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Started by twan, September 23, 2009 · 31 Replies · 53,503 Views
Hi everyone,
I am training for quite a while now and am trying to build up to the planche, front lever, handstand pushups, etc...
for the front lever I feel my lats aren't strong enough so I was wondering with how much weight I should add to my pullups
ever week of every 2 weeks??? 5 or 2,5lbs, I have no idea. I wouldn't like my body to burnout as well. Do you have any suggestions?
If you can, try to add 5 lbs every workout or every other workout. 3x5
Hi twan,
I am doing something similar. Try increasing in some way each workout (small amounts) for 3 weeks once a week and then on week 4 half the volume and level off intensity. Then for the next 3-4 weeks try less intensity, more volume. Rotate between these. See how it works for you.
Regards,
Rob.
More than likely you could follow the SSC protocol. There was another explained in GB by Pavel but I can't remember it off-hand(because I leave my book at the gym).
WIth the pullups you need to modulate your volume. So, something like this will help you. In this instance, I'm speaking from personal experience. When I was getting ready for BUD/S, I started training for a lot of pullups, and my friends were amazed at how I built strength on them. It took me around 3 and a half months to go from doing a max set of 16 dead hang pullups with no extra weight to doing 3 sets of 15 perfect dead hang pullups with 45 lbs with 1 minute rest. I could do 5 perfect dead hang pullups with double that. My max ended up being 31. Not bad for less than 4 months! I started off being able to do 4 half-decent reps with 45 lbs. Anyhow, here's the deal:
Train your pullups 3 times a week. 3-5 sets is plenty. To make an easy model, I'm going to use monday, wednesday, and friday as workout days. Here are the rules: You don't need to be messing too much with weighted pullups until you can do 10 perfect deadhang pullups. Why? Because if you start using shorter ranges of motion you will not build the strength you need where you need it. If you don't use good form, you're going to slowly build up to overuse injuries and wonder how the hell you got hurt. See, overuse injuries aren't from doing too much, they are from DOING TOO MUCH THE WRONG WAY. First workout is going to assume you have the ability to do 10 perfect deadhang pullups. ALL PULLUPS SHOULD BE DONE IN A DEAD-HANG FASHION. It is OK to pull upwards explosively if you want to, that only helps strength gains. But build up to it, don't go straight from doing slow pullups last workout to doing super explosive pullups the next. Increase your speed by 20% or so each workout, let your body adapt.
Note: Every workout you should vary the grips you use. I would recommend always warming up with regular pullups, and maybe doing set 2 with wide grip, but also use reverse grip(chin ups) and mountain climber(both hands on one bar, palms facing each other as if you were hanging off of a horizontal rope with one hand 4-6 inches in front of the other) or neutral grip. It's up to you how you use these different variations, but using them will help you with more complete development of your pulling ability. If nothing else, I would work regular, wide, and neutral grips. I DO think it is good to use all the grips, but those are pretty essential.
Rests: DO not take longer than 90 seconds between sets. The shorter the rest, the more you will be working on your lactic acid threshold, which may help some people. For pure strength development the 90 seconds is better. Between sets 4 and 5 I would take the full 90. between 1 and 2 I'd use 30-45 seconds. After that, just do what's going to work best for you personally.
Week 1:
Monday: Warm up, then 1 set max pullups with good form. Rest 5 minutes afterwards
Set 1: Max - 2 pullups. So, if you can do 12 pullups with perfect form, do 10.
Ex: 1 set 10 pullups, BW.
Set 2: set #1 - 2 reps, + 5 lbs. Ex: 8 pullups with 5 lb dumbbell between legs/feet, or 5 lbs hanging around waist, or 5 lb
weighted vest. Ex: 1 set 8 pullups with 5 extra pounds.
Set 3: 5 lbs more than set 2. As many reps as you can do WITH PERFECT FORM. This will PROBABLY be less than set 2, but it
might not be. Sets 1 and 2 are warming up the muscles. Ex: 1 set 9 pullups with 10 extra lbs.
set 4: If you got more than 6 pullups on set 3, increase weight by 5 lbs. If you did NOT, keep the same weight.
Ex: 6 pullups with 15 lbs.
