Abraiz
Level 4 Valued Member
Hi all.
I cannot do a pullup. This is the bodyweight skill that I want to master this year. Been trying to train as per Karen Smith's guidelines that she gave in her articles. Could not do any regular training before because I guess my hands were not strong enough relative to my bodyweight. However, since I have been using kettlebells regularly, my hands have strengthened a lot. A hell lot in fact. Wouldn't have believed if someone told me that swinging a kettlebell would strengthen my grip, my forearms, my fingers and just my entire hand in general. This has made it easy for me to train for pullups.
I have a pullup bar that I bought off Amazon. I cannot grip it with the palms facing me position. It somehow feels awkward. I can grip it the other way round but it is too wide. So, the only easily accessible grip is the neutral grip. The problem with this grip is that the forearms give out first.
I tested myself and could hold a dead hang with the neutral grip for 40 seconds. I train/ed in this manner: Heavy, medium and light days. H-M-L-H-M-L in that order. For the heavy days, I would hang an 8 kg bell off a weight belt and hold a dead hang for 3 sets of 20 seconds totaling 1 minute - which is the target. On medium days, I would hang a 4 kg bell and on light days a 2 kg bell. The third set of 20 was really hard to hold on. Thus, instead of three 20 second dead hangs, I started doing four 15 second dead hangs. I thought that I would see a difference in just a week, but that was really naive of me. I tested at the end of 1st week (i.e. on the 7th day after 6 continuous days) and got a 30 sec max dead hang instead of 40 seconds. I guess I should done for at least 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks and then taken a day or two off and then tested myself.
Should I continue doing this?
Should I change something? Perhaps my grip?
Should I train for 3 days a week instead of 6?
Should I train 3 days of weighted hangs and 3 days of unweighted hangs? Perhaps on alternate days?
Should I increase the total hang time? With different grips perhaps?
Any and all answers/criticisms appreciated. Thanks.
I cannot do a pullup. This is the bodyweight skill that I want to master this year. Been trying to train as per Karen Smith's guidelines that she gave in her articles. Could not do any regular training before because I guess my hands were not strong enough relative to my bodyweight. However, since I have been using kettlebells regularly, my hands have strengthened a lot. A hell lot in fact. Wouldn't have believed if someone told me that swinging a kettlebell would strengthen my grip, my forearms, my fingers and just my entire hand in general. This has made it easy for me to train for pullups.
I have a pullup bar that I bought off Amazon. I cannot grip it with the palms facing me position. It somehow feels awkward. I can grip it the other way round but it is too wide. So, the only easily accessible grip is the neutral grip. The problem with this grip is that the forearms give out first.
I tested myself and could hold a dead hang with the neutral grip for 40 seconds. I train/ed in this manner: Heavy, medium and light days. H-M-L-H-M-L in that order. For the heavy days, I would hang an 8 kg bell off a weight belt and hold a dead hang for 3 sets of 20 seconds totaling 1 minute - which is the target. On medium days, I would hang a 4 kg bell and on light days a 2 kg bell. The third set of 20 was really hard to hold on. Thus, instead of three 20 second dead hangs, I started doing four 15 second dead hangs. I thought that I would see a difference in just a week, but that was really naive of me. I tested at the end of 1st week (i.e. on the 7th day after 6 continuous days) and got a 30 sec max dead hang instead of 40 seconds. I guess I should done for at least 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks and then taken a day or two off and then tested myself.
Should I continue doing this?
Should I change something? Perhaps my grip?
Should I train for 3 days a week instead of 6?
Should I train 3 days of weighted hangs and 3 days of unweighted hangs? Perhaps on alternate days?
Should I increase the total hang time? With different grips perhaps?
Any and all answers/criticisms appreciated. Thanks.