While my squat, bench, and especially deadlift numbers have made great progress I recently humbled myself upon discovering that my pullup and pushup numbers have dropped to stagerring lows. I can no longer achieve my 20 pullups and 100 pushups that I feel that are basic man skills that I think every man should be capable of, along with being able to at least squat bench and deadlift your body weight.
So I’m taking a few weeks off in order to get those pullup and pushup numbers back where they belong. Should I expect to lose weight and size by going for these numbers?
hmmm, how are you training?? i’ve been doing westside type training for over 2 years now and my muscular endurance has actually pretty much skyrocketed. i’m repping 225 for 14 where i could only get it twice, doing well over 20 pullups where 15 used to be the limit, and performing pushups until i get bored…fill us in on your training. you may have just been tired that day or eaten too much pizza before hand…
Hmmm… I’ve never thought of being able to do a certain set number of pullups or pushups as basic man skills… but I think I know what you’re getting at.
Your reps have probably dropped because A)you’ve gained muscle and therefore weigh more and B)Your muscles are now more adapted for strength work than muscle endurance.
Take a few weeks a work on these numbers if you want, but ask yourself something first. Do you want to be a little guy who can move a light weight a bunch of times, or a bigger guy who can lift heavy stuff?
I agree with you, but I tend to take it a tad further. I believe that in order for someone to be “fit”, they should be able to do what you said, AND run at least a 7 minute mile. What good is strength if you don’t have endurance to get you to where you may need to use it?
BTW I am not hating. I have the utmost respect for people who have the perseverence and dedication to become great powerlifters, o-lifters, and strongmen, but, with the exception of many strongmen, I do not consider these individuals to be “fit,” unless they can also run without keeling over.
Being able to do 20 pullups and\or 100 pushups is way more impressive then benching, deading or squating bodyweight. Benching bw–big fucking deal, but 20 pullups is a BIG FUCKING DEAL.
If you can’t do enough reps with bodyweight exercises, whatever that enough is, barring physical injury, malformation, etc, you get the point, you are either too fat or too weak or both.
You might want to look into Pavel Tsatsouline’s synaptic facilitation training to get your pullup and pushup numbers back to where you want them without interfering too much with your regular training. The basic concept behind it is that by “practicing” an exercise frequently at submaximal intensity levels you will improve your performance in a maximal set.
I wouldnt dedicate strictly to these endurance numbers, I would forsee a drop in your other numbers if you took several weeks off of your normal training.
I used to be able to punch out 28 pullups, 67 situps in one minute, do pushups forever and had 7% body fat. I also only weighed 110lbs.
My guess is your weight has gone up and you have neglected pullups and pushups. I would just work the pushups later in the week then your normal bench, and pullups should allready be a staple of your program (I can probably do at least 12-14 in a row now at 145lbs after working harder at them in my normal workout.)
OO-Rah, motivator. Now, you’ve read my threads, but I will try to give some advice. Someone mentioned it, but it sounds like you’ve not been doing pullups/pushups. I’d just incorporate them into the program. But I’m all about simple answers, someone else might have a better suggestion (nudge to ZEB).