Type 2b here and can’t do. More then 5 for like 2 years…
and what are you doing to increase them??
Doing it every other day sets of 5
Do some scapular pullups for activation.
You can try bands to get more volume and better form.
Do negatives after your last rep (Jump up to the bar and lower slowly 3-4sec.), for as many as you can (probably 3-5 additional reps).
Take enough rest between sets (3min.)
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I would suggest: Start doing 50 total reps per day, but I feel as if I should ask: how heavy are you?
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My advice is to get a pull up bar for home and a few days a week do them constantly. Every time you go into the room do a set do a few sets every hour. It sounds crazy but this is what guys in prison do. Many of them have built amazing physiques with just pull-ups dips and pushups and a crappy diet. I do pull-ups 3 days a week no matter what, I dont even count I just do every set to failure and I do them all day. If you follow this routine for 6 weeks I gaurentee you’ll notice a big difference. It’s a body weight exercise so you really cant over do it. Pull-ups and deadlift leg are the two best excercises there are in my opinion and two of the most under rated. I dont think anyone should be allowed to go near a bicep curl or isolation excercise until he can do 10 pull-ups,
Do lots and lots of pull ups. I don’t think it matters how, just do lots of them. Mix your grip up.
A poster above mentioned going to failure. In my experience, you can get plenty strong without having to go to failure.
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85 kilo…
Then you can do them everyday. Enjoy.
Be careful with volume. They can wreck your elbows. Make sure you’re really pushing your chest to the bar and not pulling your elbows forward.
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@revin A prerequisite would be that you can activate the core and scapula musculature and handle a proper technique. Once this is established and you can do five good form reps you can build from there.
As a type 2b I would say you should work on hypertrophy with the lats. Type 2b’s ‘get stronger by getting bigger’ as Christian would mention. So with the pull-up itself you are on a sticking point, with these you can do cluster sets te get more into a hypertrophy range. Other excercises can work as well to build that mass and strength (rows, cable work, etc.). And perhaps getting your weight down a bit would help too, don’t know anything about your body composition. Good luck mate!
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I went from being able to do 8 to being able to do 25. I was already in shape and relatively strong, but could only get 8.
I actually got really strong in pull ups doing p90x about 13 years ago. There are two pull up days, and both have you do several sets of “as many” pull ups as you can. Of course, you’d write it down in a fancy p90x printout sheet and the next time I had one goal: beat last week’s numbers. One thing, though, that I think worked so well was there was a timer on the video for that set. So, I would crank out as many as a could, but the timer was still going, so I’d rest briefly and grab the bar and crank out a few more. On “chest and back” day, I was doing nearly 400 push ups and 150 pull ups after progressing through the program a couple of times. Also, you’d do all different types of pull ups, which I think prevented me from overuse injuries.
Since building up that many years ago, I have since added muscle ups, weighted pull ups, and really, really worked hard towards a 1 arm pull up (never got one yet). I can still do 25 pull ups, though, which is surprising to me.
I think there is a certain threshold from which it gets easier to increase the numbers of reps you can do on a pull-up (or any other bodyweight exercise). Getting from 5 to 8 is more difficult than going from 8 to 11. Bodyweight exercises are also neurologically more demanding than training with weights… machines are even further down that path.
But getting from 8 to 25 is a wonderful achievement! Did you do any supplementary work too? And like you say, you were already in shape. I guess low bodyfat, so pound for pound it should be a bit easier to gain more reps on the pull-up.
Actually, I did this over about 1+ years doing p90x programs as my main workouts. It’s funny, because I can’t imagine doing a video workout program now, but those programs are essentially bodyweight with dumb bell assistance. So, the only pulling exercises are pull ups, DB rows, and curls. But each week, you might do ~20-25 sets of pull ups done to failure with rest pauses after (if you really push yourself, which I did). These would be done over two workouts.
I weighed about 165 - 170 at the time. Now, I do barbell routines but still use lots of bodyweight assistance and weigh between 170 - 175. Now, I do mostly sets of 10-15 with bodyweight, and 5-10 weighted. That said, I really pushed weighted pull ups for a 531 program and was doing 5x10 with 35 lbs of added weight. I developed some nagging elbow pain from that, so I’ve backed off the weighted pull ups.
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What type of cluster? Any example?
A good starting point would be checking out these T-Nation articles:
I’m (sort of) doing the Russian fighter pull up program. I’m not doing it daily as specified, so my progress is a bit slower. But I am doing it around 3 days a week. Definitely making progress.
I also started using the same set/rep scheme program for dips.
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