Pull ups are evil

[Mike_Rojas]

i've hated pullups for a long time. marine corps makes you do them a lot. pure dead hangs. knees have to stay below your waist, can't kick, can't get your body swinging for momentum, have to pause briefly with arms fully extended at the bottom.....with those requirements, 20 pullups was considered a perfect score. closest i ever got was 18. we were allowed to switch grips in the middle, so long as you didn't get off the bar. most everyone would start off overhand and then switch to underhand. i was usually good for 11 or 12 overhand, then another 3 or 4 underhand. i have to see what i can do now though, been a long time since i tried to bang out 20 of them.

I'm glad they finally changed that. When I was in (87-91), we could "kip" - which was basically swinging and bouncing to get up there. I never did get the "kip" down - I just strong-armed them. Best I got was 18, but I only weighed 150 pounds back then

I like the idea of switching grips - I'm going to try that.

 

[dzuljas]

pullups are great! I am happy I am able to get 3 sets of 8 now, reverse grip, palms facing toward me, i dunno what that is called?

I remember when i used to wrestle at 160 lbs in high school i could bang out 25 of those fuckers. Now I do 8 at 260 lbs oh well hehe

 

[Buddy_Christ]

I'm glad they finally changed that. When I was in (87-91), we could "kip" - which was basically swinging and bouncing to get up there. I never did get the "kip" down - I just strong-armed them. Best I got was 18, but I only weighed 150 pounds back then

I like the idea of switching grips - I'm going to try that.

guy i met said that when he went in, they were trying to teach him how to 'kip' and he could never get it down. after a year of people trying to teach him, he finally got it. a few months later, they did away with it and it really hurt him, because he was so used to kipping that he couldn't do them right.

the muscles involved between overhand and underhand, well, it feels like there's a slight difference. maybe it's in the way that they are being used, i don't know. hell, i barely know what half my muscles are, i just know that my workout covers all of them (i think). anyway, if you do plan on switching grips, go overhand first. i can gaurentee if you go underhand first, you won't have much left to do them overhand, that is unless you are just exceptionally strong and can do 40+ of those evil things. everyone i had ever met in the marine corps could not do a single pullup overhand if they used up all their energy doing them underhand first.

 

[WalkingBeast]

Do you guys do them weighted or with bodyweight only? I only use BW

 

[LeeJunFan]

i've just started doing them, but am still quite poor at them, so i'm using that weighted machine to help you get back up, i'll gradually take the weight down over time and hopefully be able to do sets of 12 with my own body weight, good workout though!!

 

[Buddy_Christ]

if you got someone to spot you, do them with bodyweight until you get fatigued, then bend at the knees to bring your feet up behind you and have someone hold your feet. that way you can keep pulling and use your legs to slightly assist you to get up. i did a lot of that when we were trying to get my max number of pullups past 10. i think doing that is better than doing them weighted, but that's just my opinion.

 

[crew9]

Do you guys do them weighted or with bodyweight only? I only use BW

I do them weighted. Usually a 25lb for set of 8. I used to do a 45 for 5 but then I stopped doing pullups for 3 months because of the Old school routine so I'm back to 25s.

 

[CollegeKid2]

im doin pullups with an added 50lbs for two sets of 5 (i pyramid the weight up to it and then back down). i have NO idea how many i could do without weight, all i know is that at only bodyweight they seem SO easy to me now, it feels like im about to fly over the bar. weighted pullups is the way to go for sure.

on the other hand, a dude at the gym showed me how to do one-handed pullups the other day. talk about hard!!! i could barely get one.

 

[Backlash]

I am up to 2 sets of 8 with an added 10 pounds. But my bodyweight is still going up, too, so it's progressive resistance every week

 

[Griz1]

Oh sure, I'm about to head out the door for my back workout and lo & behold a thread on pull-ups!

Depending on the hand grip (palms in/out) it will affect how your arm muscles are used (bis, tris). But to my understanding, the back muscles that are used are about the same (wide grip=more lats, Narrow grip more mid-back traps &rhoms).

So I'm off to punish myself just like everyone mentioned on this thread now.

And you have to say "EVIL" just like the guy from Austin Powers "EEEEEVIL"....