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How many pull ups can you do?

strength exercise

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77 replies to this topic

Poll: How many pull ups can you do? (68 member(s) have cast votes)

Number of pull ups I can do in one set

  1. none (6 votes [8.82%])

    Percentage of vote: 8.82%

  2. 1-5 (5 votes [7.35%])

    Percentage of vote: 7.35%

  3. 5-10 (13 votes [19.12%])

    Percentage of vote: 19.12%

  4. 10-15 (22 votes [32.35%])

    Percentage of vote: 32.35%

  5. 15-20 (6 votes [8.82%])

    Percentage of vote: 8.82%

  6. 20-25 (5 votes [7.35%])

    Percentage of vote: 7.35%

  7. 25-30 (2 votes [2.94%])

    Percentage of vote: 2.94%

  8. 30+ (9 votes [13.24%])

    Percentage of vote: 13.24%

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#61 TheFountain

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Posted 03 April 2014 - 07:26 PM

Plus, some of are just tired of the egotistical, narcissistic Diarrhea that continues to spew forth amongst some of our members.

Oh looky me Bro, I can do some Pull-ups? WOW!

None of us would give a shit if it wasn't somebody laying claim to absolute measurement of health via pull-ups. I simply countered that by saying, perhaps, equally arbitrarily, that the ability to toss somebody an choke them out may be a better indicator of someones health level. Who is anybody to tell you what the best indicators of health are?


You know, some of our members want to be immortal and I suppose that people who want to live forever have some kind of built-in narcissism. And I think it's completely legitimate to create topics about pull-ups in exercise subforum. Pull-ups is a great indicator of overall health, you need to have a very strong and healthy cardiovascular system to do 5 sets of 20 pull-ups. Moreover, it only adds to your ability to be a good fighter.
But as for practical reasons, I don't see martial arts training as a practical way to defend yourself. I, for myself, can't recollect last time I fought with someone in the street, actually it had never happened to me in my life. And people who will fight with you in the street can often use other means in additon to their physical strength or fighting skills (knives, guns and so on). You are trying to critisize pull-ups from a narrow standpoint of their practical use in self-defence. I would argue that this form of exercise can be as usefull as any other.I like health benefits and muscle gain from bodyweight exercises, I haven't found any better wayto have the same results with equal amount of time and effort invested. So pull-ups can be seen as practical from my point of view, as I seek for the optimal balance of strength-health-muscles.
P.S. In judo, for example we have hundreds of different throws but most elite athletes train only 5-10 of them to the level of perfection. It means that judo as a great martial art is reduced to several reflexes, which can be used to win a medal. Practical thinking is always aimed on a very limited goals and it makes a tool of everything, but some sort of activities people do for very general reasons.

The REAL measure of cardiovascular health is in competitions, such as fighting. Stamina during a fight is paramount to indicating cardiovascular health. Getting the throws and transitions is one thing, using them in competition against elite athletes is another. The amount of pull ups you can accomplish has no bearing on this type of cardiovascular condition. Kids I train with who win major international tournaments and don't do any pull ups will testify to this.
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#62 TheFountain

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Posted 13 April 2014 - 09:33 AM

Listen to his point about "how many" pull ups you can do. 

 


Edited by TheFountain, 13 April 2014 - 09:35 AM.

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#63 Maecenas

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Posted 13 April 2014 - 01:27 PM

Listen to his point about "how many" pull ups you can do. 

 

What did you want to say by this video? People who can do more pull ups are still superior when there is a goal to do more pull ups, people who try to gain muscles can use any kind of techniques to gain muscles. I have both big number of pull ups and proportioned muscles from doing whatever number of pull ups I want.I even try to control not to gain more muscles than I need cause I like running and run at least 10-12 km every other day, so I keep my weight at 83-85 kg max at 180 cm height.



#64 TheFountain

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Posted 14 April 2014 - 12:54 AM

 

Listen to his point about "how many" pull ups you can do. 

 

What did you want to say by this video? People who can do more pull ups are still superior when there is a goal to do more pull ups, people who try to gain muscles can use any kind of techniques to gain muscles. I have both big number of pull ups and proportioned muscles from doing whatever number of pull ups I want.I even try to control not to gain more muscles than I need cause I like running and run at least 10-12 km every other day, so I keep my weight at 83-85 kg max at 180 cm height.

 

Judging by the video you earlier posted, your pull ups were kinda fast and jerky. 

