Pullup scenario / question

[skace]

So you start out doing pullups and find out you can't do a single 1.
- You begin training by doing reverse pullups / holds to strengthen yourself
- You move on to being able to do a single pullup
- You slowly move from 1 pullup all the way to 5 pullups over the course of a few weeks (months? who knows)
- Then you realize your form is pretty crappy and you are cutting corners by not going down all the way or up all the way - this sets you back to 1 pullup.
- This time around you gain from 1 to 5 faster as you focus on your form weaknesses
- However, now you seem to be stuck at 5 pullups, and everytime you do a set, whenever you get to 5 you hit a point that you just can't get past. What do you do?

Oh yea, and those screwless pullup bars dented my door frame =/

 

[KingGheedora]

GTG

 

[Megatomic]

Have you tried doing multiple sets of say 3 for a few weeks? Then try to do multiple sets of 4. Etc...

That's how I started. I could do 5 max the first day. The second time I did 3 sets of 4. So I worked on that for 2 weeks, then tried 3 sets of 5. And so on.

Now I'm up to 4 sets of 10 and I have no idea how many I can do at one shot, haven't tested myself.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
GTG

Yup, definitely use the "Grease the Groove" approach. Through out the day, go to the pull-up bar and bang out a sub-maximal set of pull-ups. If you're at 5 now, sets of 2-3 are probably a good start. Do a bunch of sets per day for several days. Once this feels really easy, increase the number of pull-ups per set by 1 or 2. Keep doing this for several weeks, and you'll be past 5 pull-ups in no time.

 

[MrMatt]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
GTG

Yup, definitely use the "Grease the Groove" approach. Through out the day, go to the pull-up bar and bang out a sub-maximal set of pull-ups. If you're at 5 now, sets of 2-3 are probably a good start. Do a bunch of sets per day for several days. Once this feels really easy, increase the number of pull-ups per set by 1 or 2. Keep doing this for several weeks, and you'll be past 5 pull-ups in no time.

YUP. or eat more....

 

[crt1530]

Volume. More pull-ups more often.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: crt1530
Volume. More pull-ups more often.

Yeah, just start doing pullups like crazy. Try not to go to failure to often or it'll take longer until you can do them again.

 

[skace]

Forgot to mention I'm doing pullups nearly constantly, not just 1 set a day, whenever my arms feel up to it, the bar basically never leaves my door frame right now, however getting beyond 5 has seemed somehow different from the other numbers. I will read this article though thanks. Just wanted to play out my scenario and see if it sounded familiar to anyone else.

 

[skace]

Ok so wait the part that's different from what I'm doing. He specifically says not to push to exhaustion? So if 5 is very difficult to me, I shouldn't even bother trying to do 5?

Ok so let's say my first set 5 is difficult, so instead I do 3, on my next set, what if 4 is difficult, should I only attempt to do 2? Or should I just keep doing 3 regardless....

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: skace
Ok so wait the part that's different from what I'm doing. He specifically says not to push to exhaustion? So if 5 is very difficult to me, I shouldn't even bother trying to do 5?

Ok so let's say my first set 5 is difficult, so instead I do 3, on my next set, what if 4 is difficult, should I only attempt to do 2? Or should I just keep doing 3 regardless....

The idea with GTG is to NOT go to failure. If 5 is your absolute max, then yes, start with sets of just 2 or 3. Going to failure makes it a lot harder to recover, both on your muscles for the next set and on your CNS for the next day. By avoiding failure and keeping intensity fairly low, you can recover quicker and do significantly more volume in the long run. And in this case, more volume will lead to improved performance.

 

[KoolDrew]

The GTG method works well, but another option would be the density method. Say your rep goal is 10, you'd do 20 total reps per workout. Your goal is to reach 20 pull-ups for the entire workout, by doing a set every minute. You may start with just doing 10 sets of 2 reps each. If you completed all 10 sets with perfect form and got your 20, you would lower the amount of sets and up the amount of reps to still get your 20 in next workout. So next one may be 7 sets of 3 (which will be 21, but oh well). The important thing is that you get 20 every workout, even if you're not able to do the amount you wanted to do per set, take as many sets as you need. When you are able to do 7 sets of 3 (in this example) you would then continue decreasing sets and increasing reps. Next time you would move up to 4 reps a set (5 sets). You would stop when you end up doing more reps than sets, which in this example would be when you reach 4 sets of 5. By this time you should be able to try for your goal of 10. If you're able to do 10, up your goal to 15 and repeat.

 

[SKC]

Originally posted by: skace

Oh yea, and those screwless pullup bars dented my door frame =/

MINE TOO!

If you have the Door Gym, try taking out the plastic caps at the ends so the only thing hitting the frame is the sponge. It at least helps reduce the scratches.