[Closed] Pull ups.

The assisted pull up and dip machine is my favourite instrument of torture at the gym. "Concept 2" rowing machine, cross trainer and that will see a pretty fruitful hour's training.

I really must have another go at the Convict Conditioning exercises...

Thanks you lot, a bit of encouragement goes a long way, TheArtist i do those dragon flags with 20kg dumbell between my feet.

Just kidding. 😀

There isn't a set amount anyone should be able to do, regardless of willy waving. Just practice, it doesn't take long to up your reps. Do dead hangs to failure before going assisted for the remainder of the set. You'll just find that you'll be doing more and more on your own.

I've just tried doing one & I've pulled both my biceps. Ah well, another week off then.

This blokes good...

Palms facing me, 4. Palms away & I just shake instead of moving!

I'm 55, weigh 88kg and I can't do a single one 🙁

twinw4ll - Member
Thought i'd revive this thread as a progress update if anyone was interested, pull ups wise i can now do 20, did three sets of weighted x10 with 10kg today, dips with 15kg and can now do 70 push ups. No one is more amazed than me and at 51 i thought it was all over.

No get yourself a fingerboard and get those fingers nice and strong.

Thanks Rob, just purchased a copy of complete calisthenics. Been doing a lot of core work but would like to add a bit more upper body strength to the routines and that looks great.

Palms facing me, one

There are some very strong strength to weight guys at the gym.
One day one had a 35kg belt on - his best was 4. I asked him how heavy was he in total. 91kg.

A) Thats over 50% inbody weight he strapped on - full credit.
b) Thats still less than I weight (I was born when meat was cheap). And he was taller than I am.

41y, 94kg, 5'7 .. maybe... I find warming up makes a lot of difference. From cold - I can manage 10 if I'm lucky. After a hour's hard ride and sweating heavily I can do 15.

and moniex - girl doing pullups? <dribble....>

One day one had a 35kg belt on - his best was 4. I asked him how heavy was he in total. 91kg.

I put up a chin bar last week after 4 years off. That was a shock...

Been doing a lot of core work but would like to add a bit more upper body strength to the routines and that looks great.

Prepare to find out what a *really* strong core feels like

I'm doing it to up my strength to weight and it's really doing the job.

I'd use 60kg for my heavy sets in my lifting days. I weighed around 105kg.

dips or chins?

either way - woah!

No get yourself a fingerboard and get those fingers nice and strong.

Bear in mind that if you're not already a climber* this is likely to result in injury very quickly.

*or have strong fingers to start with.

65kg!!!!! a mate of mine can't even dead that!

5th elephant, that is impressive, 😯 how many could you do with 60kg? infact i only weigh 65kg, so i would need to add about 35-40kg, i'll keep you posted.
Yes, have just started climbing, doing pull ups on the door architrave at the moment.
This post may have it's roots in willy waving, at 51 waving is all i really do with mine. 🙂

tw - 51 - no only doing but progressing - full credit there.

Dan John has a good article on Fitness Standards

http://danjohn.net/2013/04/strength-standards-sleepless-in-seattle/

Although this is aimed at College Athletes, so you need to intelligently down grade it by age eg I'm 44 and the WR masters (40-45) record for the Snatch is 2/3 of that vs the OR, so I knock 1/3 off all his numbers.

NB Anyone who can do 15 overhead squats at body weight is doing very very well!

Pull ups are a funny thing, they mostly tell you how good you are at pull-ups. I know some good standard rock climbers (French 7a/b ish) that are rubbish ...which is a long-winded way of saying 'not as many as I used to' 🙂

dips or chins?

5th elephant, that is impressive, how many could you do with 60kg?

Form wasn't great, but your balance gets messed up...
[img] [/img]

The older I get the better I was 🙁

The older I get the better I was

Yep, it's all downhill from now on....

[img] [/img]

Yeah, that's me. 😆

I started doing some training for climbing and pull ups was suggested, apparently in hindsight its not the most relevant but I gave it a go. It was incredibly hard. After 4/5 months I can now do about 8 with good form and then the next two are crap.

Theres a lot of technique and core strength involved, not just bicep pulls. Good luck.

Loving the whole bodyweight Calisthenics revival at the moment.....or at least that's how I could justify spending a couple of hours building some paralettes the other weekend when I could have been doing proper husband jobs!

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Saying that they are proper fun to play on and they only cost me about £7...bonus!

Need a pic of you doing a planche on them Chris. 😉

Yeah the planche is a little way off still! 😳

I`m 42 and I still cant do one
been strength and conditioning training for the last 8 weeks or so and its making a difference, but not to my pull ups 😳
I`ve not been in the gym for 18 years either, but really enjoying it now.

I'm no expert Dominic, but why not just do the negative part of the pull up very slowly, step up to the top part of the pull up then lower yourself down.

Pull ups. I could do more on dips.

Yarp. Always strikes me as odd, that one, as for bench/row its the other way around.

I'm a ways off your pullups. Maybe 20kg for 5 right now. I can dip 30kg for 7 (followed by strained shoulder, doh).

Anyone who can do 15 overhead squats at body weight is doing very very well!