 

You did not apply his 4-4 philosophy.

 

In his words "fuck those 40 pull ups". 


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#65 Maecenas

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Posted 14 April 2014 - 01:13 AM

 

 

Listen to his point about "how many" pull ups you can do. 

 

What did you want to say by this video? People who can do more pull ups are still superior when there is a goal to do more pull ups, people who try to gain muscles can use any kind of techniques to gain muscles. I have both big number of pull ups and proportioned muscles from doing whatever number of pull ups I want.I even try to control not to gain more muscles than I need cause I like running and run at least 10-12 km every other day, so I keep my weight at 83-85 kg max at 180 cm height.

 

Judging by the video you earlier posted, your pull ups were kinda fast and jerky. 

 

You did not apply his 4-4 philosophy.

 

In his words "fuck those 40 pull ups". 

 

I don't apply to many philosophies but it doesn't mean I do something wrong, everyone follows his own goals. 



#66 TheFountain

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Posted 14 April 2014 - 03:48 AM

 

 

 

Listen to his point about "how many" pull ups you can do. 

 

What did you want to say by this video? People who can do more pull ups are still superior when there is a goal to do more pull ups, people who try to gain muscles can use any kind of techniques to gain muscles. I have both big number of pull ups and proportioned muscles from doing whatever number of pull ups I want.I even try to control not to gain more muscles than I need cause I like running and run at least 10-12 km every other day, so I keep my weight at 83-85 kg max at 180 cm height.

 

Judging by the video you earlier posted, your pull ups were kinda fast and jerky. 

 

You did not apply his 4-4 philosophy.

 

In his words "fuck those 40 pull ups". 

 

I don't apply to many philosophies but it doesn't mean I do something wrong, everyone follows his own goals. 

 

I think his main point for saying "fuck those 40 pull ups" is that you aren't building strength that way. Applying his 4-4 philosophy (That is, counting to 4 up, and then 4 down) would be how to build the strength. See how many you can do of THAT kind of pull up. 


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#67 Maecenas

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Posted 14 April 2014 - 09:12 PM

     Slow pull ups doesn't build strength either.Best strength gain can be achieved in the range of 3-6 repetitions, muscle gain - in the range from 6 to 15 reps, and strength endurance begins to build up from 15 reps. I train mostly for strength endurance and functional strength, not to gain muscle bulk, which is not important for me. Though, by doing explosive pull ups or muscle ups you build strength as well. Bodybuilder's muscle mass most often doesn't correspond to their strength, they are usually much weaker relative to their muscles. Muscular hypertrophy doesn't mean strength. The categories of people who have ideal correspondence of strength and mass are gymnasts, wrestlers and bantamweight to middle-weight powerlifters. 

     But, at the end of a day, your diet is much more relevant than the technique of perfoming exercises if you are the amateur in weight training. 


Edited by Maecenas, 14 April 2014 - 09:13 PM.

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#68 mikeinnaples

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Posted 17 April 2014 - 07:02 PM

I would argue that power is more important than strength. Slow reps *only* build strength and do nothing for power.


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#69 Brainy

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Posted 21 April 2014 - 12:06 PM

Hey, this thread is going crazy! Just wanna throw my 2 cents :)

 

Being able to do at least 10-15 strict pull ups is a great way to determine upperbody fitness. It basically means that you can climb trees (like we are design to do) For the lower body fitness i think deadlift or deepsquat is more rekevant than running (we are talking strenght here) Otherwise cross fitter might use running like maecenas say to determine cardio-vascular capacity. 

I am doing arnold shwarzenger training at the moment and its hard, i mean HARD! Its a 2 day split with 45 sec rest between each sets. For pull ups you do a total of 50! if it takes you 5 sets, 6 sets or 7... doesnt matter! with 45 sec rest between them! Its a killer! Its the beginner advanced training if that interest anyone that you can find in is bodybuilding encyclopedia! (great read)

 

To conclude....  30 chin ups in one set is quite impressive! :-D


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#70 belgin fish

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Posted 22 May 2014 - 05:59 AM

Really depends on your form and how much you swing / how high you go. I can probably do 20 - 25 on a good day.

 

How many muscle ups can you do? ;)


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#71 vrain

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Posted 28 May 2014 - 06:57 AM

To the OP:

 

There is no 'best exercise'.

There is no calisthenics vs weights - it's apples and oranges.

