Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Things You Should Know How To Do

Chances are if you have trained with me you've heard me rant and rave about how great chin-ups and pull-ups are. Simply put I think they are essential for looking good and having healthy shoulders and back.

If you've ever had shoulder or back problems you know how much that sucks, so why not engage in some preventative care.

So without further ado check out this article by Nate Green: Things You Should Know How To Do.

In the article I lay out a sample program for getting someone from 5 pull-ups to 10.

WEEK 1

Workout 1: Band-assisted pull-up with a medium band, 3 x 8.

Workout 2: Dumbbell row, 3 x 8-10. Don't work to failure — leave 2 reps in the tank on each set.

WEEK 2

Workout 1: Band-assisted pull-up with a medium band, 3 x 9.

Workout 2: Dumbbell row, 3 x 8. You should be close to failure on the final rep of your final set.

WEEK 3

Workout 1: Band-assisted pull-up with a medium band, 4 x 8.

Workout 2: Dumbbell row, 3 x 10, using the same weight you used for Week 2.

WEEK 4

Workout 1 (test day): Body-weight pull-up, 1 x max reps.

Workout 2: Dumbbell row, 2 x 15.

WEEK 5

Workout 1: Body-weight pull-up, 3 x 4 with slow negatives on reps 2 and 3.

Workout 2: Inverted row, 2 x 8. (If you don't know how to do this one, check out this article.

WEEK 6

Workout 1: Body-weight pull-up, 4 x 3 with slow negatives on reps 2 and 3.

Workout 2: Inverted row, 3 x 8.

WEEK 7

Workout 1: Body-weight pull-up, 4 x 4 with slow negatives on reps 2 and 3.

Workout 2: Inverted row, 3 x 10.

WEEK 8

Workout 1 (test day): Body-weight pull-up, 1 x max reps.


Get to work!

3 comments:

Alphadominance said...

Rock (or wall) climbing is a great way to make these movements fun and mix it up. Nice routine though, I'll have to try this out.

Chris B said...

Rock climbing is similar, yet quite different from pull-ups. I've known rock climbers that couldn't do many pull-ups at all, and some that had crazy strength.

Point is working on pull-up strength correctly will improve scapular function, as well as lat/shoulder strength. That isn't necessarily true for climbing.

Don't get me wrong, I love climbing.

Alphadominance said...

No substitute for targeted fitness. Some of those guys are crazy strong though.