Craig already had some pulling strength, but couldn’t do a full range of motion chin up or pull up.
Not even close.
This is because his previous coach had accepted short reps for this and other moves.
I see this problem with many clients coming to me from different coaches.
If you want significantly more
🔸strength gains
🔸muscle gains
🔸overall healthy movement
…use full range of motion (ROM) - even if that means scaling back the difficulty to a version you can do properly with full ROM.
For Craig's pull up training we took the following approach:
-we used negatives (ie the downward portion)
-full ROM
-full body tension (esp. abs and glutes)
-keeping scapulae engaged
-moving as slowly as possible.
-incorporating DEEP ring rows in non chin up sessions.
Once the negatives are strong enough (takes an experienced eye) you’ll know you are ready for full reps, down and up.
In this video (3rd chin up session in 3 weeks), Craig’s first rep of Chin Up Negatives showed me he had multiple full reps in him.
Which was news and a nice surprise to Craig who then did 5 sets of:
1, 1, 2, 3, 3
Now to build reps *with* this movement quality we will train
-high frequency
-low intensity
-high speed
This will send Craig’s reps through the roof in no time.
With full ROM and quality of movement.
Here is the protocol we will use:
🔸Do 5-7 chin up / pull up 'sessions' per day, 6 days per week.
🔸Each session is 1 set of 2 chin ups (for a person with a personal best of 3 reps, ie 60-80%)
(note: the higher your max reps, the more lower you should drop into that 60-80% range)
🔸For your first set on day 1 of the following week, do your max reps (go til failure).
🔸Use 60-80% of those new max reps for all sets that week (round down)
🔸Anytime your chosen 60-80% starts feeling like 100%, reduce the remainder of that days sets by 1 reps or to the bottom of the 60-80% range, whichever is the greater.
🔸If it happens again, cancel the rest of the day and rest the following day too.
Here is a table that lays it all out
Week 1 | Week 2 | |
Day 1 | Session 1: Max reps test Session 2-7: 60-80% of max | Session 1: New max reps test Session 2-7: 60-80% of new max |
Day 2 | Session 1-7: 60-80% of max | Session 1-7: 60-80% of new max |
Day 3 | Session 1-7: 60-80% of max | Session 1-7: 60-80% of new max |
Day 4 | Session 1-7: 60-80% of max | Session 1-7: 60-80% of new max |
Day 5 | Session 1-7: 60-80% of max | Session 1-7: 60-80% of new max |
Day 6 | Session 1-7: 60-80% of max | Session 1-7: 60-80% of new max |
Day 7 | Rest | Rest |
etc... you can keep this up for a month or so.
Longer if you are still getting nice progress.
Update:
After 1 week on the above protocol Craig has increased his pull ups from 3 to 7 reps