I wanted to achieve 10 pullups because it’s a nice, round and even number. Then I’m able to do a simple 3x5 weighted pullup routine without exactly going to failure. Grease the Groove is the program I used to get this number since all the others didn’t work for me. This link explains it better than I ever can: https://humanmachine.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/grease-the-groove-for-strength/
I couldn’t do any pullups in the beginning so I started doing assisted pullups(I used the assistance machine) and negatives. Negatives are where you lower yourself slowly from the top, it’s really good for building fast-twitch muscle fibers and getting that power and strength needed to get the first pullup. Because naturally, if you can’t do any pullups strength is an issue. I couldn’t properly control the negative standing at the edge of a box near a pullup bar so I just opted for jumping pullups to get myself in the position for the negative. I would hold at the top for a few seconds to get control, and then slowly lower myself for a few seconds.If you can’t do any negatives at all, I would just focus on getting better at holding onto the bar. If you can’t hang on to the bar at all, you should probably do some lat pulldowns.
I didn’t really linearly progress the assisted pullups and negatives. For some reason, the assisted machine didn’t really scale right. 40 lbs of assistance felt much harder than 50 lbs of assistance even given the 10 lbs difference. And if I went up fast enough, the assistance machine would momentarily not be helping at all. If I could go back, I would just use assistance bands as they seem to feel more natural. So I just picked a number where I can do them with good form( I think 100 lbs was the number I used) and increased volume per week, as in more sets and reps. . Once I started adding volume, it ended up getting me from 0 pullups to 1 pullup very quickly. From there, I was just doing sets of 1 pullup all the time.
I didn’t do pullups literally every time I went to the basement(I rarely go there) or bathroom etc but I did try to space it out over the course of the day. For example if I got back from a walk, I would do a set. With the exception of the 9-pullup RM test, I never approached failure. That said, I did get a little fatigued sometimes but as long as most sets felt easy it never seemed to be a problem. That’s a point I was thinking about last night: If you’re getting better on your pullup tests, do you actually need to go to failure? If I go from 4-5 pullups and still leave a rep in the tank, does it hurt my progress? Does going to failure hurt gains in the long-run? Is it better to test every 2 weeks rather than one? Yet I think testing is still necessary, if only for the psychological benefit. 3 pullups gotta feel easy if you can do 6 pullups. My pullup log: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...8MvgAChDi393vwiK7SsrEUsq_h525Fyq1ZxV4lB-s/pub
The hardest thing about pullups wasn’t the pullups or even the diet. It was the absolute boredom. It was a chore doing pullups every day, I’d sit there, thinking “it’s probably time to do a set” after a study session. If I could do pullups once a year and magically get better, I would do that. Doing weighted pullups gives me an excuse to do them 3 times a week. It seems like if you can manage the discipline, GTG can quickly improve your pullup numbers. I’ve been doing pullups on and off for years, and I can’t remember why I decided on 4 sets, if only because it was necessary to work, or if 5 sets was too much.Would I have gotten gains faster if I did more sets or less? I don’t really know. But it worked, so I guess “don’t break something that’s fixed”. If I could start over, I would try doing 2 sets a day because at least those 2 sets can be fresh as possible.
For diet, I started off as fat at 5’11 200 lbs, 27M and dieted to 140 lbs and then over the course of this routine gained 5 lbs to try to build muscle. Before quarantine, I did Jacked and Tan 2.0. @200 lbs, I found my maintenance calories to be 3500. I made sure to get 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight and 0.4 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight (so for me it was 160 grams of protein and 80grams of fat) and put the rest of the calories in carbs. Then I did a 500 call deficit, eating 3000 calories per day. I only dropped calories by 100 if I wasn't losing weight at all for a week. This slow approach was so I didn't get too hungry for school. Eventually I dropped it to 1500 calories. With the exception of chicken to get protein, and healthy fats like peanut butter, olive oil etc to reach my fat intake, I pretty much ate whatever I wanted following IIFYM. IIFYM was a godsend for me, making it much easier for me to stick to this diet. I also used intermittent fasting because 1 meal a day is really satiating. This took me a few years.
Methods to stave off hunger were copious amounts of diet coke, gum and vegetables.
I will admit that losing weight made pullups so much easier, it’s crazy how much easier it makes it. Other lifts didn’t really change much depending on if I gained/lost weight. My lats didn’t really get any bigger. I guess it wasn’t enough time for them to grow? I suspect weighted pullups are better for lat-development anyway. I experienced some elbow tendonitis in the later weeks so I looked at diet and added some protein since it was a shitty diet. I don’t think you need a perfect diet to get better at pullups as long as you’re not overweight and aren’t getting injured anyway. My sleep was fine, it wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either .For the future, the primary goal is: Do a pullup with 45 lbs. Secondary goal: See how it affects my bodyweight pullups.
TL;DR: Do more pullups to get better at pullups. You don’t need to do a lot, just a few good sets will work and frequency is likely more important than volume.