Set 5: If you got more than 6 pullups on set 4, increase weight by 5 lbs. If you did NOT, keep the same weight.
Ex: 5 pullups with 15 lbs.
Wednesday: Same structure as Monday, but DO NOT DO A MAX SET. Use the number you got Monday as your max, and base your workout off of that. You may do better, you may not. Follow the rules as outlined.
Friday: Same structure as Wednesday. Again, do NOT perform a max set of pullups. Just warm up and start with set 1.
Week 2 and beyond: Same structure, do your max as your first set on Monday. You will notice a fairly steady increase in your maximum number of pullups for a while, at least up into the high teens to mid twenties. For Gymnastics, the idea here is to build more strength, especially at first, so for sets 2-5, once you start doing more than 10 pullups with 5 lbs, just start with 10 lbs for set 2, and so on. If you get to the point, like I did, where you're doing 10+ perfect pullups with 45 lbs, then 45 lbs will be your weight for set 2. When you reach that point, you will probably want to go up in weight by 10 lbs per set at least after set 2. Only accept perfect form!
Perfect form: There are two forms for pullups, and both have their benefits. You need to do both. Whether that means doing the first half of a set one way and the second another, or doing one form every other workout, or doing one every other set is your decision. For pullups to translate over into the skills we are striving to acquire, both of these forms must be developed equally. I would suggest always using Form 1, the shoulder blade retraction form, for maxes because Form 1 is what will protect your shoulders from injury. Therefore it is important to keep track of your progress in both strength and endurance with Form 1. I would personally suggest using the every other workout format for switching forms, so that you can accurately track your strength with each.
Form 1: shoulder blades retracted at the top. This is best learned with a spotter. Have them put their index finger on your spine between the top of your shoulderblades, and the thumb of the same hand as far down the spine as they comfortably can without the index finger being moved down the spine. Should be 6-9 inches apart, depending on hand size. Their job is to keep those two fingers touching your spine the whole time. Your job is to try to pinch or crush their fingertips with your shoulder blades. You will feel a powerful contraction in your upper and mid back. This will bring your chin to the top of the bar, possibly an inch or two over depending on your particular body structure.
Advantages: Builds shoulder girdle strength for horizontal supports like front lever, victorian, and associated
movements. Maintains shoulder girdle muscle balance.
Disadvantages: Does not build the required strength and muscle control for muscleups.
Form 2: Shoulders rounded forwards, as if you were in a fighting crouch. This is generally what people do when they get tired, because you have different muscles coming into play. You start at a dead hang, and as you pull yourself up your shoulders will round forward instead of squeezing backwards. You should pull yourself up so that your chest touches the bar. Your clavicle, or collarbone, should be above the bar.
Advantages: Builds the specific muscle strength and control necessary to perform muscle ups, especially the transition
phase.
Disadvantages: Does not significantly strengthen the rear shoulder girdle muscles. This allows an imbalance of strength
to occur, which can lead to shoulder injuries, specifically rotator cuff injuries.
IF YOU CANNOT DO 10 PERFECT PULLUPS WITH Form 1, FOLLOW THIS PLAN UNTIL YOU CAN:
Note: If you can not do 5 perfect pullups with Form 1, follow this workout and just do one round with your max, continuing until your max reaches 6. After a few weeks you can start doing both rounds. It's OK to not get the same number on your second round as on your first, and it's ok to take up to 90 second breaks, but the same rules apply. You need to get the rest down to below 30 seconds with 5 pullups in each set, both rounds. It will come.
Workout 1: M,W,F( Just M and F for the first two weeks if you are weak(5-7 perfect pullups ) do the following with form 1(shoulder blade retraction): All with perfect form!
2 rounds of:
5 regular grip pullups
5 close grip pullups(as close to thumbs touching as comfortable, these will sort of turn ito form 2 at the top, but try to
minimize. You'll see what I mean when you do them.)
5 wide grip pullups
5 reverse grip pullups(chin ups)
5 mountain climber/neutral grip pullups.
Rest: The goal is to not need more than 30, but preferably 20 seconds of rest between each grip, with not more than 45 seconds rest between rounds. When you do, go to workout 2.
