Old Forum Question for Pavel about Fighter pull up program

[SupermanBeyond1938]

Hi everyone one of my strength/health/fitness goals is to be able to master 20 pull ups. Pavel's Fighter Pull up program looks like a good one.

My question is for the program to work does the rest time have to be 3 to 5 minutes long at most in between each set or could you use the Grease To The Groove method and spread the sets throughout the day?

If so what is the minimum and maximum rest time for the GTTG method?

If it helps for the most part I can do 10 pull ups and 10 chin ups as of now.

Thanks Pavel and everyone else!

 

[Steve W.]

Rest periods for the fighter pull up program are not specified. You rest just long enough to be able to get all the reps, or you could spread the sets out throughout the day.

I would also advise you to be very conservative in the rep max you use. In other words, don't base your progression on an all out rep max. In fact, I think you can make better sustained progress on the fighter pull up program if you match your actual all out rep max to the ENDING to set of the program.

In other words, if your true all out max is 10, don't start with the 10RM program. I would start with the 5Rm program, which ends with top sets of 9. That way, a set that is a struggle before you start the program will feel easy by the time you get to the end. Then you can retest your true max and do another similarly conservative cycle based on your new max.

 

[Pavel]

SB, GTG is very fine and even preferable for this program.  To be considered "GTG", rest periods must be 15min or more.

 

[SupermanBeyond1938]

Thanks Steve and Pavel.

Pavel that is good to know because it does get kind of tough knocking out a 9 rep set followed by an 8 rep set and so forth.

 

[SupermanBeyond1938]

@ Steve I should have also asked this earlier but are advising me to start from the very beginning of the 5RM Pull up program or at the end of it with the 9 reps? Sorry but I'm just a little confused by what you wrote.

 

[Steve W.]

I'm recommending to start at the beginning of the 5RM program. If 9 reps is a tough set for you now, it will be relatively easy at the end of a cycle of the 5RM program. Then you can keep cycling through the program, bumping up the reps each time, but always starting well below your actual rep max.

I think this sets you up for sustained progress much better than taking the nominal RM of the programs literally. If you start with true max or near max sets, I think it is easy to hit a wall, and there is a greater risk of overuse injury.

 

[tomstranger]

Steve W. is giving good advice. Start lighter than you might think. This program can be deceptively hard. GTG is a very good protocol to use. I tried doing this program with short rests between sets and after a few days it was damn near impossible for me to hit the prescribed reps. I changed to GTG and saw good progress.

As a side note, I also saw excellent gains on the Armstrong program.

 

[SupermanBeyond1938]

Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here but what about adding in isometrics to this as well. I'm talking anything crazy here but say at the end of end set hold both positions in the down and up part?

Would that help in anyway? Just a thought

 

[Jason Ginsberg]

SB, I think it would detract rather than add.  I would save that for when you're closer to your goal, if at all.

 

[Journeyman]

I've run it a few times and personally, I found that starting a few reps lower than my actual RM, resting ~2 minutes between sets, and alternating those sets with sets of presses worked best. That's just me, though. Got me to 20-strict for the first time and got me a nice HeSPU PR at the same time, if I remember right. I've had success with other gtg variants but not using the FP as one of them....