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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 4, 2010 - 09:23am PT
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I just recently started doing pull-ups. A month and a half ago I could barely do 4 (how embarrassing!).
Yesterday I cranked out 3 sets of 12 at the end of my gym-climbing session (please hold your applause).
It's too early to tell whether these are good for climbing or knott. I've heard that adding some weight helps.
I saw a guy at the gym bust out a bunch of fingertip pull-ups on a hangboard with a 45lb plate dangling
from a waist belt. Badass! So what's the deal?
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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pull ups help.
heavy thoughts though, hinder.
i break. sometimes i break even in my pursuits to better my vertical and horizontal strides.
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bearbnz
Trad climber
East Side, California
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Great for strength, bad for footwork, I got tendonitis in my elbows during the time that I was doing 300 per week. But I could definitely pull down harder.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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I used to do a lot of pullups all winter in Laramie, and when we'd go to the valley for spring break's be really strong, and that boosted my confidence and that made me climb better.Don't know if the strength itself helped.
We used to to do 'chinese' pullups; I do one, you do one, etc and back down the same way, the total number you do is the square of the highest number you get up to. ie if work up to ten, and down you do a hundred. With Scarpelli cracking the whip, we went as high as 15/225.
For about ten years I could do 100 pullups in three sets, the most i ever did was 37. in college I used to do a few with 70lbs of weight, yanked the pullup bar off a universal machine that way once,(loose bolts) i was rescued by U of U football players.
When I was 42 I did two pullups with a 110 woman on my back.
at my peak i could do 5 one arms with my left and three with my right.
i say all this because, ir eally got to be a better climber after i had pretty much abandoned pullups. i like to think experience and technique helped.
Sometimes i have had elbow pains from pullups. Not currently, so i'm starting to get back into it. my gradual plan is to do one more a day, starting 1/1/10 so I need to do 35 today. I take rest days, but start back the next workout day at that day's number. I'll let you know how it goes, and if it does anything.
Hardman, any chance you'll be at PGSF Friday morning? I'm meeting Em and Linda there at 10.
FWIW Todd skinner was a pull up monster
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quartziteflight
climber
Who knows?
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4 pullups? Jebus man, thats weaksauce! Congrats on the improvement!
Weighted pullups/chins seem to really help with power imo.
I can do 1st pad finger tip pullups with 45lbs now..
Jaybro,
Was booze involved?lol I tried a 110lb weighted pullup my shoulders didnt approve. Hopefully I'll be strong enough to break 110 this summer. Winter in laramie is pretty dismal for climbing...
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Technique of course rules over strength; this explains why women often climb better than men. But without excellent strength it is particularly hard to maintain good technique.... I guess I would add to this thread that no one above is mentioning warming up--- giving your muscle fibers a chance to be recruited. You are your strongest if you have warmed up and if you have not, no only are you measurably weaker in that particularly moment of effort but you are exposing yourself to injury.
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Chip
Trad climber
Sittin' Pretty in Fat City
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I know three people who needed shoulder reconstruction following weighted pull-ups. Don't try to progress too rapidly.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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I'm hoping they help. I'm doing them this winter becuase I don't have time and money for the gym.
I'm using those rock rings that metolius makes rather than a hangboard. I'm thinking the rotation of the rings will help keep the injuries at bay.
I'll let you know.
Also I'm one of those weak sauce guys. In my prime I could do 13 pull ups, yet somehow could crank .11 crack from time to time and .12 sport.
Technique will get a long way, as will endurance and psyche.
Right now, at the Buttermilk, technique is not the problem. I'm too heavy and too weak. When you are stronger, you have longer to figure out the right technique.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Pate', when this guidbook came out
Scarry Larry said,
"Hey Anderson, look, you're on a guidebook"
Quartz, No, not booze on that 110lb 'live weight' escapade.
Peter, Pamela does hundreds of pullups a day, and she crushes most mean under the table, and she's only like 5'2"!
They say Diane Hunter, RIP, couldn't do even one pullup. she crushed, too!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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I don't have a bachar ladder set up here in this particular base camp. Back at the armbar ranch I have two, one wit one inch rungs, one with twoinch. I kind of got away from pullups for a while when I was using them, if I could do a couple laps (no feet)on those, I could pretty much do 30 pullups. Did have some elbow trouble from that, though in fact I can feel it right now!
asfter my run I am so having a banan yogurt smoothie!
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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do Pushups for real rock,
Pullups are good for the gym.
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c_vultaggio
Trad climber
new york
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I use wide-grip pullups as part of my routine, how much they have helped climbing I am yet to find out. But during climbing season I find I can crank out more per set (25 instead of 20).
