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How many pullups are good?

M

manlymatt83

Lifer
About a year ago I couldn't even do one pullup. I've been working out a lot since, and yesterday, I decided to try again. I was able to do six pullups without issue (with proper form) -- I quite surprised myself! Struggled through a seventh.

I was about 255. Now I'm down to 200. 30 year old male. What's a good pullup number to aim for? Is six considered good/above average?
 
Six pullups from a diligent dead hang is good. Pullups respond to volume, so if you want to do more, do as many sets with as many reps as you can, twice a week. By the time you get up to 10 pullups (again, dead hang!) you'll have the best arms in the gym.

At a body weight of 225 I can do 8 or 9 pullups. I've been frustrated trying to get beyond that, so I might start adding weight.

Edit: Congrats on your achievement btw, that's really outstanding.
 
Blackjack200 said:
Six pullups from a diligent dead hang is good. Pullups respond to volume, so if you want to do more, do as many sets with as many reps as you can, twice a week. By the time you get up to 10 pullups (again, dead hang!) you'll have the best arms in the gym.

At a body weight of 225 I can do 8 or 9 pullups. I've been frustrated trying to get beyond that, so I might start adding weight.

Edit: Congrats on your achievement btw, that's really outstanding.
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Thanks for the advice and the congrats! I'm really excited.
 
Depends on the person, the weight, the training, the muscle distribution. When I was a teenager I would approach 20, but not all of them were clean as in there was some jerking motion in the beginning of the pull up on the last 5-8 pull ups. One of my friends would do 20-25 truly clean ones though, that was really impressive. It's all about training. I'm 31 now, 160'ish weight. When I started doing pull ups again I could only master 5, which was truly embarassing for me remembering how good I was in my teen years. But I gradually worked up to about 16 clean ones. Then I moved and did not have access to the pull up bar anymore. Now I can only do 12 clean ones when I go to my parents who still have my pull up bar. I'm still way weaker than what I used to be as a teenager. When I was a teen I could easily do one armed muscle up on a pull up bar and I was getting good enough to almost do a two arm muscle up... I'm nowhere near as good right now. I just don't exercise enough/don't have easy access to the pull up bar/parallel bars/rings right now. I have rings hanging from the support beam in the basement, but there is not enough vertical space so all they're good for is dips if I bend my legs and L stands. Well, at least writing out all of this makes me more motivated to go work out. Too bad I'm sitting in my cubicle at work though.

Anyway, back to your question, your weight is working against you, 200# is still quite a bit of weight to pull. Lose that fat if you got any, and keep doing pull ups. Eventually you'll be able to do more of them.
 
OILFIELDTRASH said:
Palms facing towards or away? Wide grip or close grip? Makes a huge difference.
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This. Palms facing toward me, I could probably do 12-15, depending. If it's palms away... Probably 5-6. Not sure why such a huge difference but it's probably because my back and forearms need more work.

Also I have a weird nerve/blood vessel condition that gives me sharp pains in my thumbs when I do many lifts with palms facing away from me, or sometimes even neutral grip. Sometimes it's so bad I can even do lat pull-downs with palms facing away.
 
OP congrats, great effort.

z1ggy said:
This. Palms facing toward me, I could probably do 12-15, depending. If it's palms away... Probably 5-6. Not sure why such a huge difference but it's probably because my back and forearms need more work.

Also I have a weird nerve/blood vessel condition that gives me sharp pains in my thumbs when I do many lifts with palms facing away from me, or sometimes even neutral grip. Sometimes it's so bad I can even do lat pull-downs with palms facing away.
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Palms facing you = chin up : more bicep
Palms facing away = pull up : less bicep and more back/ lats

I'd say 10 full range is a good number. Most people slack and don't do any that are full ROM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWBekZIxPQU

Most was 21 chin ups when I was younger, but last year I did 19 wide grip pull ups weighing 96.55kg morning. Evening about 98kg, probably more with my dam heavy ass oly shoes.

