pull ups help

three5x5s

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I want to increase my pull up strength, but I know me and I wont spend an hour a day doing it. So If I do 1 set of pulls ups to failure every day would that work or something on that line. I'm thinking of getting a set of rings to do ring pull ups to. Maybe some combination of the 2??
 

Ratbeetle

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How many reps can you do? If you can do 8 or more, I'd suggest adding weight and focusing on low rep ranges. Traditional wisdom says higher weight done with lower reps and more sets (I like 6 sets of 4ish reps) to increases strength.

Should only take you 15 minutes.
 

P Carter

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Totally unscientific here, but I made a goal to hit 20 pull-ups in a set this year. I did at least one set of ten every day for the first 6 months, with some days doing several sets of 15. I can do a set of 20 now no sweat. And it took like…I dunno…60-200 seconds a day? It’s easy to crank out pull-ups throughout the day, can do it even in dress clothes, etc.

The biggest issue was to be patient and not overdo it in the be

Again, I’m sure this isn’t the best or easiest way to do things. Just how I decided to do it.

fyi, I started the year being able to do sets of 10 with moderate difficulty, but couldn’t do more than 15 without fear of injuring myself.
 

*zap*

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There are lots of differences in pull ups due to range of motion/form issues....kind of like dips...or really a lot of strength exercises. One way to increase is breaking the movement down and working the parts......scapula raises, upper chest to bar (chest to bar then chin just under bar, repeat) while kneeling and using a pull down bar and Australian pull up work really well also...which you can do with rings.

I seldom see anyone do full hang down and chest to bar pull ups.....

If you can do up to 3 reps then very slow negatives will help but I am told that after you can do 4-5 slow negatives do not work as well.
 

Hoodie

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mtwarden

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if you've devoted some time each day; I'd get a lot of variety in- not one set to failure each day, maybe one day do that just to see where you're at

there are a myriad of different plans out there, if you're doing pull-ups everyday- they probably all work; I do think adding a little weight would be helpful once you're in that 8-10 rep range (not every time, but a couple of times a week)

one little tip on pull-ups that really helped me- tighten your core, tighten your legs, tighten everything- leaving everything just hanging there will hurt the number of reps you can do- this tip alone boosted my reps by almost 5 reps :)

<-- on my way to three sets of 20 pull-ups :)
 

FlyGuy

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Work in some pull-up negatives (us a stool/box/chair to get up and then slowly let yourself down

Buy some resistance bands on Amazon and use them to support some of your body weight so that you can do more sets

Rings are great too. They are a bit easier since you can adjust your hand position. Also use them to do ring rows which will build muscle strength for pull-ups.

You may also want to work in some kipping pull-ups as you get stronger. Far easier to do 5-10 this way than strict, but they can be tough on your shoulders so best not to start on them.

Good luck man! You can always join a CrossFit gym, they do pull-ups 3 days a week!


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I use to struggle with pull-ups. The P90x program took me from 3-4 pull-ups to 18-22 depending on the day. Lots of core and pull-ups in the program
 

ScottRK

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Watch the tendinitis from overuse at your age.I’m not much younger,and it hit me last winter from pull-ups and splitting some tough wood.

I started the the “20 pull-up _ilka-helo” program last winter overdid it and can just now get back to 5-6 rep sets.

You may want to add some curls. I could do 1arm unassisted at age 20. Low body fat, skinnier legs helps. I was curling 100# on a curl bar during workouts then and doing landscaping work all day. Had a chin up bar in the garage since Herschel’s article in SI in the early 80’s.[
QUOTE="mtwarden, post: 2201598, member: 15943"]
tighten your core, tighten your legs, tighten everything
[/QUOTE]
That really helps every lift too.
 

Seeknelk

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If it's at all possible...just keep doing single and doubles all day. Sprinkled in. Or just a few in the morning and another handful in the morning.
And yes I'd recommend adding rings to get ring rows in. And seldom go to failure ( test it once in a while) its highly overrated.
Are you training other ways, lifting, etc? When I lift , say starting with squats, in between sets I walk to the pull up bar and do 1-3 reps, and go mark them down..you'll be surprised how many reps you sneak in. Its improved my pull-up , by greasing the groove as others have posted.
Also, adding weight to pullups is awesome, after you've hit 10 strict pullups maybe. Again, chasing fatigue isn't the goal here, practice the movement and making progress is.
 
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If you have access to a gym and cable pulleys, stiff arm lat pull downs. I really like doing them strict, with a really wide grip, and pretty heavy. I have found that they help a ton with doing wider pull ups.

Also, this doesn't really have anything to do with pull ups, but most people who can really do pull ups well have a few things in common. Lower body fat. This isn't one size fits all of course, but if you want to be better at pull ups and are carrying a few extra LBs, dropping them would certainly help.
 

TripleJ

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One way to get more volume in would be to do some sort of EMOM (every minute on the minute) work. Maybe start with a 5 minute or 10 minute running clock, and every time a new minute starts, do 1-rep or 2 -reps...whatever your body can handle without hitting failure. As your progress over time, you can keep adding reps to your EMOM rep scheme. You should also mix in resistance band-assisted strict pull ups and negative pull-ups, that would help a lot. Like @mtwarden said, really work on keeping your core tight.
 

Shooter28

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For a starting point of 2 pull-ups, I’d get some bands you can attach to the bar and place under your foot to assist you.

They usually come in packs of different assistance levels and you can work your way lower and lower until you don’t need them anymore. Or better yet, once you can exhaust yourself without the bands, throw a band back on and keep going.
 

bbell

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Apr 8, 2013
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The “training for alpinism”/ “uphill athlete” guys have a pull up program. Lower rep and adding some weight is the gist of theirs. I got side tracked and never finished but I could do 3x3 with 40 lbs hanging from me around week 4 or so. Need to get a pull-up bar setup at my new house and I’ll probably try it again.
 
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