Workout 2: All with perfect form!
2 rounds:
7 regular grip pullups
7 close grip pullups(as close to thumbs touching as comfortable, these will sort of turn ito form 2 at the top, but try to
minimize. You'll see what I mean when you do them.)
7 wide grip pullups
7 reverse grip pullups(chin ups)
7 mountain climber/neutral grip pullups.
Rest: The goal is to not need more than 30 seconds of rest between each grip, with not more than 60 seconds rest between rounds. I would prefer that you be able to do both rounds perfectly, but if you can at least do the first round with no more than 30 second rests between grips, you should be ready for weighted pullup work. Your max for perfect pullups should be 10 at least. If it is not, continue with this until it is.
Until you can do that with perfect form, with the rest requirements being met, you are not ready for weighted pullup work. You almost certainly will develop bad form, and bad habits, and they will lead to injury.
Nutrition: You NEED to eat a lot of food. The more work you do, the more food you need. Lots of olive oil, healthy carbs, and adequate protein. You need to buld up your lats and surrounding muscles, and they won't build up if you don't feed them.
Wow, thank you for that wonderful write up!
No problem! As coach recently pointed out in another thread one arm chinup work is also essential. The weighted pullups are, in my opinion, the fastest way to develop muscular strength, but you need more. Once you're doing fairly heavy weighted pullups, with at least 60 lbs lets say, you need to start working on one arm chins. Use the progressions outlined in Building the Gymnastics Body in addition to the weighted work once you get to that point. They will build on the strength of the connective tissue in the elbows and shoulders in a way that weighted pullups simply cannot, due to angles and inherent stability provided by having both hands on the bar/rings.
Hey Slizzardman,
I'm a little confused when you say that imperfect form will lead to injury. Do you mean that if I always train pull ups with my scapulas extended this will lead to injury due to muscle imbalance? Also when I'm doing a pull ups, are you saying to retract my shoulder blades nearing the top of the movement or as early as possible?
Thanks,
Amebix
You need to work your pullups both ways. You need to do half with the shoulder blades extended and rolled forward, and you need to do the other half with the shoulder blades pulled back behind you. Each movement develops stability in different parts of the shoulder.
When you are doing the pullups with shoulder blades retracted, you want to TRY to retract your shoulder blades as you come up from the dead hang. In reality, they will partially retract in the beginning as you start coming up, and they will continue to come together as you complete the last half of the pullup. Just concentrate on pulling them together in the center of your back, they'll do the right thing. No need to think about it too much. As long as you are starting from a dead hang and ending up at the top with your shoulder blades fully retracted you're doing a great job 
Hey Slizz
I tried your routine and found that I was only able to do the below PERFECTLY
2 rounds of:
5 regular grip pullups (i think i could have maybe done 6 max)
2 close grip pullups
2 wide grip pullups
4 reverse grip pullups(chin ups)
2 mountain climber/neutral grip pullups.
I was resting around 40seconds in between sets and the same between rounds.
So should i be testing my max reps for the regular pullups at the start? Or when should I test for max?
And the theory is just to carry this on until I can do 5 reps of each, then move onto 7 reps of each?
Rest for 2-3 minutes between rounds and see how that affects things. Also, try just doing 4 pull ups instead of 5. You may be able to get 43343 that way. Never test for max during the workout, that is an unnecessary waste of energy. You can do one set of max reps every 2-4 weeks if you really must, but don't do it the day of the workout. Day before, day after, wherever you want to put it. I guess if you wanted to rest after the workout and try a max set more than 4 hours later you could do that, but I don't recommend it as it will not be accurate. Wherever you decide to test, if you decide to test at all, that must be constant. If you test the day before a workout this month and a day after next month you can not accurately compare the two results since they are from different sets of conditions. Now there will obviously be differences each time, but we must do what we can to keep testing conditions as consistent as possible.
Every set should be at least 2 reps below what you think your max reps are. You are doing many sets here with little rest, so don't waste yourself trying to do too many reps!
As for progressing, you will get more out of getting to 55555 and then reducing the rest time by 5s each time that you can do 55555 again. When you're taking 20s rests you are doing very, very well. Remember, these are not tempo reps. You do these as fast as you can without losing perfect form.
