Programming Pull Ups as a Big Lift

[iamsmu]

I want to add roughly 15% to my weighted pull ups. I'm not sure the best way to go about it. My plan is to just do descending pyramids on some day and higher reps, greater ROM work on other days.

Since this isn't a contested lift, no one is interested and the world record stands at around 405# combined weight. That adds some extra interest, but I just want to get a 400# pull up. I was a hair shy at 351# last month. So I need to add roughly 15%.

I suspect that pull ups would be programmable as a big lift. They use more muscle mass than bench or press and respect our ancestry. But I think I'm stuck on a long plateau here. So I'm looking for ideas. Any suggestions would be appreciated. (I'll film myself doing pulse squats if anyone can get me up 10#s in 2 months.)

This very strong guy was a couple inches shy at 345# today:

[michael]

Do eccentrics with the +15%. Pretend you weigh 400# and you're trying to get your first pull-up.

[iamsmu]

Do eccentrics with the +15%. Pretend you weigh 400# and you're trying to get your first pull-up.

Interesting! That might be too big of a jump. I'll work up and see. I generally cheat the eccentric, so this might be useful for other reasons too. I might try negatives at my max for 5. . . .

[cwd]

I did this for about 4 months recently:

Tu: hammer-grip chins and pullups bodyweight to RPE 9, 3 sets each
Th: weighted supine-grip chins 5x5
Sa: same as Tu

Using three different grips (supine, prone, hammer) and using weight only 1x/week kept my elbows happy. I made slow, steady progress on these during a cut.

[iamsmu]

I did this for about 4 months recently:

Tu: hammer-grip chins and pullups bodyweight to RPE 9, 3 sets each
Th: weighted supine-grip chins 5x5
Sa: same as Tu

Using three different grips (supine, prone, hammer) and using weight only 1x/week kept my elbows happy. I made slow, steady progress on these during a cut.

Do you find that the chins and neutrals help with pull ups? I seldom do chins, so I'm not sure. They seem like curls. . . . I'm over 20 reps on body weight versions, unless I'm going super long ROM. I'm wondering how much BW variations will help me at this point. But they might. The alternating grip idea is interesting. Thanks.

[Hanley]

Pulse squats.

[KOTJ]

Lat pulldown, SGDL, seated rows, chinups (duh), and curls...maybe some power/explosive shrugs.

[asdf]

I've had many good runs of 5 x 5, sets across, using a basic LP. Ultimately, I stall and then I shift to increasing reps. Once I get to 5 sets of 8 reps (or so) at a given weight, I'll add 5# and drop the volume back to 5 x 5, and then start building reps again.

I do weighted chin-ups once a week, and a separate high-volume bodyweight session (100+ reps, at least), also once a week.

Be careful with the max singles. That's how I developed teh elbow AIDS.

[Stoop]

In terms of programming, my best weighted chin-up (355lb total) happened after a few months of training it like this: twice a week weighted chin-up LP, jumping 2.5lbs per sessions. Make sure you weigh yourself and add 2.5lbs to the total weight, because body-weight fluctuates. Additionally, once a week I would do 3 sets of body-weight chin-ups @ RPE 10, 8, 8, with the goal of adding a rep to the first set. Then I did a quick two week peak with singles @ RPE 8 and that got me to a +120 at 235 weighted chin-up, which isn't anything crazy. I have a hard time believing if I did a chin-up with 170lbs at 235bw I'd be a record holder.

I'm building back up after surgery, and when I get to these old numbers I'm literally going to pull up The Bridge by BBM and anytime it says deadlift, I'll write in weighted chin-up and boom, there's your programming.

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

What World Record are you referring to?

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

What World Record are you referring to?

[RobUK]

I want to add roughly 15% to my weighted pull ups. I'm not sure the best way to go about it. My plan is to just do descending pyramids on some day and higher reps, greater ROM work on other days.

How big are your hands and how big is your bar?

I ask because I have relatively small hands and the only thing that has annoyed me since I got my home gym is the chinning bar is slightly wider than the bar from my former gym. Has definitely had an impact on my chinning strength.

So you may be able to add pounds just by finding the optimum bar width for your grip.

[cwd]

Do you find that the chins and neutrals help with pull ups? I seldom do chins, so I'm not sure. They seem like curls. . . . I'm over 20 reps on body weight versions, unless I'm going super long ROM. I'm wondering how much BW variations will help me at this point.

I expect chins and neutral grip have decent carry over to pullups -- my pullups get better when I only train chins, so they carry over the other way.

Varying grips is better for elbow health, when using a narrow grip as in chins. These are hell on elbows. Pullups with a wide grip, maybe not as crucial?

