Im doing Calimove's 8 weeks pull-up challenge (link).
I started with a max of 8 reps, aiming to increase it to 15. My max with acceptable form was 10 a couple of weeks ago, after a deload week.
Their workout C is a pyramid with increasing rest. Im doing it with 20s rest per rep (e.g. 5 reps gives me 100s rest before the following step in the pyramid).
Yesterday I went up the pyramid to 9 reps then down to 5. Thats a total of 71 pullups in a workout.
I feel its a bit too much... hence my question - how much is enough? Should I stop the pyramid at its top? Or continue some way down as Ive done?
@jadorarie Honesty, tho, I feel like this doesn’t get talked about enough in this sub. I hate when I follow someone’s recommended routine and accidentally walk away way too jacked and strong and solid thick and tight. Gotta be careful out there, folks.
@houstonreborn Kboges has plenty of good material on this. 1-4 challengjng sets is a great workout. The number of reps is irrelevant, it's really a question of the set being effort-full.
So right now I aim for 3 sets with a number of reps that I find challenging whilst keeping perfect form. This is usually around 13-14 reps per set (up from say 7-8).
I have no issues with tendonitis. I used to do weighted but found I often needed more recovery time (age related) or might pull a muscle or something which slows me down. Mostly though, it didn't translate into muscle growth compared to the frequency and consistency of unweighted higher reps.
@houstonreborn I'm a keen rock climber, and in training lots of coaches recommend doing no more than 10 per set, 3-5 sets, because of the big risk of tendonitis. Once you can do ten in a set they say you should start doing weighted. But I don't know if the tendonitis risk transfers when you're not also climbing.
@oar I’m going thru this problem right now. Not as a climber but in CrossFit and was working on increasing reps. I was doing weekly progressions on my pull days…. And was at 6-5-5-4–4-3-3. Now my left arm at the top of a pull up has so much pain I can hardly do 1. It’s been like that for 3 weeks now… I remember that particular day and I did a couple extra sets and I guess I strained a tendon. Right at the bottom of the bicep where it meets the top of the forearm. I’m in my mid 40’s so I guess body doesn’t repair as fast as it used to. Just started physio to try and overcome it… unfortunately it’s gotten into to my head so much now and can’t even bring myself to go down to my gym and do anything and work around it. I guess because I’m angry and annoyed about it. So stupid but now I’m struggling mentally to just get back at it… I have this “it’s just going to keep coming back and hinder me attitude so why bother.” Day 7 now and haven’t done a thing. previously was working out 5-6 days a week for 1.5 years now.
@lucaannibale I have this exact same thing right now. I'm pretty sure I got it from lateral raises and I'm pretty good until I start incorporating them again. From what I've read this is a big problem when you get stronger fast. Tendons simply don't keep up with the strength muscles gain and start failing. It gets even worse the older you get and I feel your pain and question even working out because of previous injuries.
@lucaannibale So whats the answer? Very slow progression? Proactively create "plateaus" in trsining to give time to connective tissues to get used to the load? I've always wondered how much time tendons and ligaments would need to adapt (Im 40yo)
@houstonreborn I'm 32 and I've fought with elbow pain for many years until I eventually figured out basically what you're talking about. For all my exercises including weighted pull ups I check my ego at the door. I'll sit at a particular weight for every exercise sometimes for two to three sessions. I do this because I really want the connective tissues to heal up and adapt. Whenever I feel any pain I take a whole week off and then drop weight on all exercises and do higher rep sets. I do this cause I never really know if the exercise that I felt the pain on was the one that did the damage. So far I've had a couple setbacks but no lasting pain and I am definitely stronger.
@houstonreborn I'm pretty busy so I always do a full body. I do regular Bench Press, OHP, pull ups, and some kind of horizontal row. I also do some type of squat and ab work. I usually do 2 but sometimes 3 times a week cause any more and I start to feel some pain more often. All my sets for all exercises are programmed the same way. Usually 3 lower weight warm up sets and 5 sets at the working weight. Though the first two working weight sets are at about half the reps just to add to the warm up. As an example I will do OHP with three warm up sets and my working sets will be 34777. Or if I just went up in weight (usually in 10 pound increments) the working set might be 22444. This usually results in a very easy workout and quite slow progress, but at the end of the day I rarely feel pain and therefore satisfied.
previously was working out 5-6 days a week for 1.5 years now.