pull ups - regular part of workout?

[hmmmm16417]

When I started my transformation in December, I could barely do one pull up. after a few weeks I could get 3 (almost 4). pathetic , I know....but I was out of shape for several years. It was almost depressing because I used to be able to pound out 15-18

anyway, I pretty much gave up on them until I made some significant changes . Well, tonight (at work) I found a place in the shop that I could try to do some. I haven't attempted pull ups since January and never got around to doing the pull up progression challenge. Anyways, I grabbed on and started pulling...... ended up doing 12 before my fingers started to hurt from the square steel bar. I was actually pretty impressed with myself! I guess losing all that weight made them easier LOL
Now that I can do them, i'm considering putting them into my regular workout. I currently do lat pull down exercises (wide grip with palms away, and close grip palms facing) as well as several other back exercises.

Should I just add them in as an extra , or should I switch back and forth between other exercises?

how many of you do them as regular sets in your workouts?

[mitternacht]

I start back day with a set of wide grip pull-ups, it gives me a nice stretch and a warmup before doing lat pull downs. Sometimes I'll make it two sets, sometimes even three if I'm feeling frisky.

[Plateauplower]

IMO pull-ups >lat pull downs. I try to get at least 7-8 sets per week total and use wide, hammer, and reverse grip. Unfortunately my numbers have been pretty stagnant around 5-7 reps per set...

[dazlittle]

I do them every pull workout, I feel they are better than lat pull downs or at least I can get a better contraction of the lats doing them.

[angrypenguin54]

I think they are one of the best upper body lifts there is. Get a dip belt and perform weighted ones and work in whatever your preferred rep range is for your current program. You can vary your grip between different sessions.

[Mojoke]

I have a question here.

How can you work on engaging the lats better when doing pull ups?
I think when I do them it's dominantly a bicep exercice.
I can do around 5 - 7 neutral grip chin ups. Lets say I can do about 1 or 2 normal grip pull ups and I can't do any wide grip pull up.
In my current program I do neutral grip chin ups and wide grip pull up negatives twice a week.

Starting out I couldn't do any kind of chin or pull up. That was a good 4,5 months ago. As my weight has gone up almost 19 pounds in that time I still think I did well.

My weight was around 144 pounds, now I'm around 163 pounds with 19% BF at 5'11

[JimmyJonny]

I do them every workout.

One day a week I do my higher rep sets. The other 2-3 days are more for stretching. Yesterday I had shoulder day but between sets I occasionally would spit out 5 pull ups for the stretch. I usually still end up doing 50 but they are spread out. It's not enough to consider it a part of my workout but it sure makes me feel better.

For me, at this point, pull ups still take a large amount of energy out of me. I don't go hard core with them every workout because I need to save that energy for other body parts that I'm working on.

If you decide to do them every time maybe consider doing them last if it's not back day.

[JBWarren70]

Always.

[angrypenguin54]

I have a question here.

How can you work on engaging the lats better when doing pull ups?
I

Work on the initial part of the lift, engage your shoulder blades moving up before you ever move your arms. Look up scap pull ups.

[heatwave13]

I DONT do pull ups as a part of my regular workout, however, I still do plenty of them at other times.

Most mornings, I'll knock out a few sets of 7 or 8 reps then just go about my day. The bulk of my workout usually takes place in the afternoon and, during this session, I leave out the pullups.

Another way I get in plenty of pullups is that I do a set whenever I walk past the bar. So, if I'm working around the house and happen to walk down the hall, I stop and do a set of 8 or 10 reps. I'll also thrown in another set before going to bed.

Lately, I've been doing a few sets here and there with ankle weights on just to add a few extra pounds of resistance.

[jba1]

[QUOTE=hmmmm16417;1285533671]Should I just add them in as an extra , or should I switch back and forth between other exercises?

Hello,

From an old goat's perspective....No advice here. only comment.
I don't know about whether you should add or not to your routine but I can tell you this. Pull ups have become part on mine because of the huge challenge. Not only do I do them as my regular routine in my home gym, I do minimum of five each morning before jumping in the shower and at least five more at night before retiring. Beside the physical benefits, the mental rewards of being able to do them at my age is huge......
I was like you....50 years ago I could pump them out without a second thought....Ageing and life style changed all that.
If you agree with the mental rewards.... here is another one to do....Dragon Flies..."big time mental rewards along with great core exercise"

[GreenWave1]

I do 5 sets to start back day.

