Are you weak at the top of the pullup, or the bottom?
I find it easier to go from a DEAD hang. Not just arms straight, but shoulders up. I get my shoulders to the ‘back and down’ posture about halfway through the rep. It also helps if I keep my feet behind me and my hips straight.
Explode from the bottom, just like any other compound lift.
To work the back more, think of your hands as just a pair of hooks. Pull with your elbows.
Keep working hard at it, you’ll get it in time. And forget the ‘no isolation’ rule. Keep most of your focus on compounds, though.
Yeah, negatives have introduced me to pain in muscles I didn’t know I had. They seem to target my shoulders much much more than pulldowns have been.
I am definately sticking with my arm routine, but I decided to spend the next few weeks prioritizing my shoulders and back while I shed a bit more fat.
I should be at the 5 pullup mark in 23 days. That’s the goal. I am looking forward to introducing pullups to my routine.
You should just do what I did. Buy a pullup bar, and place it over your kitchen. Every time you see it, do 1 very strict pullup, top to bottom. I started out being able to do half a pullup this way, now I can do about 23. Pullup bars a great investment considering they only cost about 10 or 20 bucks.
i started only being able to do 5 and am at 15 dead hang pullups right now. the way i used the program was every night mon/wed/fri do the rep scheme according to what you can accomplish. if you stall on one week just repeat it or take a few days off from pullups. sometimes i would do 3x max pullups on saturday to mix things up. you could also use this as a warmup on upperbody day.
just my 2 cents.
And thats a stupid point. Why in the name of GOD would a newbie NOT train his arms?
Because most newbies biggest weakness is everything else BUT their arms. It is not about arm training so much as it is about using your time to train more powerful movements. Take the time you spend doing arms, cut it in half, and do dead lifts without straps.
Oh - and make sure they are heavy.[/quote]
So arbitrary it’s laughable. (who’s to say the guy doesn’t already train the deadlift or do other lower body/back exercises) But I guess at least we’re sounding hardcore. Let me try: HAHAHA, YOU PUSSIES, NEXT TIME YOU DO TRICEPS, LIFT UP YOUR SKIRT AND GET IN THE F’N SQUAT RACK.
In all seriousness. Since the topic is training arms, I will answer with an arm training question.
Ignoring your biceps/tris/forearms IMO can be a mistake. While some guys’ arms respond great to compound work, there is a lot of us out there that respond great to isolation work. For my first year of weightlifting I didn’t really do curls much, and didn’t really try to go heavy on them. As a result my torso developed reasonably well, as did my legs. But my arms were around 13 inches, which was an improvement, but not much.
Flash forward to now, I do arm training and I go heavy once a week. With progressive overload my arms are 16 inches now after barely a year of direct arm training. Forearms are 14 inches. Even my wrists are a little thicker. And I STILL need them to grow a lot further as they are really long. I once thought I don’t have good arm genetics because I was doing pull ups and pull downs for a year to no avail, now I’m convinced they’re probably have the best potential out of most my muscle groups.
Why does everyone here seem more concerned with slating other peoples advice than helping the guys asking for it?
I think you should try using a high pulley like jarc said and when you can do a couple do what forbes said and use load progression but thats my opinion, I wouldn’t stop curls etc though
getting a chin-up bar for your doorway is also a good piece of advice, the only thing i dont like about them is you can’t really do wide grip because of the door frame
i have a “station” in the garage that i will be able to do wide grip pull ups on eventualy but at the moment i just dont have the strength. when i can do 1, i will do a few sets of 1 every day.
i am looking in awe at the lowest rung of the physical fitness ladder at the moment its a ladder i want to climb up but im not going to rush it.
i appreciate all the helpful advice that has been given in this forum.
Prior to pullup training: 1 full correct form pullup before failure.
Week 1 progress report: 3 full correct form pullups before failure.
I thought I was going to get 4 today, but all of my grunting and determination wouldn’t get me there.
What I have been doing differently:
Weighted negatives (HUGE)
2 Pullups first thing every day in gym regardless of targetted muscle group. At least 1 on the way out.
High weight low rep pulldowns.
So far so good. Seems I might hit 5 well before my goal.
From my own (short) experience as a beginner I’ve seen the best gains in biceps from doing purely pull ups. In fact I kind of think the opposite of what is said in the article is true.
I would try curls and deads to build up strength in your back and biceps until you can do a few pull ups. At that point you can get a really good bicep workout by doing chinups after deadlifting in a workout. That’s not to say not to do curls if you really want huge biceps fast but mine are growing pretty well with only pulls/chins.
I agree with the idea, if you don’t have the strength to do 5 pull-ups you shouldn’t be working on your arms specifically before you start working on total muscle mass/strength .
I did curls for a long time, but they didn’t do me any good because i was worrying about small muscle groups before I looked at the big picture.
the point of the article is stop wasting time doing arm exercises and work on pullups by…DOING PULLUPS, newsflash pullups is a compound movement so ur arms are directly effected and will grow without the need to do armwork. Doesnt hurt to throw in a little arm work to supplement it but pullups should be the majority of your work.