I consider 20 dead hang pull ups to be a significant measure of upper body development and strength. Sadly, I'm only 5% there. Hence, this blog. I'll track my progress toward this goal, hopefully helping others who are silly enough to pursue the same goal, if only to show them how not to achieve it! The blog, of course, is also about accountability. Wish me luck.
A little about yours truly: I'm over the hill, having turned 45 last week. It was the first birthday that was really difficult for me. It's a been a bitter pill to swallow to realize I'm closer to 50 than 40. Worse, only 15 years ago I was 30 and that seemed like just yesterday -- suggesting that I will be 60 before I know it. Ouch.
I've always been crummy at pull ups. I think my high water mark in junior high was 8. If I'm being honest, even that probably is an exaggeration. I did get 6 DHPUs when I was going to a local Crossfit gym regularly two years ago, but could never do a muscle up. A shoulder surgery in April of 2011 and some weight gain as I tried to improve overall strength have since derailed my pull up progress. Oh, and I just haven't concentrated on them like I should have.
I am armed with excuses. In addition to age, my build is not conducive to pull ups: I'm very tall -- just a bit shy of 6'7" -- and heavier than I should be. My "fighting" weight is about 230 or so, and I'm about 255 right now. My child-bearing hips act as anchors to the pull up. Mostly, I'm just plain weak.
I have a garage gym and regularly squat, deadlift, press, bench press, and mess about with the Olympic lifts. In addition to squat rack and weights, I have a C2 rower and, oh yeah, a pull up bar and some other goodies. I'll post a picture of the garage gym soon.
Thus, today begins my journey to achieve 20 DHPUs. My overall plan is to continue my strength work, improve my overall conditioning to lose a bit of weight (recognizing there is apt to be a strength penalty for doing so), and focus on pull ups and exercises that should help improve them such as body rows and pendlay rows.
I guess the good news is that I can do one DHPU. For those that cannot get one, I understand that band-assisted pull ups, and "negatives" are excellent to help develop the strength to get that first pull up. From what I read on the "interwebs", once you have one strict pull up, it is easy to progress quickly. That hasn't been my experience in the past, but I've never previously made 20 DHPUs an express goal.
I am finishing my third month of a "Wendler 5-3-1" program so today was a deload day, meaning I lifted light weights to recover before going back to heavy weights for the next 3 weeks. I followed my strength work with some ab rolls using a barbell from my knees. I believe that a stronger core will help with my pull ups.
This morning's work out:
Press: 3 x 5 @ 100#; 3 x 10 @ 85#
Deadlift: 3 x 5 @ 185#; 3 x 8 @ 145#
Ab Rolls: 2 x 5
My current plan for pull ups: I will work a lot of volume, trying to do some pull ups 5 or 6 days a week, gradually working back to 5 strict dead hangs. Once I get there, I will mix volume with weighted pull ups to try to eventually get to 20.
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