While the subject really says it all, at the moment I dont have the strength to do a pullup/chinup with out the assistance machine. Would I be better off do pulldowns or using the pullup machine for the assistance?
Really? Hmm… Well, I favor the assisted pull-ups for people in that situation. I don’t rememberever not being able to do a pull-up. But there was a time that I could not do bodyweight pull-ups for my desired rep ranges.
I did assisted pull-ups until I had built enough to do bodyweight pull-ups for all desired rep ranges and ultimately progressed to weighted work for most all rep ranges.
But you don’t have to choose one or the other. You can include pulldowns. But I think you should train the movement you’re trying to accomplish as well. So, make sure and do some assisted pullup work.
Do kipping or jumping pull-ups until you’re strong enough to do pull-ups. I’ve also heard negatives and weighted negatives work really well for building pull-up ability.
yes do negatives.
I have been in the same boat. Seems that I found a pullup workout here a few years ago that helped me a lot. It was something like this:
Workout 1: 6 sets x 2 reps
2: 6x3
3: 6x2
4: 6x4
5: 6x3
6: 6x5
7: 6x4
8: 6x6
Two workouts per week for 4 weeks, and then maybe reduce # of sets and increase volume of reps. Search the archives and you may find it, but this worked for me.
When i first started weight lifting, i was unable to even do 1 pullup… I started on the assisted machine with about 120 pounds assist, and worked down to 90 pounds(10 reps). After that i started working as many reps as possible, and doing some negatives (no assist). Well like a year and a half later; I can now do pullups with 60 pounds strapped on. I definitely think assisted pull ups are the way to go to get started- After you can knock out 10 reps with no assist, start adding weight.
[quote]Raimisch wrote:
While the subject really says it all, at the moment I dont have the strength to do a pullup/chinup with out the assistance machine. Would I be better off do pulldowns or using the pullup machine for the assistance?[/quote]
If you want to eventually do a pullup/chinup, the following article helped me quite a bit.
Back to Basics
No more geek back training
by Charles Poliquin
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=body_100back
I’m no expert, but I’ll comment because I also was not being able to a single pullup, or chinup for that matter.
If you don’t have a spotter (I didn’t), you can do the eccentric training, and then go to the pullup machine for concentric training.
I’ll emphasize that the eccentric training is pretty nice. You may be able to get there just by progressing up the pullup machine w/ assist, BUT there is something powerful at work when you are even, for a moment, holding your bodyweight with your hands. It connects the dots in your brain, or something.