Just wondering, I usually start out my upper body day with pull ups, at 195lbs I can rip out 11 to 12 170 degree pull ups (180s just don’t work for me, but I’m trying)
However, they bring in some muscle fatigue very quickly… I am wondering if you guys think it is important to do?
P.S. I have been told by others in my gym that 12 pull-ups at my weight are impressive. I’ve been lifting seriously since april-ish, only casually beforehand. Is this good? Or does my gym suck. (As you can guess, it probably does by all standards)
I do pull-ups at the end. One reason is because, like you mentioned, they’re a great finisher as they fatigue you pretty quickly. The second reason is that I like getting the major lifts out of the way first, as more of my energy can go into those.
Pull-ups in general are a great BW excercise, and are also great because you can add weight for weighted pull-ups giving you the same benefits. So if your question is should you continue doing them, then yes, you absolutely should.
12 pull-ups, fresh, for one set isn’t amazing by any standards. It depends on what your 195lbs of weight is, mostly muscle or mostly fat? If a fat guy pulled off 12 pull-ups, that would actually be impressive, but otherwise no.
Pull-ups and chins and arguably the best exercises you can do for your back. Many call chins the ‘upper body squat’ since it involves so many muscles.
You shouldn’t limit yourself to just doing body weight pull-ups and chins. If you can do sets of 10-12, then it’s time to add some weight. Don’t be afraid to add weight and play around in the lower rep ranges. Many of us here do heavy chins as our primary back exercise.
Use the search function. There are many great articles on this site about the benefits of doing them and routines you can use.
I need some input on those too, if people do see them
That is 17lbs less than the originals, I hope it is becoming visible. My fat is definitely less dense but as you can see my pesky sides and chest wont burn off.
P.S. sorry about my hair, I cannot control my body hair.
It is very hard to say whether you should be doing them as you fail to tell us what your goals are. Though i will take a guess that it is to put on slabs of muscle.
Now you must ask yourself this, after/during a set of pullups (which should be creating some sort of oxygen debt as it as a compound movement) where do feel it most. If you are trying to build i big back and you are feeling it in you arms you should be picking another exercise.
If you hell bent on using pullups to get a barn door back i have 1 suggestion for you. Make sure you try and stretch your lats in the bottom position (even for a second), as this will aid the lats being requited even more during the concentric phase
Right now I lift primarily and do cardio less, only because I hit a plateau and I read an article about body adaptation. I dont have the time to UP my cardio. Might have to switch to HIIT soon.
I weighed 212 in the first picture, 195 in my second set.
Many of us here do heavy chins as our primary back exercise.
I could be off, but I am pretty sure that chin ups are for biceps and pull ups are for back.
on another note yes pull ups are great for you and so are chin ups. your progress looks good. Are you doing cardio and diet? What do you weigh now?[/quote]
Chins involve the biceps more than pull-ups and you can do them in ways where you can really focus on them, but chins are a back exercise. If you do heavy chins and don’t feel it in your back at all, then you aren’t doing them right or your mind/muscle link with your back is very poor.
[quote]cman10 wrote:
I do pull-ups at the end. One reason is because, like you mentioned, they’re a great finisher as they fatigue you pretty quickly. The second reason is that I like getting the major lifts out of the way first, as more of my energy can go into those.
Pull-ups in general are a great BW excercise, and are also great because you can add weight for weighted pull-ups giving you the same benefits. So if your question is should you continue doing them, then yes, you absolutely should.
12 pull-ups, fresh, for one set isn’t amazing by any standards. It depends on what your 195lbs of weight is, mostly muscle or mostly fat? If a fat guy pulled off 12 pull-ups, that would actually be impressive, but otherwise no.[/quote]
Thats interesting, im just thinking, 12 pounds of fat lifted is impressive? how about , muscle weighs more than fat, try 12 pounds of muscle lifted. its not what ur body content is, i have seen 250 pound dudes mostly fat that is, pull 20 times in sets.
its ur amount of strenght. shoot for 50 pulls if you can, fuck chinups, yeah oncei n a while they are ok, but stick with wide grip pulls ups, multiple studies i have read support the fact that its the best to do wide grip anterior pull ups. but throw a little of everything in there. VARIETY. good luck
I’m sorry but 50 pullups?
Even the people around here(my town, not this site) in top shape can’t even pump that many out, I’d like to know where you came to the number 50.
Also, a 250 pound fat man doing 20 pullups per set is unlikely, as they wouldn’t be mostly fat if they had that kind of strength.
I love pullups and chins… all varieties. I always perform them as one of the first movements on an upper body day. Chins do tend to focus more on arms than pullups do, but both should significantly stress your back as well.
You may need to actually focus on retracting the scapulae, and then pulling them down if you can’t feel your back when chinning.
As far as 11 or 12 is concerned… not too bad considering that you’ve only been working out for a few months. I have started training my friends, and they were able to reach these numbers in about 3 months, having started at about 3 pullups.
Like someone else mentioned, it might be worth your time to begin integrating some extra weight. My friends are both now maxing with 45 lbs added via a dip belt, and they weight 140 and 150 lbs respectively.
Another good one is to use a towel or two. Start with one hand on the bar, and another on a towel that is wrapped over the bar. Do a set, and switch which hand is on the bar. Once you can do full sets of these, try towels on both sides.
They’re probably the best thing you can do for your back besides deadlifts, and the best thing you can do for your arms besides curls. Personally, I like to do 1 set of 3 inbetween my sets of main lifts like bench and squat.
Thats interesting, im just thinking, 12 pounds of fat lifted is impressive? how about , muscle weighs more than fat, try 12 pounds of muscle lifted. its not what ur body content is, i have seen 250 pound dudes mostly fat that is, pull 20 times in sets. its ur amount of strenght.
shoot for 50 pulls if you can, fuck chinups, yeah oncei n a while they are ok, but stick with wide grip pulls ups, multiple studies i have read support the fact that its the best to do wide grip anterior pull ups. but throw a little of everything in there. VARIETY. good luck[/quote]
You and I are saying the same thing, just differently. With muscle weight, while heavier, comes strength. Fat doesn’t give you strength. So while one may weigh more with muscle, at least he has the strength increases to go along with. Hypothetically, 195 lbs of pure fat will not be able to do the same amount of pull ups that your 250 lb example can do.
Hangerbaby:
Good for you on the fat loss, now you need some size IMO.
As far as chins go, I love them. Hwever I do them at the end of my session with added weight. Don’t neglect anything, but my advice is to pick what works the best for you.If you’re doing powercleans, deadlifts, multiple row variations, I don’t think your back will be too bad if you don’t do pullups.