Thanks Slizz will give that a go dropping reps to 4 and concentrating on upping the other sets.
:twisted:
Hey , great post slizz
Im just training my weighted pull up since last week and looking for a good protocol.
Looks really good what you said
Monday: Warm up, then 1 set max pullups with good form. Rest 5 minutes afterwardsSet 1: Max - 2 pullups. So, if you can do 12 pullups with perfect form, do 10.
Ex: 1 set 10 pullups, BW.
Set 2: set #1 - 2 reps, + 5 lbs. Ex: 8 pullups with 5 lb dumbbell between legs/feet, or 5 lbs hanging around waist, or 5 lb
weighted vest. Ex: 1 set 8 pullups with 5 extra pounds.
Set 3: 5 lbs more than set 2. As many reps as you can do WITH PERFECT FORM. This will PROBABLY be less than set 2, but it
might not be. Sets 1 and 2 are warming up the muscles. Ex: 1 set 9 pullups with 10 extra lbs.
set 4: If you got more than 6 pullups on set 3, increase weight by 5 lbs. If you did NOT, keep the same weight.
Ex: 6 pullups with 15 lbs.
Set 5: If you got more than 6 pullups on set 4, increase weight by 5 lbs. If you did NOT, keep the same weight.
Ex: 5 pullups with 15 lbs.
But i do 2 WOD a weeks and 2 other training when i do strenght at the beginning and finish by some endurance exercice.
Your training is effective if we focus just on this , and do it 3 times a week like you have mentionned above.
Some idea of what i could do ?
Im just doing negative and weigted pull up.
I can almost do a full dead hang oap and oac.
thanks
What is your purpose for working the weighted pull ups? Is it to help your OAC/OAP? I ask because if that is the goal then I would only work weighted pull ups once a week. You should have two other training sessions in the week, one where you are working on higher rep work and one where it's all OAC progressions.
Slizz:
Right now i'm doing the WODs, but i'm not satisfied with my progression in pull-ups. Should I just do some pull-ups here and there + the wods, or how would you have done it? I'm trying to reach as high repnumber as possible.
Honestly, if I was starting all over again (and I halfway am, actually) I would do one set of known max - 2 or 3 reps at the beginning of each WOD warm up, and on a given day each week (every thursday, as an example) I would do the pull up workout described. We already do quite a bit of pulling work, and as pull ups are relatively low on the scale of strength work I can do there is absolutely nothing wrong with me doing this. I'm not being over-worked and most likely neither will you. That's pretty much a given. The most important thing to remember is to not focus on pull ups to the exclusion of the WODs. Pull up performance is, up to a certain degree, going to help you with strength progressions, but you do not want to continuously focus on them. As you get better, they stay in at least one warm up each week but you will move on to more challenging warm ups that are more appropriate to your strength level.
I would certainly not do more than two workouts per week of the pull up routine I have described, and I would not even attempt twice a week until I had at least six weeks of once a week under my belt. If that particular day is a pulling WOD I would recommend doing the pull ups as a separate workout because the WOD will almost certainly take you through multiple planes of motion and that is just as important to your overall progress as vertical pull ups. Remember, if we are supposed to do front pulls or something like that and you can't do them, you should be doing a pull up and a foot supported row or something like that for each rep of the front pull or front lever pull. Very important, that is!
slizzardman said:What is your purpose for working the weighted pull ups? Is it to help your OAC/OAP? I ask because if that is the goal then I would only work weighted pull ups once a week. You should have two other training sessions in the week, one where you are working on higher rep work and one where it's all OAC progressions.
Mainly for my OAP/OAC but also just to increase my pulling strenght.
You saw the Supersaiyan requirement ,right ? ^^ Some of the requirements needed are heavy weighted pull up.
Compared to my pushing strenght , as instance on weighted dips , i'm much stronger.
My short goal term is to do 5 pull up with 60 kg(130lbs around) as an extra weight.
Actually , i do the weighted pull up and oac/oap progression the same day , and also the high rep , all of this the same day.
I begin with the weighted work and negative etc and finish by high rep exercice.
