Pull Ups with extra effort

My workouts have been consistent and remain fairly vigorous; in fact, I have been working pretty hard as of late.

However, one must always remember that exercise is only half the battle. Balancing a clean diet with time in the gym, pool and elsewhere is the real key. I can’t say that my diet choices have been horrible……..but have definitely fallen a little weak when it comes to late night snacking and some indulgences that should  invoke a quick NO THANK YOU. The result; a softer middle than I would like and about 5-8 extra pounds.

So, what’s the big deal right? Most people wouldn’t notice the extra baggage, but the sure fire test came for me this past week on the pull up bar.

We can all remember facing the pull-up bar at some point in our training evolution. I have often chronicled how much fun it is to see improvement in strength gains over time with hard work, variety and some sweat. After all, pull ups are the ultimate test of upper body strength as you lift and lower your entire body weight. Success takes consistent practice and requires that you never stray too far from the bar.

Now, add 6-8 pounds of weight (or more) to the equation and things start to change. The more you weigh, the more you have to lift. If you suddenly add extra girth due to a slump and some bad choices, athletic performance is going to suffer. An increase in your Body
Mass Index will likely result in a decrease in pull up performance. While not rocket science for sure, we can sometimes lose sight of the physics involved.

Two less strict hang pull up reps this week than I would have expected woke me up to the softness in my middle and the need to get it corrected right away. Going backwards on anything (and especially pull ups) puts me and many others in a really bad mood.

So the extra pounds are what they are, but the effort to “right” the situation is a choice, just like the one’s that resulted in the situation to begin with. Extra Pounds….Extra Effort; making the right choices is key. Keep on pulling.

It didn’t take 

Pursing the Perfect Pull Up

long to realize that the answer would differ each time I asked the question and to whom I was speaking. It was also clear that this was not going to be as easy as I first thought.

The Exercise Itself: Often overlooked for its awesome ability to build back, upper body and core strength, the pull up is really key for anyone serious about building strength. It’s as pure as you can get and all you need is a pull up bar, your body and the will.  

Like everything, personal preference is going to ultimately prevail. There is no right or wrong and it comes down to comfort and performance results. As you know, we are all out there using pull ups in our strength building programs in a variety of ways. My personal use of pull up bars is going to vary from the next guy, so the surface I am hanging from may differ as well. Sometimes the answer is simply, “it’s what we get used to”.

So what about all those surfaces? Well, if you want it, there is someone out there selling it; a smorgasbord for the taking. From our perspective, we are of the opinion that most of the manipulation is simply not necessary. In our view, raw steel, minimally treated, provides the most natural and most effective all-purpose grip for all pull up variations. A simple agent used to blacken the steel leaves the integrity of the pull up bar surface in tact, but gives it a rugged and cool look. Over time, with the natural oils from your hands, combined with the sweat and effort from some killer work outs and the bars become well conditioned; perfect for pulling.  Applying a little non-odorous lubricant on a damp rag once in a while, keeps the bars perfectly “seasoned”.

As for galvanized bars specifically(think chain link fence), it won’t alter the grip surface much. But unless you are using the bar in an outdoor application where weather proofing is a requirement, it’s a step and expense that won’t add much else. Alternatively, for a weather proof option, you might want to consider the process we use at STEELFIT which involves metalizing the surface which protects it from the most extreme of outdoor conditions.

So, it may not be advisable (unless your motives involve more then strength building) to
hit that next set of pull ups in YOUR Birthday Suit………..but for our money, letting the bars you hang and pull from go “au naturale” is the only way to go!

It was about a month ago that I had the opportunity to watch a (otherwise average looking ) guy tear thick phone books in half, bend thick nails by hand and pick up heavy plates by pinching the center with unreal hand strength. The “grip guy” is what we called him and he was anything but average when it comes to the strength of his claws. So just how does one develop this ability and why would you want to?

From the simple desire to command a bone crushing hand shake or master that next rock wall climb to just about any sport, a stronger grip is going to help improve athletic performance. While hand grip is important in sports, it can easily be overlooked since it is often only a secondary function. There are some sports however, that have made grip strength the focus; think Worlds Strongest Men Competitions.

To work your grip and forearm, there are many traditional exercises one could do including the classic Farmers Walk and deadlifts. Personally, I like thick bar pull-ups
and for a real test, the towel pull up. Towel pull ups are really cool and like all pull ups, you don’t need special equipment; just a good bar, your body and in this case, a gym towel or two.

While there a many variations of towel pull ups, I personally favor the version that uses two towels draped over the bar. You grab the ends of the towel in each hand and pull your body up using only the towel. The bulkier the towel, the more challenge the grip will be. You can alter this by working one arm at a time or stick with the standard version, using both hands and two towels. The further down the towel closer to the end, the harder the task and the more work involved. As you begin, there may not be much success getting full, deep pull ups. Maintaining a “hang” and/or doing negatives will also help develop the muscles until you have conquered the full motion.

Check out this link to a demo of some one towel variations from CrossFit:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_TowelPullupVariations.mov

You WILL feel these pull ups and your forearms will be the beneficiary with improved
strength in response to the increased work and the difficulty in mastering the grip.

So to become the next “grip guy”, don’t throw in the towel, throw it over a bar instead and pull.

Needless to say, kipping pull ups were out of the question for the balance of the week, considering my palms.  By mid-week they were clearly on the mend, but still could not stand up to major pull up work. 

