Are weighted pull ups even worth it?

[vinod367]

@asperd I would do that, but right now I was trying a straight sets approach with minimal dropsets to cut down on the fatigue. But that does seem like a good option.

 

[ringo123]

@vinod367 Maybe it’s a personal preference thing.

I fucking hate lat pulldowns. I can’t get the mind muscle connection needed for it and I can’t progressively overload with it.

I however, love assisted pull-ups then progressed to weighted pull-ups.

I usually go for 6, then add 5kg if I can move my body easily at 8 reps. All the way up to my chest, then slow and controlled all the way down to get that deep stretch.

I do 5 sets with the last set as an AMRAP @ BW.

I just love how it stretches my lats compared to lat pulldowns.

TL;DR : whichever exercise has the most mind-muscle connection.

 

[elenamaria_9]

@vinod367 Dr Mike is a zealot for his own stuff; excessively dogmatic. I highly recommend you go well outside of RP.

Mike is very good at using logic to control arguments and setup analogies to sound so common sensical or that "well, this is what the science says, so..."

Look into Geoffrey Verity Schoefeld, Alex Leonidas, or Blad Omni-Man if you want to understand how natural bodybuilders should train.

 

[giacmosuaviet]

@elenamaria_9 Don't forget another rhetorical technique of his: distract people with idiotic dick and gay jokes

 

[elenamaria_9]

@giacmosuaviet 100%. For someone in their late 30's, you would think he would start to prioritize professionalism for their business, but who knows? Maybe that's what people like him?

 

[jamieh76]

@elenamaria_9 I don’t like Mikes advice a lot of the time but there’s nothing wrong with his jokes, he’s a funny guy.

 

[benajmk]

@vinod367 Yes, they are. The main difficulty with body weight calisthenics is incremental progress. How do you know you're progressing week to week once you can already do 20 pull-ups in a set?

Weighted pull-ups give you that metric. You can add a 2.5 or 5 plate to the stack and apply double progression to the exercise.

It's much harder to do sternum pull-ups and so we often take the easier version of chin to bar as the basic standard.

The weighted pull-up also gives you a weighted stretch at the bottom, akin to a weighted dead hang, something that can't be easily replicated with bodyweight pull-ups. You could say that people often cheat themselves out of that stretch and the bottom but I think the folks who do that would also do that on bodyweight variations.

That being said, the weighted pull-up is not a magic exercise. It's just one variation and I have others like L sit pull-ups and wide grip pull-ups in my program. But it's a good tool to have and I wouldn't dismiss it because some of the benefits it offers are unique to it and can't be offered by other exercises in your program.

 

[vloggle]

@vinod367 Pull ups worked extremely well for me. I feel like its the easiest workout to track progression as well. You remember every time you can do 1 extra pullup and you see the new muscles popping in your back. I didn't start Weighted until I was able to do about around 15 pullups body weight

 

[vinod367]

@vloggle 15 seems like a lot for me. My mind starts giving out before anything else, and those starting reps get way too explosive where I think I could do more total reps if I saved some juice in the initial reps.

 

[firebreathingcat108]

@vinod367 It's also hard to put your chin on the bar. Why can't your chin work but only your sternum?

 

[johnvladimir]

@vinod367 Yes...they are...even unweighted widegrips are amazing

 

[xoxkittykatxox]

@vinod367 weighted pull-ups are goated

 

[shieldelect7]

@vinod367 As an older lifter (40ish), be careful with the volume on weighted pull-ups (and pull-ups in general, although weighted especially gets me). Without fail, an extended period of training them with high volume will always cause me elbow issues.

 

[sunshinebear57]

@vinod367 I’m 190lb sometimes I do chest to bar or ring pull ups without weight in the 12-15 range but I like weighted pull ups for a general strength builder 5-8reps . I train jiu jitsu and judo and it’s forsure has some athletic carry over. That being said alot of people say it’s great for biceps but for be personally no matter which grip variation I used, it did not grow my biceps so I just had to throw some curls in.

 

[hartsarts]

@vinod367 Calisthenics more commonly have multiple ways to progress. Make the exercise harder or add weight

It's basically Larsen press 225 with a slow eccentric or touch and go bench 275. Doesn't matter really just work hard

 

[rank156562]

@vinod367 M

 

[henry315]

@vinod367 Watch this, Fazlifts explains it very well.

 

[joy_m]

@vinod367 If you like doing weighted pull ups do them, going sternum to bar or weighted serve the same purpose it makes the exercise more difficult.
If someone says to add a deficit on rdls before adding weight would you follow that advice?

 

[yes26]

@vinod367 Just finished my back day doing pull ups,no added weight required cause I weigh 105 kg,my back are growing like a tree,I add some rows and its a perfect crime

 

[surfing_australian]

@vinod367 Personally my progression within under 10 reps on all pull up variations is much smoother than above 10 reps.

The reps being perfect or not is somewhat insignficant to me and I logbook them just for tracking purposes. Regardless of what I count as a full rep or not my sets only end when I can't get out of the bottom without kipping. I do more of them than pulldowns because pull ups are simply more fun and the muscle growth has always been pretty much the same with both.