How to build up to Pull Ups

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Soldato
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My dream is to be able to rep 20 pull ups. Im on 4 underarm at the moment- i cant even think about overarm.

I train for triathlons which means i do about 10 hours training a week, 1 hr 20 of that is weights.

I have been trying to build up to pulls ups for 4 years but nothing works. I bulk for muscle and i get too heavy, i lose weight and im too weak.

My legs and back are huge, my arms and shoulder muscles which contribute towards overarm seem non existent.

I have done assisted pull ups for 6 months and nothing seems to help. I plateau at around 12 reps with a 20kg assist. I know from past experience that if i drop 20kg from my current weight i would be far too wek to do one pull up....



Garrrr its driving me mad. I even try pull ups every morning off a steel girder running across my house, but u cant get a proper grip on that so u pull up with ** fingertips- 2 is my max on that lol

advice appreciated
 
Do negatives and build up:

Go to the top position and in control lower yourself slowly. Build them up to say 10-15 reps for 3 sets and then see how many you can do fully and build up again.
 
Slightly different situation but I used to really struggle with overhand pull-ups. Like you I'd only manage 4-6 reps. I asked one of the guys in the gym how it was he could do rep after rep after rep. His advice was to set a target number of reps, say 30, then do 30 reps in that session. So first set might be 6, then next set 5 then 5 again, then 4 etc. Do as many reps as you can per set just make it to 30. Worked for me! I was also doing lat pull downs to really toast my lats.

I'd avoid trying to improve your pull-ups by doing them everyday. Its clearly not working so you need a change of strategy. Give your forearms and bicep time to recover and grow.
 
I've had a chin-up/pull-up bar in my garage for a while now that I've built there. Thinking about it my numbers haven't really gone up. I focus on doing what I can properly, so I lift my legs off the floor and put them behind me, hang with arms stretched right up, then perform as many full reps as I can (from that positions to head just over the bar). It's around 10-12 but like I say it hasn't changed much.

I remember not being able to do many push-ups at all some time ago, something pathetic like 4, but since I became more interested in excersise it went up, yet apparently not through actually doing them :confused: . I can do about 40 now with normal ones but like to do all the unusual types like the diamond ones etc.

Anyhow, you've got me curious now so i'm going to try some out :p
 
Out of interest how much do you weigh? A lot of the bigger guys at my gym simply cannot do pullups, where as the skinny teens can pop them out all night as they weigh about 8 stone :D
 
I can barely manage 2 pull ups last time I tried, if that. I weigh 165lbs (out of bed weight). Hopefully i'll be closer to 170 by the end of the month ;)
 
CiaoBelo said:
Out of interest how much do you weigh? A lot of the bigger guys at my gym simply cannot do pullups, where as the skinny teens can pop them out all night as they weigh about 8 stone :D
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I'm ~80kgs atm but add 22.5-27.5kgs when doing pull-ups :p
 
im 92kg, ive been as light as 63 and as heavy as 99kg. I rule at bulking but suck at cutting. triathlon probably isnt what im designed to do, but hey, it's a challenge :D
 
Wow I'm quite amazed at this, I got myself a pull up bar not long ago and managed to get myself up to 8 reps after about a 2 weeks. Not been using it lately though. I don't do any weights and apart from training in Martial Arts every week the only strength exercise I do is Push ups.

Now I'm pretty light and slim so maybe I don't have much to life but I was surprised how low peoples reps are to say you guys do a lot more strength work than me.
 
Im 235lbs or so, and I can rep about 20 pull ups in a row.

I just built up to it by doing lots in a day, probably started doing a set of 4, then another 4, then another...etc till I got to around 40 or so, 3 or 4 times a week. I can really fly on my pullup bar now.
 
i'm gonna keep trying, so you reckon doing dips is a good way to build up for doing pull ups? apart from doing pull ups that is! :p
 
CiaoBelo said:
Out of interest how much do you weigh? A lot of the bigger guys at my gym simply cannot do pullups, where as the skinny teens can pop them out all night as they weigh about 8 stone :D
Click to expand...

im currently 125kg.
 
Crazy Fool said:
i'm gonna keep trying, so you reckon doing dips is a good way to build up for doing pull ups? apart from doing pull ups that is! :p
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you could try angled pull ups from a smith machine.

put the bar about waist height, get under and pull yourself up. that would be a nice place to start (might have to try this myself now that i have thought about it!
 
Yes, I don't weigh much at all :) . I don't honestly know what I am as we don't have a properly working set of scales here, lol.

With pull-ups I can do around 12 proper ones, as I thought. The thing that puts me off is when one arm goes a little ahead of the other and so I start to swing a little side to side, need to try and minimise that :) . Must try wearing a weighted bag sometime.
 
Dr.EM said:
Yes, I don't weigh much at all :) . I don't honestly know what I am as we don't have a properly working set of scales here, lol.

With pull-ups I can do around 12 proper ones, as I thought. The thing that puts me off is when one arm goes a little ahead of the other and so I start to swing a little side to side, need to try and minimise that :) . Must try wearing a weighted bag sometime.
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The only thing I can suggest for the swingining is try doing them slower and more controlled. Then progressively work your way up to speed. Focus on smooth even application of strength rather than an uncontroller burst.
 
I am up to 24 on a full extension. It's taken 2 months of concrete work, but as I'm doing part time work in a warehouse atm it has increased my muscle mass significantly :) Also losing 8 kilos in that time has helped as well.
 
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