Edit: I expanded more on the diet approach.
I couldn’t do any pullups in the beginning so I started doing assisted pullups(I used the assistance machine) and negatives. Negatives are where you lower yourself slowly from the top, it’s really good for building fast-twitch muscle fibers and getting that power and strength needed to get the first pullup. Because naturally, if you can’t do any pullups strength is an issue. I couldn’t properly control the negative standing at the edge of a box near a pullup bar so I just opted for jumping pullups to get myself in the position for the negative. I would hold at the top for a few seconds to get control, and then slowly lower myself for a few seconds.If you can’t do any negatives at all, I would just focus on getting better at holding onto the bar. If you can’t hang on to the bar at all, you should probably do some lat pulldowns.
I didn’t really linearly progress the assisted pullups and negatives. For some reason, the assisted machine didn’t really scale right. 40 lbs of assistance felt much harder than 50 lbs of assistance even given the 10 lbs difference. And if I went up fast enough, the assistance machine would momentarily not be helping at all. If I could go back, I would just use assistance bands as they seem to feel more natural. So I just picked a number where I can do them with good form( I think 100 lbs was the number I used) and increased volume per week, as in more sets and reps. . Once I started adding volume, it ended up getting me from 0 pullups to 1 pullup very quickly. From there, I was just doing sets of 1 pullup all the time.
I didn’t do pullups literally every time I went to the basement(I rarely go there) or bathroom etc but I did try to space it out over the course of the day. For example if I got back from a walk, I would do a set. With the exception of the 9-pullup RM test, I never approached failure. That said, I did get a little fatigued sometimes but as long as most sets felt easy it never seemed to be a problem. That’s a point I was thinking about last night: If you’re getting better on your pullup tests, do you actually need to go to failure? If I go from 4-5 pullups and still leave a rep in the tank, does it hurt my progress? Does going to failure hurt gains in the long-run? Is it better to test every 2 weeks rather than one? Yet I think testing is still necessary, if only for the psychological benefit. 3 pullups gotta feel easy if you can do 6 pullups. My pullup log: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...8MvgAChDi393vwiK7SsrEUsq_h525Fyq1ZxV4lB-s/pub
The hardest thing about pullups wasn’t the pullups or even the diet. It was the absolute boredom. It was a chore doing pullups every day, I’d sit there, thinking “it’s probably time to do a set” after a study session. If I could do pullups once a year and magically get better, I would do that. Doing weighted pullups gives me an excuse to do them 3 times a week. It seems like if you can manage the discipline, GTG can quickly improve your pullup numbers. I’ve been doing pullups on and off for years, and I can’t remember why I decided on 4 sets, if only because it was necessary to work, or if 5 sets was too much.Would I have gotten gains faster if I did more sets or less? I don’t really know. But it worked, so I guess “don’t break something that’s fixed”. If I could start over, I would try doing 2 sets a day because at least those 2 sets can be fresh as possible.
For diet, I started off as fat at 5’11 200 lbs, 27M and dieted to 140 lbs and then over the course of this routine gained 5 lbs to try to build muscle. Before quarantine, I did Jacked and Tan 2.0. @200 lbs, I found my maintenance calories to be 3500. I made sure to get 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight and 0.4 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight (so for me it was 160 grams of protein and 80grams of fat) and put the rest of the calories in carbs. Then I did a 500 call deficit, eating 3000 calories per day. I only dropped calories by 100 if I wasn't losing weight at all for a week. This slow approach was so I didn't get too hungry for school. Eventually I dropped it to 1500 calories. With the exception of chicken to get protein, and healthy fats like peanut butter, olive oil etc to reach my fat intake, I pretty much ate whatever I wanted following IIFYM. IIFYM was a godsend for me, making it much easier for me to stick to this diet. I also used intermittent fasting because 1 meal a day is really satiating. This took me a few years.
Methods to stave off hunger were copious amounts of diet coke, gum and vegetables.
I will admit that losing weight made pullups so much easier, it’s crazy how much easier it makes it. Other lifts didn’t really change much depending on if I gained/lost weight. My lats didn’t really get any bigger. I guess it wasn’t enough time for them to grow? I suspect weighted pullups are better for lat-development anyway. I experienced some elbow tendonitis in the later weeks so I looked at diet and added some protein since it was a shitty diet. I don’t think you need a perfect diet to get better at pullups as long as you’re not overweight and aren’t getting injured anyway. My sleep was fine, it wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either .For the future, the primary goal is: Do a pullup with 45 lbs. Secondary goal: See how it affects my bodyweight pullups.
TL;DR: Do more pullups to get better at pullups. You don’t need to do a lot, just a few good sets will work and frequency is likely more important than volume.
Edit: I expanded more on the diet approach.
My plan is once I get to 2x15, I’ll start working the sequence for one-arm pull-ups. That’s gonna be humbling af.