Stuck on 7 pull-ups forever

[light4]

@childofgod49 I've had good results by having a daily rep target for an exercise and completing it in whatever number of sets is necessary.

In your case, you might aim for 21 pull ups per day, and achieve that in sets of 6,6,6,3. You can then progress by doing 7,6,6,2 and so on, until you can achieve in 3x7, and then increase the daily rep target.

It means that you can keep steady progress by adding volume and not just by increasing the amount of work you can do in a static number of sets.

This was also a tip from kboges, though I think he reccomends a weekly rep target.

 

[joevic]

@light4 This is the way

 

[honest33script]

@joevic

I've had good results by having a daily rep target for an exercise and completing it in whatever number of sets is necessary.

yeah this is good, Doing the max amount you can and then taking a little break and doing some more is good, aswell as doing the most you can with prefect form then some cheat ones imo

 

[emdee123]

@childofgod49 How is your program? If you have been training consistent for a while maybe you need a deload week

Here is how I normally program my workouts, let's use your 7 rep max as example, I would do this 2x/week:

Week 1: 3x5

Week 2: 3x6

Week 3: 3x7

Week 4: deload and remeasure your max on the end of the week

 

[childofgod49]

@emdee123 Hey bro what do u think about this program:

2x a week

Pull-ups / Chinups: 5x5 bw ( Add weight if I complete 5x5)

Cable rows- 3x10-12

Db curls- 3 x 10-12

Hammer curls- 2x 10-12

 

[emdee123]

@childofgod49 Hey, looks good but I would go higher reps on the pullups before adding weight like from 3x5->10 then go to 5x5 and add weight slowly

 

[childofgod49]

@emdee123 Do u mean that I add weight after reaching 3x10 ?

 

[emdee123]

@childofgod49 Yes, but lower the reps to 3x5 or 5x5 when adding weight

 

[honest33script]

@childofgod49 I wouldn't do a 5x5 of chinups, do 2/3 sets and focus on getting quality reps in, if you hit a block either do the amount that you get stuck at then take little rest 30 seconds or so and do more or do as many as you can with prefect form then squeeze out a couple cheat ones

 

[thinkvalue]

@childofgod49 I haven't read much of the other comments but from my experience when I plateaued for 3 months, I decided to go on a deload week and that actually helped me go past at where I was previously stuck at but moving forward from that point on, I included the other regressions to finish off the workout like for example I have done a pull day, so I'm finishing it off with gymnastic ring rows while my feet is elevated so I'm horizontal on the floor for my back and ring curls and pelican curls for my biceps. I'm just speaking from experience on what helped me progress more and escape my plateaus.

 

[benavez]

@thinkvalue personally Ive weirdly had breaks of maybe 2 or 3 weeks because of whatever and when Ive started again I could do more reps then before, I think from memory is was the 7 reps as well. I dont recommend it, just something that happened to me

 

[indra15001]

@childofgod49 I've been trying to get more bodyweight movements.
Honestly assisted pull ups help with getting proper form and more reps.
I'm about 220-230lbs.
I'll got to a park and do pull ups with feet on ground ( more of a row variation), reduces the amount of weight but can actively get sets of 10-15 super set with knee push ups, sometimes normal.
I've had rotator cuff issues.

I'm going to start doing more negatives from a hang after warm up.

Literally jump up to the top of a chin up position and resist the negative or fight gravity and make the negative Rep slow.

Everywhere I've read, this is where the foundation for more pulling force will come from.

 

[chosen44]

@childofgod49 Would be interested to know where Russian fighter pull up program went wrong. Unless you went back a week like 4/5 times in a row and just couldn’t progress?

My other suggestion would be weighted pull ups. If you can do 6/7 bw pull ups, add a 5kg weight and do sets of 2-3 reps for a few weeks. When you go back to bw you should be able to do more bw reps as it will feel much easier.

 

[childofgod49]

@chosen44 I was doing 5rm program and failed week 3 thrice. I will try weighted pull-ups.

