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Pull-Ups/Chin-ups

So It Goes

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For the past few months, I've been doing 200 pull-up/chin-up variations every other day, at 10 reps per set, and pyramids. Does anyone here do these exercises? What's your routine? Do you know good variations that work certain muscles more than another? What benefits do you think these exercises have, if they have any at all? Are you trying any goals, like accomplishing 20-30 pull-ups in one set?

Also, I've been watching these insane pull-up/chin-up routines by a group called the Bartendaz. They are a bunch of guys from New York who train anywhere they can go, like playgrounds and jungle gyms. They are like ghetto gymnasts, if that makes any sense.

Skip to 1:00 for highlights for their workout.


Here's AAARRNOLD doing pull-ups, which were a favorite of his:

 

wolfy

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I once wanted to beat the world record for chin ups which I'd read was 600 in an hour. I figured that was ten a minute so went to training ten on the minute rest till the second hand rolls around. My record before I gave up was 150 in 15 minutes. I had a goal of 30 and managed that.

Routines? I enjoyed this drop set..
First pull ups. Palms forward. To failure.
Then: Pull ups. Palms back. To failure.
Then: Parallel grip. To failure.
 

Metamorphosis

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I know that this thread is called pull-ups/chin-ups but since you put the bartendaz video, I'm going to go slightly off topic and expand my post to all of body weight training (which is what they do).

I used to lift weights a lot but switched over to body-weight-only working out a few months ago so that I would lose some of my weight and improve my run time. To be honest, I have found it to be even more rewarding because of the high variety of different goals you can set and I also think that it increases my functional strength more than lifting ever did and hasn't really negatively impacted my ability to lift heavy objects much (it has improved some lifts, actually). I only recently started working a lot more on my pull-ups after I stumbled on the bar athlete stuff like you posted but right now I do 50-100 pull-ups and 50-100 chin-ups 3 or 4 times a week when I do the rest of my workout. There are a ton of useful variations of pull-ups that work different ways but I want to get down the basics better first. The thing about the bar athletes is that it's not just the muscle ups and whatnot that are impressive, it's the ridiculous core strength.

Here are some other resources if you're in to that kind of thing:
http://bar-barians.forumotions.com/
http://www.bodyweightculture.com/forum/forum.php?
http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/index.php

And another sweet video:

The only sad thing about body weight training is that people can't really appreciate how hard it is if they don't ever attempt it....like the one armed pull-ups in the video, for instance.

My normal workout (4 times per week) other than pull-ups is this:
200-250 good form push-ups, 100 dips, 200 hindu squats, 100 lunges, 100 4-count flutter kicks, 100 leg raises, 150 crunches, 100 side crunches each side, 4 30-second back bridges, run 4-6 miles or do sprints 6 days a week, climb rope once or twice a week. It's not that difficult really but it's good for maintenance. I'm interested in getting a weight vest and experimenting with that but haven't done it, yet.

Then I work on improving the more fun stuff like pistol squats, one armed pushups, manna, planche, hand-stand pushups, muscle-ups, etc. but I don't really have a program for that I just try to improve it.

It's very enjoyable, imo and offers a lot of benefits. More people should try it because you can do most, if not all, of it in your room and all of it for free.
 

So It Goes

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Thanks for the great information, guys.

I tried Wolfy's routine earlier tonight.

I started with 10 pull-ups a minute, followed by 10 chin-ups a minute, for 200 pull-up/chin-ups all together.

I had to switch to 5 a minute, because I didn't want to sacrifice form and my arms were drained.

Great workout with the timing between sets. I was DONE afterward.

Meta: I definitely need to start incorporating some hindu squats and lunges into my workout. I'll try some of those great variations you suggested too.

I am trying to be the guinea pig for this thread's suggestions.
 

Engineer

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Man, I was going to come in here to give out some advice on how to get started, but you guys are way above my level!
My max in one set is fifteen. :shrug:

So, hey! Any tips for someone at that level? I could always use some more routines on top of my weekly Armstrong program!
 

Magic Poriferan

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I love doing these, but I hate gyms and haven't had a reasonable way to do them in my residence for years. :cry:
 

swordpath

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Pull ups are probably my favorite upper body exercise. I usually start with my body weight, and then put on my support belt with a chain, and add weight to it. I'll usually do a couple of sets with a 45 plate of about 5-6 reps, and then do a couple of sets with 35s in the same rep range. Usually I'll finish out with a max set of just my body weight.

If I'm starting fresh, with no added weight, I can do about 20-23 pull ups.
 

swordpath

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Man, I was going to come in here to give out some advice on how to get started, but you guys are way above my level!
My max in one set is fifteen. :shrug:

So, hey! Any tips for someone at that level? I could always use some more routines on top of my weekly Armstrong program!
Definitely add resistance to your pull ups! It will help get your reps up when using no added resistance. Check my post above. If you don't have a support belt/chain/weight plates then you can always put some heavy books in a back pack and do that. That's the way I did it for a while when that's all I had at my disposal.

Also reverse pull ups are nice. Pull yourself up quickly, and then when going back down, drop yourself real slowly. She's using a plank of some sort to make it easier getting back to the start position (which is optional). I usually won't dedicate full sets to reverse pull ups, but I'll throw a random rep or two in during my normal pull ups.
[youtube=cbmZJQoy3zU].[/youtube]
 

Metamorphosis

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Man, I was going to come in here to give out some advice on how to get started, but you guys are way above my level!
My max in one set is fifteen. :shrug:

So, hey! Any tips for someone at that level? I could always use some more routines on top of my weekly Armstrong program!

