Weighted pull ups

I'm starting to do weighted pull ups. I weigh 95 pounds. My question is should i do the heaviest i can do or should i do a weight i can get more then more then a rep for.

For example: 3 sets of 3 reps with 7.5pounds

or

5 sets of 1 rep with 10 pounds

On wed i did 3 reps without weight, then 3 reps with 5 pounds, then 3 reps with 7.5 pounds, then i did 1 rep with 10 pounds. I think i might have been too fatigued by then so i might be able to do a workout like this:

3 sets of 2 reps with 10 pounds.

What do you guys recommend?

building up slowly is ok, your joints will be thankful.

Ah alright thanks i'll give it a shot.

don't do alot of one rep maxs... try to do atleast three reps... maxing places to much stress on your nervous system and requires alot of rest...

griffdrc said:

don't do alot of one rep maxs... try to do atleast three reps... maxing places to much stress on your nervous system and requires alot of rest...

You don't necessarily have to do 1 rep maxes. Some times I do 3-2-1-1-1-1 or something like that in a work out. And those 1s most of the time is not a 1 rep max, just very near it.

I'm not sure if your ready for weighted pull ups based on the numbers you gave.

I'd work on perfect form regular pullups for sets of 3 to 5

Before I started weighted pullups I worked on pause, and strap pullups

pistol33 said:

I'm not sure if your ready for weighted pull ups based on the numbers you gave.

I'd work on perfect form regular pullups for sets of 3 to 5

Before I started weighted pullups I worked on pause, and strap pullups

No i'm doing pretty well with the weighted pulls right now. After about a week i did a full 5 sets of 5 reps with an additional 7.5 pounds. And i was still able to throw out a few L pull ups after. I'm just going to take it slow so i don't damage my elbows

I agree with pistol, I would stick to L-sit pullups for a while before adding weight but I think it comes down to your goal with it. L-sit pullups will help with your overall core tension but weighted pullups will definitely make your pulling really strong.

Yeah my pull up work is mostly for building the muscle up so when i do my pulls i go to the max height i can pull to. I haven't been able to do any weighted pull ups for a while so i don't know what my current max weight is. But the training is going well i was doing a circuit the other day with friends and pushups and rows were 2 of the stations. I was able to pump out both very fast and for my pushups i was getting off the ground with each push without trying to do so. And after 2 runs of the circuit i went and did a bunch more pull ups.

Thanks for the insight nonetheless Ortprod

Good call on the muscle building. I would make sure to use whatever weight I could handle for at least 6 reps...unless you are going at a 313 or 5 second pace. I doubt I could make 5 perfect reps if I tightened everything to the max, but maximizing control of the movement (maybe reversing the direction) may also help. Just throwing some thoughts out there.

Well this friday I'm probably going to start doing false grip pullups for the muscle up. I still haven't started on that yet. I think thats the only limiting factor of my muscle up right now. Because for both the dip and pull up my ROM is quite large.

Nice. I don't know if you'd be down for it, but I recommend using a wrist roller with light weight for strong forearms.

My recommendation would be to do: 3x3 -> 5x3 -> 4x4 -> 3x5 -> 3x6-10 (increasing the volume from week to week with 2x-3x days a week training).

Then once you solidify with 3x6-10 reps you can increase the weight, and begin the process anew (it's up to you whether you want to reach 10 reps, or go to the next level before that).

As others already mentioned, doing very heavy reps is mainly going to put a lot of stress on your central nervous system, and while you might see some quick gains in strength at first, you're quickly going to get fatigued and require extended rest, after which those initial strength gains are going to be gone. Going very heavy is not a good strategy to build or solidify long term strength.

Disagreed with most of you.

With beginners you can put them on linear progress much like Starting Strength to elicit INSANE gains out of them most of the time. Putting a beginner on an aggressive strength program by adding weight each session is a good idea. Heck, for pullups I'd do 3x5 and try to add weight each session. Good mix of hypertrophy and strength gains and you should be able to hop up on weight for at least a couple weeks if you're working out 2-3x a week.

However, if you do feel that recovery is not up to par (whether it be the start of overuse in your elbows for example) you NEED to back off and listen to your body. Massage is definitely great as are some other modalities for recovery.