Coach: Your weighted pullup PR

Hi Coach,

I remember a little while back you said you achieved a weighted pullup PR by working assisted one arm pullups (1-3 reps of 2-3 sets) and the top of the pullup as a static hold and this was on a schedule of M, T, T, F.

I was wondering:

1. Did you do any other exercises either in the same workout of during the week?

2. What rest periods did you have between sets? I would hazard a guess at 3-5 minutes (because seems to be a max strength protocol and heavily involves the nervous system) but I was wondering what rest you had.

3. Were the static holds worked in sets of 50% of max time and did you have any rest between the holds and the assisted pullups?

Thankyou very much

OAC Training Re-Visited

The static holds for the assisted OACs were not designed to build a max static hold time in the lock off position, but to intensify the difficulty of the movement by uniformly stressing the biceps in their weakest leverage position. As such they maintained a fairly constant 3-5 second hold at the top of each assisted OAC.

The primary focus on the assisted OAC training was to attempt to reduce the assistance of the secondary arm at regular intervals. As you may remember, the assistance provided by the secondary arm was measured by how low or high the arm needed to be placed on the upright in order to assist enough to allow a successful set to be completed. The higher on the upright; the more assistance was provided. The lower on the upright; the less assistance was provided. Even though these may be performed on a variety of equipment, or even from a normal chinning bar with the secondary hand placed on a towel; my personal preference was to perform them on a set of Parallel Bars as the upright adjustment notches made a convenient built-in measuring strip to maintain continuity and measure progress from workout to workout.

The assisted OAC training did not occur in isolation, but in the midst of a workout. However as most of the workout contained exercises which I had been performing for some time, I attributed the dramatic increase in weighted pull-up strength to this movement.

It is interesting that this question has arisen at this time, as I had just made the decision last night to re-institute this movement back into the conditioning program of my athletes .

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach thanks for sharing....a very interesting reply and a coincidence that you made the decision to implement it back into the conditioning program:) .At first I wasn't sure whether you did the static holds and assited dynamics seperatly but now I know...you placed them within eachother.

You said you used p bars as a measure of progress. Out of interest how long was it before you would make it more difficut (less assist). I know you have wrote about sticking with progression for 4-6 weeks to consolidate gains and the overload, load and underload principle. but now I know...you placed them within eachother.

Out of interest what factors constituted the decision to implement OAC's back into your athletes conditioning program and is this an exercise that is for the more advanced athletes only?

Regards