I guarantee I'm the weakest guy on the forum when it comes to pull ups. I can barely do one. Does anyone have any ideas of a workout program so I can improve? There is a weight assisted machine at my gym. If I use that do I use a lot of assistance and bust out 10 reps or little assitance and grit through 3-4?
I thought I once read that simply doing negatives on the chin up bar would make you stronger as well....
If you can not do one proper pull up, I gotta ask are you over weight? If you are, focus on that for now. If you are not, use the assisted machine and do ladders. For example, put it on a weight where you could do 12 and do 10. Then rest the amount of time it took you to do those 10. Then do 7, rest for that amount of time, then 5, etc. until you can not do anymore.
you have to build a certain muscle in your upper back, it sucks, i cant barely do 10, and im in shape at 160 5'11 and have a good bit of muscle on me,
do those excersizes at the gym where u pull the bar behind your head to your upper back and slow negatives.
i hope it works,
yes what is your size?
push ups will help somewhat. use the pull up machine and gradually add weight and soon enough you'll be doing normal pull-ups.
Other people have commented that using a pulldown bar is better than an assisted pull up as it is harder to 'cheat' on the movement. Kind of makes sense to me having used both. Negative's definitely help, main advice is just keep at it!
This is a program im using at the moment to increase my push-up reps, but id imagine it could just as easily be applied to pull-ups.
Sunday: Do as many pull-ups as you can in a single rep. Record this number.
Mon-Fri: Halve the number of reps you were able to do on Sunday (rounding up) and do that many reps 3 times a day. I generally do it around mealtimes, but as long as they're spread throughout the day it should work.
Saturday: Rest.
Repeat this program until you can do as many pull-ups as you're after.
Good luck!
Getting going with pullups is tough. I found that I improved much faster when my roommate got a pullup bar in our apartment -- I went and did as many as I could a couple times a day (well rested each time) and it became a lot more comfortable for me. Mixing in some variations like doing a ladder here and there is good too. But I'd really recommend getting a pullup bar for where you live, so you can just hop on it any old time.
"Sunday: Do as many pull-ups as you can in a single rep. Record this number."
?huh?
He meant set, not rep.
-doug-
As long as you work hard on a similar movement a few times a week you'll make progress. Lots of good advice on the thread so far.
If you do get a bar at home you can do a cheap-o assisted pullup by tying a rope around your chest, throwing it over the bar, and then tying some weights to the other end.
I feel your pain man, I was overweight and had pretty weak lats to begin with. I just started with Scrapper's workout number one. When it came time to do the pullups, I would simply try as hard as I could. They were only partial reps, but I fought and strained as hard as I could.
Now, after some cardio and diet, I've got my strength up and my fat down a little. Now I can probably do 5. I know it's still pathetic, but I'm making progress.