Pull ups.

I did a post a couple of months ago toying with the idea of going to a Judo club, unfortunately they are few and far between and the nearest one was too far away to be a practical option.
Looking for an alternative i joined the local gym, did the induction and now go one day a week and train quite hard; well in my mind i do. One of the exercises was assisted pull ups, so today after six weeks i tried unassisted pull ups, palms forward, wide grip, going all the way down and chin to the bar.
How many should a 51 year old be able to do?
There is a member of this gym who can do one arm pull ups. 😯

if you go once a week not many. I would guess you could do something like three sets, one of 6, then 4, then 2 or 3… am i right? I’m right arent I…. 🙂

edit: Three sets of ten wide arms pull ups as you describe is very respectable. Slowly up and slowly down, no swinging of course.

When I was in decent shape I could do 20-25 at a struggle

Now I struggle to do 10…

Wide grip (hands ~1m apart) with palms forward is pretty hard, I can only manage 10-12 slow reps and I’m 25.

Dunno. How many can you do now? Just try to slowly increase it. If you can easily churn out 20 or so, then add a weight belt for more load and less reps. (depending on what you are trying to achieve)

Depends on your background I suppose. I was running with two fit mates and being humiliated as usual when we came to some of those park fitness type exercise stations, one of which included a pole about 10ft high. I nipped up it hands only in a couple of seconds, they couldn’t get off the ground.

I could probably do 2-3 sets of 6-8 pullups as described, I reckon, despite not doign them regularly and being high 80s kg.

If you’ve only just started doing them unassisted then don’t be disheartened if you can only manage 1 or 2. I doubt most of the population who don’t exercise could do any. If you can do more then kudos.

A key point that I have read over and over when trying to improve pull-ups is do not train to failure. When you do a rep that is a real struggle but you manage it, leave it there.

I started at three sets of 5 pull ups but have now worked up to three sets of 10 over the last few months. So I would suggest starting at a fairly low number and building up as they are one of the more demanding bodyweight exercises.

I can manage 1. the 2nd is always full of fail.

Just done a couple on the door architrave. Good grief – I feel weak and heavy!

I thought this was going to be about nappies. Pampers pull-ups are great, much easier to fit than the standard types and they hold their shape better.

I can only do one, because I’m so powerful I can’t help launching myself over the bar and landing about 12 feet away. Sometimes I do a somersault, just cos I’m awesome.

I can manage 8 comfortably, 10 at a push, and I don’t do them regularly

Build them up slowly though, wherever you’re at

I’ll just leave this here

I do sets of 10 in between other exercises (on Pull days). The last couple of each set see my legs swing a bit.

I mix them up, do proper ones as described above, or when I want to hit my arms I do palms facing or underhand.

A year ago, I couldn’t do a single one…so respect for managing any. They get easier. I am 42 this year.

I’ll raise you this 😉

edit – sorry that is the campus one. There is a one-finger, one-armed pull up extravaganza linked at the end of this I think.

The last couple of each set see my legs swing a bit.

That’s fine. The only person you’re cheating is yourself 🙂

There is a member of this gym who can do one arm pull ups

20 odd years ago when I was in my teens and climbing lots I could manage a couple. Weighing 3/4 of what I do now obviously helped. Probably manage about 10 two arm ones these days.

Always mix your pull-ups with some of this for balance

If you can do one or two it’s a good sign if you haven’t been practicing them or doing similar pulls. I could only do a couple two years ago, but can now manage a reducing set of 12/9/6. Facing your palms is a lot easier, as is not going the whole way down, so kudos for trying the tough option first. I think it’s sensible to mix it up, though, palms facing, and parallel grips too if your kit allows it. 49 yrs and 87kg here.

cross fit today is 10 sets of 9
thrusters(weighted), burpees, pullups.

90 pullups would see me still in the gym when the lights go out.

Thanks for all the replies, vids and encouragement.
Strutting around like a bloody peacock at the moment.

As a weak elite mtber, I can manage about five. After that I’m left whimpering on the floor having lost all use of my arms. Same at the dip station. I am friends with one of the paralympic hand bikers, here is a depressing fact: he does three sets of 100. With a 40kg weight vest.

I used to be able to do about 20 or so from any of the positions (wide palms forward, wide palms back, narrow palms forward, narrow palms back) when I had a chin-up bar set up next to my bedroom door. I just used to do a set every time I went past it.

