Pull ups help!?

[Mattys]

Im having serious issues with these and it’s getting extremely disheartening I haven’t given up on them but I have tried everything and have been for around 6 months!

I was always using the lat pull down and assisted pull up machines in the gym aswell as dumbbell rows for months to get all the muscles required strong enough to perform pull ups but it didn’t seem to get me anywhere and I have seen several videos on YouTube of fitness trainers saying the crossover to actual pull ups is barely anything.

For past 8 weeks I have been doing negatives aswell as hangs for grip strength but it has done nothing for my pull ups and it’s frustrating.
I thought it may be a weight issue previously but I can do a couple of chin ups and my press-ups are in the 40s to the beep.
I have one of those pull ups stations aswell as a doorway pull up bar and if I hang there full extended I can’t lift myself up like at all it’s like I have no control of my body movements.

It’s very annoying to be in this position as all my prmc test stats are coming along nicely.

All these to the prmc beep
My current stats are:

BFT-9.02(not full out)
Vo2-11.9(on grass)
Press-ups-44
Situps-67
Pull ups-Wa.nk

If anyone has a program for pull ups that worked for them not something that got them from 10 to 20 pull ups but for someone who was in my situation and couldnt do any at all!
I have every hour in the day to do whatever the workout is available and I’d say around 12 weeks to do them.

Don’t mean to ramble on but it’s more of a last resort and not sure what else I can do for them help be much appreciated.

 

[Cuzza22297]

Can you do a pull up? If so throughout the day just keep doing one every time you walk underneather the bar then after a week or two up it to two pulls then after that to three and so on. Hopefully that should work.

If not, how many reps/sets of negatives are you doing? And have you tried jumping pull ups?

 

[ThreadpigeonsAlpha]

I'm having serious issues with these and it’s getting extremely disheartening I haven’t given up on them but I have tried everything and have been for around 6 months!

I was always using the lat pull down and assisted pull up machines in the gym aswell as dumbbell rows for months to get all the muscles required strong enough to perform pull ups but it didn’t seem to get me anywhere and I have seen several videos on YouTube of fitness trainers saying the crossover to actual pull ups is barely anything.

For past 8 weeks I have been doing negatives aswell as hangs for grip strength but it has done nothing for my pull ups and it’s frustrating.
I thought it may be a weight issue previously but I can do a couple of chin ups and my press-ups are in the 40s to the beep.
I have one of those pull ups stations aswell as a doorway pull up bar and if I hang there full extended I can’t lift myself up like at all it’s like I have no control of my body movements.

It’s very annoying to be in this position as all my prmc test stats are coming along nicely.

All these to the prmc beep
My current stats are:

BFT-9.02(not full out)
Vo2-11.9(on grass)
Press-ups-44
Situps-67
Pull ups-Wa.nk

If anyone has a program for pull ups that worked for them not something that got them from 10 to 20 pull ups but for someone who was in my situation and couldnt do any at all!
I have every hour in the day to do whatever the workout is available and I’d say around 12 weeks to do them.

Don’t mean to ramble on but it’s more of a last resort and not sure what else I can do for them help be much appreciated.

Check out this thread mate.
https://www.royalmarines.uk/threads/pull-ups-swinging.99777/#post-606580

 

[Mattys]

Can you do a pull up? If so throughout the day just keep doing one every time you walk underneather the bar then after a week or two up it to two pulls then after that to three and so on. Hopefully that should work.

If not, how many reps/sets of negatives are you doing? And have you tried jumping pull ups?

I’ve tried everything I tried all the exercises that worked the muscles then moved to last pulldowms and assisted machine , Now I have been doing negatives , hangs eg.

I can’t do a single pull up I know that’s embarrassing to say I jump up and fully extend and try pull up but it’s like I have no control to pull my self up.

I do negatives like 3 sets of 5 , I do ones where I put my foot on a chair full extend I can pull myself up then just using the chair as a balance.

 

[Mattys]

Check out this thread mate.
https://www.royalmarines.uk/threads/pull-ups-swinging.99777/#post-606580

*text deleted* for thst I’ll have a look now

 

[Cuzza22297]

Might be technique? Try pushing your chest to the bar rather than thinking about pulling with your arms. Read that somewhere on this forum once and tried it and found it helped a little.