Maybe i should pretty do , weighted and oac/oap progression in the same workout , and another only high rep.?
I never trained myself, focus , on my pull up strenght , i have always focused on my planche , HS,front lever....but now i want to focus on the oap.
thanks in advance
Gymgreg was kind enough to share the program he used to get his OAC, and it is pretty simple. It is, more or less, 1 day of high reps, 1 day of weighted pull ups and 1 day of OAC work each week. You really will almost certainly see better results this way.
Weighted pull ups and OAC progressions do work together to produce a greater end result, but if there was one to keep and one to abandon I would keep OAC work. When you can do OAC you will have a pretty beastly weighted pull up, but the reverse is not necessarily true. You will get the BEST result when you do both though, and as little specific work as you will be doing you should be just fine doing that along with the WODs.
I do think that you should be doing the three workouts separately, perhaps as warm up for the WOD. You shouldn't be tiring yourself out with them.
Thanks slizz , i will add some static hold , negative , in the Fsp when i do the WOD from here.
Weighted pull up another day , and another high rep.
Will try this and see how i feel
Thanks again slizz to helped me.
Hey guys !
here you have the video of cisco , pretty famous on youtube by his incredible strength and especially his beautiful OAP.
This is the KillerSet he did to improve his OAP skill , thats really intense and hard.
-xc7IrWy9tI
Joshua,
Can you please explain what do you mean by using different grip in each workout?
I hit a wall with pull ups for over a year. I struggle to go over 12 without any luck. (My goal is 20 dead hang)
My understanding of your routine is something like this
Monday
Max regular grip pull ups
Set 1 - Wide Grip (max - 2)
Set 2 - Chin Ups (perfect form plus 5 lbs of weight)
Set 3 - Neutral (perfect form plus 10 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 2)
Set 4 - Regular pull ups (plus 15 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 3)
Set 5 - Wide Grip (plus 20 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 4)
Wednesday
Set 1 - Regular Grip (max - 2)
Set 2 - Chin Ups (perfect form plus 5 lbs of weight)
Set 3 - Neutral (perfect form plus 10 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 2)
Set 4 - Wide Grip (plus 15 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 3)
Set 5 - Regular Grip (plus 20 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 4)
Friday
Set 1 - Regular Grip (max - 2)
Set 2 - Chin Ups (perfect form plus 5 lbs of weight)
Set 3 - Neutral (perfect form plus 10 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 2)
Set 4 - Wide Grip (plus 15 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 3)
Set 5 - Regular Grip (plus 20 lbs of weight if I did more than 6 in Set 4)
Or I better do
Monday: regular and wide
Wednesday : neutral and chin ups
Friday : mix of chin ups and regulars
Thank you
Joshua Naterman said:WIth the pullups you need to modulate your volume. So, something like this will help you. In this instance, I'm speaking from personal experience. When I was getting ready for BUD/S, I started training for a lot of pullups, and my friends were amazed at how I built strength on them. It took me around 3 and a half months to go from doing a max set of 16 dead hang pullups with no extra weight to doing 3 sets of 15 perfect dead hang pullups with 45 lbs with 1 minute rest. I could do 5 perfect dead hang pullups with double that. My max ended up being 31. Not bad for less than 4 months! I started off being able to do 4 half-decent reps with 45 lbs. Anyhow, here's the deal:
Train your pullups 3 times a week. 3-5 sets is plenty. To make an easy model, I'm going to use monday, wednesday, and friday as workout days. Here are the rules: You don't need to be messing too much with weighted pullups until you can do 10 perfect deadhang pullups. Why? Because if you start using shorter ranges of motion you will not build the strength you need where you need it. If you don't use good form, you're going to slowly build up to overuse injuries and wonder how the hell you got hurt. See, overuse injuries aren't from doing too much, they are from DOING TOO MUCH THE WRONG WAY. First workout is going to assume you have the ability to do 10 perfect deadhang pullups. ALL PULLUPS SHOULD BE DONE IN A DEAD-HANG FASHION. It is OK to pull upwards explosively if you want to, that only helps strength gains. But build up to it, don't go straight from doing slow pullups last workout to doing super explosive pullups the next. Increase your speed by 20% or so each workout, let your body adapt.
