How weak can your other muscles be and still be able to do pull ups/ cool tricks on a pull up bar?

[mmawarrior20]

hi, I know agonist muscles are important. But I don’t currently owns bench for chest workouts. I’m current log 5’7 153 lb and can do probably a set of 7 pull ups to failure max. And 2 “archer “ variation pull ups. I only do push ups for pec work.

 

[No Skill Gap]

You're weak. No offense but you're weak and it's a stupid question. Don't mean that in a douche way, but if you can only do 7 BW pull ups in a row there's your first problem.

Focusing on some minutia is the wrong approach. You just need to put the work in and literally just do pull ups until you can at least do 10-15-20+ in a row with pretty good form. Doing leg raises and movement trick type shit progressively will help get to the goal of...doing trick shit I'd imagine as well.

Getting stronger overall by doing deadlift/bench/squat, anything, will help too especially if you aren't adding tons of weight in a bulk. I mean I ain't some barstar retard, but I can do russian tick tocks/wipers, planche on a bar, I can do pull ups with 100-150lbs added. So idk, I guess I'm qualified in some way?

But, fuck this isn't even a short answer. The answer is obvious - Do more pull ups until you get better. Doing 7 BW in a row isn't good. At your weight of ~155 it's especially not good (not horrible either for the record). You're weak at what you specifically want to do and you should just improve until you can bang up ~20 in a row.

 

[gspieler]

What’s so unique about the bench press, as opposed to push-up variations, as it pertains to becoming better at doing pull-up variations?

 

[Fahcough]

what weights do you have access to and what goal ? is you end game 20 pull ups, or making short vids like you're climbing stairs and hanging while reading a book

muscle ups are a different monster, lots of technique

 

[mmawarrior20]

what weights do you have access to and what goal ? is you end game 20 pull ups, or making short vids like you're climbing stairs and hanging while reading a book

muscle ups are a different monster, lots of technique

I have a squat rack, barbells and plates could easily go over 200lb worth if I stack them together. I have a adjustable dumbbells I could feasibly fit up to 35lb worth on a single dumbbell. And as for goals I wanna be able to bang out a good 3 set of 7 pull ups. Want to be able to do cool things like type writer pull ups and around the world leg swings. bascially fun things you can do with a pull up bar

 

[ChickenBrother]

Bro, you're looking at it backwards. The question shouldn't be "how weak can I be and still do cool shit on a pull up bar?" It should be "how can I get as strong as possible?"

Agree with @No Skill Gap that priority should be improving your pull up count. Quickest way I know of to do that is barbell bent over rows in conjunction with regular pull ups. I did that in my mid 20's and went from 14 pull ups to 30 in less than 3 months at 165 lbs. And of course barbell squats and deads will improve overall muscle mass and strength.

And when doing pull ups, don't make the mistake of just doing one set of AMRAP. You'll never improve doing that. Do sets of 2 or 3 (or whatever feels easy) with one minute rest between sets for an hour. If you do that 3 times/week and you're getting enough sleep, I guarantee you'll be doing 20 pull ups in no time.

 

[wufabufa]

Do more pullups. Being good at calisthenics usually means you need a decent amount of volume to produce results.

You've also got a decent little set up as far as equipment goes. You could get reasonably strong with the correct exercise selection.

 

[Kforcer]

hi, I know agonist muscles are important. But I don’t currently owns bench for chest workouts. I’m current log 5’7 153 lb and can do probably a set of 7 pull ups to failure max. And 2 “archer “ variation pull ups. I only do push ups for pec work.

One thing I'd recommend is working on your biceps, both in terms of curls and in terms of chin-ups. That definitely helped me with chin-ups, pull-ups, etc. And when it comes to advanced straight-arm bodyweight movements, biceps are one of the muscle groups that endures the most strain, so they'd help with that as well.

 

[Kforcer]

I have a squat rack, barbells and plates could easily go over 200lb worth if I stack them together. I have a adjustable dumbbells I could feasibly fit up to 35lb worth on a single dumbbell. And as for goals I wanna be able to bang out a good 3 set of 7 pull ups. Want to be able to do cool things like type writer pull ups and around the world leg swings. bascially fun things you can do with a pull up bar

How old are you, if I may ask?

 

[mmawarrior20]

How old are you, if I may ask?

30 even. Was there some relevance in me giving that answer.? Does my age affect ur response or advice in some way?

 

[Kforcer]

30 even. Was there some relevance in me giving that answer.? Does my age affect ur response or advice in some way?

