pull up idea's

[Havoc88]

Since everyone seems to be training their pushups, I thought why only push ups.

The problem in my eyes is this: When you do push ups, you train the front of your body ( chest, front shoulders, tricep, abs etc). But why only the front of your body? Every time I hear people of this board talk about balancing their lives and how MA makes them a better person. Then why not balance your opperbody training?

I certainly know that pull ups are hard to learn, BUT unlike pushups, pullups train the rear of your body ( upper back, behind shoulder cap (what is this called in english?), biceps etc). Directly the opposite of the push up.

In my opinion, you have to balance your pushes with your pulls,

The reason I write this, is because I think a lot of people are not aware of this. They hear people bragging about the amounth of pushups they can do and this an that, but not about how a really good trainee (the person training) balances the whole thing out. In my opinion, your pulls and pushes must be 50-50.

This means:

When you train 3 times a week on doing pushes (bench press, mill press, push ups, ALL presses together) you should also train three times a week on your pulls ( pull ups, rows, ALL pulls together).

When you train three times a week on doing proper pullups, you will advance! You could start out for example with doing pull ups with a ROM (Range of motion) of about 10 cm (4,4 inches or so). Then by working on this, after a week or 2-3, you may be able to do them with half of the full ROM. And after a month or two, you may even be able to do them FULL ROM! It all comes down to practice, a thing a lot of people on this board recommend. Balance is the key to a better body. A lot of guy's and girls are working on balancing their lives and MA training, but do not start doing pull ups because they cannot YET do them.

When people are interested in this tiny little collum I wrote, I can give some examples of how training in pullups could look like, and for example how I train them.

In this topic I only wrote about the upper body, but in my opinion upper body and lower body should also be balanced 50-50. Could write something about that too, but would like to see how people react to this.

Hope you liked it.

Greets

Tom

[bushido_man96]

I have always wanted to be able to do pull-ups, but never have been able to. If you have suggestions, post away!

[Sohan]

I have always wanted to be able to do pull-ups, but never have been able to. If you have suggestions, post away!

Try eccentric movements. Start at the chin-over position (jump, step up, whatever to get there.) and then lower yourself as slowly as you can. Once you can get one rep, just do sets of one rep with short rest (10-20 seconds) until you can do two reps, and so on. Also, partial reps can help too. Lower yourself halfway and go lower as you get stronger. And lastly, you can use a "kipping" motion with your legs (basically a downward kick with your legs as you pull up---kind of like a downward frog kick) to "cheat" until you get stronger. There are 300 lb men who can do pullups and so can you, you just have to work your way into them.

I'm a big fan of pullups and do them regularly. I think the reason they're not as popular as pushups is because you need something to pull from, whereas pushups require no equipment. Not that that's any excuse, of course--you're only limited by your creativity.

With respect,

Sohan

[bushido_man96]

Thanks for the info, Sohan. One question I do have for you: Do you do them with your hands facing away, or facing toward you? I have felt that the hands facing out focus on the back more, and facing in, involve the biceps more. I could be wrong, so I was wondering.

Thanks.

[Havoc88]

I do my pullups with close grip and palms faced towards my face. When I start I strech all the way down (dead hang) and release all the tension in my body. Now, when I want to pull myself up I have the full ROM and have to get all the power from my own body, whereas when you go down a bit and then quickly go upwards you use your momentum and don't have to generate all the power yourself.

BM: Sohan had good idea's about doing only the eccentric movements until you can do a few repetitions with them. Also the partial reps are good for people who cant do pull ups on their own. In some gyms there is a chin-up machine where you can put in a resistance weight to make it easyer.

When you can do one real pull up/chin up by your self, just start doing singles with them. Try to do a lot of repetitions in total! At this point it doesn't really matter whether you can do 10 in a row or only one. Just do a lot of repetitions so the motion gets 'printed' into your body.

When for example, in one week you have completed 3x10x1 repetition (that is on 3 different day's 10 singles) My guess is that you can also do two pull ups without to much difficulty. Then you can for example start out with doing something like this: 1,2,1,1,2,1,1,2,1,1. you hardly go to failure because most of the time you do 1 pull up where you could have done 2. When you feel like your ready maby you could do 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1. a bit heavyer.

Like Sohan said, the only limitation is your imagination. Be creative and do not get into one routine but switch regulary.

Hope it helps.

Tom

[Sohan]

Thanks for the info, Sohan. One question I do have for you: Do you do them with your hands facing away, or facing toward you? I have felt that the hands facing out focus on the back more, and facing in, involve the biceps more. I could be wrong, so I was wondering.

Thanks.

Both. Variety is the spice of life.

With respect,

Sohan

[Sohan]

Almost forgot. Isometric holds can also be helpful. Do a static hold from various postions (chin over, halfway, full extension) for as long as you can--this can do wonders for increasing your strength. It's been found that you gain strength within 15-20 degrees of any particular joint angle trained with isometrics, so don't feel you have to do isometric holds at every angle possible.

Go for quality rather than quantity, and do them consistently.

With respect,

Sohan

[Havoc88]

Very slow eccentrics can work too. Doing the eccentric movement in 30 seconds or so. Isometric holds are great too!

Tom

[Toby]

Whenever I do pull ups or rows (as well as push ups and bench press for that matter) I always try to alternate which ways my palms are facing (and my grip) each set in order to work different muscles. And I try and hold my position for as long as I can at the end of each set.

[bushido_man96]

Thanks for the tips. They are all helpful.

We have a pull-up resistance machine at the gym, but I don't get much out of it. I am going to start raising the weight, and doing fewer reps, to build the strength.