Pull up recommendations?
Replies
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I weigh 170 and can do several sets of 3 to 4 reps. I got there by a combination of jumping chins/pulls, band-assisted chins/pulls, and mixing up higher assist/more reps with lower assist/fewer reps. It took a while to get my first pull up, but once I did I retained the ability, even though I've suffered through several bouts of both lateral and medial epicondylitis that prevented me from doing any for months at a time. I think the bands were the most helpful, followed by the combination of jumping pulls and slow negatives. I found that once my negative took about 15 seconds, I do easily do a pull up. Just hang in there (no pun intended), you will get your first pull/chin up soon! Also a great resource is stumptuous.com. There's an article called "mistressing the pull up" with lots of good ideas.0
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Key #1. Pull less weight. Get lean. Women over 20% body fat, or even in the high teens are going to have difficulty.
I am 25.7 % bf and 70 kg and I can do full sets of five three times...I have a strong back...always have had...
As this guy said previously, there is no skill...you just need a strong back. Just keep trying and practising until you pull your first one all the way, it gets better from there!
p.s. barbell rows and even heavy dumbell one arm rows help the lats and back.0 -
1) Be getting enough calories and protein to support muscle growth.
2) If you are stuck on phase 3 of a program, go back and dominate phase 1 and 2. ; More reps, more sets, more frequent, one, two or all of these (but rest when you need to)
Pullups aren't heavy squats, so if you aren't sore sore sore, you can do them more often than every other day.
You can 'grease the groove' ; perform multiple 'easy' (i.e. low rep version) sets (your phase 2 work?) many times throughout a day,
feeling good after each time. The cumulative effecting on your control over your existing muscles will help, not
least with your confidence to just get up there and have fun with it.0 -
There is no skill to a proper pull up - no technique. You jump up, grab the bar, hang in an extended position, and then overcome gravity with your Lats. Nothing more. Nothing less. No kicking, no squirming, no gyrations. You pull yourself up smoothly in a demonstration of your power over gravity. You release the bar, and then you give the "stink eye" to everyone who doubted you. Victory!
Key #1. Pull less weight. Get lean. Women over 20% body fat, or even in the high teens are going to have difficulty.
Key #2. Develop strong Lats. Find a Lat pull-down machine and go hard on it. By "hard" I mean, use the most weight you can while still getting 8 good SLOW reps. A good rep has perfect form (no squirming, as mentioned above). It is slow and controlled. The negative portion of the rep is slower than the positive portion. Up and down should take around 8-10 seconds. Your set "to failure" should take ~ 90 seconds.
There are 3 types of Muscle "failure" (or more accurately, "temporary muscle exhaustion") - positive, neutral, and negative.
Positive: You can no longer raise the weight.
Neutral: You can no longer keep the weight from lowering.
Negative: You can no longer slow the descent of the weight.
You should have a close, intimate relationship with each of these on the last rep of every set you perform. If you cheat, you're just cheating yourself. I have no tips on this other than to just learn to love the discomfort. Go Medieval on it!
If you do these with proper intensity, you should not do them more than twice a week. Every time you do them your goal is to do one more rep (with perfect form) until you get to 12 reps, then you increase the weight 5 pounds. When the weight on your lat machine equals your body weight you are ready to make your statement!
Key #3. We want pictures of your success.
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There is no skill to a proper pull up - no technique. You jump up, grab the bar, hang in an extended position, and then overcome gravity with your Lats. Nothing more. Nothing less. No kicking, no squirming, no gyrations. You pull yourself up smoothly in a demonstration of your power over gravity. You release the bar, and then you give the "stink eye" to everyone who doubted you. Victory!
Key #1. Pull less weight. Get lean. Women over 20% body fat, or even in the high teens are going to have difficulty.
Key #2. Develop strong Lats. Find a Lat pull-down machine and go hard on it. By "hard" I mean, use the most weight you can while still getting 8 good SLOW reps. A good rep has perfect form (no squirming, as mentioned above). It is slow and controlled. The negative portion of the rep is slower than the positive portion. Up and down should take around 8-10 seconds. Your set "to failure" should take ~ 90 seconds.
There are 3 types of Muscle "failure" (or more accurately, "temporary muscle exhaustion") - positive, neutral, and negative.
Positive: You can no longer raise the weight.
Neutral: You can no longer keep the weight from lowering.
Negative: You can no longer slow the descent of the weight.
You should have a close, intimate relationship with each of these on the last rep of every set you perform. If you cheat, you're just cheating yourself. I have no tips on this other than to just learn to love the discomfort. Go Medieval on it!