Yeah, I think so. Strategies are different depending on age. Younger people can have quick bursts of improvement that us 30-somethings aren't quite as prone to.

 

[Fahcough]

30 even. Was there some relevance in me giving that answer.? Does my age affect ur response or advice in some way?

And elbows start to hate repetitive daily motions.

Don't forget to change your grip. Palms in, out, wide, parallel grip. Hold your last one and slowly lower body under tension.

 

[Kforcer]

And elbows start to hate repetitive daily motions.

Yep, definitely true. A couple years back I had a big issue with my elbow no longer wanting to straighten out.

 

[Deleted member 512089]

hi, I know agonist muscles are important. But I don’t currently owns bench for chest workouts. I’m current log 5’7 153 lb and can do probably a set of 7 pull ups to failure max. And 2 “archer “ variation pull ups. I only do push ups for pec work.

You need to be able to do more pull ups first, like the previous posters said. I am in the same boat as you, only I'm not focusing on calisthenics but barbell training. What I can advise you is :

- Do more pull ups with a true program dedicated to that. Also when you can't do them anymore you can attach a band to the bar and put your knee in it to lessen the weight and do more volume.
- Add assistance lifts that have proven strength transferability* to the pull ups. Given your current equipment I'd go with inverted rows and one arm dumbbell rows.

Getting stronger at the inverted row and dumbbell row will mean getting better at pull ups too.

Me i only do chin ups with barbell rows for assistance and it works great for progression.

Also those two sources would help you do more pull ups I think:



There's also this one but I didn't test it so I don't know if it's a gimmick or true:

https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-double-your-pull-ups-in-30-days

Good luck and grind hard

 

[usernamee]

At your pull up level atm you would probably benefit greatly from doing pull ups every day, yes every single day

never to failure

do em in one workout or spread it out through the day, every time you walk by the pull up bar just jump up and do a few

and increase the daily volume slowly

 

[wufabufa]

At your pull up level atm you would probably benefit greatly from doing pull ups every day, yes every single day

never to failure

do em in one workout or spread it out through the day, every time you walk by the pull up bar just jump up and do a few

and increase the daily volume slowly

Greasing the groove is a great idea. Set up a doorway pull up bar and each time you walk by it do a few pull ups. I've always found that to be pretty effective.

 

[Volador]

hi, I know agonist muscles are important. But I don’t currently owns bench for chest workouts. I’m current log 5’7 153 lb and can do probably a set of 7 pull ups to failure max. And 2 “archer “ variation pull ups. I only do push ups for pec work.

To answer your question: Plenty. You don't need to work on push ups, deadlifts, squats or bench press to get better at pull ups, that’s BS. You need to do pull ups to get better at pull ups.

If what you're interested in is getting more reps, you should look to slowly increase you total volume, look up grease the groove, pyramid sets. Different variations like weighted, different grips and isometric holds might make sense at some point, but if you can only do 7, just focus on slowly upping your total volume without coming too close to failure. Let's say you work on your pull ups 3 times a week:

Week 1, Day 1: 1-2-3-2-1. 9 total reps. Day 2: 1-2-4-2-1. Day 3: 2-2-4-2-1. Week 2, day 1: 2-2-4-2-2, etc, etc, etc. Have a rest period between sets of something like 1-2'. When this stops working (meaning, you are failing sets or grinding constantly), maybe add an extra set or 2 (so imagine that in week 6 it might look like 1-2-3-5-3-2-1). Also, give yourself a couple days of rest after a few weeks and re-test your rep max when you're fresh to track your progress. After a while progress from session to session won't happen, and you'll have to plan your progress week to week, and maybe work some lighter days into the week, but that's for later.

That's just an example, but it would be a decent start. With time, when you can do 12-15+ you can work some variations in, depending on whether your goals are centered on high rep counts or more heavy lifting. If you're interested in muscle ups, it would probably make some sense to work on dips eventually as well. Good website for bodyweight/bar skills: http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials/

 

[JimRussel]

I liked the Recon Ron program.

https://www.getstrong.fit/fitness/the-recon-ron-pullup-program/year-2016/month-8

 

[aus101]

Yeah, I think so. Strategies are different depending on age. Younger people can have quick bursts of improvement that us 30-somethings aren't quite as prone to.

He can only do 7 chin ups there's def room for massive improvements and probably quite rapid too.

 

[Rand M Arthur]

Grease the groove buddy.

Put a pull up bar in your doorway, every time you pass under you do half of your max number of pull ups (x), and twice as many push ups (2x).

Within a month, two at most, you should have doubled your pull ups.