A short introduction and a pull-up question

[Jonathan Lin]

Hi everyone,

I found this website a while ago and found it very useful, and recently decided to join the forum. My question right now is about achieving a pull-up.

I joined a dragon boat club (dragon boat is a paddling sport, sort of like outrigger canoe but with 25 people) and we recently started winter training to build up basic strength. Our club is small, and we don't have gym passes for our school gym, so we decided to rely only on bodyweight exercises.

The problem is, dragon boat puts a lot of emphasis on using the back muscles, and I know pull-ups is a really good exercise for working this area - but a lot of people in our club can't do one pull-up.

Do any of you have suggestions for a pull-up progression, or a different exercise that will work the back? The only equipment we have are pull-up bars and bleachers (we work out in the indoor track building). What we've been doing is holding the pull-up at the top position for about 5 seconds and then lowering down as slowly as possible, with a spotter.

Thanks in advance!

jlin

[chauinc]

Yeah negatives are great you should keep at them. You can also try body rows as well. This is picture is the bottom of a body row. Set your self up like in the picture and pull upward.

To make the body row harder elevate your feet like this picture

You don't need to use the swiss ball though a bench works as well and probably better. As you work on the body row you should be able to start pumping out pull ups.

[Blairbob]

I would say tucked front lever, but the problem may be in having the abdominal strength to hold the tuck on a horizontal plane.

Keep up with the spotted pullups and negative lower down with spotters.

You could also do pullups where your body is horizontal or diagonal if the bars are low enough.

[StevenL]

try having someone take hold of the person around the waist/abdominals and kind of lift them up while they attempt to do the pull up. focus on a couple seconds squeeze at the top with chin over the bar and a couple seconds dead hang at the bottom. remember to only give as much help as is needed.

[Chris]

Besides negatives, which are really good for building strenght, another way of achieving a pullup is by placing a chair (or something with a similar function ) 1 or 2 feet behind the bar and resting your legs on it, you try to pull up and help yourself with your legs, of course you aid yourself as little as possible in order to put as much stress as possible on back muscles, never had the chance to try those though but they are recomenned by climbing coaches i know.

[ryantherobot]

I'm not an expert nor claim to be and this is actually the first time I've felt any desire to reply to a post so take it as you will...

I would offer the following advice:

If you guys can't do a single pull-up it might be useful to get in general shape more than targetting pull-ups. Until you can do 2 or 3 pull-ups it might work better to try some other activities that will work those back muscles and build your cardio because in rowing its going to be using them for a lot longer than a set of pull-ups takes, especially if the set is 1.

Other activities which come to mind:

1. Swimming... works endurance, arms, backs, and as a water sport its always good to be proficient at for the obvious reasons.

2. Do some basic boxing on a heavy bag. No skill necessary, set up intervals that in total time are about the length of a boat race and just go at it. Focus on power, consistency, and pace. Much like in a race you won't want to burn out in the first 30 seconds. Do 3 rounds of 2 minutes each 4 or 5 times a week and you'll be able to do pull-up or a boat race with ease.

3. Basketball. Personally I'd go for swimming or boxing but basketball is a fairly good all around workout as well that can be done as a group.

Hope this is somehow useful for you guys.

[matthew.percussion]

I had a similar problem back in March I think. I couldn't do a single pull-up. I got my rings and just started doing body rows about 5x10 a day, along with my other workout. Back then my workout was very unstructured... But, after a few weeks of doing the rows I was able to do my first pull-up. I haven't tested myself recently but, last I checked I could to upwards of 16 pull-ups from a deadhang. =]