 

Think about it in terms of training various attributes. There's maximal strength, hypertrophy, aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning' muscular endurance etc etc.

 

To train maximal strength (which is defined as the amount of force I can generate), I want to lift between 70% -95% of my one repetition maximum, for 1-6 repetitions. Science shows this is the load generally required to develop myofibrillar muscle fiber. This is the tissue responsible for generating force, i.e. strength. NOT hypertrophy or what bodybuilders generally focus on.

 

If I suck at pull-ups, and can only do 3 - I am training maximal strength - get it?

If I can do 20 pull-ups, I am no longer training maximal strength. I'm now in the territory of muscular endurance. If I add weight in a backpack that drops me down to being only able to do 1-5 pull-ups - I AM TRAINING STRENGTH AGAIN.

 

If I can do a hundred push-ups - I'm in muscular endurance territory. If I switch up to a one armed push up, where I can only do 2 or 3 before falling on my face...guess what I'm training? Maximal strength. Or instead of doing one armed push-ups, I'm going to create an apparatus that works some of the same muscle but allows me to add on much more weight than my bodyweight...maybe we can call it the bench press or something.

 

It's similar for each attribute. Bench, push-ups, pull-ups, deadlifts are all tools, that can be used for different goals.

 

Oh, and the military uses calisthenics mainly because it's practical and cheap. How else are you going to train masses of people from various fitness backgrounds to bring them all roughly to the same level? Do you think conventional army units are going to outfit each soldier with a personalized periodization weight program, along with a state of the art conditioning program, like say the Denver Broncos or any other professional sports team?

 

Do you think professional athletes that play in a world in which millions of dollars are involved are doing calisthenics only? Look into it, and you might be surprised. They all have proper, scientific based strength and conditioning programs. The strength portion of which generally consists of periodized barbell training.

 

And yes, I've been in the military and can do roughly 25 bodyweight pull ups, and weighted pull-ups with anywhere from 50-100lbs on my back. So I love pull-ups. But they are simply a tool in the big scheme of things. Whenever you're at a loss for answers, check out what people in the field do that have a lot of money or something else at stake. Professional athletes, Olympians, cirque-de-soleil performers and what have you.

As far as the military goes - look beyond conventional infantry units and check out what the tier one spec ops guys are doing. Your DEVGRU, JTF2, SEALs and whatnot.

 

Calisthenics vs weights is the biggest load of horseshit promoted by people selling calisthenic programs that seem to be all the rage on the web these days.

 

 

 

 



#72 mikeinnaples

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Posted 29 May 2014 - 01:28 PM


 

Oh, and the military uses calisthenics mainly because it's practical and cheap. How else are you going to train masses of people from various fitness backgrounds to bring them all roughly to the same level? Do you think conventional army units are going to outfit each soldier with a personalized periodization weight program, along with a state of the art conditioning program, like say the Denver Broncos or any other professional sports team?

 

In the USMC we trained functional strength for the battle field. Maximal strength is worthless if you don't have the endurance to sustain the fight and endurance is worthless if you don't have the strength to lift, carry, jump, pull, or kill as required by necessity. From my perspective and experience, a 235lb muscle bound freak of nature is more a liability in combat than the same guy would be leaner and meaner at say 195. The SEALs, Israeli Sayeret, our STA/0317's, and recon guys all had a certain 'look' (as did we) and It wasn't a look achieved by bulking up and training just maximal strength.
 


Edited by mikeinnaples, 29 May 2014 - 01:29 PM.

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#73 vrain

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Posted 29 May 2014 - 02:26 PM

 


 

Oh, and the military uses calisthenics mainly because it's practical and cheap. How else are you going to train masses of people from various fitness backgrounds to bring them all roughly to the same level? Do you think conventional army units are going to outfit each soldier with a personalized periodization weight program, along with a state of the art conditioning program, like say the Denver Broncos or any other professional sports team?

 

In the USMC we trained functional strength for the battle field. Maximal strength is worthless if you don't have the endurance to sustain the fight and endurance is worthless if you don't have the strength to lift, carry, jump, pull, or kill as required by necessity. From my perspective and experience, a 235lb muscle bound freak of nature is more a liability in combat than the same guy would be leaner and meaner at say 195. The SEALs, Israeli Sayeret, our STA/0317's, and recon guys all had a certain 'look' (as did we) and It wasn't a look achieved by bulking up and training just maximal strength.
 