Edit: well turns out the post TPA linked is where I read that *text deleted*

Also, don’t feel embarrassed, everybody couldn’t do a single pull up at some point during their training. The only time it matters how many you can do is on prmc and I’m sure you’ll be smashing them out by then. Just need to find a method that works for you and the progression will come.

 

[Taffinator]

What i found that helped with pull ups was doing little and often. I put my pullup bar near my bathroom so everytime i went to the toilet or was going for a shower i banged out a few pull ups, over the course of the day all the reps add up
Hope that helps

 

[Mattys]

Might be technique? Try pushing your chest to the bar rather than thinking about pulling with your arms. Read that somewhere on this forum once and tried it and found it helped a little.

Edit: well turns out the post TPA linked is where I read that *text deleted*

Also, don’t feel embarrassed, everybody couldn’t do a single pull up at some point during their training. The only time it matters how many you can do is on prmc and I’m sure you’ll be smashing them out by then. Just need to find a method that works for you and the progression will come.

I think it’s because I’ve had so much time to improve on them already and there isn’t any improvement at all thsts the concerning thing.
When im st the gym there’s a few strong as.s people there who struggle with pullups and they workout everyday but then you get some small fella come in and will bash out 15 like it’s nothing!
At this moment I’d be happy to just do 1 just to give me a confident boost but when I’ve tried for 6 months that’s what I’m more concerned with.
Yea hopefully I’ll get there I appreciate the help and suppport means a lot

 

[Mattys]

What i found that helped with pull ups was doing little and often. I put my pullup bar near my bathroom so everytime i went to the toilet or was going for a shower i banged out a few pull ups, over the course of the day all the reps add up
Hope that helps

Yea I understand that problem is I can’t do 1 so if I do pull ups there either going to resemble a sommon coming down a waterfall or me just hanging there like a fruit *text deleted*.

I do the chin ups when I go past the door but there more or less jump up lower then up again but never fully extended

 

[Seags98]

When your doing your lat pull downs, rows and assisted pull ups are you just blasting them out or are you doing slower reps?

Try placing more emphasis on the eccentric part of the movement to give you added time under tension. 8-10 reps with a 4 second negative and lighter weight are whole lot better than 5 with a 1 second negative and heavier weight.

Although going heavy has its benefits as long as you don’t let your ego get the best of you.

 

[Mattys]

When your doing your lat pull downs, rows and assisted pull ups are you just blasting them out or are you doing slower reps?

Try placing more emphasis on the eccentric part of the movement to give you added time under tension. 8-10 reps with a 4 second negative and lighter weight are whole lot better than 5 with a 1 second negative and heavier weight.

Although going heavy has its benefits as long as you don’t let your ego get the best of you.

I was doing them on a weight that wasn’t easy but at the same time wasn’t to heavy that it would ruin me form/technique but after a while I got told/seen comments/videos of people and trainers that those 2 machines don’t help with pull ups all that well due to the crossover.

I was told best thing is to focus on negatives and hangs as this replicates the pull ups the most , even after all this time doing that it still hasn’t helped.

Yea I’ll give the negative time increase ago as that did cross my mind!

So what you suggest like 1 set a day of 8-10 reps of 5 second negatives? Or more sets and less reps?

The video TPA suggested where the trainer mentioned resistance bands seems like something I will get to as that is something I haven’t tried and it’s the correct form just less weight to lift so could help me out.

 

[Seags98]

I was doing them on a weight that wasn’t easy but at the same time wasn’t to heavy that it would ruin me form/technique but after a while I got told/seen comments/videos of people and trainers that those 2 machines don’t help with pull ups all that well due to the crossover.

I was told best thing is to focus on negatives and hangs as this replicates the pull ups the most , even after all this time doing that it still hasn’t helped.

Yea I’ll give the negative time increase ago as that did cross my mind!

So what you suggest like 1 set a day of 8-10 reps of 5 second negatives? Or more sets and less reps?

The video TPA suggested where the trainer mentioned resistance bands seems like something I will get to as that is something I haven’t tried and it’s the correct form just less weight to lift so could help me out.

I’m on a PT apprenticeship at the moment and in the gym I work at there’s plenty of guys that can do the full stack on the lat pulldown no problem but they can’t do a pull up for the life of them but I wouldn’t say it has no benefit at all because you’re basically mimicking the same movement, the only difference being the amount of resistance and position of your body.

