I would say drop chins for a while and do inverted rows. Focus on getting your chest to the bar on each rep. On the last rep of each set pump out reps in the top part of the lift, so you’re basically doing partials in the top end. Once you can get a good sold 20 full range reps progress to rack chins. Same concept here as with the inverted rows. Once you can get 20 full range reps increase the weight on rack chins until you’re able to do 20 full reps with two 45 pond plates in your lap. Then you should progress back to pullups in which you should be able to do at least a few full range reps with your body weight.
The concept behind all this is to specifically develop the muscles and motor pattern used in pullups but with less overall load. You can’t get good at a lift if you can’t do it. Thats why band assisted pullups are also great. They help develop that strength in the part of the lift that you struggle with the most.
I can’t imagine doing kipping at 300lbs, if you do definitely don’t max out for a month a two to prepare your shoulders for the amount of jerking on it.
Why are you not squeezing at the top? If you can’t get your chin over the bar you should be squeezing at the top of every rep until you can.
Do you use lat pull downs? How far down do you pull that bar? What about standing military press where does each rep start? Find out if it’s a ROM issue or a strength issue.
Straight arm pull downs > pullovers help increase ROM, concentrate on ROM first then increase strength.
until you can do it completely vertical try leaning back if you can to have your chest touch, similar to a Gironda maybe not as far back.
If your not doing them already you can add a 8 week cycle of flyes, they help more than you think.
As far as endurance goes the first muscle to go are the biceps, pic a high rep range and do as heavy as you can single arm curls. 4 sets of 20 increased my pull-ups the quickest. I’m smaller than you so it was only 20-30lbs but my pull up number sky rocketed. Since your training and not worried about max, really squeeze as you curl work your grip also. [/quote]
thanks Airtruth, that’s some good tips
Yeah the kipping thing worried me too, think i’ll pass on that.
I doubt i have an issue with ROM, i can OH press with no prob lots of weight from off the chest to full lockout.
Never really got much out of lat pull downs, i gave them a try and experimented with various grips/widths, even tried initiating the pull with pure lats. If it helped i couldn’t notice it.
Straight arm standing pull downs i do those, and i feel it in the lats, get a good pump & burn in the lats.
i’ll keep in mind the squeezing at the top, flies and curls. Thanks
[/quote]
cool. I can’t tell if you understood or not but I only recommended the pull down for improving your ROM only. The movements are similar and if you can get the pull down to below the chin you can do that for your pull ups too. I wouldn’t try to give you advice on your lats you seem to be training them very well.
I find it easier to do chin ups, or palms facing me for a full ROM. I too have some sort of tendonitis in my left arm, brachialis/bracioradialis region, anything in the hammer curl type position really bugs it, so neutral grip is very rare for me. Forget getting your chin over the bar, it serves no purpose, you should be pulling your sternum toward the bar to really blast the lats.
Lot of posts, if someone mentioned this already, sorry for the repost.
Isometric pauses at the top of each grip: get your chin above the bar, and hold the lockout. Set PR’s in time. whether it is 10 seconds or 45 seconds.
Jump eccentrics with yielding phase for time: get a bench to stand on under the bar. Use your legs to ‘jump’ (or stand or push your self into a chin over bar position) as you begin to lower yourself, do so for time. Again, set a rep record for 5 second negatives, 10 second negative, etc. All grips.
Alter your reps and sets. This is a program i saw on the internets, but it worked well for me in increasing the amount of reps i can do:
Goal: 12 reps (workout performed twice per week)
week 1: 12 sets of 2 reps
week 2: 8 sets of 3 reps
week 3: 6 sets of 4 reps
week 4: 5 sets of 5 reps
week 5: 4 sets of 6 reps
week 6: 3 sets of 8 reps
week 7: 1 set of 12 reps
Dont move on to the next week until you hit all the prescribed reps of the previous week. This program also works nicely with bands. As you work through this, you can get lighter bands as you rerun the program. I started with an Average Green band, then ran it with a monster mini band, then no band.
Like a few have mentioned on this thread, you have to spend more time in and around the top position. Try to find a band(s) ( assisting) that will allow you to get the ROM you want for multiple reps and then just short range reps in the top 1/4 or half. I had an issue with ROM a while back and someone suggested that I set-up a board across a power rack so I was in the top 1/3 of the position and put my knees on the board ( to eliminate the tendency to jump), this worked for me, but I could do a couple of reps full ROM at the time. Also Isometrics could help.
[quote]dwfox wrote:
Lot of posts, if someone mentioned this already, sorry for the repost.
Isometric pauses at the top of each grip: get your chin above the bar, and hold the lockout. Set PR’s in time. whether it is 10 seconds or 45 seconds.
Jump eccentrics with yielding phase for time: get a bench to stand on under the bar. Use your legs to ‘jump’ (or stand or push your self into a chin over bar position) as you begin to lower yourself, do so for time. Again, set a rep record for 5 second negatives, 10 second negative, etc. All grips.
Alter your reps and sets. This is a program i saw on the internets, but it worked well for me in increasing the amount of reps i can do:
Goal: 12 reps (workout performed twice per week)
week 1: 12 sets of 2 reps
week 2: 8 sets of 3 reps
week 3: 6 sets of 4 reps
week 4: 5 sets of 5 reps
week 5: 4 sets of 6 reps
week 6: 3 sets of 8 reps
week 7: 1 set of 12 reps
Dont move on to the next week until you hit all the prescribed reps of the previous week. This program also works nicely with bands. As you work through this, you can get lighter bands as you rerun the program. I started with an Average Green band, then ran it with a monster mini band, then no band.
With pull-ups, you just gotta get in the reps.[/quote]
My girlfriend basically did this (with more emphasis on the eccentrics) when she couldn’t do a single pullup and it worked great for her. I think she can bang out about 6 or so now, which is pretty good IMO.
[quote]dwfox wrote:
Alter your reps and sets. This is a program i saw on the internets, but it worked well for me in increasing the amount of reps i can do:
Goal: 12 reps (workout performed twice per week)
week 1: 12 sets of 2 reps
week 2: 8 sets of 3 reps
week 3: 6 sets of 4 reps
week 4: 5 sets of 5 reps
week 5: 4 sets of 6 reps
week 6: 3 sets of 8 reps
week 7: 1 set of 12 reps
Dont move on to the next week until you hit all the prescribed reps of the previous week. This program also works nicely with bands. As you work through this, you can get lighter bands as you rerun the program. I started with an Average Green band, then ran it with a monster mini band, then no band.
With pull-ups, you just gotta get in the reps.[/quote]
My girlfriend basically did this (with more emphasis on the eccentrics) when she couldn’t do a single pullup and it worked great for her. I think she can bang out about 6 or so now, which is pretty good IMO.[/quote]
This looks like a really good way to progress on pull-ups to me. I might even put forth that you do it 3 or more times/week instead of just twice.
Just note your rest periods. Try to finish each week in the same amount of time. For 12 sets of 2, take shorter breaks (5-20 sec.'s). For 6x4, take a longer break. Ideally, you want to control your TUT so it is consistent throughout the cycle. Since each week you will be doing approximately 24 reps, the only thing that should change is your rest periods.