Another exercise I use (trainer-approved) is a more plyometric DYNO pullup. Start hanging low and dyno up, release both hands, and catch a different grip (usually I go from wide grip to bicep grip), stall for a few seconds, and lower off. I do these in sets of 10 after a regular set of wide-grip pullups.
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Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
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When I was 42 I did two pullups with a 110 woman on my back.
sounds kinky jaybro, i guess my regimen is more boring doing pushups with a woman...
btw - depending upon the type of climb, if you aint got contact strength it really doesnt matter how many pullups you can do.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Both pushups and pullups help. I know when I was climbing my best I once tried to see how many pullups I could do, and stopped at 55, but I think technique (and, as Peter cautions, warming up as we get older) helps more.
During a six-month stint in a Federal "correctional institution" I developed a routine where I did 150-200 pullups and a similar number of dips every other day, and hundreds each of pushups and situps on the days I wasn't doing pullups and dips. When I was released, I was climbing as if I were about 30 years younger. I can't really recommend the "Taft CI" regimen, though, because there are other, um, costs that make it not worthwhile.
John
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hafilax
Trad climber
East Van
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I've been doing crossfit lately and have been wondering about the merits of the kipping pullup versus the strict pullup. In some ways it seems like the kipping pullup would be the better method for campusing since you are initiating the motion with the legs in a more dynamic motion as opposed to the slower isolated motion of the strict pullup. The strict pullup might be better for lockoff strength and the kipping pullup for dynamic moves.
Anyway, I climb at the gym a lot and can do about 12 pullups without ever really training them. I've never felt that being able to do more would help in any way but there are moves that I can do that my friends who can't do any pullups struggle with. Mostly the high lockoff type moves think.
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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No. I could never do many pull ups. Learning to use your feet well is a better way to spend your time
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 4, 2010 - 02:20pm PT
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Thanks for all the comments.
Peter Haan wrote:
I guess I would add to this thread that no one above is mentioning warming up--- giving your muscle fibers a chance to be recruited. You are your strongest if you have warmed up and if you have not, no only are you measurably weaker in that particularly moment of effort but you are exposing yourself to injury.
In my OP I mentioned that I did the pull-ups at the end of my gym-climbing session, which translates to a 3 hour warmup. ;-)
I am actually very wary of doing anything that might get me injured, and thus have been proceeding cautiously. I tweeked a forearm
muscle by trying some really wide pushups (too many, too soon), where I had been doing regular shoulder-width pushups.
Several people mentioned shoulder / elbow issues related to pull-ups. I found this article yesterday:
http://rockclimbing.suite101.com/article.cfm/advanced_muscle_training_for_climbing_pullups
(excerpt)
Avoiding Elbow Tendinitis: Recommended Pull-Up Form
Many fitness programs recommend that the person performing pull-ups go all the way down into a straight-armed position in between each rep (a “dead hang”). However, for the purposes of rock climbing training, it is suggested that the climber does not go all the way down into this position. Instead, stop while the arms are still slightly bent and the shoulders are still engaged or tight.
The reason for this suggestion is that rock climbers who are training for climbing by climbing in the indoor climbing gym are already placing huge stress loads on tendons. Many climbing movements involve pulls from a straight-armed position. To help prevent shoulder or elbow tendinitis from repetitive movements (like pull-ups and rock climbing), then, it’s suggested that rock climbers avoid the completely straight-armed position during supplemental pull-up workouts.
Jaybro - you're a beast! So did the pull-ups help your climbing or knott?
How long will you guys be at the gym tomorrow? I might roll through a bit later...
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FredC
Boulder climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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How to do Nat's Traverse
In 1976 or so Nat put up a new hard traverse at Indian Rock, well, Mortar Rock actually. I found that I had to actually get significantly stronger to do this darn thing. It was more intense than the other bouldering we were doing at the time, much more gymnastic.
I tried to figure out how to get a bit stronger so I made a deal with myself to do 30 pullups a day, every day for a month. I could do them in any denomination. I could do sets of any number whenever it struck my fancy. But if I missed a day I had to make it up the next day by doing 60, etc. This seemed pretty radical to me at the time. When I see the stuff people write in here, 30 pullups a day seems pretty wimpy.
Somewhere near the end of that month I finally got the route. I immediately stopped the pullups and continued to do this route for the next 5 years without problems. It was the only time I ever "trained" for bouldering/climbing and it worked quickly for me.
Do them but be careful. (If did a pullup today I'm sure both arms would snap off like dry noodles.)
Fred
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d-know
Trad climber
electric lady land
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twemendously.
throw in some leg liffs.
core strength baby.
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