I wouldn’t go mad with using weights because In reality you can make more improvement with consistent practise (using bands, negatives and assisted etc).

My advice would be to mix it up don’t get stuck doing the same thing every day, 3 decent sets of negatives, 4/5 reps with a 4 second negative, and then max out until you physically can’t hold yourself up anymore.

I don’t really want to tell you to do a specific thing because what works for me might do sh!t all for you but yeah TPA’s was a solid suggestion so give it a go, once you’ve got the technique down and you’ve figured out what’s best for you, you’ll be set.

 

[Mattys]

I’m on a PT apprenticeship at the moment and in the gym I work at there’s plenty of guys that can do the full stack on the lat pulldown no problem but they can’t do a pull up for the life of them but I wouldn’t say it has no benefit at all because you’re basically mimicking the same movement, the only difference being the amount of resistance and position of your body.

I wouldn’t go mad with using weights because In reality you can make more improvement with consistent practise (using bands, negatives and assisted etc).

My advice would be to mix it up don’t get stuck doing the same thing every day, 3 decent sets of negatives, 4/5 reps with a 4 second negative, and then max out until you physically can’t hold yourself up anymore.

I don’t really want to tell you to do a specific thing because what works for me might do sh!t all for you but yeah TPA’s was a solid suggestion so give it a go, once you’ve got the technique down and you’ve figured out what’s best for you, you’ll be set.

Yea that’s where I mean the crossover isn’t much with regards to the latdown same with the assisted pulldown I can do a pull up on the assist pull up machine with only 12.5 supporting me which is near enough me pulling up my own weight but then when I try do the proper thing not even close!
Yea I see what you mean with regards to the weights I only done the dumbbell rows and assist machines but now it’s more body weight exercises as close to the real thing as I can form wise.

I will try those time increases on the negatives tho as that’s a good idea!
I’ll let you know in due time if your routine works *text deleted*

 

[Cuzza22297]

I can do a pull up on the assist pull up machine with only 12.5 supporting me

Can you lower the weight more or is 12.5 the lowest it goes?

 

[ThreadpigeonsAlpha]

It seems to me your not engaging your back muscles properly. Watch those videos and really learn to do the first part “the shrug” properly.
And through in some Australian pullups, building the weight on your chest.

Don’t worry about weights and just worry about the bar. What’s your grip like? Is it shoulder width? Or wide arm?
If it’s too wide, then it’s going to be harder for you. Try narrowing your grip.

Don’t stress about it, just experiment until you find what works for you.

 

[pacessdo]

Get yourself resistance band.
Then follow this:
Mon: 5,4,3,2,1
Tue: 5,4,3,2,2
Wed: 5,4,3,3,2
Thu: 5,4,4,3,2
Fry: 5,5,4,3,2
Sat: 6,5,4,3,2
Sun: off
Mon: 6,5,4,3,3
Tue: 6,5,4,4,3
Wed: 6,5,5,4,3
Thu: 6,6,5,4,3
Fry: 7,6,5,4,3
Sat : 7,6,5,4,4
Sun: off
You get the idea..continue growing until you don't need resistance band anymore then start with normal pullups or chinups from 5

 

[arny01]

The video TPA suggested where the trainer mentioned resistance bands seems like something I will get to as that is something I haven’t tried and it’s the correct form just less weight to lift so could help me out.

This is the best way to improve pull ups.

 

[RMDO]

When I was training for PRMC and couldn't do anymore full pull ups I would drop down to incline ones. basically I would put a bar on a squat rack about waist height and get my self under that in a upside down press up position like picture below. I found these better than doing assisted pull ups as was working my core stability also.

 

[Old Man]

When I was training for PRMC and couldn't do anymore full pull ups I would drop down to incline ones. basically I would put a bar on a squat rack about waist height and get my self under that in a upside down press up position like picture below. I found these better than doing assisted pull ups as was working my core stability also.

Would that not also work from a seated position to start?

 

[ThreadpigeonsAlpha]

When I was training for PRMC and couldn't do anymore full pull ups I would drop down to incline ones. basically I would put a bar on a squat rack about waist height and get my self under that in a upside down press up position like picture below. I found these better than doing assisted pull ups as was working my core stability also.

I thought these were Aussie pullups, but agreed they are really good for progression, especially with an added weight plate on the chest, and to really focus on the first part of the movement.