Stuck at 4-6 pull-ups for months

@gomer51 For me personally I went from a 45 pound weighted pullups to 65 pounds my reps didn't increase at all in bodyweight lol. My volume shot up like crazy to as well to being able to get 3x5 20 pounds and even a 6x2 with 45 pounds lol
 
@jabba1495 I thought I was plateauing at 6-8 bodyweight pullups for a while too, but forgot to take into account that I was bulking and putting on about 1kg of weight per month.

So I was actually getting stronger with my pullups and reached 10 pullups after losing some of that extra weight.
 
@cathypoole Well my goal isn't exactly to gain weight now, actually I’m even trying to lose a bit of weight since I do rock climbing and I also think that if I lost like 5kg it will make pull ups significantly easier.
 
@jabba1495 I made gains in my pull ups when I started holding at the top. I would do my reps, on the last one I would hold at the top and count to ten, eventually getting to 30 squeezing everything as hard as I could...
 
@forscher As someone who struggles with biceps tendonitis and cubital tunnel syndrome I recommend to better hold in the 90° position (i.e. biceps horizontal) or even lower. Much safer position and it’s still time under tension.
 
@jabba1495 Going to failure 3x a week is really way more than you should honestly. The more frequently you train a muscle the less you should go to failure.

If you care about the science. Then basically going to failure is very taxing on the body to recover. I believe it was 48 hours minimum. But the benefits are very little then if you stopped 1-2 reps before.

Personally I’d only train to failure if I’d train a muscle 1x a week. You really don’t need to train as hard as most people think to make good progress. I tried two 6 week training blocks on exercises I could do 7-12 repetitions on. And I left 2-4 reps in reserve in one block and went to failure every time in the other block. And I realised I made the exact same strength progress in both blocks. Working out hard feels really good, but if you’re not gaining strength you should reevaluate.
 
@lddlells Instead of listening to this "training to failure 3x a week is too much" BS you should listen to andrew hubermans discussion about various types of resistance training with Dr Andy Galpin.

Actual experts with actual facts.
 
@godsblessings0209 All these “experts” have been wrong a dozen times. From protein recommendations, volume recommendations, going to failure. I could go on and on and on on things that were “proven by science” and then later found out to be wrong.

It is the process of science. And exercise is not easy to do perfectly. Plus people misinterpret/exaggerate things very very often.

One easy example is how much bro splits get trashed online even by all the experts. But the science doesn’t even back that up. It’s slightly worse, but not as much as you would think if you’d listen to all these experts.

The best thing you can do is listen to your body and experiment yourself.
 
@godsblessings0209 Believe what you want to believe. I’m just saying science isn’t the holy grail people like to pretend it is. We are not able to do perfect science at this point in time, maybe give it another few hundred years and we could.

Use it as guidance, not as the absolute truth. Because all humans, including scientists are flawed. And the average scientist is a lot less intelligent than you probably believe..

But maybe try discuss an actual point if you think im wrong? Because pretty much all expert’s nowadays agree that going to failure it not necessary and is not optimal in most scenarios. It’s like an insurance you trained hard enough, but comes at a great cost of your recovery.

But 10 years ago that wasn’t the scientific consensus. So I trained to failure every time, as the science said it was optimal. And it was way too much to recover from adequately. So maybe you understand where I’m coming from.
 
@lddlells You're saying the current science is that training to failure is not necessary and yet one of the foremost doctors in this field is saying the exact opposite.

Galpin said in no uncertain terms you have to train to failure to achieve adaptation. The caveat to that is he said muscle soreness is a bad indicator of exercise quality. You can achieve adaptation without being overly sore. Training to failure does not necessarily mean you are overstressing yourself.

Example: my working sets vary in weight and reps based on how I am feeling. If I feel strain on tendons more than usual I drop the weight and increase reps. If I am feeling particularly solid and powerful that day I will substantially increase weight and reduce reps. In both scenarios, however, I am doing the number of reps necessary to fail. My last rep will either be a massive struggle or outright incomplete.

You are basically telling me I need to be open minded and take information with a grain of salt, but CLEARLY you haven't even listened to the information i referenced. Galpin doesn't necessarily disagree with what you are saying 100%. The original comment of "training to failure 3x a week is too much" is 100% BS though because i havr achieved massive gains training to failure 6 days a week and, according to the actual doctors, the CURRENT consensus in the community supports this.
 
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