Planche & One Arm Chin Up Journey

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zachh85

Boulder climber
Cleveland
Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 15, 2016 - 12:46pm PT
I am documenting my 1st set of every workout on my journey to full planche and one arm chin up. I know this isn't specifically related to climbing, but I believe there are quite a few people out there interested in the one arm chin up who climb. I hope to have 3 one arm chin ups and a 9 second full planche by the end of 2017 and I'm posting 3 workouts every week with my progress and form improvement. I would enjoy to have an open conversation with anyone interested in these two difficult exercises and how you are progressing as well as hear any questions you may have about my journey. When I started this journey I could do about 15 chin ups and a 15 second tuck planche (0 seconds with hands facing backwards). I am using resistance bands for both exercises and currently using 58lbs of assistance with the intent to drop about 1lb per week on average in order to meet my goal. Check out today's workout below and if you're interested subscribe to follow me on my journey!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-pbVpdp1Eo
Jon Beck

Trad climber
Oceanside
Nov 15, 2016 - 12:51pm PT
What is a planche, is it similar to a leppo?

Thank god for YouTube

[Click to View YouTube Video]
zachh85

Boulder climber
Cleveland
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 15, 2016 - 12:52pm PT
You nailed it! It's also in my video.
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Nov 15, 2016 - 01:29pm PT
When I was at Berkeley, one of my favorite people at Indian Rock was a retired blacksmith named Bruce Cooke. Higgins named the Booke Book route on DAFF dome for him.

When I met Bruce in 1969, the hair on his chest was already white, but he could still do six one-arm pull ups with each arm, and had something left after that. My theory was that his tendons must have taken shortcuts to give him a mechanical advantage, because he was rather wiry rather than bulky.

Boy, do I miss him.

John

Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Nov 15, 2016 - 02:27pm PT
I was fairly strong (for my weight) when I was young (early thirties) and decided to build one-arm pull-up strength. Turned out to be fairly easy, and before long I could do half a dozen with either arm.

Then I couldn't do any. All those one-arms severely trashed one of my shoulders. Tendinitis and bursitis that took over a year to heal.

So take it slow and easy.
jgill

Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
Nov 15, 2016 - 03:17pm PT
Zach, good to see a post here on bodyweight exercises. Going on 80 I have gotten back to pull-ups and traverses on the horizontal ladder after losing it all recuperating from a spinal deterioration attack last year. Keep up the efforts!
couchmaster

climber
Nov 15, 2016 - 05:05pm PT
The master^^^ has spoken, good on you for having goals zack. That and staying healthy, no injuries is usually the hardest part of the journey. Seriously! Good luck and I look forward to your updates.
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Nov 15, 2016 - 06:49pm PT
Yeah, good to hear you are back John. I thought you were a goner! A goner pull-up-wise that is....LOL. I was walking around our lake/park last week and decided to do a chin-up just for the heck of it. I was completely successful! I don't do them at all anymore because of various shoulder injuries from road rage and the like.

And about those one arms: I found it easy to build up to them when I was young (late teens - early twenties). So yeah, no need to overdo it at first. I have always been a big believer in rest and recovery and it never hurt my shoulders. I used a bit of a different method - the one were you hang onto the elastic cord with one hand. One hand is on the bar and one is on the cord that hangs from the bar. You just gradually move the hand down the cord during subsequent workouts until in the end you hang onto the un-weighted cord for just psychological support.

Saw this today - could be good for old folks: https://www.facebook.com/toughmudder/videos/10154663403687790/
i-b-goB

Social climber
Wise Acres
Nov 15, 2016 - 09:09pm PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]

Add some cardio!
Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Nov 16, 2016 - 08:05am PT
Somebody should post classic Gill photos for inspiration.
Jon Beck

Trad climber
Oceanside
Nov 16, 2016 - 09:36am PT
John Gill from the internets


mcreel

climber
Barcelona
Nov 16, 2016 - 11:46am PT
Hand raised. For me, Ament's "Master of Rock" was the source. Must have read it when I was 13 or so. It inspired my early efforts bouldering in the Tetons and Winds with my clodhopper mountaineering boots.

Watch out for injuries. As I write this, the shoulder of my strong arm is bothering me a bit. Caused by sawing tree branches, but who knows, maybe those one arms 20 years ago are part of the problem.
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Nov 16, 2016 - 11:59am PT
A show of hands here ; how many of us have been in awe of John Gill since the '70s :-D !?

How about since the '60's? (my hand raised).

One of the amazing things about ST is our ability to have a conversation with climbers I've admired for decades. And as a plus, I even get updated information on climbs I like to do.

What a web site!

John
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Nov 16, 2016 - 12:21pm PT
This fad died in the eighties.
Friend

climber
Nov 17, 2016 - 06:04am PT
Very cool Zach. Echoing some comments above, I read somewhere I think it was Jerry Moffatt saying, "you keep improving as long as you don't get injured." One of the best training tips I ever heard, along with Jim Karn's pithy remark in one of the Masters of Stone films.