Note: Every workout you should vary the grips you use. I would recommend always warming up with regular pullups, and maybe doing set 2 with wide grip, but also use reverse grip(chin ups) and mountain climber(both hands on one bar, palms facing each other as if you were hanging off of a horizontal rope with one hand 4-6 inches in front of the other) or neutral grip. It's up to you how you use these different variations, but using them will help you with more complete development of your pulling ability. If nothing else, I would work regular, wide, and neutral grips. I DO think it is good to use all the grips, but those are pretty essential.
Rests: DO not take longer than 90 seconds between sets. The shorter the rest, the more you will be working on your lactic acid threshold, which may help some people. For pure strength development the 90 seconds is better. Between sets 4 and 5 I would take the full 90. between 1 and 2 I'd use 30-45 seconds. After that, just do what's going to work best for you personally.
Week 1:
Monday: Warm up, then 1 set max pullups with good form. Rest 5 minutes afterwards
Set 1: Max - 2 pullups. So, if you can do 12 pullups with perfect form, do 10.
Ex: 1 set 10 pullups, BW.
Set 2: set #1 - 2 reps, + 5 lbs. Ex: 8 pullups with 5 lb dumbbell between legs/feet, or 5 lbs hanging around waist, or 5 lb
weighted vest. Ex: 1 set 8 pullups with 5 extra pounds.
Set 3: 5 lbs more than set 2. As many reps as you can do WITH PERFECT FORM. This will PROBABLY be less than set 2, but it
might not be. Sets 1 and 2 are warming up the muscles. Ex: 1 set 9 pullups with 10 extra lbs.
set 4: If you got more than 6 pullups on set 3, increase weight by 5 lbs. If you did NOT, keep the same weight.
Ex: 6 pullups with 15 lbs.
Set 5: If you got more than 6 pullups on set 4, increase weight by 5 lbs. If you did NOT, keep the same weight.
Ex: 5 pullups with 15 lbs.
Wednesday: Same structure as Monday, but DO NOT DO A MAX SET. Use the number you got Monday as your max, and base your workout off of that. You may do better, you may not. Follow the rules as outlined.
Friday: Same structure as Wednesday. Again, do NOT perform a max set of pullups. Just warm up and start with set 1.
Week 2 and beyond: Same structure, do your max as your first set on Monday. You will notice a fairly steady increase in your maximum number of pullups for a while, at least up into the high teens to mid twenties. For Gymnastics, the idea here is to build more strength, especially at first, so for sets 2-5, once you start doing more than 10 pullups with 5 lbs, just start with 10 lbs for set 2, and so on. If you get to the point, like I did, where you're doing 10+ perfect pullups with 45 lbs, then 45 lbs will be your weight for set 2. When you reach that point, you will probably want to go up in weight by 10 lbs per set at least after set 2. Only accept perfect form!
Perfect form: There are two forms for pullups, and both have their benefits. You need to do both. Whether that means doing the first half of a set one way and the second another, or doing one form every other workout, or doing one every other set is your decision. For pullups to translate over into the skills we are striving to acquire, both of these forms must be developed equally. I would suggest always using Form 1, the shoulder blade retraction form, for maxes because Form 1 is what will protect your shoulders from injury. Therefore it is important to keep track of your progress in both strength and endurance with Form 1. I would personally suggest using the every other workout format for switching forms, so that you can accurately track your strength with each.
Form 1: shoulder blades retracted at the top. This is best learned with a spotter. Have them put their index finger on your spine between the top of your shoulderblades, and the thumb of the same hand as far down the spine as they comfortably can without the index finger being moved down the spine. Should be 6-9 inches apart, depending on hand size. Their job is to keep those two fingers touching your spine the whole time. Your job is to try to pinch or crush their fingertips with your shoulder blades. You will feel a powerful contraction in your upper and mid back. This will bring your chin to the top of the bar, possibly an inch or two over depending on your particular body structure.
Advantages: Builds shoulder girdle strength for horizontal supports like front lever, victorian, and associated
movements. Maintains shoulder girdle muscle balance.
