The following link will take you to a video of gymnastics coach Cisco Gonzalez doing 8 one arm pullups - on each arm! Amazing.
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-video/onearmpull.mpg
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
Amazing! Anyone have suggestions for training up to these? When I’m in good shape I can do pullups till the cows come home, but I have never been able to do one arm pullups.
That’s awesome. I wanna be like that. He’s not huge by any means either, so sucks to the fat lifters. He’s just light and strong as hell.
That my friends is what I’m talking about. Pulling your body through space. Nothing will get you stronger,(outside the gym) and ripped Than that. I’m much more impressed by that than the 500lb bench.He whet to a complete hang at the bottom of each rep. Very nice!
Trainer J
That’s pretty strong, although he must weigh like 130 lbs soaking wet.
I think I once saw something more incredible than this. I was watching a military show and some of the men were showing off their muscles. This one guy took two of those climbing ropes, they were perhaps 3 ft apart and one in each hand. Scaled to the top like a spider up a wall. The top for these ropes was probably about 20 ft hight. I about crapped myself when I saw that. It was inhuman.
Mentioning this to a friend of mine, he told me that he had seen someone else in the military do the same thing. Except…he went feet first! Upside down! I’ve never seen it, but he’s not the type to exegerate. I think I’d paid to see that one…
From what I understand Cisco weighs 135.
This is about average for a male gymnast. For strength to weight ratio issues, most advanced gymnasts tend to be around this weight, although there are of course exceptions to this. Billy Paul, an alternate to the 1988 US Olympic Team, was about 5’10" and a solid 180lbs or so.
He was so strong and powerful that when he hit the springboard during vault training it sounded like a cannon going off! And he was not just strong, but highly skilled technically as well as shown by his triple back dismount off high bar.
The following is a response on my experiences with one arm chin training that I posted this morning in response to a question from Coach Reeves:
"Essentially I have found that there are two ways to train for the one arm chin; using a counter weight system and static holds. I have no experience with the counter weight method, but here are my experiences with using top static holds.
I have used the static training method with very good results. Following I will share a former post where I shared the details of my one arm chin training. I was very surprised that a few (2-3) one arm static holds in the top position 3-4 times a week (usually M,T,Th,F) had such a dramatic effect on my weighted pullup PR as well as being able to maintain a decent base of high rep pullups. I did not however follow that training protocol to its logical conclusion of the unassisted one arm pullup. Not long after that post, I sustained a severe forearm injury that required the better part of a year to heal. The injury was not related to the static hold chin training, but from something else altogether. By the time the forearm healed, I had moved on to other training priorities. Perhaps the following information will prove helpful anyway.
"Scott Wells (from CrossFit in response to a question on increasing pullups)
Dead Hangs
I think it is real important to hang after each rep for a good second or two; even go for a set of reps with 5 second holds in between. I don’t do these for all sets but just a couple times a week for a variation.
The true dead hang technique stretches your muscles, tendons, etc. plus it helps build your holding endurance, as in your grip/wrists/forearms."
"Scott,
You caught my attention with your earlier comment on training the “hang” portion of the pullup. I agree. In addition, I would submit that it is equally important to train the top position as a static hold as well.
Last year, I obtained a personal best in weighted chins (bodyweight plus 75lbs for 1 rep at 130lbs bodyweight) after being stuck at bodyweight plus 55lbs for a number of years. The improvement came after a couple months of daily training on 1 arm static top holds and performing 2-3 sets of 1-3 reps of assisted one arm pullups. During this period, I did no weighted chins or high rep pullups - just the program outlined above. In addition to the weighted chin PR, during the same time frame, I also performed an easy set of 19 pullups as a spur of the moment demo for some of my students.
I feel that these results were the result of focusing on the top static hold under an increased training load (i.e. the one arm hold). I did no training to increase my strength in the bottom hang position, although I wonder if working both together might have been even more beneficial…
Coach Sommer"
The following was in response to the question "Coach Sommer - How should I do lock-offs? I include it here as it gives some more details in regard to the protocol that I had used in my training.
"Ross,
Good question. Mine was not a true one arm lock-off, but a partial one arm lock-off as my non-working arm was providing some assistance.
The way that I trained my one arm chins was to position myself so that I had one hand on the bar and one hand on the side support post. As my strength increased, I simply moved my spotting arm further down the side support post.