Hand raised for having purchased Climb! for 25 cents at the friends of the library bookstore in high school and being absolutely floored by John Gill. How could you not be. Master of Rock too.

Other hand raised for Tami. You've helped calibrate my climber/poseur-meter for decades. It's a sensitive instrument that requires care and attention, hehe.

Zach you're doing something right to have drawn comments from folks like these. Stay psyched.
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Nov 17, 2016 - 06:44am PT
I'd also suggest you do chin ups in over-grip. I notice you're doing your sets of one-arms in under grip. Over grip works different muscles and is more like climbing.

Agreed. But it is somewhat difficult (not that this is a bad thing, quite the contrary) to keep the body in an overgrip position. One trick is to do the 1-arm pullup with the other arm raised as if reaching for a higher hold, and making sure that the raised arm is on the same side of the bar as your body.

I think some kind of elastic tubing help, as you are using, is the gold standard for 1A pullup training, although if you can set up a really low-friction pulley system that keeps the weight away from your body, that might be even better, since your control of the amount of help you are getting improves. I also think using longer pieces of heavier tubing is better than several short pieces as you are using. The short pieces tend to give too much help at the bottom and not enough help at the top compared to a longer piece.

Finally, such training is hard on the body and injuries are a worry. I think it is a good idea to mix it up with weighted two-arm pullups, which are in some ways "safer" since the shoulders are symmetrically loaded.
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Nov 17, 2016 - 07:17am PT
Tami, sorry to have offended you with my comment. Let me add content to my snide remark.

In high school a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records was laying around for students to gander at. In it was a comment that only an estimated 1 out of 100,000 people had done a one arm pullup, I am sure that the popularity of climbing and fitness in general has changed that number.

So a we had a try at it and not a one of us could get our arm to even start to bend. A few years went by and many workouts, pull ups and buildering sessions later I figured out how to use my lats and back muscles to start the rotation and bending of my arm to the point the biceps and forearms were enabled to be utilized to finish off the pullup (palm out).

This was pre-climbing gym and a lot of climbers blew out elbows and shoulders doing these extreme isolation exercises. Laps on the Bachar Ladder probably contributed to injuries more so than one arm pullups. Be careful and smart with your workouts, mix it up with all the available training opportunities.

Recently at Pacific Edge, I watched a youngster doing one arms off the small rail on the hang board. :)

Jon Cochran

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
Nov 17, 2016 - 07:49am PT
My hand has been up in awe of JG since the 70s.

I used to do 1,000 pull-ups daily in multiple sets over the course of the day, wearing a 15 pound backpack. The best I could ever do was a slow 1-armed let down. Never even came close to a 1-arm pull-up, but boy did I try!
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Nov 17, 2016 - 09:10am PT
Agreed. But it is somewhat difficult (not that this is a bad thing, quite the contrary) to keep the body in an overgrip position. One trick is to do the 1-arm pullup with the other arm raised as if reaching for a higher hold, and making sure that the raised arm is on the same side of the bar as your body.

For what it's worth, here's the method that took me fairly quickly from not being able to do any to being able to fire off several with either arm, and it, coincidentally or not, includes Rich's trick above.

I was working in a building that had a high ceiling in one area, with exposed beams. I clipped two aiders end-to-end, and then got on a ladder and clipped the top of one of them to a sling around a beam. This left me with an eight-step, free-hanging aider that allowed me to start by doing pull-ups with both arms, although with one hand a foot higher than the other. Pretty similar to using holds on a climb.

This set-up allowed me to vary the amount of work done by each arm, so that I was gradually able to go from 50/50 to 100/0.

The only drawback was that I wrecked a shoulder. Although that probably has more to do with my over-training than with the actual method.
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Nov 17, 2016 - 10:58am PT
I was working in a building that had a high ceiling in one area, with exposed beams. I clipped two aiders end-to-end, and then got on a ladder and clipped the top of one of them to a sling around a beam. This left me with an eight-step, free-hanging aider that allowed me to start by doing pull-ups with both arms, although with one hand a foot higher than the other. Pretty similar to using holds on a climb.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention this...uneven-grip pullups are a really good training method (it is essentially what you get from rope-climbing, which is probably the best upper body strength workout there is). BITD, you could find a rope hanging in almost every gym, but nowadays they have pretty much disappeared.

A modern approach to uneven pullups, more finely adjustable than the aiders or the even cruder towel over the pullup bar, is to get a set of exercise rings, which are basically still rings mounted on some long adjustable daisey's. These can be set up uneven and finely adjusted as strength increases.

My recommendation, for any ordinarily fit climber, is to start so that the lower hand is at the level of the elbow of the upper hand when hanging straight down, and work until the lower hand is at the level of the armpit of the upper hand, at which point the lower hand will be pressing, rather than pulling---an excellent training motion all by itself.

When these are going well, you can try momentary releases of the low hand when at the top of the pullup to develop full lock-off strength on the upper arm. (You don't let go of the lower ring to release, you just lift the low ring up a bit.)
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