Disadvantages: Does not build the required strength and muscle control for muscleups.
Form 2: Shoulders rounded forwards, as if you were in a fighting crouch. This is generally what people do when they get tired, because you have different muscles coming into play. You start at a dead hang, and as you pull yourself up your shoulders will round forward instead of squeezing backwards. You should pull yourself up so that your chest touches the bar. Your clavicle, or collarbone, should be above the bar.
Advantages: Builds the specific muscle strength and control necessary to perform muscle ups, especially the transition
phase.
Disadvantages: Does not significantly strengthen the rear shoulder girdle muscles. This allows an imbalance of strength
to occur, which can lead to shoulder injuries, specifically rotator cuff injuries.
IF YOU CANNOT DO 10 PERFECT PULLUPS WITH Form 1, FOLLOW THIS PLAN UNTIL YOU CAN:
Note: If you can not do 5 perfect pullups with Form 1, follow this workout and just do one round with your max, continuing until your max reaches 6. After a few weeks you can start doing both rounds. It's OK to not get the same number on your second round as on your first, and it's ok to take up to 90 second breaks, but the same rules apply. You need to get the rest down to below 30 seconds with 5 pullups in each set, both rounds. It will come.
Workout 1: M,W,F( Just M and F for the first two weeks if you are weak(5-7 perfect pullups ) do the following with form 1(shoulder blade retraction): All with perfect form!
2 rounds of:
5 regular grip pullups
5 close grip pullups(as close to thumbs touching as comfortable, these will sort of turn ito form 2 at the top, but try to
minimize. You'll see what I mean when you do them.)
5 wide grip pullups
5 reverse grip pullups(chin ups)
5 mountain climber/neutral grip pullups.
Rest: The goal is to not need more than 30, but preferably 20 seconds of rest between each grip, with not more than 45 seconds rest between rounds. When you do, go to workout 2.
Workout 2: All with perfect form!
2 rounds:
7 regular grip pullups
7 close grip pullups(as close to thumbs touching as comfortable, these will sort of turn ito form 2 at the top, but try to
minimize. You'll see what I mean when you do them.)
7 wide grip pullups
7 reverse grip pullups(chin ups)
7 mountain climber/neutral grip pullups.
Rest: The goal is to not need more than 30 seconds of rest between each grip, with not more than 60 seconds rest between rounds. I would prefer that you be able to do both rounds perfectly, but if you can at least do the first round with no more than 30 second rests between grips, you should be ready for weighted pullup work. Your max for perfect pullups should be 10 at least. If it is not, continue with this until it is.
Until you can do that with perfect form, with the rest requirements being met, you are not ready for weighted pullup work. You almost certainly will develop bad form, and bad habits, and they will lead to injury.
First time I've come across this. Sounds good. I've recently gained access to some good old weighted vests so I'm looking forward to trying this out before going into dedicated one arm chin work. How often would you recommend deload days? Also, would a similar scheme work for dips?
Thanks!
I might try this pull-up routine. Avoiding maximum effort or not training to failure is a newer conditioning technique (for me). I'm employing that approach with F1 and seeing some progress. Question is how much of this routine could be added to F1 ground rows. That's a lot of pulling work! It seems like one round of pull ups, plus ground rows (about 8- 10 total sets) would be a manageable workload.
I think this is one of the tougher questions to answer with strength training- finding the threshold between having the optimum workout vs. overtraining.
I am just hoping that, at some point, people will realize that a routine recommended back in 2009 might not be something that is preferable when we have the Foundation work in 2013.
I think that your best long term results will come from following the Foundation protocols, quite honestly. It is also important, in my opinion, to pay attention to the basics of your nutrition: eat frequently, get plenty of carbs, a crapton of veggies, and protein from whatever sources you enjoy with every meal. In this instance, a crapton of veggies is one cup of cooked veggies per meal, and at LEAST 6 cups of cooked veggies per day. AT LEAST! This does make a big difference.
In my opinion there is only one affordable way to do this: Frozen vegetables. They're like $1.20$-1.50 per pound, on average. You should expect to eat around 3 lbs per day. Trust me, once you get used to this it isn't all that much, and you will feel great.