[pastorgbc]

I have a question here.

How can you work on engaging the lats better when doing pull ups?
I think when I do them it's dominantly a bicep exercice.
I can do around 5 - 7 neutral grip chin ups. Lets say I can do about 1 or 2 normal grip pull ups and I can't do any wide grip pull up.
In my current program I do neutral grip chin ups and wide grip pull up negatives twice a week.

Starting out I couldn't do any kind of chin or pull up. That was a good 4,5 months ago. As my weight has gone up almost 19 pounds in that time I still think I did well.

My weight was around 144 pounds, now I'm around 163 pounds with 19% BF at 5'11

Until you can make the mind-muscle connection, do not descend completely to the a stretched arm dead hang, but descend to about 95% of the way down and focus on keeping the lats and upper back tight. This will help to train you to feel the tightness and contraction in the back. Once you get the hang (no pun intended) of this, return to the dead hang, and begin your reps by duplicating that tightness and contraction. This should bring you 5% of the way up, then pull yourself the rest of the way to complete the rep. After a while, the focus will become second nature.

Ray

[brit-iron]

I do them twice per week before deadlift, one day weighted the other just body weight. Find they are one of the best exercises for me, and enjoy them immensely. I find it easier to engage the lats if I lean back a bit, rather than keep straight.

[bodyhard]

Now that you can do pull-ups replace the lat pull downs with pull-ups. Pull ups is one of the best movements to widen the back and should be a staple in a back routine.

[Bob808]

Can usually get 11-12 depending on bodyweight. I do quite a few--at home, on tree limbs at my parents' or near an outdoor running track nearby by work, while hanging from the underside of some wooden stairs by the backdoor of my office, etc. Never been really good at them, and have to limit the sets, but I do about 4 sets a week. 1/2 pullups and 1/2 chin-ups or v-grip on v-shaped tree limbs, etc.
Don't know about everyone else, but if pullups stay strong, them bent row and pull downs stay strong. The reverse is not true for me.

[silverlightning]

since i train every body part twice, one day i focus on lats and do all my pull-ups that day. i every variation of hand positioning and close/wide grip. other back day is focused on rows.

[ISAID69]

Pull ups are not negotiable for me, I admit I do assisted pull ups 3 sets of 10 with a 27kg counterweight. One day hopefully no counterweight, I'll get there. My shoulders and lats feel properly drained after pull ups, love them man.

[kimm4]

Now that you can do pull-ups replace the lat pull downs with pull-ups. Pull ups is one of the best movements to widen the back and should be a staple in a back routine.

Agreed^^

I do 4-5 sets on back days.

[silverlightning]

I have a question here.

How can you work on engaging the lats better when doing pull ups?
I think when I do them it's dominantly a bicep exercice.
I can do around 5 - 7 neutral grip chin ups. Lets say I can do about 1 or 2 normal grip pull ups and I can't do any wide grip pull up.
In my current program I do neutral grip chin ups and wide grip pull up negatives twice a week.

Starting out I couldn't do any kind of chin or pull up. That was a good 4,5 months ago. As my weight has gone up almost 19 pounds in that time I still think I did well.

My weight was around 144 pounds, now I'm around 163 pounds with 19% BF at 5'11

close grip will activate the lats more. get a V handle and hang it over a straight bar usually in the squat rack and start from there. do them from a dead hang, stretch at the bottom and hold at the top for a second or two.

[silverlightning]

Pull ups are not negotiable for me, I admit I do assisted pull ups 3 sets of 10 with a 27kg counterweight. One day hopefully no counterweight, I'll get there. My shoulders and lats feel properly drained after pull ups, love them man.

stop that. i see a guy doing assisted pull ups at the gym and he even uses versa grips. SMH. use versa grips and/or straps to help with grip if need be, or just start by doing as many as you can. you don't need to do all them at once. you can spread them out through your workout. even at 215 lbs i'm doing sets of 10-12. i do about 10-15 sets on lat day.

edit: i don't use my versa grips on any back exercise except one arm dumb rows.