 

 

First. Maximal strength does not equal muscle mass. You are thinking of muscular hypertrophy, or bodybuilding. Agreed. Bodybuilders are useless in the field. Bodybuilding is primarily for aesthetics.

 

Maximal strength is the body's/muscle's ability to generate force. You can be tiny, wiry, and bench twice your weight. Don't mistake bodybuilding for strength training just because some of the same tools are used in training. 

 

Look into Allison Felix. She was the sprinter that broke all of Marion Jones' Olympic records at the age of 18 or so. She had a deadlift of 300lbs. Felix weighed about 100lbs herself. This is an example of maximal strength. Not bodybuilding. Her ability to generate force translated to an improved sprint performance. Would it help if she tried to run a marathon? Not very much, but believe it or not it would still contribute vs somebody that didn't also train max strength.

 

Second. I agree one hundred percent maximal strength is not the first priority for a combat arms/infantry soldier. If I were to prioritize training for a soldier, I would rank it like this:

 

Aerobic/anaerobic capacity

muscular endurance

Max Strength

 

But, when training maximum strength - train it properly. Don't use muscular endurance techniques to train max strength. People tend to use a blanket term for strength, and there are huge differences.

 

But max strength is absolutely necessary in the field. Think about section attacks, advance to contact drills, 'up he sees me down', digging in, humping an 80lb ruck. Carrying a platoon weapon.  All these are made easier by an enhanced ability to generate force. When I was in not a single female passed my regular force infantry training, and not one of them made selection for my para unit. Not because they didn't have the lungs, but because they didn't have the strength and muscular endurance.

Think about a SWAT guy, wearing the beast and loaded down with about 30-40lbs of equipment. Maybe even ceramic plates. Do a little CQB loaded down like that, run up a flight of stairs, wrestle with a bad guy. Definitely maximum strength is very important. Max strength is not bodybuilding. If you're turning into a musclebound bodybuilder, you're doing it wrong.

 

 



#74 vrain

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Posted 01 June 2014 - 02:17 AM

Since this thread's drawing a lot of pull up lovers, you might want to check out a post on dragondoor by 'Johnny SWAT', some pretty neat tips I've never seen before on progressing to a one arm pull up. I stay away from most of dragondoor's products and services these days, as they tend to be overhyped and overpriced, but the one arm pull up info is a free post on the kettlebells/strength forum, and is a brilliantly simple strategy.

Worth a look if you're aiming for that one arm pull up.


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#75 Dmonix

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Posted 04 August 2014 - 12:27 PM

In my workouts i make 4x12 pull ups, but stays so easy and now i am getting different ways of doing it.

Pull ups moving body up left and right, putting some weight on feet.. this things haha



#76 Andey

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Posted 07 August 2014 - 03:03 PM

 


 

Oh, and the military uses calisthenics mainly because it's practical and cheap. How else are you going to train masses of people from various fitness backgrounds to bring them all roughly to the same level? Do you think conventional army units are going to outfit each soldier with a personalized periodization weight program, along with a state of the art conditioning program, like say the Denver Broncos or any other professional sports team?

 

In the USMC we trained functional strength for the battle field. Maximal strength is worthless if you don't have the endurance to sustain the fight and endurance is worthless if you don't have the strength to lift, carry, jump, pull, or kill as required by necessity. From my perspective and experience, a 235lb muscle bound freak of nature is more a liability in combat than the same guy would be leaner and meaner at say 195. The SEALs, Israeli Sayeret, our STA/0317's, and recon guys all had a certain 'look' (as did we) and It wasn't a look achieved by bulking up and training just maximal strength.
 

 

 

Interesting insight, thanks.

I ended with HIIT(on a elliptical trainer or a stationary bike) as most time effective excercise and the power you could generate during 1 minute flatout session is a good indicator of actual body capabilities.


Edited by Andey, 07 August 2014 - 03:03 PM.


#77 TheFountain

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Posted 22 August 2014 - 04:28 AM

By the way I never said pull ups were a bad exercise. Just do not think they are a sign of optimal health, even though they certainly contribute to overall health. I enjoy the metabolic burn they offer. 



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#78 nushu

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Posted 26 August 2014 - 09:28 AM

If you want to do frequent pull ups, which you should because it's a great movement, get some rings. It's a lot easier on your joints and tendons than a fixed bar. Especially if you're heavier or over 30.





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