Old Forum Pull up help

[Ben Dau]

Hi friends, I'm in need of your assistance.

I'm and terrible at pullups and would like to get better. I can only train 3 days per week and have yet to find a bar, tree limb or other suitable device for Greasing the Groove. I've been doing the Fighter Pullup Program as outlined on the Strongfirst Blog, but am only doing the program 3 days per week as compared to 6.

My first session was 3,2,1,1. Second session was 3,2,1,1. Third session was 3,2,2,1. Fourth session was 3,3,1,1. I was unable to do a set of 2 after the second set of 3. This was possibly a rest period issue, but I wanted to check to see if there is a better program for someone only training 3 days per week.

My bodyweight pullup max is about 3. Interestingly, I can also do 3 pullups with 35# attached. I don't know why.

I am 6' tall and weigh 227#.

Thank you for your help.

Ben

 

[rhgo5]

You can consider posting a video of your form--if you can do 3 good pullups with 35#,you should be able to get 9-10 with bodyweight alone.

The program can be done 3x/week.There is no rule that you need to add a rep each time--dont go near failure--it seems you are right at your current max each day.YOU can go to 4 sets of 1 rep--contrating on a solid rep and hold at the top for several seconds; when easy go to 2,1,1,1 then 2,2,1,1,etc.Its not a race--emphasize quality over rep numbers.If you carrying extra weight,losing it will make a great difference.Good luck.

 

[AndyMcL]

SF is right, if you can do 3 with 35 you should be able to do at least a couple more with no added weight (though maybe not 9-10).

If you're doing three days a week I would recommend following a ladder program, like Pavel's Rite of Passage. Good way to get volume in with a heavy weight.

 

[Mike E]

Ben, I think this is mostly mental.  Big guys think they must suck at pull-ups so when they demonstrate them their mental picture of themselves doing them exhibits itself.  Obviously, if you can do three weighted pulls with 35 lbs you can do at least one or two more than that without weight.  I would unload your mind from totally focusing on pull-ups.  Interestingly (and conveniently) the Simply Strong protocol contains sets of three weighted pull-ups.  It also contains two other great exercises, the bench press and zercher squat.  These other two come first.  I would do Simply Strong ending with weighted pull-ups, starting with perhaps only 10 lbs (if you can do one set with 35, you should be able to do multiple sets with 10).  That would get your pull-up numbers high without focusing totally on pull-ups.  If you can eventually get 5x5 at perhaps 35 lbs weighted pull-ups, you will have confidence at pull ups and 10 bw will be no problem.  You are much stronger than you think you are already.  You just need to get your focus on succeeding, not on failing.  Getting your bench and zercher numbers up would be a bonus.  Of course, they're probably already awesome...

Disclaimer: I'm not a big guy (around 150 at 5'8") and I'm not a trainer but back in my martials arts teaching days (>25 years ago) I got a couple of big guys, my students, to ten pull-ups.  One from zero, the other from 2-3.  One about your size, the other only about 210.  I demonstrated 10 strict pull-ups with 50 lbs added and said "no more excuses".

 

[ali]

I can vouch for the suggestion to do ladders in etk, rite of passage. I went from only just managing a very bad single pull up to negatives to ladders. So from 0 to 3 x 5 ladders with losing a bit of weight too. I could blast out pull ups in my youth doing traditional 3 sets of 10 as part of martial arts training. That was frighteningly 30 years ago. So I didn't really know where to start this time around and the ladders got me there.