[ScottAllan77]

When I started my transformation in December, I could barely do one pull up. after a few weeks I could get 3 (almost 4). pathetic , I know....but I was out of shape for several years. It was almost depressing because I used to be able to pound out 15-18

anyway, I pretty much gave up on them until I made some significant changes . Well, tonight (at work) I found a place in the shop that I could try to do some. I haven't attempted pull ups since January and never got around to doing the pull up progression challenge. Anyways, I grabbed on and started pulling...... ended up doing 12 before my fingers started to hurt from the square steel bar. I was actually pretty impressed with myself! I guess losing all that weight made them easier LOL
Now that I can do them, i'm considering putting them into my regular workout. I currently do lat pull down exercises (wide grip with palms away, and close grip palms facing) as well as several other back exercises.

Should I just add them in as an extra , or should I switch back and forth between other exercises?

how many of you do them as regular sets in your workouts?

They are not a part of my regular routine, but I do them occasionally as a test of my progress. Just as you discovered my overall all workout has increased my pull up ability greatly. I'll likely integrate them into my workout during my next cycle of All Pro's.

[Rob334]

I have a question here.

How can you work on engaging the lats better when doing pull ups?
I think when I do them it's dominantly a bicep exercice.
I can do around 5 - 7 neutral grip chin ups. Lets say I can do about 1 or 2 normal grip pull ups and I can't do any wide grip pull up.
In my current program I do neutral grip chin ups and wide grip pull up negatives twice a week.

Starting out I couldn't do any kind of chin or pull up. That was a good 4,5 months ago. As my weight has gone up almost 19 pounds in that time I still think I did well.

My weight was around 144 pounds, now I'm around 163 pounds with 19% BF at 5'11

Try using a "thumbless grip" - don't wrap your thumb around the bar, keep it over the bar with your other four fingers. This helps reduce the work of the biceps and forearm.

[BigBassBrent]

I just started with the frequency method a couple of weeks ago and do chin ups every day, independent of my workouts. You can use this method for any of the exercises that you want to improve on.

It looks like this:

Week1: 8 singles / day
Week2: 10 singles /day
Week3: 6 sets of 2 /day
Week4: 7 sets of 2 /day
Week5: 5 sets of 3 /day
Week6: 6 sets of 3 /day
Week7: 5 sets of 4 /day
And so on.

Just keep progressing using that scheme until you are ready to add weight and start back over with singles. Good luck.

[Tmax55]

Weighted Pullups are my primary back movement (I do sumo deads on leg day and I just can't get the form down on bent over rows).

I think weighted pullups are better than anything else for getting a wide back. I warm up with 6-8 body weight pullups then do +45 for a set of 6-8 then +90 for three sets of 4-6 reps then +45 for 6-8. Love them. I am going to go with +115 here soon, but its going to be difficult.

[PtReyesGreg]

I have a question here.

How can you work on engaging the lats better when doing pull ups?
I think when I do them it's dominantly a bicep exercice.
I can do around 5 - 7 neutral grip chin ups. Lets say I can do about 1 or 2 normal grip pull ups and I can't do any wide grip pull up.
In my current program I do neutral grip chin ups and wide grip pull up negatives twice a week.

Starting out I couldn't do any kind of chin or pull up. That was a good 4,5 months ago. As my weight has gone up almost 19 pounds in that time I still think I did well.

My weight was around 144 pounds, now I'm around 163 pounds with 19% BF at 5'11

There is a good video on YouTube that talks about how to activate your back during pullups:

[TheQuiet]

Pull-ups are good as a warm-up or you can add different types of pull-ups to incorporate more variety in your routine.

"Fitness FAQ" on Youtube has a video that shows many different pull-ups you can try out. That's the only video of his that I recommend though.

[EB68]

I have done Pull-ups since the start and feel they are the single best exercise for the back. I do weighted ones up to 100lbs. added, hoping for a BW+BW set in the future. I love Rows and Deadlifts too, but feel the pull-ups more than anything else in my back muscles.

[angrypenguin54]

Pull Ups for width, Rows for thickness and DLs just to be badass.

[3StripesLaced]

During my back day I just throw pull ups in wherever they fit, I don't give them a certain place. If I walk y a pullup bar I'll rep out 10 or so and be on my way.. Also, I'll use them as a filler if I need to wait for a machine or something