Sadly, that no longer happens, so when I did start getting back into them (a tree with a branch the right height on my dog walking route) it took me a while to go from 5 t 15 or so. Then I got tendonitis and had to stop.

The joy of getting old.

Bare in mind the pull ups you describe are mostly down to back strength, if you want to build the amount you can do then set a limit of say 20 or 30 pullups and try for them when you’re in the gym no matter how many sets it takes. If you manage 8 first attempt then 6 then 4 then 2 to make the magic number then as the time goes by it’ll get easier and you can up the target.

When I was climbing a good bit and lighter I could do about 10-12, now maybe 8 in row.
It’s worth mentioning I think that it’s not particularly an indicator of anything other than ability to do pull ups on a bar, Dave Macleod, who is one of the U.k’s best climbers mentioned one time on his blog that he could do about 21-24, but more importantly he could do that many in any grip or position, palms in, out, wide arms, narrow, tiny pinchy finger holds, big open handed sloping holds, hanging off ice axes, whatever, also worth mentioning that I’ve seen him pull up single armed on a single finger pocket, so outright strength and ability to do lots of pull ups aren’t connected.
Also, unless you are also doing lots of push-ups you’ll ruin your elbows quite quickly.

robinlaidlaw, Not done any push ups yet, perhaps a future thread. The big problem with being 51 is motivation, helps when a few ladies are present in the gym. 😉

Edit – isitafox has basically said all this already!

A good suggestion I read recently for a pullups workout if you can’t do many is to aim for ten – do as many as you can in one go, then rest for a minute, do as many as you can again. Repeat until you get to a cumulative total of 10. If that is too easy, do the same but aim for 20. Do that two or three times a week.

By the time you can comfortably get to the total aimed number in one go a few times, you can increase the aim by 10.

As a 51 yr old myself I recently found out that I can no longer do any and I’m not happy about it at all.

It’s worth noting that to begin Royal Marine commando training you need to manage 5 with the proper technique…

Souce

Usually do 10 pull ups followed straight away by 22 press ups, then a 3 min rest – 6 reps of each.

Its also worth noting that at 51 theres more stopping me from doing commando training than that.

Practice and biomechanics!

Before I did P90X (trying to recover from an injury) I could barely manage 3 or 4 proper wide arm pull ups.

At the end of 3 months solid of doing them, depending on type obviously, I could do between 20-50 without too much effort.

I used to do one with a towel which was a semi-one-arm pull up. Couldn’t get close to half of one when I started, finished up being able to do 10 at a time.

P90X involved using your tip toe on a chair out in front once you were unable to do any more “proper” ones. I think I’d do on average about 100 in a session, so you tend to get better at them biomechanically more than anything else.

How many should a 51 year old be able to do?

Depends how strong and heavy you are.

Years (yes many years) ago when I was climbing I was capable of two finger pull-ups (two handed though). I wasn’t very strong but I weighed nowt. I weigh less now but avoid things which can cause tendon damage (or sweating and breathlessness). I honestly can’t remember how many pull ups I used to do – I have obliterated memories of such savagery. Anyway it was tricep curls that killed me!! Horrible.

That Frank Medrano stuff is quite clever, but it’s nothing that gymnasts or acrobats don’t get up to.

I used to love watching Johnny Dawes bouldering. Some lovely one and no handed moves as in this vid:

I’m 54 and very definitely in the 1 or 2 group 🙁 I do remember my father saying when he turned up for his national service loads of lads couldn’t do any.

Bloody hell these pull ups could be opening up a whole new can of worms, the climbing stuff is fascinating.

When I was in me prime I could do sets of ten, I could fire 10 reps with wide grip hands forward and touch the back of my kneck on the bar.
20 years and a few stone later I struggle doing one.

I opened this thread thinking it was about 37 posts about nappies. 🙄

Glad to hear that at least I can start royal marine commando training.

At the moment I can do 6 proper ones (slowly and all the way down, not like most of the blokes at the gym do them, cheating buggers!)

Used to be able to do 10 (about 10 years ago), but I have had surgery since which does probably affect things a little.

Trying to get back to 10 though….

Btw, 37 and a girl, 58kg/ just over 9 st.

Simone

There you go, weak but light. Just like I was. 😉