Old Forum Rest periods for pull ups

[MGS5Snake]

Whats the recommended amount of days to rest for pull ups? If I did them on Monday how many days a week should I rest until I hit them again?

I'm currently doing the fight pull up program and I did it yesterday on Monday with sets of 8,7,6,5,4 but I still feel sore today on Tuesday.

 

[Journeyman]

I've made really good progress doing the FPP every other day several times before, and treating the sets conventionally, with set rest periods (generally 2-3 minutes) rather than using them to grease the groove. I know others have had great success with the latter format, though.

 

[AndyMcL]

The FPP can be done every day, but you might be better off easing into it. Try doing it every other day like Aris recommends. You will likely be a little sore for the first week, then it should get better. As your recovery improves, increase the frequency.

 

[Steve W.]

The fighter pullup program specifies the schedule, including off days. The "recommended" schedule is in the program. 8,7,6,5,4 is Day 19 of the 5RM program. So you should have had an off day the previous day (Day 18), and Day 19 is the first of 5 consecutive training days.

You can adapt the progression to different schedules, and a lot of people do this successfully, but the schedule is specified.

By contrast, rest between sets is specifically NOT specified, so you can play that by ear as long as you are able to get all the specified reps -- compressing the rest periods to the minimum necessary, spreading the sets throughout the day, or anything in between.

 

[Steve W.]

I should add that you don't have to start at the nominal beginning of the program. So if your max is 8, you could conceivably start with 8,7,6,5,4 (nominal Day 19) as your first day.

However, based on my experience, it is better to be very conservative to avoid burnout and plateaus. In other words, if your true max is 8, it is better to start at 5. Then by the time you get to 8, it is hopefully not a max effort anymore and you can continue to progress.

I've used this a lot with the 3RM program (which progresses from a top set of 3 to one of 5) with weighted pullups. It works well if I use a weight that I can already get 5 hard reps with. Then, by the time I get to sets of 5, they are relatively easier, and I can add weight and run the progression again without hitting a wall and stalling.