If you do these with proper intensity, you should not do them more than twice a week. Every time you do them your goal is to do one more rep (with perfect form) until you get to 12 reps, then you increase the weight 5 pounds. When the weight on your lat machine equals your body weight you are ready to make your statement!
Key #3. We want pictures of your success.
Well I appreciate the reply, I refuse to accept that at 33% BF I have no hope of doing a pull up. Less weight is easier to pull, yes, but I have faith that my muscles will get strong enough to drag my bloated bag of skin up. So devil with that! Also, I have a full weight set up in my garage and lift heavy four times a week. I'm a heck of a lot stronger than I used to be and I WILL GET THERE.0 -
When I was in the military the women had to do flexed arm hangs,
basically holding themselves at the top of the bar for as long as they could.
Not sure if that would help.
If you do try to do that, make sure you have someone around to help you
get off the bar (some people's muscles would lock)
Oh, goodness. I remember those from High School Phys Ed. Not sure how they'd help with actually getting up there, though, but something else to look into. Thanks!
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I weigh 170 and can do several sets of 3 to 4 reps. I got there by a combination of jumping chins/pulls, band-assisted chins/pulls, and mixing up higher assist/more reps with lower assist/fewer reps. It took a while to get my first pull up, but once I did I retained the ability, even though I've suffered through several bouts of both lateral and medial epicondylitis that prevented me from doing any for months at a time. I think the bands were the most helpful, followed by the combination of jumping pulls and slow negatives. I found that once my negative took about 15 seconds, I do easily do a pull up. Just hang in there (no pun intended), you will get your first pull/chin up soon! Also a great resource is stumptuous.com. There's an article called "mistressing the pull up" with lots of good ideas.
Good points! I'm nowhere near a 15 second lowering on my negatives, so something else to shoot for. I'll check out the site, too. Thanks!0 -
Key #1. Pull less weight. Get lean. Women over 20% body fat, or even in the high teens are going to have difficulty.
I am 25.7 % bf and 70 kg and I can do full sets of five three times...I have a strong back...always have had...
As this guy said previously, there is no skill...you just need a strong back. Just keep trying and practising until you pull your first one all the way, it gets better from there!
p.s. barbell rows and even heavy dumbell one arm rows help the lats and back.
Yup. I was just getting frustrated doing negatives and Austrians and feeling like I wasn't getting anywhere. I do barbell rows and lat pull downs as part of my (new) regular routine (4 weeks in), so I'll just keep working with those and with my new shiny resistance bands.0 -
Do it the cheap way, pull up a chair/bench under your pull up bar and assist yourself with your legs slightly to give you more resistance and work towards less and less assistance until you are finally able to do one pull up without assistance. As you keep working out your muscles will get stronger and your body will become lighter (if you are overweight).0
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1) Be getting enough calories and protein to support muscle growth.
2) If you are stuck on phase 3 of a program, go back and dominate phase 1 and 2. ; More reps, more sets, more frequent, one, two or all of these (but rest when you need to)
Pullups aren't heavy squats, so if you aren't sore sore sore, you can do them more often than every other day.
You can 'grease the groove' ; perform multiple 'easy' (i.e. low rep version) sets (your phase 2 work?) many times throughout a day,
feeling good after each time. The cumulative effecting on your control over your existing muscles will help, not
least with your confidence to just get up there and have fun with it.
Problem was I wasn't feeling good. I was doing the same thing over and over without getting anywhere. I'm pretty sure that's the definition of insanity. Sometimes it's better to try a new way than to just keep banging your head against the wall.0 -
I imagine you were going to failure on a set, and feeling pretty wrecked after each one.
Its ok to do that every now and again, but its not the best way to make rapid strength gains. Back down on the set intensity, but do more of them more often. Your muscles don't just need to get beat up, they need experience and they need you to be psyched to work the,. These are metaphors of course, but hopefully useful.0 -
Coming from a different angle - the way I started doing pullups was to stop working on pullups and start working on good form. I just did general lat exercises with a real focus on actually using the lats - all the other muscles in your shoulders and arms are all like, hey, I got this, you go ahead and rest, and your lats go yeah, sure, I'm this ginormous muscle that can pull a truck but ok, you go for it. So you need to teach yourself to do the opposite of that. After a bit of that my husband asked if I could do a pullup and I said no, and in trying to demonstrate this inability did one. And it's gotten easier since then, I actually do sets now.0
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Best advice ever.0 -
jump up with head above the bar and do the negative portion of the rep (the way down)0
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