Koing
 
Great work, OP! Keep at the pullups and you'll be doing 15+ in no time. Just wanted to add/clarify (the information is fine) some insight on the quoted part:

Koing said:
Palms facing you = chin up : more bicep
Palms facing away = pull up : less bicep and more back/ lats
Koing
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You're basically adding the biceps brachii into the mix during chin-ups, whereas they don't innervate the same during pull-ups (that would just cause you to want to turn your knuckles to your face, which you can't do 'cause of the bar). When not/lightly innervated, such in the case of a pull-up, the rest of the load has to be picked up by the other muscles. The lats are primarily focused during pull-ups and chin-ups, and there are a slew of assisting and stabilizing muscles that go along with the action.

Just to name a few assisting/stabilizing: Teres Major/Minor, Brachialis, Brachioradialis, Biceps Brachii (mainly chin-up only), Upper traps, Rhomboids, and even your pectoral muscles.

Bottom line - Pullups and chinups are an excellent way to strengthen A LOT of muscles at the same time. 🙂
 
Ventanni said:
You're basically adding the biceps brachii into the mix during chin-ups, whereas they don't innervate the same during pull-ups (that would just cause you to want to turn your knuckles to your face, which you can't do 'cause of the bar). When not/lightly innervated, such in the case of a pull-up, the rest of the load has to be picked up by the other muscles. The lats are primarily focused during pull-ups and chin-ups, and there are a slew of assisting and stabilizing muscles that go along with the action.

Just to name a few assisting/stabilizing: Teres Major/Minor, Brachialis, Brachioradialis, Biceps Brachii (mainly chin-up only), Upper traps, Rhomboids, and even your pectoral muscles.

Bottom line - Pullups and chinups are an excellent way to strengthen A LOT of muscles at the same time. 🙂
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What you say is kind of true: our biceps brachii is also heavily involved in pull-ups, but is just not as effectively positioned as during chin-ups. Also, using your term innervation is inappropriate. Your muscles are innervated at all times unless you have a denervation pathology, such as polyneuropathy, ALS, radiculopathy, etc. It has to do with the length tension relationship, which is more optimal for the biceps brachii in the supinated position and allows more movement in its primary plane of motion (sagittal plane).

The pull-up also doesn't really use the upper trapezius. Instead it largely relies on the lower trapezius which rotated the shoulder blade downward and retracts it. Other muscles that are active include coracobrachialis, posterior deltoid, subscapularis and infraspinatus (for arthrokinematics). Your overall summary is great though - pull-ups work a huge mass of muscles at a relatively high load. If they get easy, you can also hold a dumbbell with your feel or add weight via a dip belt.
 
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SociallyChallenged said:
What you say is kind of true: our biceps brachii is also heavily involved in pull-ups, but is just not as effectively positioned as during chin-ups. Also, using your term innervation is inappropriate. Your muscles are innervated at all times unless you have a denervation pathology, such as polyneuropathy, ALS, radiculopathy, etc. It has to do with the length tension relationship, which is more optimal for the biceps brachii in the supinated position and allows more movement in its primary plane of motion (sagittal plane).

The pull-up also doesn't really use the upper trapezius. Instead it largely relies on the lower trapezius which rotated the shoulder blade downward and retracts it. Other muscles that are active include coracobrachialis, posterior deltoid, subscapularis and infraspinatus (for arthrokinematics). Your overall summary is great though - pull-ups work a huge mass of muscles at a relatively high load. If they get easy, you can also hold a dumbbell with your feel or add weight via a dip belt.
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Random side note and thread jack.

My lower right ribs, not sure which one sticks out a bit from the left side when you feel them. It has been giving me some sh!t whenI do pull ups. It hurts right at the top once I get past 2/3 of the way up. RANDOM as hell. It's healing up but it still affects me. The lat pull down machine is okay but pull up causes discomfort. Goes to show how much smaller muscles work that you don't notice until you hurt one of them!

Koing
 
Age 40, around 180lbs nowadays at 5'9
For pullups (palms facing away) - 20 Pullups first set, 10 on second set and another on 5 on last set.
On narrow chinups (palms facing in - close together) I can do about the same, perhaps a bit more reps on followup sets.
I've been slacking on the form lately on second and third set. Stopping just short of full extension due to tendon\ligament discomfort in one arm.
 
OP – I think six is a great number.

Both chin-ups and pull-ups gave me slight wrist pain, so I do a cross between them - with the hands basically parallel. I'll either do them on monkey bars – hands remain completely parallel. Or on my pullup bar I attached two loops of rope threaded through small pieces of pvc – so again my hands are parallel but they can shift. It feels more natural to me – especially with the ropes where I can shift the angle of my hands.

