4. The article quoted gives a time standard, like 45-60 seconds generally means a pullup. To build up the time, do you need to use meticulous methods like you do for bodyweight number standards? Allow me to explain this. If I want to hit 50 pushups, then I will see how much I can do right now. Halve that number and hit 50 in how many sets it takes. Then maybe 2 weeks later test myself again. Halve this number and hit 50 in as many sets as it takes and so on till I hit 50 in 1 set. Do I need to use something like this or simply adding a couple of seconds whenever I can will also work fine. But this seems really unstructured to me.
5. Can I use CC pullup progressions alongside this approach?
As I said, any and all advice is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