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer"
Finally, I include this post as it profiles someone else’s success who had also used the top static hold method.
"From: afterworldsmen
(In reference to the static top hold method that I outlined above) I’ve been working on them with rings moving one ring lower once I reach my designated time and thereby increasing the load on my working arm. Today I went to the garage to do some and I felt like I flew up on the initial pull. When I got the the top I realized I wasn’t even using my non-working arm and was actually able to do a one arm hold for almost 10 seconds. I thought I was at least weeks away from being able to do this - it was quite shocking…"
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
Coach,
Can you give an idea of how long the static holds should be in the top position? THanks.
My static holds ranged in time from 3-5 seconds. Others that I have read using this method were able to build up to as high as 30 seconds.
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
Can anyone do one arm pull ups? I can do 20 normal pull ups but can not do anything with the one arm version?
I heard that one arm pull ups are only possible for 1 in 100 of the population due to gentics!
Now before people have say this is rubbish I’ve noticed that none of the west side crew can do any these and nor do strength coaches like Jo Defranco, Charles Poliquin, Christian Thibadeau or Chad Waterbury prescribe these exercises leading me to beleive these are indeed out of reach for most of the population.
I bet he’d have one hell of a clinch.
Absolutely amazing. I wonder if heavier trainees are capable of achieving reps of one armed pull ups.
[quote]indra wrote:
Can anyone do one arm pull ups? I can do 20 normal pull ups but can not do anything with the one arm version?
I heard that one arm pull ups are only possible for 1 in 100 of the population due to gentics!
Now before people have say this is rubbish I’ve noticed that none of the west side crew can do any these and nor do strength coaches like Jo Defranco, Charles Poliquin, Christian Thibadeau or Chad Waterbury prescribe these exercises leading me to beleive these are indeed out of reach for most of the population.[/quote]
I can do 10 pullups with each of my testicles.
What I find even more impressive is that he did 8 with his left hand, then without a rest switched and did 8 more with his right.
Damn thats savage, ive been wanting to do one arm pullups for so long, have been doing weighted pullups, grip work, static holds, everything. Weigh 170 though (not Hyooge, but heavier) if i can ever do a few like that, hell i will do it EVERY time i walk into a public gym.
that is a great acheivement !
I believe Poliquin was the one that originally mentioned that only 1% of the population can do true one-armed pull-ups. They tend to be gymnasts or mountain climbers. Not overly huge guys, but extremely strong.
I remember Poliquin talking about one guy who could do them. He was a mountain climber and had awesome biceps and lat development for his size (~165lbs), but he had small legs (since big legs aren’t needed in mountain climbing).
That video is impressive. Who cares if he’s only 135lbs? Why does everyone always ridicule smaller guys like that? Most male gymnasts are small (5’3" - 5"6" and 130-145lbs), and they are incredibly strong too. Most can bench well over 300lbs and squat and deadlift more than 400lbs after just a few times of actually trying the lift. That is freakin’ impressive.
I get so annoyed with “big” guys always making fun of me (or other small guys) because we don’t weigh a lot or aren’t big but still have a pretty damn good weight-to-strength ratio. WTF is up with that shit?
Nate, they’re just jealous that the amount of food you consume in a day is equivalent to one of their 5 daily shits.
Don’t you wish you were “big” like them?
[quote]oboffill wrote:
Nate, they’re just jealous that the amount of food you consume in a day is equivalent to one of their 5 daily shits.
Don’t you wish you were “big” like them?
[/quote]
LOL! For my size, I eat a lot of food, and I shit as big or bigger than some of the big guys.
Sure, I wish I was taller. My younger brother got the “tall” genes (my dad’s side of the family is taller - >5’9" - all my mom’s side is short - <5’5"). And he’s 5’9". If I was as tall as him, I’d be a lot bigger. I was pissed when he ended up being taller because he has no interest in working out or being healthy, and if I was his height, I’d easily be 185-195lbs now and look pretty damn good.
But no, I got fucked!!! I’m as tall as my freakin’ sister and I have a small bone structure. Why God, why? Why did you have to fuck me like that? I’ll never be huge!!!
Damn. I think I just figured out part of the reason for all this pent up anger/rage that I’ve been having lately. Shit…T-Nation has unlocked the deep-rooted underlying problems and issues that I’ve been keeping bottled up all my life. Who needs a shrink when you can discover these things for free on a forum?
I can do 16 with both hands. Is that the same thing?