That Dan John list is pretty cool, but with some odd bits. There's a massive, massive difference in flexibility, technique AND strength between 15 bodyweight squats (which is relatively easy) and 15 overhead bodyweight squats (which is, well, you'll rarely ever see it).

twinw4ll

I'm no expert Dominic, but why not just do the negative part of the pull up very slowly, step up to the top part of the pull up then lower yourself down.

Thanks, that's a good idea, I`ll try that tomorrow 😀

Yarp. Always strikes me as odd, that one, as for bench/row its the other way around.

I've seen that's the way to get into them

Stand on a chair to get into the up position, then just lower yourself down, and repeat

What do you think is the bast way to really 'finish your self off' at the end of a pull up session - i.e. when you just cant do any more full ones.

dead hang for as long as you can?
dead hang and do short lifts from the bottom?
do short lifts at the top?

No best way - variety of all mentioned & static holds at various points of the range of movement

You could use bands (quite cheap) to assist if you can't do them unaided or want to do more volume etc. https://www.strengthshop.co.uk/bands.html

Usually in powerlifting deadlift and benchpress scores are similar, never mind rowing

Interesting, I'd have assumed that DL would be close to BS and both >> Bench Press.

Usually in powerlifting deadlift and benchpress scores are similar, never mind rowing

you sure that's right? a google on raw powerlifting records suggests bench be around 70% of dead.

squat
SHW 934 Don Reinhoudt USA 1975 AAU
bench
SHW 710 James Henderson USA 1997 USPF
dead
SHW 1015 Benedikt Magnusson ISL 04/02/11 HARDCORE

I know, that's only superheavies.

I've seen quite a few guys who squat more than they dead. Never (personally) seen any serious powerlifters benching more than they dead though. YMMV and all that.

As for rows, I guess they start becoming too awkward when the weight gets very heavy.

The standard variation for climbing is "frenchies" = pullups with a five second lock-off on the way down at different angles each time (full lock, 45°, 90°, 270°).

Also horizontal pullups (body straight & level with feet propped on whatever's convenient) which are arguably more specific by training you to pull *in* rather than down.

[As a couple of people have already said though, for climbing they're not that big a deal, if you can do ten with decent form then they're probably not what's holding you back...]

[quote=Earl ]There are some very strong strength to weight guys at the gym.
One day one had a 35kg belt on - his best was 4. I asked him how heavy was he in total. 91kg.
A) Thats over 50% inbody weight he strapped on - full credit.

Since this thread seems to be mainly willy waving, when I was younger and a lot lighter I could do 5 or 6 with 50% more than bodyweight (was training to try and do a single arm pull up, only got as close as doing 1 with +75%). Recently (at age 44) I was doing sets of 10/8/6 just bodyweight as suggested above - as part of a session mainly aimed at kayaking, but have got into climbing again in the last year, so looking at doing some training for that. Need to get a fingerboard, as clearly it's finger strength rather than shoulder strength which is my limit (as when I last climbed, for the same grade I find overhangs with bigger holds easier than slabs with little ones).

[quote=stever ]Pull ups are a funny thing, they mostly tell you how good you are at pull-ups. I know some good standard rock climbers (French 7a/b ish) that are rubbish ...which is a long-winded way of saying 'not as many as I used to'

Rubbish as in they can only do 10 or 15? I'd be very surprised if they couldn't do any, but as I suggest above, once you get up above 6a there isn't a big difference in the amount of shoulder strength required, it's all about finger strength. If you can't do any then I'd expect you to struggle on 6a (or even 5+/5c) on an overhang, and at my level it's useful training with them even without a fingerboard as it's got to help to decrease fatigue.

When I came back to climbing a few years ago, I was onsighting 6cs and the odd 7a outside again within three or four months but I could only do two or three pull-ups tops (and didn't bother trying mostly, shoulders complained too much).

That said, I can manage a few more now and the type of route does make a difference, crimpy vertical outdoor routes vs. burly indoor overhanging jug-fests. But even so it's quite an education watching the more talented women at my local wall (UCR) style their way up those burly overhanging lines with backsteps, body twisting and *straight arms*. It weren't like that when I were a lad... 😉

...there's women who climb vastly harder than that who can't do a single pullup. Conversely I'm shite at climbing having rarely operated above hvs, but can still bang out 25 or so pullups of a variety of sorts. I used top be able to do and a really poor one-armer on one arm, lockoff and pull up a bit on the other. Before elbow pain took me out of the game for a year...

Climbing aside, one armers are an intrinsically worthwhile achievement and a life tick every man should have... I kind of got there(ish) via offsets - pull hard with one arm, assisted by one or two fingers on the other arm for four or so reps, switch arms and repeat.

ou sure that's right? a google on raw powerlifting records suggests bench be around 70% of dead.

squat
SHW 934 Don Reinhoudt USA 1975 AAU
bench
SHW 710 James Henderson USA 1997 USPF
dead
SHW 1015 Benedikt Magnusson ISL 04/02/11 HARDCORE

I know, that's only superheavies.

Yeah, you're right, [i]similar[/i] doesn't equate to 70%. I could bench 85% of my deadlift which is guess what I had in my head.

The original suggestion was you should be able to row more than you can bench. That would reasonably describe deadlifts from the above. You wouldn't expect to row anything like that. My lower back would explode 😉