A set of 15 is respectable. That's much more than most people can do.

Swordpath pretty much nailed it all. Weights, negatives, pyramids, quantity and quality.

I normally try to do as many as I can with very strict form, initially. A lot of people don't believe in kipping pull-ups but I don't see why not. IMO, doing a kipping pull-up is better than doing nothing.
 

So It Goes

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Some good information being shared in this thread.

Do you guys do pull-ups every day or every other day?

On your off-days or on-days, do you explode with your reps or do them as slowly as possible?
 

Engineer

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Definitely add resistance to your pull ups! It will help get your reps up when using no added resistance. Check my post above. If you don't have a support belt/chain/weight plates then you can always put some heavy books in a back pack and do that. That's the way I did it for a while when that's all I had at my disposal.

Also reverse pull ups are nice. Pull yourself up quickly, and then when going back down, drop yourself real slowly. She's using a plank of some sort to make it easier getting back to the start position (which is optional). I usually won't dedicate full sets to reverse pull ups, but I'll throw a random rep or two in during my normal pull ups.
[youtube=cbmZJQoy3zU].[/youtube]

A set of 15 is respectable. That's much more than most people can do.

Swordpath pretty much nailed it all. Weights, negatives, pyramids, quantity and quality.

I normally try to do as many as I can with very strict form, initially. A lot of people don't believe in kipping pull-ups but I don't see why not. IMO, doing a kipping pull-up is better than doing nothing.

Thanks guys! I'll add this to my days at the gym alongside the usual stuff. Actually, my gym has a couple of support belts and chains for anyone to use, so I'm pretty much set in that regard. Your help is greatly appreciated.

As for kipping pullups, I literally can't wrap my head around those. Training for OCC has the notion that "kips = un-pullup" drilled into my skull. Form is everything for the majority of my sets, though I may attempt a bit of a kip temporarily for the weighted stuff. I'll see.
 

Metamorphosis

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Some good information being shared in this thread.

Do you guys do pull-ups every day or every other day?

On your off-days or on-days, do you explode with your reps or do them as slowly as possible?

I go every other day. The explosiveness depends on what I'm doing, but I think that it's important to work both ways. I make sure I go to a dead hang every rep but it's much easier to do it explosively and it obviously gets harder and harder to do it slower once you start getting tired.

As for kipping pullups, I literally can't wrap my head around those. Training for OCC has the notion that "kips = un-pullup" drilled into my skull. Form is everything for the majority of my sets, though I may attempt a bit of a kip temporarily for the weighted stuff. I'll see.

Yeah, if it's for a test you obviously can't kip, but it's still valuable for training, imo, as long as you get used to doing them with no swing from a dead hang as well. I've always kipped if I had to, while training, if I was unable to get any farther on normal pull-ups and still managed to do perfectly fine on graded pullup tests with cadre members standing only a couple of inches in front of me to make sure that there is zero leg swing.

It's just what works for me, though. If you don't feel comfortable doing them, that's perfectly understandable.
 

So It Goes

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I go every other day. The explosiveness depends on what I'm doing, but I think that it's important to work both ways. I make sure I go to a dead hang every rep but it's much easier to do it explosively and it obviously gets harder and harder to do it slower once you start getting tired.

Same here.

I make sure I'm not using explosive reps to give myself motion.

I mostly do more explosive reps, but slowly come down, and then later work on very slow pull-ups to increase the difficulty.

If I'm doing a few reps per set, like 5, then I will generally go much slower. I guess it depends on what goals one wants with the exercise.
 

Poki

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I would love to get the place of that first video in the OP of just complete control of your body weight. I have done various degrees of pull-ups and was at 3 sets of 20 at one point a few years ago. Since then I placed more emphasis on pulls for middle back instead of lats and supporting muscles. I use to alternate between that and weighted chin ups. My max chinup was Body weight +90lbs and used to workout with BW+45 for 3 sets of 6 on my weighted days. Hopefully get there one day, we will see. I finally grabbed my power tower and put it in my apartment so I do pullups pretty frequently these days just at random while I am at home. I used to work out with 3 sets of 6-8 @BW+90 on weighted dips, but i havnt done that in while. I never even came close to what those people on that video can do though.

What exercise do you need to do to be able to pull off a muscle up smoothly like the video?
 

Magic Poriferan

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I find this hard to believe, what's preventing you?

Every place I go has not a single door frame that works for the model of pull-up bar that presses against the over-hang. I keep briefly renting tiny apartments where the owners wouldn't want me to drill are a bar into the walls.
 

Engineer

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Every place I go has not a single door frame that works for the model of pull-up bar that presses against the over-hang. I keep briefly renting tiny apartments where the owners wouldn't want me to drill are a bar into the walls.

There are some new bars out that just flip into your doorframe, no screws or overhangs necessary.... one of my hallmates has one. It basically relies on pressure from either side to hold itself up, and it's really quite sturdy despite that obvious one-would-think weakness. Looks like a freakin' steel octopus though...
 

giegs

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I climb... a lot. I do all of my pullup type workouts to relate to this.

On that note, rock rings and hang boards are indispensable. Functional pulling strength originates at the fingertips. If anyone is interested I can post some more details on that... Pullups are super easy. Hanging onto 1/4" ledges while doing pullups is less easy. Loops of webbing are great for 1 finger pullups. The rock rings open up an entire range of exercises you can't do on just the hangboard and they also allow your shoulders to rotate more naturally which helps prevent a lot of possible injury.

rock_ring_green.jpg
text.jpg
 
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