In last months issue of the Gymless.com Newsletter I tracked down one of London’s top strength coaches and grilled him on one of the most effective bodyweight exercises around… the pull up. For years, Rob has been getting busy city workers leaner and stronger using a combination of olympic lifting, weight training, kettlebells and gymnastics. In this interview he kindly offered to share some of his wisdom….
Afternoon Rob, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions for us. I want to talk to you about pull ups, one of the key bodyweight exercises. Let’s start things off by getting your views on why people should train this movement?
Where to begin... They should be a staple of everyone's workouts. It's just a basic ability to be able to lifts ones own bodyweight up. Pull ups are arguably the most effective arm and back exercise and have endless regressions and progressions to ensure they are challenging and suitable for everyone from a training newbie to the most advanced athlete. And most importantly, if you find yourself in a cliffhanger style life or death scenario you will survive to train another day.
Agreed, everyone should be able to perform at least a couple of pull ups. What methods would you use to help a client achieve their first pull up?
If someone cannot do a single repetition at bodyweight then I use the following basic three pronged attack:
1). High rep conditioning with resistance bands to assist the lifts. 5 sets of 6 reps (that's high rep in my book). All repetitions should be done with a full range of motion (chest to bar at top, full dead hang at bottom). Two second hold at the top of each rep and smooth lifting action throughout. To get stronger the body must be challenged, that means that if you are physically capable to doing more than 5-6 reps in any of the sets then the resistance was too easy for you and you must decrease your assistance. Failure is a good thing here and you should aim to fail your final rep of each set despite your best efforts.
Above all, progress, progress, progress! You should aim to very slightly decrease the assistance every session whilst still being (only just) able to perform the desired rep range. After a few weeks you should see that those small decreases in assistance have added up to a large decrease and that you are now stronger and close to your full body weight pull up. It is amazing how many people train at the same intensity week after week and wonder why they don’t get any stronger.
2). Maximal eccentric work. Often when an individual is too weak to lift themselves upwards they can at least lower themselves slowly. Use the following protocol:
a) Climb up and start at the top of the pull up range. Lower yourself as slowly as you can. Once you have built up to a 30 second smooth lower you should have the strength to perform 1 full pull up.
b) Now you can do 1 full pull up, start the set in a dead hang, lift yourself up to the top of the range and start building towards another 30 second lower.
c) Once you have this 30 second lower you should be able to do a second full rep.
d) Using this process it should be realistic to add 1 rep/week for 10 weeks, if you are disciplined and practice 2-3x / wk.
3). If you need to... lose weight. Pull ups are a classic strength to body weight ratio exercise and although there is a huge strength factor there is also an obvious body weight factor. If you know you are carrying a few extra pounds then the pull up quest will be an uphill struggle. Cut out all refined sugar and processed carbs for a start.. But that's another subject.
I assume your female clients follow these same protocols?
Yes.
Any common mistake you see when people perform their pull ups?
The number one mistake that I see on pull ups which will stop people getting stronger is partial range lifts. Time and again I see people claim they can do 10 reps and then they get on the bar and bob their head up and down 10 times. This will neither enhance strength or function. Every rep must be from full hang (elbows completely straight) to full lift (sternum as close as possible to the bar).
The second big mistake we always see is using a kip (or hip/leg kicking action) to assist the lift. Unless you are specifically training a kipping action power style pull up then this is just cheating. If you cannot perform the rep without assisting yourself by kicking to help you up and over then it is too difficult for you and you should regress the lift to a more appropriate level of difficulty.
What variations of the pull up do you use in your own training?
I am mainly training progressions towards one arm chin ups (OAC's). I use single arm eccentric work; lowering myself as slowly as possible using 1 arm only. And assisted OAC's, with my non-lifting arm helping me to lift by holding a rope with a small weight on the other end looped over the bar. This weighted rope allows me to get just enough assistance to perform the desired number of OAC's. I also enjoy the more gymnastic style lever progressions, starting with the simple but effective L-sit varieties. Coach Sommer has a excellent progression system for building up to these in his book Building The Gymnastic Body.
Good stuff, I can definitely second that recommendation for Building The Gymnastic Body. Ok so where can someone take their training if they can already perform 10+ pull ups?
You could just hang progressively larger weights off yourself whilst doing your pull ups but I find it far more interesting to start playing about with body lever progressions and OAC progressions as outlined in question 4. The skills developed in the quest for these more advance options transfer superbly to sporting performance and all around upper body function. The lever variations also transform the pull up into a full body exercise that will have you holding your abs and rolling around on the floor wondering why you ever wasted your time with crunches.
Above all it keeps things varied, using a variety of different grips angles and grip widths along with different pull angles and body levers. This give endless permutations and progressions to play with. This variety is not just good for mental sanity but builds a very well rounded strength in all positions.
Some really good insights there, thanks for sharing, last but not least tell us where people can contact you if they want to learn more about the services you offer?
If people have any questions or want to get in touch the best place to reach me is at www.testlondon.com
Thanks Rob, pleasure speaking to you.
Every few weeks I create, publish and share my Gymless.com Newsletter packed full of information to help you improve your body composition, strength and fitness using bodyweight exercise. To subscribe simply enter your details below...