 

[dbock]

@childofgod49 Considering that these are high quality sets, if you are doing 3 sets of pull-ups 3 times a week + 10 sets of biceps a week, that sounds like too much volume for biceps, especially for someone who started working out 9 months ago, you need to remember that pull-ups work your biceps really hard too, and you are doing rows too which will work your biceps to some degree also, I would reduce biceps isolation exercises for something like 3/4 sets taken to failure a week at max. Probably 2 sets of biceps spread across 2 sessions a week if you really want to do some isolation work.

A while ago, when I couldn't make progress with dips anymore, cutting out tricep extensions completely from my routine made my finally break the plateau.

If you are already doing pull-ups 3 times a week, I doubt that low frequency is the problem here, but maybe high frequency is, so maybe trying to stick with pull-ups 2 times a week for a month or two to see how it goes wouldn't hurt.

You need to make sure that intensity is on point too, if you are doing 3 sets of pull-ups, I would recommend something like 2 RIR for the first two sets, and going to failure on the last one. If you are aiming for your max reps on every single set, you are probably accumulating fatigue over the weeks, thus making you hit a plateau.

Besides that, make sure that your diet and rest is on point and keep in mind that at some point, after working out for a while, progress will be slower and harder than when you started, it's perfectly normal and there is nothing you can do about it, trying to do much about it can in fact make the progress even slower.

 

[mightymenoftoday]

@childofgod49 3 times a week is too much imo for some people. I only train pull twice a week right now, and push twice a week, weekend is rest... I'll be on a regimen like that for a while, once I get stronger and more advanced I'll maybe change it. I'm getting back into calisthenics as well as losing weight, trying to get physically healthy again. My background is being able to do at least 45 when I was in the military in my early 20's, im mid 30's now. I'm coming down from 230 lbs at 5'9, when I first started a couple months I could literally only do 1 or 2 pull-ups at a time which felt terrible given my history. As of right now, I'm up to 15. I'd say cut one of those days out and see how that goes, give your body more rest during the week. Also, resistance bands pull ups. Actually, I'd say something like this dude did would be good for you when you do train pull-ups if you have the stuff to do it.

Reason why I like this workout is the burn, go from heavy to lightest in super sets, I did something similar when I was in the military but used a flak jacket to go heavy with sapi plates in and full combat load, then I'd remove plates and magazines and come down. This will cause a good burn/pump but if you train like this you need to recover well so doing something like this 3 times a week, imo too much. Twice max. And recovery on weekends. When you start to get where you want to be, you can change that but me personally I need good recovery time. If my shit is really sore to the touch I may not even train. Also, if you're heavy for your height, you are gonna have a harder time building your rep range, as I'm coming down in weight, I'm not only getting stronger and growing slightly (muscle) but I'm also increasing in pull up reps. You didn't mention how much you weigh right now.

 

[lovefiona]

@childofgod49 I think you’re getting a lot of good advice from folks that know more than me here. But I will say that I got some bands to use in order to give me some assistance. They’ve really helped me to focus on good form, engaging my back more effectively, and getting past the #s that were my mental block. I’ve also been moving to the bands with less resistance.

 

[athena5]

@childofgod49 I had this problem (Almost the same, but not with numbers, mostly with grip strength and my calluses killing me) but I did as well like you 3x per week, I would say just do 2x per week(I do that now, I legit went from 10 up to 12, sometimes for about 1 or 2 sets at the beginning of the pull workout I can hit max 15-16 pull ups in a row with good form, not perfect but I'm happy with that) Also I don't know what is k-boges pull up program looks like, but I wanna talk about my simple one that I think should be effectives, you train 2x per week and do well around 100 pull ups or more excluding the rows(you can do those after, sometimes when you feel fatigued after like the 1st week you can take the intensity down to about 75-80 pull ups, or just do 10 sets of your max, immediately followed by body rows, also when you consider a deload days/week apply a resistance band close to half of your body weight and get close to failure like that, also high rep cali for me it always worked, and you decide if you give it a try or not. Also the mental barrier is a good thing, don't weaken your mind whit it, with every pull up, hype yourself up to tell your brain that you are gonna do it no matter what.

 

[athena5]

Also just give it some time as well.

 

[jeffin01]

@childofgod49 Just do an 8th pull up…

Jk, but I would change it up, train different types of pull ups. Feel the differences in chin ups vs pull ups. Also try higher reps with bodweight rows. Step back from just pull ups and train around it with similar moves.