Pull-up Challenge, 2012

[Oscar_Actuary]

Underhand are a little easier, if you care.

You could say pinky finger wide grips, I'm afraid the outcome would be the same

[josh60]

Name                   Style                       Goal

josh60                 chins/pulls                 10/11

I think it should be 11/10 (IIRC pullups are the harder).
Josh, Anal retentive.

[Jungledoc]

Underhand are a little easier, if you care.

You could say pinky finger wide grips, I'm afraid the outcome would be the same

I'm sure you're wrong here! PFWG pullups are well-known to be much harder. I suggest you hook up your tension bands and stick to full-hand medium-width grip chins.

Seriously, go for it. Read the thread on Pull-up training (I'm sure you have already) and start using some of the ideas from there. You'll be glad you did!

[Travis]

This morning I did 13 shoulder width pull-ups since the 14th was close my goal is 15

[Jungledoc]

Name                   Style                       Goal
Stuward                Wide-grip pull-down         3x180
xshawnxearthx          chin                        5
Dub                    chin                        10
Rik-Blades             shoulder-width chins        12
Oscar_Actuary          pullups                     1
robertscott            ???                         44reps/5sets
Proper Knob            wide neutral                13
Travis                 pull-ups                    15
nice_guy80             chin                        10or11
leanmuscle13           pullup                      13
josh60                 chins/pulls                 11/10
Bacchus1979            chins                       12
RobertB                ???                         15
commodiusvicus         wg pullups                  12
robt-aus               pullup                      10
IceDane                shoulder-width pulls        12
jungledoc              chin                        12

[leanmuscle13]

Oooooh, not off to a good start. After my two mile run this morning I did some pullups only completed 7. 13 is the goal. Gotta get it!

[xshawnxearthx]

getting there!

today I did 5x5x5x4x4 with a light band doubled up.

[Jungledoc]

That's great! That's a good way to work.

[Jungledoc]

Everyone, remember the "Pull-up Training" thread in the stickies in this section. It was started last year at the time of the challenge and contains a lot of good information on training this exercise.

[xshawnxearthx]

That's great! That's a good way to work.

I think if I took more rest between sets I could have banged it out, but who knows. I'll take it. I'm hoping for 5 across 5 next saturday.

[josh60]

Everyone, remember the "Pull-up Training" thread in the stickies in this section. It was started last year at the time of the challenge and contains a lot of good information on training this exercise.

What's your take on http://www.50pullups.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;? Worth adding to that thread? It's one of those multiple-sets-few-repeats programs, and being a newbe here I hesitate to post anything on the leading green posts, especially since I'm not sure that what is missing is yet another method of training, as it seems there are too many of them already and the dilemma is which one is best for a particular individual at a particular stage in her training. However, you are welcome to post it there if you feel it's a good idea.

I'm in bad shape. I couldn't train for one lousy week due to a severe cold, and my chinups are down from 10 to 7! I hope it's because I'm not completely well yet as it's hard to believe one week can eliminate four months of training or so. Anyway, things are not looking good about the challenge since I won't be able to do any training on the last week of February, so I have just over a week not only to get back to my previous form but also to better it. Hopefully March will be more productive, but I guess I will get an F on the challenge. Oh, well.

My plane for March is that if I don't see progress with the way I train now (3 sets trying to max in each one without getting to failure), I will try the program of the site I mentioned earlier, which raises a question: How important is the limitation of one training session to one hour (I see it stated as a given a lot of times, and the trainers in my gym surely think it's true, or maybe they are just trying to ease the load on the gym)? Personally I think it doesn't make a lot of sense that the gross time is that important when there are many long rest periods which is the case when the program involves many sets with at least 2 minutes rest between them, like the ones on that site. It will take about 25% of the total session duration just for the pullups, which will mean cutting off a lot of other stuff that I want to keep doing.

Sorry the post came out long and unfocused.

[Jungledoc]

That's a useful approach to pullups. Go ahead an post it in the other thread, if you like. Feel free to post to any sticky that isn't locked.

It's similar to what someone (Poliquin??) suggests. Take half of you max number of chins or pulls. Do 5 sets a day with that, and gradually increase.

Someone else (me???) suggested taking 2 off your max and doing as many sets as possible at that, until you can't make that number. I'd guess that I'd do 2 or 3 sets. Or set a goal number of reps, and do as many sets as you need to to reach that total. Lots of ways to skin that cat.

Sorry you've been ill. That shouldn't cause more than a brief delay in your progress. Once you've been back at it a couple of days, you'll find that your strength quickly returns to what it was before.

There's no penalty if you don't reach your goal for the challenge; you just won't win the valuable prize :) If it helps you make even a little progress, then it will have been worthwhile!

[Jungledoc]

Hey, does anyone have anything to report yet on the challenge?

[josh60]

Hey, does anyone have anything to report yet on the challenge?

No noticeable change here. Well, maybe the last pull/chin is slightly cleaner now.

[Dub]

Hey, does anyone have anything to report yet on the challenge?

This month has gone super-fast to me. I just realized it's almost the end of the month. I really don't have much to report. I've done chins three times a week. Overhand, underhand and weighted chins. I think I've come closer to better form, and I've come to realize that chin-ups are the best exercise for my lats at this point.

My results have increased in all three versions. A little, but still. I think the 10 reps is possible. Still got under a week to go.