So to combat my withdrawl from the bar, instead of pulling, I just HUNG from it….and….HUNG….and…..HUNG!

Bar hangs or Pull up holds are a perfect exercise to help you work on your grip strength and to work on the scapular muscles in your back. Many of us have weak spots in our grips and our scapular, the latter which  stablizes the shoulder blades and provides the foundation for so many other upper body exercises. Weakness in this area can limit your ability to perform at maximum levels with outher upper body lifts like a simple bench press.

For a simple bar hang, all you have to do is grab onto a pull-up bar, like you’re going to do some pull-ups, and just hang for as long as you can. Don’t re-grip, just hold on as long as you can with your initial grip. This will work your hands, fingers and will torch your forearms. Grip strength, of course, will provide for better results in many other activities, lifts and sports.

To get your back into the act, pull your chest up to the bar and hold for 20 to 30 seconds.  When this becomes routine, add weight by using a vest or a dumbbell.

There were several lessons learned this week.  200 pulls was pushing too hard and I need to embrace my own advice and not push to failure/maximum too often.  Second, as always the case, with a little creativity, something good came out of my banged up palms…..a hanging contest in this case.

10 Rounds for Time

Each
round consists of:
3 Weighted pull ups (prescribed at 45 lb)
5 Strict pull ups
7 kipping pull ups

The goal is for each round to be completed without letting go of the bar. After the weighted pulls, you drop the dumbbell and keep going with the strict pulls.

On a workout like this, it is so important to have given that special attention to GRIP development along the way. Half of the battle is going to be keeping your hands glued to the bar, especially after you drop the extra weight.

Nothing but pull ups!!! Perfect!

The example used to clarify the point was Roger Bannister and the under 4 minute mile he logged many years ago setting a world record. Until him, it was widely believed that no man could run a mile under 4 minutes; it was said that it “can’t be done”. And yet, after he shattered this milestone for the first time, many have hit this high level of performanc since. Great success spawns great success. Once it was proven that it could be done, it set a new benchmark for others to “believe” and
acheive.

Belief: Beliefs are about how we think things really are, what we think is really true and what therefore we expect as likely consequences that will follow from our behavior.

Limiting Belief: Behavior is not what you want, but you think you cannot change it. Each of us carries core limiting beliefs inside of that make us believe we are not good enough. Limiting beliefs can be self imposed or imposed upon you by others.

So how does this all track back to Steelfit and our self proclaimed “Pursuit”?

I can think back to many days in the gym where I uttered the word “can’t”………. “can’t do a muscle up or can’t do kipping pull ups”, etc. These self imposed limiting beliefs created mental road blocks that required a lot of energy and influence from others to eventually overcome. In another situation that comes to mind, two friends of mine hade been hooked on Crossfit for well over a year, but when it came time for pull ups, the band free variety was elusive. In both cases, they simply said, “they can’t do it”. Well, with some coaching one of them broke the barrier, followed quickly by the other……..funny how that works.

There are shelves and shelves of books written on the topic of Limiting Beliefs vs. Empowering Beliefs. Lessons to be learned for sure. A couple of take aways for me personally 1) Be conscious of limiting beliefs that may have been imposed upon you by others…..we all have the power to make our own beds; don’t let others tell you what you can or can’t do 2) Surrounding yourself with like minded folks has and always will have benefits and will support achieving higher levels of performance, especially in the gym, in sport and elsewhere.

For Steelfit, our pursuit of the perfect pull up is a belief and a passion….nothing limiting and nobody to hold us back and nobody to hold you back.

Everyone should be able to remember those days in school when your gym teachers made you do push-ups, pull ups, sit-ups and climb ropes? It went a step further on those dreaded Presidential Physical Fitness Tests, which required you to run different distances for time? It was the 600 yard dash in my day. Kids these days come home from school with pride on their times from the “mile” run that they use today for testing. But what happened to the rest of that old school training?

By no means is this my first collection of thoughts on the merits of body weight training. When compared to modern day gym training there is no question in my mind that it is an extremely effective and proven way to build real, functional and supreme strength. In fact, the argument has been made that dumbbells, barbells and all weight machines are nothing more then modern day obstacles. While free weights and machines can make you stronger and add mass, they often target single muscles rather than movement; using only one joint as the resistance is moved away from or toward the body using freely movable limbs.

By comparison, most body-weight training exercises use multiple joints as the resistance is moved away from or toward an anchored body part. The result is a series of exercises that are more functional and result in better muscle activation and strength performance. You end up looking better, feeling better and performing better on and off the athletic field.

For me, its also the simplicity. Body Weight training is portable and requires less motivation since its available everywhere your body is. This week was a rough one overall at the day job. Time was at a real premium, but I desperately needed to get real work done. With my need to keep it quick and simple, Body Weight work ruled ……….my favorite of the week was the following 30 minute routine:

30 Rounds, on the minute:

5 Pull ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats

I was able to maintain a pace of about 35 to 38 seconds for all of the sets, but was really gassed and fatigued for the last ten. My butt and quads were ridiculous for three days following; taking me a bit by surprise.

As I have chronicled in the past, BW work won’t ever be exclusive for me personally. It’s a nice balance between, cardio work, body weight exercises and functional weight training that makes the most sense for me and my personal fitness goals.

This past week however was about keeping it simple…….pulling, pushing and squatting in this case!