I was looking for a way to increase my pull ups and I just stumbled upon Coach Thibaudeau’s ‘Keep Your Chin Up’.
Firstly, a little introduction to myself. Im a skinny 183m, 19 yo, BW is about 66 kg. Im currently in the military and I can only do about 5 good form pull ups at most.
Since I have to stay-in in the military and have no access to any weights whatsoever, this is the routine I am following (a bodyweight workout):
Daily:
Pull ups following Major Charles L. Armstrong pulling routine + Greasing the groove by doing 3 pullups each time I pass the pull up bar (which is pretty common) by doing 3 reps with a 3 sec static hold and bottom pause (Total done by GTG is about 20-30)
100 Pushups separated into 5 sets
5x5 negatives one legged squats (finish in 6 secs)
10 (6 second hold) parallel bar L-Sits
I found that my pull ups are not really improving and my arms and back are really shagged and tired. My performance is dropping as I carry on. My question is if following “Keeping the Chins up” routine can be added together with the GTG routine that I am following? Is training 2 times a week adequate?
I found that doing slow negatives helps in early stages, later use weight also for negatives, and then change ur grip from set to set. that worked for me i can do 3-5 pull ups with 20 kg dumbell
chins are something i’m acceptable at. my bw is about 195 and i can get bw + 90lb x2 and got 17 reps last time i tried to rep out (might get more like 20 now)
i found that once you start adding weight to them, your reps of bodyweight go up very easily. if you can find something heavy to strap to yourself, or hold between your feet, that would be a big plus.
if not, getting in as many chins as possible, as well as all sort of other grip variations is probably your best bet.
So judging from the replies I should try to do weighted pullups. I guess I will start withe negatives first then. How much weight do you suggest I start with?
Also, the article specifies not to do any other back workouts (I do greasing the groove throughout the day) and other body parts (I do L-sits and all the other exercises listed above)
From what I see in your routine, you are overtraining the muscles you want to improve. If anything, cut this workout to three times a week, maintaining your conditioning on the other, off days b/c the military hasn’t realized running sucks yet. Also, if you’re on post, I’m guessing you don’t eat often or enough, so try to keep your caloric and nutritional intake where it should be.
GTG is great for improving specific exercises, but combining GTG with an exercise plan specifically designed to improve your ability in Pull-ups is beating a dead horse.
Basically, keep up GTG for pullups, cut the workout you do to three(3) times a week, and eat enough to help your muscles recover.