Varying rep-ranges is important for any lift, but as you say BW might be too light for you now.
But maybe work sets of 8, 5, and 3 on different days, with 1RM testing less than weekly? Again, to avoid elbow AIDS.

[iamsmu]

What World Record are you referring to?

As far as I can tell Guinness only keeps track of the added weight. The heaviest pull up looks to be roughly 230+ plus. I think the total weight for that guy was 205 or 207. It's not clear. There's just some discussion here and there, such as this:

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthre ... 061&page=1

In any case, I just want to crack 400 combined. 4 plates would be hilarious though. I'd take that. 4 blue plates, so roughly 390 pounds. . . .

Oh, and the distinction between chin ups and pull ups is important here.

There are some youtubers and Instagram people who can add 220. That guy in the IG post above says that he's done 4 plates at 225, so 405. But he can't do it now. He says that Marcus Bondi has done it as well. I've only see a video of Bondi (6'1' @175) adding 220 on a narrow grip CHIN up.



Ievgen is 6'3" or 6'4",. He can add 200, but I don't know his weight. I think it's 185 (no legs . . .)

How big are your hands and how big is your bar?

I ask because I have relatively small hands and the only thing that has annoyed me since I got my home gym is the chinning bar is slightly wider than the bar from my former gym. Has definitely had an impact on my chinning strength.

So you may be able to add pounds just by finding the optimum bar width for your grip.

I mainly use the 1.25" bar on my rack. My hands are roughly 8" in length. NFL combine spread looks to be 10.5" if the piece of paper in front of me is truly 11 inches wide. In any case, this hasn't been an issue. It is for my wife though. Gripping the bar can give you awful calluses if you have to pinch the pad. . . . .

[broseph]

I'll chime in to say I think chins/pullups can be trained with increased frequency compared to the other lifts.

I don't know if it's a nod to our ancestral usage of the upper limbs (as you've mentioned) or just a personal anecdote, but weighted chins don't seem to wear and tear my joint structures like the press, bench, squat, and deadlift. I've been doing just about everything with increased frequency the past month or so, and I'm starting to feel beat up everywhere except for chins.

I imagine programming should be similar to the other lifts, especially for someone like you who is already proficient in the lift (i.e. bodyweight only is below 60% of your 1RM).

I'm excited to see where this ends up, so I can steal all the ideas and increase my own weighted chinups.

[iamsmu]

I'll chime in to say I think chins/pullups can be trained with increased frequency compared to the other lifts.

I imagine programming should be similar to the other lifts, especially for someone like you who is already proficient in the lift (i.e. bodyweight only is below 60% of your 1RM).

That's an interesting observation. BW is still a fairly high percentage. I'll just start alternating volume and intensity and see where that goes. I'm also going to do some slower, some higher, vary hand position, and try some negatives around my max.

My main issue right now is that planche work is wearing out my biceps and forearms. . . .

[broseph]

My main issue right now is that planche work is wearing out my biceps and forearms. . . .

I think that is going to be your biggest hurdle. That stuff beat me up more than anything (though it was a very novel stress for me).

If you put the planche on the back burner for a while while chasing this particular goal, do you think you'd lose much ground?

[iamsmu]

My main issue right now is that planche work is wearing out my biceps and forearms. . . .

I think that is going to be your biggest hurdle. That stuff beat me up more than anything (though it was a very novel stress for me).

If you put the planche on the back burner for a while while chasing this particular goal, do you think you'd lose much ground?

Probably not, since I haven't gotten very far. I could just move a hold at the hardest progression into my warm up and probably maintain. I don't know. I should probably focus on something else for a while, since I know of only 2 people in the world who are roughly my size that can planche. Actually, one of them might only be able to straddle planche. That was my goal. I don't expect to ever be able to do a full planche. Just wanted to see how far I could get. It's been roughly 7 months and I still can't really do a flat back tuck hold yet. (I started working on this a little back on 4/5/18 or so.) . . . I'll reassess in a couple weeks depending on whether or not I'm stalled.

I could re-order things from push/pull/legs to pull/push/legs. That way my pull won't be affected by the planche on push day. Still trying to work out a plan.

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

Cheers for the info... that's interesting.

[AuthenticWacky]

Necromancy alert

I was thinking of something like this for an HPS-type cycle:

Day 1 - BW chins/rack chins/pull downs

Day 2 - BW rows done explosively

Day 3 - weighted chins

Goals are kind of amorphous, would like to grow wings, increase max weighted chin, and BW chins. Currently at 12 BW chins.