I usually do four sets, and keep all sets within 1. Most recently for me - two sets of 6 and two of 5. In this way, I try to never do them to exhaustion. Once I was missing a workout because I was visiting family, so I did pull/chin-ups in the park. Did a total of 60: four sets of 8 and four sets of 7. Didn't take long, and that was a pretty good workout by itself!
 
NAC said:
OP – I think six is a great number.

Both chin-ups and pull-ups gave me slight wrist pain, so I do a cross between them - with the hands basically parallel. I'll either do them on monkey bars – hands remain completely parallel. Or on my pullup bar I attached two loops of rope threaded through small pieces of pvc – so again my hands are parallel but they can shift.
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You mean with your thumbs both pointed back? That's called hammer grip.
 
schneiderguy said:
Shens. I can do 10 pullups (dead hang, palms away from me) and I have skinny chicken arms.
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Should have clarified: palms in (so really chins rather than pullups) and a bodyweight of at least 220.

I'd like to see a video of a 220 lb. dude with skinny arms doing 10 full ROM chins.
 
schneiderguy said:
Oh. I'm only 175lb.
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Your also 6'1" from your location so you are pretty tall and relatively thin. If you were 175lbs and 5'10 or 5'9 you would be thicker.

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that if person was 180lbs and had okay arms they'd measure 15inches. And it would take about 15lbs of bw to add an inch to their arms.

Koing
 
Skinny guys (who work out at least a little) always have it much easier!
I weight 97kg (guess about 10kg overweight), and on good day I can do 7 with reasonably good form. 175cm tall, btw.
 
Octopuss said:
Skinny guys (who work out at least a little) always have it much easier!
I weight 97kg (guess about 10kg overweight), and on good day I can do 7 with reasonably good form. 175cm tall, btw.
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I'm 5' 10", 205, relatively muscular. I was 255 two years ago and couldn't do shit 🙂
 
Haha I can imagine. I seriously need to lose like 5kg, because I started running again, and except for shit endurance, I am afraid for my knees, which are not in the best condition I'd like.
 
I tested this yesterday just 'cause of this thread. I did 17 hammer grip style. I'm 6' 205lbs (~93kg).

SociallyChallenged said:
What you say is kind of true: our biceps brachii is also heavily involved in pull-ups, but is just not as effectively positioned as during chin-ups. Also, using your term innervation is inappropriate. Your muscles are innervated at all times unless you have a denervation pathology, such as polyneuropathy, ALS, radiculopathy, etc. It has to do with the length tension relationship, which is more optimal for the biceps brachii in the supinated position and allows more movement in its primary plane of motion (sagittal plane).

The pull-up also doesn't really use the upper trapezius. Instead it largely relies on the lower trapezius which rotated the shoulder blade downward and retracts it. Other muscles that are active include coracobrachialis, posterior deltoid, subscapularis and infraspinatus (for arthrokinematics). Your overall summary is great though - pull-ups work a huge mass of muscles at a relatively high load. If they get easy, you can also hold a dumbbell with your feel or add weight via a dip belt.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected! I always appreciate your knowledge and posts, and I thank you for the corrective feedback.
 
classy said:
I did 16 and half lol. The first 13 were strong, but it was like I hit a wall. Now I am 5'10 1/2 and 200-201.
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I did 19 yesterday. It's the first time I've tried doing a max set of pull ups in ages. I weighed 84.3kg yesterday morning. The first 12 felt EASY lol. The last 7 not so 😛

manlymatt83 said:
I'm 5' 10", 205, relatively muscular. I was 255 two years ago and couldn't do shit 🙂
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Looks like we have a lot of pull ups monsters here on ATOT.

I see a lot of rubbish pull ups at my gym/ most gyms in terms of ROM.

Koing
 
Koing said:
I did 19 yesterday. It's the first time I've tried doing a max set of pull ups in ages. I weighed 84.3kg yesterday morning. The first 12 felt EASY lol. The last 7 not so 😛



Looks like we have a lot of pull ups monsters here on ATOT.

I see a lot of rubbish pull ups at my gym/ most gyms in terms of ROM.

Koing
Click to expand...

ROM?
 
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