Guitar Gear Forum

Im so out of shape but I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried to do unassisted pull ups last week and I only did 3 and almost died in the process. Im 220lbs right now so that may be part of the problem. The hardest thing is to let your body hang down all the way so your arms are extended and then pull up from there. I think giving birth to octuplets is easier than that for me right now.

3 sets of 10 every 3 days

damn dude that's pretty good keep it up.

Wide or close grip? I've been able to do about 3 sets of 12 wide gripped or 3 sets of 8-10 with a 25lb. weight. It depends on what I've done beforehand.

I don't think I've ever done more than 3 in a row.

Probably none from dead bottom, seriously. I've never really been able too though

I'm not extremely out of shape either. I'm not a body builder but 5'11" and 180lbs isn't brutally terrible. I'd still like get that down 10-15 pounds.

I can carry my 118 pound orange 4x12 by myself...so I think it's just some weird thing with me that I can't do pull ups.

I can maybe do 8 pull ups. Shits are fucking hard, even if you are in shape.

Currently? Maybe 1....MAYBE 1. Been doing them assisted at the gym though so hopefully in a couple of months that'll change.

The amount of assist I need to get through 3 sets of 7 makes me cry.

I did 10 the other day...

And my daughter did 13.

She made me feel stupid.

I had a friend in high school do the classic "bent fart hang".

jnurp wrote:damn dude that's pretty good keep it up.

Being a skinny dude probably helps. I'm still not at the point that I feel great when I'm done. I struggle like a bitch on the last set and still can't lift to save my life.

4 ... no, not sets. Literally 4 BUT I did just start the 100 pushup's in 6 weeks" thing. When I did my initial test I could only do 5 full "real" pushups. Up to 27 and it's only been 5 days.

When I took off all my weight it was mostly through diet, cardio and a lot of stress! Didn't do enough strength training. Doing mostly just pushup's, dips, struggling with pull ups.

damn. i used to do 5 sets of 20 2 x / week. i got able to do 36 @ 184 lbs. i'm around 186 now and not quite what i was but can still get to 28-29 and sometimes even 30 on a really good day. those aren't kippling bullshit; fast but good form with neutral palms (facing eath other) slightly narrower than shoulder width grip. granted my workouts consist only of pushups, pullups and sprinting/jumping. 70 pushups btw.

the trick to getting them up is do sets of roughly 1.5-2x as many as you can. say you can do 10 but want to do 20, then do your 10 and try your best to get 11. once you hit failure, rest for about 5 breaths and do as many as you can again. repeat until you hit 20. rest about 5 days and come back to it. suddenly you can do 12 or even 14. keep at it.

jnurp wrote:Im so out of shape but I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried to do unassisted pull ups last week and I only did 3 and almost died in the process. Im 220lbs right now so that may be part of the problem. The hardest thing is to let your body hang down all the way so your arms are extended and then pull up from there. I think giving birth to octuplets is easier than that for me right now.

btw, don't let your arms go all the way out; can put stress on your elbows. stop just short of there. also pull your shoulder blades together in the back to keep your shoulders safe.

When I was in grade school I could do 10+/-
By high school I was easily doing 20+/-
Same with pushups.

NOW?!?!?!!??? I haven't embarrassed myself trying. Prolly 1 +/-

sasquatch is a SAVAGE. holy crap bro that is amazing.

I can do 20 fairly easy.. i usually just stop at that. I do pull ups on my leg days at the gym, just to also get the blood flowing in my arms/upper body a little. i figure i can manage another 10-15 before id start to tire out

If we're talking about wide arm I can do 3 sets of 8, maybe squeeze out nine in one or two of those sets. Any other style of pull-up/chin-up I don't really know. I only use the wide grip.

On the Internet, I do about 15% more than whoever claims the highest in any particular thread.

Irl, probably do like 2 or 3 then I lose feeling in my hands, inadvertently let go, fall down and roll around wheezing. Possibly shit pants as well depending on the mood I am in.

None, but I can repeatedly bench press very large women as many times as I need to.

I tried a couple of weeks ago. I could get like, my nose to the bar. So almost one. That's better than the "you ain't going NOWHERE, pal" I could do 49 pounds ago.

[video]http://youtu.be/mRznU6pzez0[/video]


To those struggling to get their first set done, here is a video that may help. The guy is a bit goofy but whatevs. Certainly helped me, because before I had my health scare, I was insanely out of shape. Good luck, all.

jnurp wrote:sasquatch is a SAVAGE. holy crap bro that is amazing.

nah, just hard work. used to only be able to get 12-14 until i downsized my exercise routine and concentrated on just a few things. i don't do any isolation exercises like curls or whatnot since biceps get worked on pullups. i did P90X and that got me up to around 22-24. after that the only workout i did was the crossfit "barbara" workout. that shit is fucking grueling! after 5 weeks i was so overtrained i didn't know what to do but hey, it got my numbers way up but i would get nauseated just pulling into the parking lot of the Y.

the trick is to do what i described above and when you get to the point where it feels like you can't do anymore, just keep breathing and pulling. lots of folks give up on pullups before they reach failure. the volume of doing 100 pullups in a workout will force your body to adapt and having sets where the reps are more than you can do and using the little breathing pauses to get there push you beyond what you can do. if you are doing 8 pullups now, you could easily double that in a month.

Mike LX-R wrote:If we're talking about wide arm I can do 3 sets of 8, maybe squeeze out nine in one or two of those sets. Any other style of pull-up/chin-up I don't really know. I only use the wide grip.

wide-overhand can stress your shoulders.

i have had the best results with should-width or slightly narrower grip with palms facing each other.

I used to get my full 20 dead-hangs when I was in the grunts and PFT time rolled around. I never "trained" for it though. I weighed about 180lbs or so.

I've been lifting for a little while now. I haven't done any pullups though.