A pull up idea!

I am currently following F1. I don't plan on changing my plan for a while, but I wanted to see what anyone's thoughts were on my idea!

What if I used the 15 rep mastery cycle for something such as pull up/? In theory, I could build up to 5 sets of 15 pull ups in 12 week. I don't know about you, but that sounds cool to me,

Then again, this is just a theory of mine. Any thoughts?

It's not a bad idea. In fact it's one I had also. Prior to starting F1 4 months ago I was doing squats, deadlifts and power cleans for lower body work and pull ups, ring dips and push ups for upper body. At first I tried to integrate this into F1 and H1. First of all the squats, power cleans dips and push ups went. I held onto doing the deadlifts for a bit longer and tried to implement a SSC but that has gone as well. I am still doing the pull ups though using the 5 rep mastery template. My PR was 13 so I figured if I could do 5x5 with a minimal break of about 10seconds for a bit of shoulder mobility then that would be pretty good. I am currently doing a 4 day split so I do them at the end of the "upper body" day ie after fl, spl, hpb & rc so I am pretty warmed up before I do them. However I have hit a bit of a wall at 4x4 but I will persist. Once I get to 5x5 I just plan on staying at the same numbers but trying to really nail down the form and become more controlled with maybe less rest.

Following the 15 rep template does mean doing 75 pull ups with minimal rest. So unless you can pump out at least half of that maybe look at a lower template. Anyway good luck, I like to know if anyone has tried something similar.

I wonder if following the RC elements for long enough would get you to 5 x 15 pull-ups anyway?

If so, it's extra work that adds nothing to your goals.

If not, maybe you could try it for four weeks or so? Just do it after your F1 training.

Nice! Glad to see I'm not the only one with this idea.

Also, very good point. 75 pull ups is a lot, even though I can do 19-22 pull ups. Maybe 5x10 would be better suited for me if I were to try it.

Hm. That's a good point, Wheezer. It may be something fun to do, but in long run it may not do much for me. As of right now, I won't include pull ups. Maybe I will try a 4 week cycle of it on my winter break and see how it goes!

How much would adding extra exercises to your Foundation workouts hurt your progress?  I've been wondering this, having thought of adding pull-ups to it myself.  I'm sure some of it is a matter of what you and your body can handle individually. But still didn't know what the general censuses here is.

Training pullups for volume at the same time as F1 is not a good idea, for two reasons:

1. If you're struggling with the rows in F1, there's no way you're going to conquer the 5x15 template for pullups in 12 weeks.

2. The pullup work will interfere with your work on the rows/bent arm chin hold. 

Good point Joshua. I would probably not do them except that I have a particular problem.

I am still at PE1 on RC but not from a strength aspect but I get an ache inside my elbow when I got up to 4x9. So I went back to 4x6 and going up by 1 per week so next week I am up to 4x8 but finding it a little too easy, but wary of not building volume too quickly. However I can do NG pull ups without any issue so until the pull ups start to interfere with my foundation work I will keep them in.

Just to add, both my elbows were suffering (golfers/tennis elbow) prior to foundation but whatever magic got weaved, maybe the straight arm stuff or the H1 stuff but they are in much better shape now, at one point turning my wrist to look at my watch and carrying even light weights aggravated them. Saved me a fortune in Physio bills. :-)

You having medial epicondylitis means it's already interfering with you. It is caused by doing too much pulling work

Yeah I know,  it came about by doing pull ups.

Well then why do you still want to have pull ups together with F1

NG pull ups are ok, and I was doing them before I started F1 and they don't interfere with F1.  

Possibly once I get into PE2 and beyond I may evaluate, but still would like to keep some for maintenance.

I built a pull up bar in my back garden so I gotta use it don't I ?  

Plus I like doing them too. 

As long as it doesn't interefere on your main training (F1), you'll be fine. A couple sets here and there don't hurt. But a programmed workout with pullups is no sense as Joshua has explained.

Don't worry about pullups, F2 take care about it

Adriano Flo said:

Don't worry about pullups, F2 take care about it

Thoroughly >.<

Jon Douglas said:

Thoroughly >.<

at the track there's a pull up bar that i was playing on the other day and did a few hollow pullups and as rest, did a short german hang hold.  the next day, my lats the next day had a nice DOMS,  think i did a 3x3 and didn't time the german hang, only lowered into it and pulled out.

talk about fun.

On reflection, I might drop the pull ups as I am struggling to complete FL/PE1 4x60 and HPB/PE2 5x9. Although they are not strictly related they may be interfering with my recovery and I really want to get these 2 under my belt.

Funny really cos I have now dropped everything now except F1/H1 and cardio 2/3 times a week.  A true believer.

A very good decision for consistent progress.

tfeal said:

On reflection, I might drop the pull ups as I am struggling to complete FL/PE1 4x60 and HPB/PE2 5x9. Although they are not strictly related they may be interfering with my recovery and I really want to get these 2 under my belt.

 

Funny really cos I have now dropped everything now except F1/H1 and cardio 2/3 times a week.  A true believer.

it may feel like you're going too low, but take a moment right now to consciously remember what it feels like to do a particular move(body lever, pullups, even pushups) and in a month or so, go back and do them with proper form. you'll be amazed at how much more refined it looks and how much more challenging it feels! (pullups are an example for me in this case)

Even if you only have foundation 1 I think you can easily see that pullups are going to be included at some point. You may argue that you can continue to work them now as you progress through the "easier" variations but why? If you were ready to be doing pullups then you could demonstrate mastery of all the prerequisites and you would be doing pullups, doing so before hand is just taking your focus away from where it needs to be: on the basics. 

Foundation's strength lies in the progressions of exercises paired with their im moreso than in the mastery templates, the templates are just there as a guide so that you have an idea of how hard you have to work that week. It is when you put some time into the progressions and they start synergistically and systematically working through your weaknesses is when the real magic happens